Drive on Forty-Hour Week Seeks to Cut Workers Wages
Drive on Forty-Hour Week Seeks to Cut Workers Wages Speeial to TBE New Leadep. WASHINGTON, D. C. — The anti-1 abor axi ? is pushing: forward again. Congressional reactionaries, big-business...
...Europe may produce work lag-eta*-, revolt* which would get out of hand...
...They are buying up stock, hoping to make a killing...
...Now to the dissatisfied masses of India...
...This elementary inability to grasp the terms and argument of political analysis seemed to us to characterize the w»hole article, and was an element in our reluctance to repiy...
...He will undoubtedly set up some form of French Government for North Africa," a correspondent writes from headquarters...
...In 1&39, Berlin gained control of the frozen Czech gold assets in London by using the BIS as a dummy...
...This is being hailed in some London circles as "an anti-Mussolini revolt...
...Gallup termed the claims that the returns indicated a ^rowing resentment against the New Deal, impatience with labor, or dissatisfaction with the progress of the war, "damned nonsense...
...Winston Churchill ?·» not yet heard about it...
...Said the UAW: "The chaos which now threatens the war production program of the automotive industry is the end product of the chaos and conflict which has marked the planning of the whole war effort by government and industry...
...AU of which comes down to this...
...It i» ·" tremely difficult under such circumstances to em lightly with those who make irresponsible aw** teur play with politics, ideas and hiatory...
...The composition of WPB makes a mockery of Republican charges of "New Deal" control and "bungling" of war production...
...But what is his political responsibility in a new national and world era...
...War, Politics, and Confusion [Several weeks ago Ralph de Toledano...
...This is what Mr...
...The New Leader, Oct...
...Blimps, the landed gentry, the Tory-bankers and industrialists...
...Thus did the British people come to the idea of a people's war...
...Labor's counter-offensive against the blocs of reaction throughout the country is slowly getting under way...
...What are the Nazis preparing...
...lulls in tee Wait Street Shop» THE weekend news of the African invasion * produced on Monday one of the busiest Stock Exchange days of this year...
...with only "a few crumbs" falling to the "innocent bystanders...
...Or is it, as Toledano thinks, merely a stick to beat the British Empire with...
...Lasky follows.] the height of political puerility...
...If our analysis was wtoef...
...One commentator was tempted to paraphrase Sajjdburg and crack: The people, nuG: It might be too strong to say that there still remains "a big, silent, sinister anti-war party...
...If the Empire today (and what everybody forgets is that it is primarily an economic phenomenon...
...War shares" were sold ? volume and this was balanced by a wave of buying of corporation stocks whose post-war positions have been tabbed as improved...
...We b»** however, not yet been put in such a positio...
...The only successful so-called dictator (Oiiveira Salazar of Portugal), * the oniy one who runs a country' with common sense land no debit is a Papal Catholic, in the sense that he knows what the Popes have written The President of Chicago University, Robert Maynard Hutchms...
...Some conservatives have - been atguing that the GOP sweep protests the White House notion of "a New Deal War...
...Yet this line of thinking would seem to justify the Republican claim that it was the lack of enthusiasm for the Administration's war conduct that pet some 44 new Congressmen in On the GOP lists, j This was explicitly denied by public-opinion poller George W. Gallup...
...The anti-labor campaign has already gotten under way, and the control of several key Congressional committees, Ways and Means and Banking and Currency particularly, will shortly pass out of friendly hands...
...ONE hobby of this column is collecting sales letters from various magazines And across this desk came a letter from the business manager of the Catholic Digest, published in Saint Paul, Minnesota...
...The operation appears to be well prepared politically...
...Churchill seed* » pointed message: "I did not become the K<inff> First Minister to preside over the liquktetien of the British Empire...
...London's Wall Street...
...The main consideration of the men in the armed forces in regard to wages," Bevin pointed out, "is what they are going to come back to when the war is over...
...The Vichy Government reacted as was expected...
...Yet they felt themselves to be fighting not a class war, or an imperialist war...
...IMA Charges Girdler Waste Special to The New Leader WASHINGTON, D. C. — Affidavits charging that the Girdler Consolidated Aircraft at Fort Worth, Texas, with production slowdown were filed with the WPB by the International Ass ?, of Machinists, A. F. of L. The union says the plant is overloaded with employees, that workers are instructed to fake the appearance of being busy, that inefficiency and waste are widespread and that even President Roosevelt was deceived about production at the plant when he stopped off during his secret tour of the national recently...
...more than literary evidence We meant «bat <¦* dominant business interests of the states ??, both in Britain and America, were taking met* of a hand in running things, that «he leW' movement was revealing itself to be somewhat politically discouraged and spiritless, thet A« mood of political and social ideas in whieh *** ruling war administrations were movmr was becoming less and less promising In that eoweec tion we touched upon q-uei-tions of propagenea, diplomacy, economics and point was made of the problem of post-wfc- governments and the maneuvers with "rewpeetaeV' elements in Italy, . "safe" elements in Centre...
...Marshal Smuts has declined to discuss 'publicly the future offensive strategy of war, but there is no secrecy about his own strategic ideas...
...Reactionary ciretee in this country wrth that same ideology are pushing the idea of an Austrian Legion to be headed by Habeburg Duke Otto...
...Now it is evident that the difficult and unpopular policy of State Department was to be preferred to the emotional policy of making as many foes as soon as possible...
...With Republicans in office as Secretary of War and Secretary of the Navy nothing yet uttered seems closer to nonsense...
...That may be a satisfactory solution of the most urgent and very delicate problem...
...Although some of these concerns would lose war contracts, the market-wise men apparently consider them in the most advantageous positions in the post-war set-up...
...and bu*-' gies...
...Bevin, Minister of Labor, squelched attempts of the reactionary 1922 committee, headed by Sir Herbert Williams, to use the soldier's issue to drive down wages...
...Rear-Admiral Emory S. Land, chairman of the Maritime Commission, made it quite clear the other day that the abolition of the 40-hour week is in reality a campaign against wages...
...Is there such a thing as "a people's war...
...Burma, Malaya...
...8 WE Bank of International Settlements, tryst-• mg place mt world capitalists, where In a war-divided world British bankers and Naxi minuters sit side by side, is coming back into the British news...
...In an address given in Pretoria a few weeks ago, Marshal Smuts said: "The most vital theatre of this war is the Mediterranean base and we cannot win the war without cleaning that base...
...It is, of course, not true that 40 hours is a maximum...
...Were they defending the Col...
...It does, as a matter of fact, seem quite obvious that you can't have a violent political tide and a light vote at one and the same time...
...the subtlety of Adler...
...What was almost everywhere overlooked was the plain fact that the first year of World War II has simply not yet revolutionized the American people's ways of thinking...
...have been used in Great Britain, and this week the news was received here of Ernest" Bevin's ringing denunciation of attempts by large corporations and their Tory representatives to freeze wages...
...Were they defending a class system of privilege ? Were they defending unequal economic, political and educational opportunities...
...A German counter-blow may be expected...
...In the beginning, for example, he states categorically that "there is no such thing as a people's war...
...The reply of Mr...
...But if 1942 indicated anything, it revealed that the personal question aside, the American people are not particularly aware of the new social and political problems facing democracy in international war...
...Then he proceeds to write vaguely that this is a war for "world international organization" and "respect for law" without once citing realistically the interest-groups which he apparently thinks exploit all ideal...
...As lor the Empire (which if we would believe the Tory propaganda has simply disappeared into thin air), we want to say this: Empires...
...the latest gaueherie of this banker's shangri-la...
...Some liberals, impatient themselves with manpower muddles and production mix-ups and divided commands, have also called it " a protest vote" in favor of a more vigorous prosecution of the war...
...They are, in fact, the essence of the plan which Hitler long since advanced, and Goebbels subsequently publicized for the organization of the world's commerce and industry when the war is o*ver...
...And we...
...Political lines are being scrambled anew, and until the American people are re-educated politically to the problems of an international war against Fascism, the liberal and progressive movement in national politics may well be in for a period of floundering...
...The Old Marshal ordered the French troops to resist...
...Along with this idea of "a people's war" there grew up the idea of "a revolutionary war...
...That is why M.P.'s are beginning to ask questions about this report...
...Joe Smith, American, under-sthnds'NnTs industrial responsibility with respect to the War— al^-out production...
...The New Appeatemeat 1...
...To compromise the progressiv« efforts in its behalf by denying its profound democratic mass impulse is playing the game of reaction...
...So far as France is concerned, the problem of the establishment of a new recognized French Government in Europe is not yet urgent...
...And it is a universal "struggle which has to be renewed everywhere by every generation...
...TOLEDANO is a writer of some charm and a measure of wit...
...If the British offensive had not been followed by the present American operation, we should have considered as a most probable counter-blow a German offensive in the Near East...
...As Churchill has said, this operation is not the end, not even the beginning of the entLibut perhaps the end of the beginning...
...The ICC is sticking to its old plan of wiping out watered stock and cutting bonded indebtness...
...The way Toledano ^ets around aH evidence suggests only that he has suddenly become a practitioner of the dialectic...
...Franklin Roosevelt, as a militant and far-sighted war leader, remains an issue of no small proportions...
...What is the issue...
...Again, he opens by saying that the movements of history "are not won by the people, (but) by well-organized, well-directed coalitions of individuals who seek certain rights or privileges for themselves...
...Said John Green, of the Shipbuilding workers hitting unemployment in Eastern ports: "The War Manpower commission is obviously solving nothing because our partial approach to the problem merely paves the way to the next eruption and does nothing to get at the central point of infection...
...Various' affidavits charge little production and much waste, that bombers were flown in for the Presidential inspection, and that workers' morale is low...
...Eberstadt is generally understood to be allied with the "army" as against "civilian" authority over war production...
...gone out of election tussles between a Democratic and Republican party that looked and sounded the ttffle, In this connection it is important to note that President* i Roosevelt played practically no role in the campaign, and refused to take the initiative in defense of his administration...
...Allied forces threatening an invasion of ~ Italy, reports of an "ami-Mussolini" faction seeking peace are being circulated more widely...
...Allied Chemical and Dye, Dow Chemical and Monsanto (a chemical combine...
...The times have gone against heckiers and they...
...For some millions, as Sam Grafton has remarked, it is not a war to exterminate fascism, but a war of vengeance for the attack on Pearl Harbor...
...Webb writes: "Where have these ideas appeared before ? They can be found in any Nazi textbook on economic planning...
...They are looking to the trade unions to maintain their standards for them...
...But this hardly fits in with the election of a Hamilton Fish, a Wayland Brooks, a Clare Hoffmann and all the rest...
...Those stocks that led the way to new highs for the year or marked ep significant gains were International Telephone and Telegraph...
...Two weeks ago this commentator noted: "It was, of course, not an accident that the British offensive in Egypt was preceded by the speech of Field Marshal Smuts and his statement that "the defense phase of the war has now ended and the stage is set for the last, the offensive phase...
...Administration sympathizers are arguing that the White House sacrified political 'success for military effectiveness...
...To dismiss all this by means of a few easy cracks and a pseudo-eentimentaiism about the British Empire ami Its Priceless Traditions is He dismissed the notion of "people's victory" as a fiction, attacked critics of the British "Empire," and proclaimed this to be "a war of international organization...
...Yet it is not enough to say merely that local greips over rationing and the like combined coincidentalh- over the country to push the GOP in...
...God gave us 24 hours in each day," O'Daniel sounded off this week, "why not use more of them...
...Men all over the *"h** are fighting- grimly and desperately...
...We wOpM hesitate to "confound the wise " but *?????*°-ing the wiseguy" is another matter World War II is a serious proposition...
...a good Protestant, might just as well be a Catholic the way he writes, and the same goes for the Jew Mortimer Adi*r " The business manager concludes with an appeal for a subscription reminding the reader that the magazine has "the science of Carrel, the prestige of Hutchins...
...As Philip Murray, in his CIO convention report early this week, reported, "The basic trouble in the war production program is that organized labor has been and is being treated as an unwanted partner...
...His New-Dealish education fails to serve him, for New Deal issues are by and large gone...
...but "a people's war" in defense of such people's rights as free trade unions, free speech, press, and religion, and the free spirit of a culture which was threatened with total extinction by-Nasi-end^associated reaction...
...has its democratic commonwealth features, its papular institutions, ? was because Englishmen fought other Englishmen to establish them...
...The new January Congress will, of course, bring reinforcements, but Senators Pappy O'Daniel and Tom Connally of Texas have already led the way...
...A demand that England withdraw from the BIS was defeated by the Treasury backed by men who wield great power in "the City...
...But it is doubtful whether the majority of the French people will be ready to accept even the most popular military leaders as heads of the future French Government...
...what made Toledano "waV umbrage") was that the war against Faeets* was taking, in certain important respects...
...The same lies and distortion...
...For other millions, isolationism still hangs on in the corners of their minds' prejudices...
...The best proof of that preparation is the fact that General Giraud is in Algeria and is organizing the allied French army...
...If there is no such ??* as the British "Empire...
...These words of Smuts remain the clearest and most, comprehensive comment on the present operation, as it is conceived by the allied stra^gy...
...are now practically ready tof go back to their horse and buggy—or horse...
...They were certainly defending a homeland characterized by all these...
...The calculation probably was that the impending military action would be victory enough, but nevertheless serious damage was done on the political front...
...Bell and Mr...
...The disturbing factor is the apparent readiness of eertain circles to accept Badoglio and Prince Humbert en the Allied side...
...I ft ??????* ? ? of Be^?L·e...
...We considered it as a sound principle: no break with Vichy before the American troops appeared in Africa...
...but insight into politics and history is, unfortunately, not among his virtues...
...New Military Movements Open New Roads for French Political Leaders By GEORGE DECKER $ The great North-African offensive*, opened by Ae landing of American troops in French Morocco and Algeria, was announced by Marshal Smuts in his address in London on October 21i Of course, it had been done in a cautious and very general way, without bet»aying anything that could be useful to the enemies...
...To a*gu« that "a people's war" is less a reality than * wish is one thing...
...job is to think boldly, cleanly and precisely- ** need to be critical and on guard against afi «ae»e-tions...
...We shall continue to clear the shores of the Mediterranean...
...They want to know why such ideas are put forward by an organization which is partly administered by British officials and in the direction of which—although since the war they have not attended directors' meetings— British bankers are at least nominally involved...
...American Cable...
...V * * Whaddye Read...
...It effectively expressed the heart of the British people's defense against the Nazi blitz...
...Vice-President Henry Wallace also held the light-vote theory...
...We make no pretense to ultimate or reveaW wisdom_on"ahy of these questions...
...What the drive comes down to is a directi-wage-cut for overtime pay exceeding 40 hours...
...If the strategy of the Second Front was opened by a landing somewhere in Western Europe, the German answer most probably would have been a direct attack against England...
...Thar woald rather ate, for instance a "conservative Italy," with spec table fascists'* in power than a Socialist Italy Thus, according to their perspectives, the War most be fought on the peripheries, and the ea*jor strategy must be an attempt to exhaust Europe and slowly bring it to its knees...
...But it is not yet possible, to foresee, what the Nazi answer to the invasion of North Africa will be...
...jj—but the swing away from the administration and toward ;the GOP old-guard is still on the books/and it is with anxiety that liberal and labor circles are viewing the new jrumblings in Washington...
...But one has the impression that the resistance is not very strong and by far not so stubborn as was the resistence of the French troops in Syria...
...Alexis Carrel is a determined Catholic, and I guess he can add up the score...
...The BIS, located in Basle, has just issued another annual report, copies of which have not yet reached Britain or this country...
...Axis representatives are now in the majority on the Bank's governing board...
...By DANIEL BELL and MELVIN J. LASKY *y|R...
...D. C. — The railroads' war profit boom is bringing a disturbing orgy of speculation in securities of railroads now in the process of reorganization...
...We like to share our enthusiasms, so here it is: "Dear Friend . A decade ago it was definitely unfashionable to talk about religion...
...Congressional reactionaries, big-business die-hards, and the farm-lobby -boys have, following their so-called election mandate from the people, returned to their guns, and the wa*r again?: the 40-hour week has been resumed...
...we would be only too happy to admH it...
...For several weeks it has been clear, that Germany has continued her operations in Russia only with relatively limited forces...
...It is known that he belongs to the "Mediterranean" school of military thinking...
...Just as the people, the humble middle classes, the ordinary working classes, had an interest in the military struggle against international Fascism, just so did they have a political interest in guaranteeing its democratic character (as expressed in ruling personnel), its democratic direction <as expressed by war aims), its democratic future (as expressed by the growing strength of labor representation and socialist perspectives...
...His bill was introduced calling for the suspension of the 40-hour week, ami he intends pushing for its- enactment before Congress's session expires next month...
...The problem to be faeed now is the establishment of de facto government or governments in the liberated territories and at first in Algeria...
...An article by Maurice Webb in the London Daily Herald, describe...
...The extracts reveal thatt the minds in control of the Bank of Interna-t i ? ? a 1 Settlements have applied themselves to the problems of the post-war economic settlement of the world...
...Swiss papers are the main source of stories reported here via London that Italy may attempt to open peace negotiations through Marshal Pi-etro Badoglio and Prince Humbert, the son of the doddering king...
...But that wasn't central to our thinking...
...If a Catholic at a cocktail party declared himself a Catholic, he found himself hemmed in by a circle of "scientific" hecklers, who asked him did he want to go back to the Middle Ages and drive a horse and buggy...
...This column has carried several notes about the past activities of the BIS...
...Ends" column, entitled "A People's War and the British," took sharp issue with Daniel Bell and Melvin J. Lasky for their comments on the course of the War...
...What we observed...
...Labor, which is supposed to be getting rich out of the war (Else Maxwell told in her syndicated column last week of what lovely places the factories were, with workers soaking "$100 to $200 a week") is getting little more than $3,000 a year in its top income section...
...The New York Times commenting on the day's rush remarked that the trading was a barometer of post-war prospects and an early peace expected by the investors...
...servative and right-wing turns...
...War Offensive Upsets Election Explanations By MATTHEW LOW All the talk of the meaning of last week's national elections was suddenly given an arresting military twist—what ¦if the North-African offensive had come just a little earlier...
...It became almost dangerous to defend any slow-moving and calculating policy, for the charge of treacherous appeasement was always raised...
...That probably was the explanation for the declaration of Turkish President Inou, that "Turkey was closer to war today than at any time since the present conflict started...
...He understands his military' responsibility —courage and loyalty in the...
...There is no* doubt, that most Frenchmen will welcome General de Gaulle and Giraud as military chiefs in the struggle for liberation...
...in a "Where the New...
...The political explanations of the results run from left to right...
...WASHINGTON, D. C—Ferdinand Eberstadt, former Wall St...
...Europe, "reliable" elements in France, and elsewhere...
...It was no more than an implication, but it suggested that the new British movement in Egypt was not to be considered as isolated action but rather as the beginning of a great strategic execution...
...never given anybody anything {except, in Tacitus' phrase, "peace which is reslly desolation...
...The question posed by the AEF's dramatic entrance into the Mediterranean arena was simply this: Would not the national enthusiasm, suddenly aroused now, have swept the Administration forces back into office...
...Bat the Germans have get hoW of it and have allowed their controlled newspapers to print copious excerpts...
...but we have also to understand that J** is our greatest and perhaps last chaJUeS* * create a genuinely human world civiliiptwe...
...At any rate, we should not forget that Hitler's forces remain formidable and that the Nazi capacity to strike mighty blows has not yet by any means been exhausted...
...and Badoglio is being touted as an "honest conservative who dislikes fascism...
...But it must be clearly understood that the establishment of such a provisional government in a liberated territory does not anticipate the solution of the same problem for whole France...
...Clippings and Comment By DAtOEL SBLL...
...A survey shows that most of Eberstadt's staff were Big Business men recently recruited into government service...
...General Eisenhower indicated that the organization of the de facto government will be the task of General Giraud: "While General Giraud is concerned primarily with ending French resistance and organizing a new Colonial army, he is certain to be looked upon also as the political leader of North Africa...
...First, thf idea of "people's war" was originally a British notion, which gained wide circulation through Labor and Socialist spokesmen in England in the earliest days of the war against Fascism...
...More sensible was the suggestion that the fire had...
...It is desirable, and it seems to be assured, that General Giraud will have the necessary contact with General de Gaulle, as Chief of all Fighting Fiance's forces...
...armed forces...
...When this is done, the end will riot be far off...
...investment banker whose rise to prominence was first spotted by The New Leader in a front-page story several months ago when Eberstadt headed the Joint Army-Navy Munitions Board, was granted virtually complete control over the Nation's production of all military and civilian goods...
...He understands his patriotic responsibility—keeping morale, buying bonds, and all the rest...
...Yet somehow by a tortuous logic be gets around also to stating some six hundred words later that the Soviet Union, at least, "is fighting a people's war...
...A demand in 1940 that all association be ended—the occasion was the annual report which listed Montagu Norman and Waither Funk as co-directors, was answered by Sir Kingsley Wood with the assertion that it was necessary to maintain a skeleton international banking organization, and "the enemy gained no advantage...
...This is part of the "limited war" psychology of certain reactionary group* They Imr -that 4arg«-«cale iiirtut...
...Singapore, and China was listening too—masses who could become a vast uneen-querable army of freedom—Mr...
...But the political preparation was possible because the relations of the United States with Vichy-France were not severed too early...
...But obviously there is nothing wrong with a kind of "appeasement" which brings as a result smashing victory...
...The speculators hope that the roads will be reorganised on the basis of their present, improved financial position...
...He testified that in the Shipbuilding industry, with the highest wages in the country, the top standard rate is $1.20 an hour for first-class mechanics, which would amount to $62 a week for a 48-hour week...
Vol. 25 • November 1942 • No. 46
