Labor Balks at McNutt, Army Manpower Plans
Labor Balks at McNutt, Army Manpower Plans Backs Tolan Report Blames WMC for Muddled Situation Special to The New Leader WASHINGTON, D. C—The Administration will run into a head-on collision with...
...He holds that Europe is 'self-sufficient.' That is to say, that Europe can nourish not only Germany but itself, too- The implication is that European peoples must cooperate with Germany to deserve their modest place at the table of the conquerors...
...But it is not a Nazi habit to forget and to forgive broken promises...
...More than scrap iron or rubber or planes or guns we need unity...
...Then he began to employ pressure...
...Here is an experience which, with certain ^nations, might well serve as an example for experiments along these lines...
...But whether it will be worth winning —that will be settled by the thinking and organizing and setting up of common goals which we accomplish during the weeks immediately before us...
...It wai...
...But when trouble broke among the millions of that' sub-continent all that Prime Minister Churchill could say was: "It is the intention of the government to give all necessary support to the Viceroy...
...He promised a "young republic," the realization of tocialwm—not of National-Socialism, but of a socialism "corresponding to French national aspirations...
...He poses the "Magenfrage," the stomach question...
...Our norm—and a bad one—was furnished by the first World War...
...But its maintenance has been solidly based on fundamental agreement in the character and aims of the three governments...
...And this opinion seems to be well founded, because Germany has made the greatest efforts in preparations for the coming winter...
...We are in 1918," he said...
...He tried to succeed by means of a skillful, well-organized propaganda...
...It has been reported that the Germans lost their patience and gave Laval until November 1 to fulfill his promise...
...He is a prisoner, and his punishment would be answered by the most brutal reprisals against prisoners in Germany...
...That was Laval's big trump: He promised to supply 150,000 French workers and received the promise of Hitler to liberate 50,000 French prisoners...
...Labor chiefs here, both AFL and CIO,, aw bitter against the entire plan for the compulsory mobilization of workingmen and women...
...There is no recognized authority to speak for them...
...In the analjpis seen by The New Loader various tortured examples are cited...
...The opinion of Ministry commentators is that Hitler is now better off than he was toward the end of 1941...
...On October 17, The Communist paper published an editorial "Give Hess His Due," in which it wrote: "The proposal that Hess, who is kept in custody in a private house in England and is permitted to see a member of the Swiss legation once a month, be placed on trial as a criminal will receive immediate support from the people of America as well as of England...
...Said Goebbels: "We are now partly occupied with digesting that which we have swallowed...
...The bill would negate union organization and union discipline...
...Genial, pretty, liberal now to a fault, McNutt is still the obvious power-seeker he was in 1982 as the strike-breaking, "two-percenter" Governor of India...
...This "economic interpretation" of the war was intended not only for the German people but also for all European countries...
...While Vice-President Wallace fights "a people's war," large sections of our people think we merely have to lick a couple of fellows and then come back home...
...His trial and punishment before the victory would be also very bad propaganda, because it would appear an act of individual vengeance prompted by lack of military successes...
...And The Daily Worker already announced a new political campaign to support the demand of the Soviet government...
...They would be promised freedom and places in a secure future world by a new League of Nations, a going concern which is conducting the present war and which will continue as the organizational core of the future world union...
...Labor appreciates the seriousness of the nan-power and war production problems, as The New Leader's Matthew Low pointed out last week, but sees only shameful confusion end rule-or-ruin power-politics in the current Mc-Nutt-Army set-up and in the currently ???» posed solutions...
...It was & •hort-wave sender...
...With John Lewis out of the picture, the industrial union group can face the Manpower problem and AFL peace undisturbed...
...That is the unanimous opinion of political leaders of various exiled groups interviewed by The N^w Leader...
...No agreements between our men and Britain's can serve as substitute for such an authority...
...We are told that today munitions and tanks desperately needed on crucial battle fronts are being diverted to the American Army for the training of soldiers who will fight in 1943 or 1944...
...Wanted — A Unified Political Direction for the War THE trouble with the United Nations is that * they are not united...
...The sender gave reliable information at certain intervals on how to construct one's own short-wave receivers by using simple materials in connection with local receiving sets...
...if Laval Fails Nazis - - $ By GEO ROE DECKER . The Russian demand lor an immediate trial of Rudolf Hess was at first not taken very seriously...
...And even calm, judicious columnist Walter Lippmann boiled over on the issue of McNutt, the Army, and the manpower muddle...
...This is all that has been achieved by all the hand-outs and all of the suave radio round-ups...
...military and naval moves were carefully keyed in with political offensives adapted to the various populations and geographical interests...
...The vigorous Tolan Committee report this week reinforced these notions...
...But a few days after M. Delfosse made his statement, the British Ministry of Economic Warfare published a warning against overestimating German difficulties...
...It would be Hitler who would profit by such a trial...
...Winter grants us no holiday...
...Thus...
...The only point is how long her (Germany's) final struggle will last...
...He appealed especially to the feeling of solidarity, to French generosity, to duty to relieve the fate of prisoners and their families...
...The present situation is superficially very different...
...only during the final weeks that we had a unified command even on the limited battle fields of western Europe...
...Even here in America we need a new unifying agency...
...In Europe, in the Pacific, in Asia the war moves hotly forward...
...The insane intention of our military leaders to build up an army of thirteen millions is completely out of line with United Nations purposes...
...The Nazis need, most of all foreign workers, and especially skilled workers...
...This is one of leit-motivs of German propaganda * * * Recently escaped Belgian Minister Antoine Delfosse predicted a near collapse of Germany on the military and home fronts...
...We don't know what Laval will do—will it be a direct conscription of labor, or will Laval try to satisfy Germany by other concessions...
...Has Nazi Germany now been forced to assume the defensive...
...It knows nothing of lie old German free workers' and trade union organizations...
...Under these circumstances, it is not surprising that so far we are losing the' military war and have practically made no start at all in the political war...
...The time for action io now...
...In comparison the democracies present a sorry picture of spread and divergence...
...But it is hardly likely that Molotoff wrote his lengthy note Without a serious purpose...
...The whole German nation knew about this sender, although listening to it was a punishable offense...
...The Hoosier is still suspect in labor circles...
...The Atlantic Charter declared freedom for all...
...It would give the peoples of Asia and Africa faith in our intentions...
...Definite time-tables had been agreed upon and mutual responsibilities were well understood...
...We prefer not to examine why Moscow needs this maneuver...
...But there is no great bead-quarters to define purposes and assign placet to national fighting and industrial forces...
...Each member of these groups listened in at an average of about once a week, then reported on it to his friends...
...In 1918 one man, unwittingly and without intent, broke German morale...
...This claim was refuted as "a stupid distortion of fact" by Joseph Goebbels in his Munich speech on October 18...
...as yet we have not won too much...
...That is a typical Communist maneuver of "unmasking" (or "Entlarvungsmanover" as the German Communists used to say...
...An Editorial...
...All the recent addresses are in reality variations of the same theme formulated by Hitler, who said: "While we are on the defensive in Northern Europe, as well as in the West, we gain thereby all necessary conditions for the organization of Europe with regard to this war...
...If this information is, true, it was an ultimatum, it probably followed the menace of reprisals...
...We ohaH win the war—slowly and awkwardly—with courage and sacrifice which we are only beginning to glimpse...
...The Reich's Minister of Propaganda did not deny that the war has entered a new phase, but he described this phase not as a transition from the offensive to the defensive but rather as a period of "digestive process...
...strategical line is totally lacking...
...Philip Murray has been fighting the proposal militantly...
...Here is the President's supreme opportunity to excel himself...
...Yet the fuses for the explosions—the propaganda directed by the Alliea to the Germans and the occupied peoples—is woefully weak, lacking political purpose and social direction...
...The United States makes no move...
...It could put authority back of the Atlantic Charter...
...One glaring instance cited . by The New Leader's, informant was a situation, during references to religious persecutions iaypti'uiany...
...Political objectives were recognized as primary...
...It is senseless and even harmful to declare alter every Hitler speech, that it was the most pessimistic of his speeches, and to discover in it any reasons for complacency...
...And it is only in France that they can find an important number of skiUeU workers...
...Tightly-made treaties bound Germany, Italy and Japan long before the opening of hostilities...
...A really united combination of twenty-seven powers could act with similar authority in such a way as to bring about the most desirable results in Egypt, in Turkey, in China...
...One of the prerequisites to this organization is to "digest" what has been swallowed in Russia...
...He speaks in terms of traditional imperialism...
...Labor seas no reason why it should suffer for the nation's manpower troubles a a ten, aa the Tolan Committee charged, have been due to inefficiency in the WMC and wasteful procurement policies in the production set-up...
...But expression of his attitude on the poll-tax Realer is being urgently called for...
...they were permitted to use it twice daily, each time for half an hour...
...u . The story told on this page last week of the fumbling nature of the propaganda to Italy has its almost exact counterpart in the broadcasts and publications to Germany, France and other countries...
...Even the two Anglo-Saxon governments will have difficulty in finding common language in which to phrase their purposes...
...Listeners had perfected a method of listening in bed by connecting earphones and hiding them under the pillow...
...Nazi-Germany herself was compelled to make official observations on the effectiveness of the Liberty sender, and it was found that a relatively large number of people listened to it...
...At the beginning of this war, the French government put at the iuposal of a group of, dependable emigrants from Middle-Europe the so-called German "Liberty Broadcast Station," which was first active from Spain, and later frbm France...
...Hbw fiercely the unions are set to fight the bill depends on what occurs when the CIO annual convention meets in Boston early next month...
...China is powerless...
...But he overestimated his own cleverness, and underestimated the passive but tenacious resistance of the French people...
...Woodrow Wilson's 14 points held out a promise to the German people and they responded...
...When it becomes necessary to quote Nazi propaganda,, such as speeches by ? Hitler and Goebbds,,'for instance, ox .articles in former German 'pibiieations, such as the memoirs of Bindenburgiand Ludendorff, they, are simply "translated from the English versions...
...Otherwise our '·1918'* may well i as tier many years...
...The material sent out on the government broadcasts is particularly weak so far as language is concerned...
...Drawn together in the past ten months % JoinmaB bitterness towards many of t ?? federal war boards, the AFL and CIO we ? berng linked closer today by their fear of the proposed last and the control of manpower by McNutt...
...Goebbels' intention was to correct the interpretation of Hitler's last speech as an announcement of a defensive period of German war, and in'This case I agree rather with Goebbels than with some of our commentators...
...would not make dispensable maximum military efforts...
...Here is what one German labor leader wrote in % report which was shown to this writer: . The German-language propaganda being sent over the ehort-wave from the United States is unfprtunately utterly inadequate when stacked against the work of such a station as the "German Liberty Broadcast Station," which was first active from Spain and later from France...
...A basic understanding between Britain and America on the one hand and Russia and China on the other cannot be quickly or easily reached...
...The creation of a central authority for the widely scattered anti-Axis nations is fraught with grave difficulties...
...Labor Balks at McNutt, Army Manpower Plans Backs Tolan Report Blames WMC for Muddled Situation Special to The New Leader WASHINGTON, D. C—The Administration will run into a head-on collision with America's labor leaders if it persist* in forcing the passage of a War Manpower law such as the one urged this week by Paul V. McNutt, War Manpower Commissioner...
...They have no cohesion or central organization with regard to political policy or military strategy...
...we still lack the flint and steel...
...Now the OWI has taken over 14 private shortwave broadcasting stations for government nee and the situation may change as regards the ftiture of specific broadcasts...
...The New Leader revealed exclusively last peek that leading Italian anti-Fascists—among them Count Sforza, Gaetano' Sftlvemeni, G. A.^ Borgese, George de Santillana, Max Ascoli, and others^—had protested vehemently to the Office of War Information on the feeble nature of the scripts, the political ignorance and language and cultural incompetence of the material Aort-waved to Italy...
...In France the collaboration crisis grows graver...
...Germany's predominance increased the ease with which complete unison was attained...
...The United States came in toward the end as a junior partner and never—either on the field of battle or at the council table—played a controlling part...
...If passed, the law would empower McNutt to shift men and machines, to draft women, to halt union organization, and assign persons to specific jobs on the basis of investigations by his staff hare...
...While the West Coast fights Japan, the East Coast concentrates on Hitler...
...These are times that fire men's souls...
...Their program was partly laid down in the series of secret treaties of which President Wilson professed complete ignorance...
...There is no supreme council, board or dictator to define aims, select war fronts, assign commands or distribute materials...
...In the broadcasts mention was made of Catholic "preachers" (instead of priests and spiritual advisers...
...The German used has been m many spots unbelievably bad, unnecessarily long-winded, and the selection of themes is often Boat unfortunate and without any system...
...Its •fiends mast be represented...
...Now we read a comment of Pravda, from which it begins to appear that the Russian proposal shapes up as an attack against the British government...
...Our danger is great...
...The present propaganda, according to fre-(Joent complaints, is lacking in the understanding'of its most important object: the German »oriter and his problems...
...Who is Hess now...
...Every city and town in Germany organized its own small listening group, thus diminishing the danger to the individual listener...
...MEMO ON POLL TAX...
...Congress has the opportunity of a century to step into the lime-light and perform a service to all mankind...
...Try Hess' Campaign Seen as Artti-British...
...The situation described above existed primarily in the Coordinator of Information and Stor the Office of War Information broadcasts...
...But the need is here...
...A supreme council of the new world league would start afresh, would inspire new psychological attitudes, serve as the focal point for new loyalties...
...Qne leader of the German labor movement |*ve The New Leader an analysis of the German broadcasts · which almost completely parallels the characterizations of the Italian broadcasts...
...The crying need for a central authority representing the twenty-seven sovereign powers which make up the United Nations is dramatically attested by the impasse with regard to India...
...The far.from perfect military and naval cooperation is but the outwand symbol of the complete lack of understanding with regard to political objectives...
...The result was that during four months 17,000 workers were sent to Germany and it was affirmed by a Paris newspaper that 15,000 workers more were ready to leave...
...Goebbels said that Germany was fighting not for "illusory objectives" but "for coal, for iron, for petroleum, and above all, for wheat for our daily bread...
...He knows that CIO would be hardest hit by the bill, since CIO is the core of th« defense industry, and the defense industry provides CIO with the core of its members...
...Said a Pravda editorial on October 19: "It must be finally established who Hess is now—a criminal subject to trial and punishment or a plenipotentiary representative in England of the Hitler government who enjoys inviolability...
...And so far as it will bear upon the crisis in wax production, the bill would only maintain the existing scramble of authorities...
...There is no one now—not President Roosevelt, not Winston Churchill—who has .more authority than was wielded by Woodrow Wilson when he announced the Fourteen Points which faded amidst the cynicism of Versailles...
...The rumors about Dakar are, probably, connected with this crisis...
...4N the peoples of the occupied countries and even on large sections of the German and Italian populations the influence of such a central spokesman would be even more decisive...
...average citizen's opinion on the sec-> ond front may riot be urgently required °> the authorities in Washington...
...In that great struggle Britain and France were central...
...But India is an important link in the United Nations chain of defenses...
...Various German labor leaders broadcast regularly over the Boston station WRUL- If the personnel of these iroadcasts are to be absorbed into the government set-up, we may see a change in the compe-knee of specific broadcasts...
...The law would freeze men to their skills and their jobs and their wages at the discretion of the manpower commissioner...
...All of the twenty-seven powers must have opportunity to equate their points of view, reach a common decision and apeak as one...
...But it is necessary to insist that such behavior among the Allies could, better be avoided...
...If there were a supreme council of the United Nations the deadlock could be quickly broken...
...The same, it seems to me, would hold true of the practice of finding "contradictions" among the speeches of Hitler, Goering and Goebbels...
...The condition of German nerves, which can become a factor of great importance, can hardly be measured...
...President Roosevelt speaks with faith and personal power, but he speaks without the authority of the great majority of the nations which make the war end which will make the peace...
...become inexact, unrecognizable and in-effettive...
...the Bishop of Muenster, Count Galen, *as referred to as an Archbishop, and so forth...
...In any case, even if M. Del fosse's comparison was exact and we in fact are in •?918," it...
...In T* Senate, where ita fate now hangs In }h« balance, it is known aa the Pepper Bill, jts enemies are on hand to fight it...
...The result was a far-reaching . whisper propaganda...
...the general policy >· one for the government to change...
...Any particular nation—especially Great Britain under a government which is still predominantly Tory—is under suspicion...
...a genera...
...Anti-Nazi Germans Score Radio Propaganda to Reich , ty DANKL BELL The Nazi war leaders today step gingerly between the powder kegs which ate Germany and the occupied lands of Europe...
...How united CIO is on the desire for peace, or even on the effort to fight the WMC bill, la difficult to determine...
...in this manner they prevented detection by casual observers, neighbors and spies, who are paid for reporting the listening to forbidden foreign stations...
...That digestive process will not last forever...
...Get yonr friends to write or *ire...
...Write or wire ¦«· your senators, to Senator Frederick Van Chairman of the Senate Judiciary ^»¦ittee...
...We have to be cautious, however, and not to be taken in by every bit of sensational information coming from Europe...
...And at Versailles, the lack of political unity became the scandal which led, at long last, to the second brutal and world-wide conflict...
...With the creation of a supreme political council would go, necessarily, the setting up of an over-all board of strategy with authority over the distribution of materials of war...
...What happens there is the business of all the United Nations...
...In this modern war of propaganda, we try with deliberate intent to fan the flames of revolt...
...In addition, since many CIO unions, such as the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers and the United United Automobile Workers, are mushroom products of the defense boom, these unions may fall apart under the Manpower act...
...The basic underlying facts, however, are so far similar as to force upon us the -horrifying thought that we are moving as in a nightmare toward a similar tragic conclusion...
...In all of these respects the Axis powers have great advantages...
...Now Goebbels knows that a willing collaboration of occupied and dominated countries cannot be won either by such "illusory" means as the propaganda of National-Socialist ideology or by pure violence...
Vol. 25 • October 1942 • No. 43
