Report From Canada - Labor Gains Political Strength As Big Business Hamstrings All-Out War Effort
ANDRAS, A. R.
Report From Canada - Labor Gains Political Strength As Big Business Hamstrings All-Out War Effort CCF Grows in Parliament; Companies Fight Unions By A. R. ANDRAS Special to ??? New...
...com* into4- power...
...And here he has run into a problem as unique as he is...
...is the official opposition in both provinces...
...VTET some facts have ct-nie tc light A study of financial statements issued by various corporations indicate that vast sums in war profits are being hidden in depreciation and other reserves...
...The specter of war was then once -more stalking through Europe...
...of peace aims — nothing: of post-war social security — a promise that the government proposed to "recommend the early appointment of a select committee to examine and report on the most practicable measures of social i neu ranee...
...Coldwell stressed particularly the lack of a clear-cut policy of social security...
...He swears that no person on either side came between them, and it is not easy to see quite why this had to happen...
...TPHERE is no such thing as a "mass mind" or * its "structure...
...Tolstoy perhaps had something to do with it Cul-bertson's inferiority complex as a bridge expert —a very driving force, I assure you—demanded heroic treatment...
...after'the last war and we have contributed generously to victims of disaster in many remoter regions of the world...
...The workers are bitterly resentful sheet wage freezing...
...There are stories galore current across the country about labor hoarding, marking tune on production, excessive profiteering, etc., but little that can be pinned down...
...The Culbertson System A Grand Slam for World Peace • By MAX EASTMAN (This is the third aqd concluding installment of Mr...
...It is in a way more important to worry about how efficiently a worker spends, his money and guards his health than about an extra 50<J or a dollar a week to be spent carelessly...
...It, is far harder to measure the efficiency of industrial production...
...That was the cause of their divorce...
...But he never noticed the town...
...Labor, farmer and consumer representation on government war boards could either prove or disprove whether war production ia as it should be, but this too is, it seems, "not in the public interest...
...More and more labor unions have made nutrition af subject to be discussed at their membership, meetings on a par with other economic and financial problems...
...is the only group in the House of Commons and in provincial legislatures to consistently champion the rights of labor...
...Dire prophecies are being made of what will surely happen should the socialist C.C.F...
...Another point that people have learned is that everything that tastes good in food is not necessarily good for them...
...It is also notable that Mrs...
...People are also aware of the fact that there is such a thing as a balanced meal by which they imply correctly that the meal must contain representatives of all the essential dietary components required for health...
...They are more vocal than numerous in tot House of Commons and command about 16 «n»t in a House of 245 members...
...His only friend in that region for many years was the woman next door whom he met by chance in Buenos Aires...
...It may never go into effect...
...Individual memberships in constituency clubs are increasing every where in the country...
...Management is concerned lest some of the wartime restrictions be carried over into the peace...
...The people want economic change and see in the C.C.F...
...The book is exceedingly brilliant...
...The possibility of uuildiug ioj socialism is greater now than it ever has been...
...These committees ' on the local level are the very life and backbone of our national movement...
...He became, by location and natural assumption, the Squire of Ridgefield...
...For example, within the field of meat more points will be charged for expensive steaks and fewer points for cheaper cuts of meat...
...can expect to~ gain office in the prairie provinces and British Columbia Saskatchewan and B.C...
...Humanity may lack the courageous good sense to solve its basic problems...
...The second point that most people are aware of already is that there are such things as food groups and that each group contributes a certain element to the diet, regardless of the - nature of a particular food within that group...
...Before rationing was in effect it was difficult to get either...
...One resujt of this has been a mushroom growth of company anions and a splnrge in fall-page anti-union advertisements by firms in which unionism is making inroads...
...His life-long ambition was reviving, his yearning to do immortal service to mankind...
...MARK GRAU BARD EVERY American is, on the whole, fully aware of the fact that rationing is not a means of limiting the supply of food...
...He pointed out that without constitutional changes a comprehensive national program of social legislation was impossible...
...This means that merely filling the stomach is not enough...
...He has sold his castle now to a girls' boarding school, and lives on the edge of his former estate in a desultory frame house filled with diverse odds and ends of furniture—one of those houses in which perhaps the window shade will roll up, and perhaps it is half torn off the pole, and you will have to take it down and roll it up yourself...
...There is every indication that other unions will be affiliating in the near future...
...And Ely Culbertson might have written a valuable contribution, perhaps indeed an epoch-making contribution, to the solution of that problem, had he not got his pride involved in that other pretentious phrase...
...As soon as rationing was introduced everyone got his share and the store shelves have the products...
...Every demand for wag* adjustments is met with a cry of inflation by government spokesmen...
...It is notable, however, that before the task could be undertaken, another ingenious, if costly, System had to be invented—a System of Divorce without Disruption...
...strength: r.or the number of affiliated trade unions...
...Rationing is a means whereby everybody gets an equal share...
...Fortunately, that will not happen...
...I believe that any survey will prove that the American public has already learned a number of nutritional lessons within the last two years...
...It is linked _ with the people through State, city and county nutrition committees forming part .of the Civilian Defense Councils and representing all elements'' of our population...
...was advanced $65.900.000 by the British and American governments on the strength of future deliveries of aluminum to finance this project In other words, its profits on war contracts will enable it to emerge as the owner of a vast public utility...
...And last, housewives have also learned that the new science of nutrition has revolutionized the methods of preparing vegetables, methods of cooking them and keeping them in the icebox...
...in Ontario, as well as 23,000 in Nova Scotia...
...1 Yet' the existence of rationing places a certain, responsibility upon the government...
...IN spite of inimical conditions the Trade Union * movement continues to jrow in strength and influence...
...Party finances are in a better position than eve>- before—not as result of some "angel's" beneficence hi— rs a result of more party dues and small contributions from farmers, wage earners and small ? Li ah ess people and professionals...
...The wives of workers are taking a greater interest in using nutrition information to pack a lunch a man can really work on...
...Another problem is to make the act of joining a world federation square with the longtime self-interest of each of the existing great powers...
...The nation will be tied hand and foot in bureaucratic red tape...
...He was not happy in his wealth...
...In any case far - reaching constitutional changes would have to be made before the federal legislation similar to that envisaged in, say, the Beveridge Report...
...On the one hand, draft boards are required to meet a certain quota of recruitments each month, by order of one Minister of the government...
...We led Europe, in part...
...The real Ely, our friend the spoiled adventurous consecrated child, the vagrant, the revolutionist, the dissolute and resurrected, the unfinished ethical theorist, the unfinished mass psychologist—this real Ely speaks with amused detachment of the caricature of himself he put over on the public as a bridge expert He calls him "Ely the Celebrity" and tells with what care he fashioned him: "tough, cocky, comically conceited, not unwitty...
...But how, in any existing equilibrium of national interests, to make world federation a practical possibility, has baffled them all...
...It is certainly the work of a man of genius, and far from a "tough," "cocky," "comically conceited" or "eccentric" man...
...They organize courses, demonstrations, campaigns and lectures on the subject of nutrition to meet the needs of whatever audiences they are approaching...
...Special attention is paid to the food of our industrial workers...
...particularly are promising...
...ISOLATIONIST representative* from Frajcb-Canadian Quebec continue their efforts to keen Canada from any effective participation ia the war...
...White bread, for instance, though many people prefer it to whole wheat, lacks many components and therefore has to be enriched...
...One of the most flagrant cases to come to light recently is the Shine-haw power utility...
...This office is not just-a government agency set aside to solve the nutrition problem...
...It is a small and compact coordinating agency which cooperates with the people themselves in propagating food knowledge and sound food habits...
...He began shuffling off the details of "The Culbertson Interests" upon his subordinates...
...Hundreds of thousands at workers have had wages "frozen" at substandard levels...
...He has found the gigantic momentum of his own previous promotion machine against him...
...He also advocated a Bill of Rights which would protect the rights of minorities and otherwise preserve national unity...
...A heavy screen of governmental secrecy hides any and almost all encroachments of vested interests against the commonweal, as well as managerial muddle and inefficiency...
...The National Nutrition Conference met then to discuss the various food problems and the eating habits of the country...
...A man known throughout the world as a foxy cardplayer, even though the foxiest of all, would hardly be looked to for guidance upon so sober and weighty a task as organizing the world's government...
...Instead of calling it "The Agonies of a Soul in Search of Greatness," he called it "The Strange Lives of One Man...
...the state will tyrannize over the people...
...It was in 1936, eight years after he set off on this wild race for fame and fortune, that Ely began to grow restless of'the mad concentration it demanded...
...There is definitely the threat that faan production will fall off, rather than increase during 1943, as a result of the thoroughly can-fused farm situation...
...It remains weakest in isolationist Quebec...
...house-leader M. J. Coldwell moved, in reply to the Speech from the Throne, a sub-amendment to the motion of adoption which expressed "regret that Your Excellency's adviser...
...Unless the public considers the food /-situation as its own obligation to its individual welfare, to the production front, and as its,4fon-tribution to victory, the disturbance in the food distribution.and its utilization in the home can become a menace"' to the health of the nation...
...The real owner is to be Aluminium Limited, subsidiary of*-Alcoa in the U. S. A. Aluminium Ltd...
...Experience has taught us this lesson already in the case of sugar and coffee...
...Another baffling problem is the mere variety and number of the nations, many of them . too small and weak to pretend to speak with weight in a world government...
...MOST wise men agree, I think, that war can be abolished only by world federation...
...has pointed out in the House, the government must choose between greater production aad a greater army...
...A striking indication of popular feeling is the percentage of those plumping for the C.C.F...
...In fact, judging from these polls, the C.C.F...
...He was not happy in his public fame as the champion bridge player -of the world...
...But in his mind, as we talked together in the one comfortable corner of that house, he seemed to me the very opposite: poised always in the dead center between the flighty idea and the stubborn fact, neither a detached theorist nor a blind practician, a man who knows supremely well how to use his brains...
...With the party line geared to "total war" they are systematically blunting any militancy on the part of the workers in the unions captured by 'them, even at the expense of backing down on legitimate grievances...
...on the other, farmen are exhorted to produce more and still mare by another Minister of the same government...
...He worked with one eye on Dostoyevsky and the other on the movies...
...Of a policy on manpower—nothing...
...But it had been a part of Culbertson's scheme for promoting his Bridge System to give its author an imaginary character fashioned to suit the taste of the "mass mind" in the matter of card experts...
...the existence of "free enterprise" ie at stake...
...As the C.CJP...
...Obviously reactionaries would cling to any--subt?rfuge, constitutional .or otherwise, which woeMrVprevent the passage of progressive legislation.' ¦e* * » *T*HE Canadian Commonwealth Federation con-* tinues to press for a total-war effort through the conscription of industry and financial institutions...
...C.C.F...
...People are generally aware of the fact that there is such a thing as "hidden hunger" resulting from poor, inadequate diets...
...The unions cannot help but see that the C.C.F...
...The C.C.F...
...In 1938, he and Mrs...
...Instead there were typically vague, bumbling phrases, little calculated to inspire the Canadian people...
...Within the province, however, there is a considerably larger proportion who agree with their views and the aext elections will probably see a larger isolationist bloc in Parliament, Incidentally, there is eon-siderable talk about a federal election in 1J<43, although the present government's mandate does not expire for another two years...
...Putting away a bridge-playing wife and a family, retiring into his own consecrated meditations, seemed a natural if somewhat fierce beginning...
...New Lkades OTTAWA.—Canada's Parliament reassembled recently, fresh from a six-month recess...
...DUT in spite of this and other evidence of wnr-profiteering, industry is champing at the bit...
...In 1928, while overplaying the role of the provident father, Culbertson bought from a steel magnate a two million dollar estate with a forty-room castle in the heart of Ridgefield, Connecticut...
...He began sneaking away to the library, to his private sanctum, to his reading and "making notes...
...The mass industries especially—steel, aircraft, automobiles, shipbuilding, base metals —are being subjected to strong organizing campaigns...
...Labor as well as industry has already begun to realize on a large scale, that good breakfasts and lunches are an essential part of our war.effort on the production front, f set aside for the consumption of lunches which the majority of American workers still bring to work in the lunch pail...
...There is the very real problem of the behavior of men in crowds...
...New clubs are being organized...
...We all.know that in spite of our relative wealth and abundant food supply, a large section qf.our population has lived on an inadequate diet and suffered certain visible and invisible consequences of it...
...Once the triumph-was achieved he was no longer happy—or thought so—in the partner who had . shared the triumph with him...
...and editorial writers froth at the mouth in a perfect pas* ease at «orkiagclaas perfidy...
...In other words, one of the most conservative aspects of home life, kitchen practices, is undergoing thorough changs in accordance with the dictates of the new science of nutrition...
...Still another ia the complete lack of legislation concerning collective bargaining, union recognition, company unions, etc...
...Xot in the interests of privets industry is nearer tf the truth...
...It seems, however, that it is ta be Canadian in name only...
...S A System for Putting An End to War...
...Particularly the problem of enabling nations to surrender a part of their sovereignty without endangering their national defense, has seemed insurmountable...
...Hence, taste and looks are not everything in diet and the conclusions of scientific investigation must be respected and applied...
...Out of this conference emerged the Nutrition Division of the Office of Defense Health and Welfare Services...
...And why not...
...Canadian natural resources that made it possible...
...After the war manv a company will emerge with millions of dollars worth of capital equipment, paid for by the people of Canada, thanks to the nature of governmental contracts...
...What would be, after all, from the point of view of the welfare of the masses, "the greatest thing on earth...
...It is a little too brilliant—the story parts too slickly good...
...On the whole, the subject of improved food habits has become a spontaneous national movement which the Nutrition Division is merely guiding...
...Tt add to the confusion, there has been a steady drain of labor from the farms to the cities ode to the magnet of better wages...
...Culbertson were divorced...
...Unfortunately there is a small percentage of the population which simply lacks the funds to buy the very minimum adequate diet...
...His scheme, even with the inevitable amendments, may not succeed...
...All these problems, and others, Culbertson met head on, and he has devised what seems to me a workable solution of them...
...Couched in the formal language used on such occasions in the House of Commons...
...No nation should tolerate such a health menace...
...would be about 13 billions...
...That would be true even if the man were known in his true character...
...The government issues from time to time comparative figures but only in terms of dollars—a poor index of measurement...
...Along with the growth of trade unionism has been the growing influence of the C.C.F...
...He stepped out and explored that basement with curiosity, for although he had lived in the house twelve years he had never been down there before...
...Not for pump priming, hi said, but as "part ofk a national policy formulated for the social de-' velopment of our resources and to prevent a return to pre-war capitalism which will inevitably mean a return to pre-war jtoverty...
...The defense of the population lies in food education which should be a part of everybody's concern and duty on the home front rather than a stereotyped educational campaign imposed upon the /public...
...Capitalism must bs preserved...
...It can contribute greatly to the improvement of our food habits and to our national health, especially through the point system of rationing operating within food groups...
...But because he is really a writer, it took him two years and a half...
...Only private enterprise can provide full employment and a high standard of living...
...In the western provinces the percentage is considerably higher...
...Para Re*#w> f The Point of Rationing — Program to Equalize Food Supply, Protect Diets \_: By Dr...
...He told me that in taking the elevator of his 62nd Street home the other day he accidentally pressed the wrong button and descended to the basement...
...We may now come to the final point which is that rationing, properly handled, can be more than merely a boon to victory...
...In the fourth year of war, it still finds itself confronted with a chaotic manpower situation, with a lack of definition of peace aims, and without a program of post-war reconstruction...
...ear men reign supreme as production managers...
...Socialism has become a bogey to frighten A* people: and the C.C.F...
...Another problem is to make it square with the immediate self-interests of the powers dominant at a given moment of history...
...the incentive, the wffl to produce, will disappear...
...This consisted, apart from certain disciplines in magnanimity, of remodelling the two houses they had already converted into one in such a way as to make them in substance three—one for the father, one for the mother, and one for the father-mother-and-children...
...The vested interest of provincial (state) rights stands in the way and neither of the old-line capitalist parties, Liberal or Conservative, is disposed to oppose these sacred rights...
...All civilized society was moving into its grim shadow...
...And Culbertson is an extreme example of this type...
...Another cause for unrest Ja the almost complete lack of Labor representation on the innumerable war boards and Crown companies (i.e...
...It was to get this caricature out of the way of himself that Culbertson decided to write his own life story- He thought he could talk the story off to a stenographer in five or six months, and get on with the political task...
...He never called on a neighbor or returned a call...
...Chamber of Commerce and Canadian Manufacturers Association spokesmen all over the country are carrying on a tireless campaign for the complete restoration of conditions as they were the moment "cease fire" sounds...
...One has to eat certain foods rather than just fill up...
...Culbertson has been, and continues to be, of endless help in the detail work of the System for Putting an End of War...
...HE manpower situation is, becoming increee-* ingly serious, especially with regard to agriculture...
...government-owned...
...The federal government recently patted an ord e r-i ? -council enabling Crown companies to enter into collective agreements with their employees, but only after it was threatened with a strike in one of the larger plants, organized fay the United Steerworkers...
...We may also take it as a certainty that it is most unlikely that we shall suffer shortage that might threaten our minimum daily food needs...
...have failed to take the necessarj action to achieve a total war effort by neglecting to apply tht powers contained in the National Resources Mobilization Act to war industries and financial institutions in the same manner as they are being applied to the mobilization of man-power for military service...
...He was not happy in his private complaence as the champion fame-builder in the world...
...Most Americans are even aware of the fact that there will in all likelihood be some rationing after the war until lands devastated by Nazi and Japanese fury can rebuild their agricultural sources of supply...
...A proportionate amount in the U.S.A...
...However that may be, it is the conclusion of our story that for four years now this Detachable Fanatic, while still hitting the high spots as a bridge expert, has been working on his System of World Federation...
...There is no indication that even a small section of our population fails to accept these needs and sacrifices, if they can be called that, with understanding and willingness...
...The banshee of rain wails in the night Organized labor continues to be restive...
...The reasons why a country such as our own, which has an abundance of virtually" all-food items, should have rationing in this war are equally dear to the bulk of our population...
...As in the I. S. A. dollar-a...
...We have been in the habit of helping other nations for- the last few decades...
...their only hope of getting it...
...About as had as management's interference is the persistent effort of the Communists to gain control of the anions...
...is the bogeyman...
...For instance, cereals provide starch, minerals, and some vitamins while meat, fish, and legumes provide proteins and other elements...
...There are now some 13,000 trade unionists affiliated to the C.C.F...
...It is to be hoped .that some steps will be taken to see ta it thnj^every American family is economically able td get at least the foods it ia entitled to on its ration cards...
...We are merely doing our duty in supplying our allies so that they can-fight the common battle...
...In his reply Mr...
...But I do not se how the foundations of permanent peace can be wisely discussed henceforth without acknowledgement to this first complete and subtly practical attempt to envisage a world state...
...Needless to say, tree or not, these stories are not helping national morale...
...IF rationing functions according to food groups, * the public will be educated and well-fed at the same time We must remember that though we may cherish certain particular food items, the contribution which that food item makes can be found within other foods which may not enjoy the same glamour and prestige...
...No encouragement that any of these major problems would be tackled decisively was to be found in the Speech from the Throne...
...More attention is paid by all workers to their breakfasts so that the mornipg hours are not spent in a fog of fatigue...
...Poorer people-will then get more meat on theft ration cards since they will buy cheaper cuts or variety meats which, it happens, have the same or better food value as most expensive steaks...
...N A 8 -earfy as May 1941 the President foresaw *~ the need of nutrition consciousness on the part of the population, on the part of business, government agencies and scientists...
...With respect to post-war reconstruction he advocated a national plan of reconstruction coupled with a grant of 5 billion dollars to be spent during the first two years'of peace...
...People who live much in their own thoughts, and have a taste for solitude, are always in a way eccentric...
...perhaps kind, and certainly eccentric...
...In these ways he is eccentric—or in the latter, perhaps,, a typical Russian intellectual...
...The Gallup Polls referred to above are not the only indication of growing C.C.F...
...A tremendous project (it has been likened to Boulder Dam) and many a Canadian heart beat with pride at Canadian engineering ingenuity...
...It is a protection rather than ? restriction...
...After the war this firm will own or control a power empire of over 2.000.000 horsepower...
...Many-luxury items may vanish.from the market, but nutritionally that will be a great advantage since, as a rule, luxuries have less food value than the original materials they are derived from...
...Thus our spoiled child's planetary triumph, the crown of his life's labors, his success in becoming of some order of being "the greatest on earth," was a surrender of his real ambition, a disappointment of the deepest roots, the mother-roots, of his self-love...
...Canadian labor skill...
...That, according to the husband, is what came between them...
...Eastman's profile of Ely Culbertson...
...Select committees to "examine and report" have so often been used as a means of interring important issues that Canadians attach little hope that anything effective will come of this one...
...in the regular Gallup Polls on political opinion...
...Instead of writing it in a mood of subtle and deep meditation, he wrote it in a racy mood, and slipped the subtle and deep meditation in...
...Nevertheless a critic as expert as Burton Rascoe thinks it is one of the world's great autobiographies...
...Rationing and shortages which have come as a result of the war may serve to aggravate bad food habits and may.become a menace to health...
...He has also, you may be sure, been working on a System for Publicizing a System of World Federation...
...Direct questions for more accurate information are met by the stock answer "not la the public interest...
...At the end of last year the Bank of Canada published some figures on corporation earnings which shed further light on the "sacrmceT which industry is making...
...We are not being simply generous with our food at present...
...The only difference is that in Canada they need not fear investigation committees like the Trent an and Tolan committees in the American Congress...
...Since 1940 the percentage of those favoring the C.C.F has risen nationally from 8 per- cent to 23 per cent...
...He wrote instead a circular for Young & Rubicam...
...What was the greatest thing a man with a system-making mind could do...
...Conveniently forgetting the fruits of "free enter-price" during the last decade, after-dinneT speakers and reactionary newspapers paint glowing pictures of the achievements of their favorite economic system...
Vol. 26 • March 1943 • No. 10
