Labor Calls for FDR Showdown on Wage Crisis
STOUT, JONATHAH
Labor Calls for FDR Showdown on Wage Crisis lewis Stand Focuses Pay Issue; AfL-CIO Call for 'Roll-Back' By JONATHAH STOUT WASHINGTON. D. ?—?? Mn^SJetsttSteB has reached the .point of crisis in...
...Earl Browder aad the National Aaeeeta-tion of Manufacturers preseat a united front ip their point of view...
...Both cry, "We must have unity...
...niste in Mexico launched a campaign of terror against Serge, Gorkin Pivert and Gustave Regler...
...We pre trying to keep calm, and are warning the Mexican authorities...
...Who' got tbe inflationary gap of a billion and a quarter is not given in the OUA study...
...In that year...
...But it is inconceivable that Lewis can win his full demands, and in the long ran it would seem more probable that the policies and strength of the two great organised labor federations will prevail...
...Of this amount, it is believed, the government will take off personal direct taxes of $16 billions...
...Wk Regional War Labor Board is establish...
...The conclusion is worked out as follows...
...He also tried to prevent the earlier Ehrlich-Alter meet lag, the one at toe Jewish Center, which the Stalinists also broke up violently...
...A LITTLE more than a year ago, the...
...The recent Executive Order of President ff ? ose velt directed s firm stabilisation of prices and a roll-back to the level of September 15, 1...
...We know that the plan was to have the street toughs start a melee and that four gunmen were assigned to shoot as in the confusion- We were saved by the fortunate fact that tbey had to start the row before the meeting, because s careful check was made at the door which prevented them from infiltrating into the audience...
...WPB, however, ignored all the recommendations of the Senate and approved the construction of three large distilleries Independent distillers were ignored, their applications forgotten...
...3. The smell became so threatening that President Roosevelt created the Baroch committee to investigate, and the committee recommended the development of alcohol-synthetic rubber as well as oil-sycthetie rubber and the establishment of a rubber csar...
...Most of the »ynthetic rubber program is dominated by Standard Oil and the industrial alcohol group...
...The...
...Nineteen per cent of the population earning...
...Tbe facto show that ? alias i ted profits constitute the real mfiatienary threat...
...He did not say just who he meant by "they," but his committee has been critical of the Chemical Division of WPB and of the alcohol-oil group which has fought incessantly against the development of a grain-alcohol-synthetic rubber program...
...Brown got nnother heavy shellacking at the Hi time from the beautiful scoop by former Wtokmgton Newspaper Guild President Gordon ˆSm »f PM, who revealed a secret memorandum •fJKsVl plan for "floating ceilings," to be set SjflRrtly by retailers weekly, which would tore the effect of making ceiling price evasions {fen easier than at present and would make...
...Tbe back-tracking caused OW-I to hurriedly withdraw an...
...We've get tbe Soviet Union to save, er Big Beam ose te save, as tbe ease amy be...
...Study Shows Profits Spur Inflation From The »Vea» Leader Bureau...
...jAf Law...
...ie that ef aa "eut" crlticliing the "ins...
...1942, level or make the necessary wage adjustments to meet the increased cost of living and to step and change tint present policies of the administrative agencies and Congress which can only result tn inviting Inflation and undermining the war effort...
...These companies manufacture butadiene, the base for Buna-S rubber from petroleum and industrial alcohol made from sogar...
...between $2,000 and $3,000 yearly altogether saved or paid off debts amounting to «3 4 billions...
...figures show that the ef the population who earn upwards of $10,000 a year saved altogether almost $8 billions...
...Association of Manufacturers' school of thought...
...Walter G. Whitman, assistant director of the Chemicals Division, and John W. Boyer, chief of the alcohol and solvente section of WPB...
...has discovered that instead of .$17 billions the 1942 inflationary gap actually was only a quarter more than one billion...
...the IgSBBS reflecting tbe effectiveness last year ?/ wage control an against th* ineffectiveness of price and profit controls...
...But there h strong disinclination against accepting this *·*· Behind that, of course, is labor's general «aepproval of Brown...
...But...
...news re...
...1941 and 1*12...
...The increasing plight of was» amen is also reflected in the fact that final retnrn* for 1942 show that savings declined more than one, billion dollars from the expected figure...
...Tbe big fight during NBA days was this very issue...
...The Cooperative Leugne...
...And John L. Lewis hat overnight succeeded in becoming the symbol and spearhead of labor's desperate fight for a square deal...
...figured t?e national income would go to $? hira...
...One of the gunmen was seriously wounded, and we have heard that the members of his trade union are saying that if be dies, they will immediately kill us all Some Spanish socialists hive been planning for some time, to issue a monthly review, "Socialism and Liberty.'' Tbey have been warned that if it appears, the print-shop will be wrecked, that if ? is sold on the streets, the sellers will be beaten up I know for a fact that Lombards Totodano has brought pressure to bear in various quarters in favor of the attackers on the Ehrlich-Alter meeting and against us...
...16 prices is successful, it was pointed oat, ? would be equal to giving labor a 26% wage increase The AFL-CIO strategy takes cognizance of the fact that the American people, unorganised as well as organised labor, are unanimous in their demand for decreased living costs...
...UsW Offered Imp't Posts In WPI bebor has been offered two vice-chairmanships >ils War Production Board...
...Tbe...
...Tbey also seem to think they can get away with anything, no matter how outrageous...
...Whereas, a fight for decreased prices will rally tbe public to labor's side again...
...as compiled by the OP A Division of Research...
...If this Is an oversimplification of the situation, it has the great strength nevertheless of filibeg Is dot's mood at the moment...
...Is addition, it would confirm the wisdom of the position taken by AFL President William ? ? sin and CIO President Philip Murray, who tore concentrated their demands on - price de-cjeases rather than wage increases...
...Alarmed at such a prospect, the petroleum-industrial alcohol group has moved to smash competition from independents.] Gillette acquitted Dr...
...definition of savings includes payment of debts, it doesn't mesa all of that $25 billions was left in peoples' pockets, especially in the case of the average wage earner Who were the money savers...
...WASHINGTON, D. C. — Ave alcohol-synthetic robber-distilleries approved only recently by the War Production Board and by William M. Jeffers, rubber administrator, have been "laid on the shelf" by the Chemical Division of WPB in order not to disturb the grip on synthetic rubber production by the oil-industrial alcohol trust...
...Honest anti-Communists, among them is numbered Elmer Davis, want to see the Communists cleaned out wherever they are—but let's make sure it's Communists who get the cleaning...
...Administrator Prentiss Brown's failure to enforce the plain language of the Prise Control Act, and his permitting the sabotage of grade-labeling which seems tbe only effective measure to halt the scandalously widespread evasions of price ceilings, ? The Presidential "hold the 4 one aide ef the) line" order which wiped out the functioning basis of the War Labor Board, the only wir agency in which labor has had a halfway dot ant break on equal representation...
...Goods and services available in 1943 are estimated to draw off $73 billions which, according to ???, will leave $16 billions to exert an inflationary pressure on prices...
...2. Steadily mounting prices and profits while wages were being held down, producing sOttedb tion of price and profit inflation las against wage deflation...
...That should leave...
...Brown rushed a public denial and •basted the possibility of grade labeling was tft very much alive...
...Administrator Brown has made no mention as yet of tiie dynamite-laden information which goes to the heart of the current wage crisis...
...Tbe New Leader V able to present ex -elesively a resume of these facto as contained hi a quietly-printed volnme entitled "Civilian Spending and Saving...
...With tin} addition...
...4. Independents began to apply for approval of their applications to build alcohol distilleries The Senate Committee recommended that a great number of small distilleries be established throughout the grain-growing areas...
...We urge our readers to write to the President of Mexico urging the protection of these prominent European left-wing figures...
...I probably owe him my Me...
...says, a potential total of $89 billions to be spent...
...But since tbe...
...together with ? forecast for 1943...
...Sttd-week it leaked dot tb>t Brown had re-iisBfid the packing and canning interests that ?? don't have to worry about grade labeling du* year...
...9???$ Irown Builds · Mocnine A* noted in this column two weeks ago...
...Tbe developments to dato are a complete failure on the part of Economic Director Byrnes, Administrator Brown of ???, and Admiaivtra-tor Chester Davis of Pood Administration charged with responsibility of carrying out lbs Executive Order, and re pea bed concessions to certain elements by farther increases in stipes, refusal to permit tbe War Labor Board to make wage adjustments in inequalities to protect efficiency and morale of workers', and arbitrary freesing of men to jobs without relstionehip to needs of war production "A grave responsibility is thereby...
...If such a roll-back te last Sept...
...It should not be forgotten that a good bit of this talk about Communists in the government is nothing more than Administration-emearing...
...3. The further hobbling of labor's need to better "ta conditions by Manpower Csar Paul McNutt when he issued hie sweeping wage and job freese order...
...prases ana pumas must be deflated down to tbe level of wagas or wages mart be inflated up to the level Sf prices and profits...
...2. The Standard Ou-I...
...They had only notified another division head in WPB...
...For it is undeniable that, although Rooseveh has not yet been engulfed in it personally, anti-Adnriniali attest feeling is beginning to run impatiently in labor circles here...
...Tbe 1943 national income is expected to roach the record figure of $132 billions...
...Labor And however that may soane like an tosstnMl paradox, it is nevertheless the fact...
...Wage increases, it is realized, would primarily go to organized labor, leaving the rest of the public in their present plight...
...Encinas, Contraras (Som-mienti)—the last-named being one of the moat dangerous agents in the secsfas «1 flaw' sfttJ...
...What started the offer rto en the wrong foot, however, is Brown's-•jttiial insistence that tbe labor man come &on» Michigan...
...I knew they would never permit them to be buiHJ...
...Rubber Output Slashed as Oil Trust, WPB Shelve Independent Plants Iy JOHN CAkSON Washington ReprtttntAtirt...
...Lewis's nosition...
...Distilleries using farm products would be an effective yardstick against the oil trust...
...Hew much these complaints have given Lewis practically unanimous labor backing to his demand for a showdown i* evidenced by the sari, ous tone of CIO President Philip Murray's call this week for an extraordinary meeting of tbe CIO Executive Board for May 14...
...slightly more tbsm $24 billions went into savings in 1942...
...They prove that instead of jingling s tot ' ef foot-loose cash fat their pockets, a «aar-tor ef America's working pepalatioa failed fo keep up with the cost of living and actually went deeper into debt by $4M...
...But the cold shoulder that idea got everywhere has already faded it away to a whisper...
...And although news releases flow from OPA in a daily stream...
...The steady deterioration of labor'* role to the direction of the'war effort in WPB and tbe increasing concentration of its control in the hands of Big...
...There is an acuter appreciation of the need of rallying plain John Q. Citizen to labor for a showdown fight against the war profiteers and the rapacious Big Business elements who won but November's elections...
...The net result Is the re-emergence of wage differentials again **h »11 the threat they constitute to wage »traetures...
...According to...
...Prom a Hidden Survey...
...The 14.5% who earned between $1.600 and $2,000 saved or paid off debts amounting to a little more than one billion The 16% who earned between $1,000 and • $1.600 saved or paid off debts totalling half a billion...
...John L. Lewis is an amazing character...
...Bow the fight re-appears in a new guise...
...need upon the CIO to mobilise its membership and the entire nation to either carry out the directive of President Roosevelt's Executive Order to roll back-prices to Use September 16...
...The figures indicate, in short, the complete falsity of the inflation picture as built op in the public mind by Big Business interests...
...tial over ^*ortnern jkW BJ/U employers...
...Austrator Prentiss Brown also has offered ¦to* » Deputy Administrator post...
...Among measures discussed this week In an emergency session ef the OUA Labor Policy Committee, composed •f AFL, CIO and Railroad Brotherhoods, was ? demand for the dismissal of the former Michigan Senator...
...6. Evidence- of the determination of some hidden power to prevent the development of an adequate alcohol program forced J offers to 'join in raising questions and WPB was compelled to show new interest in alcohol rubber...
...figuring, should have left $17 billions to exert an inflationary pressure on prices this year...
...The original labor de-b*b# was for one labor representative...
...made similar estimates for 1942...
...We knoic that the attack on tbe meeting was organized by certain Mexican and Spanish Communist leaders: Mi je...
...Dear Friends: Since the Stalinist attacl on the Ehrlich-Alter meeting, Julian Gorkin a-d 1 have ktosd in a veritable atmosphere of assassination, feeling as though we may be "liquidated" at any moment (as they are constantly threatening), and able to take almost no measures of Self-defense...
...Tbe Congress of Industrial Organisation* this week called "an extraordinary iihiiHIm ff tbe CIO Executive Board" to be held im Cleveland May 14...
...With all 1942 data now fully reported...
...We think all of this will die down—before long—unless the party has issued a categorical directive that we be disposed of...
...Yesterday tbe twelve attackers, caught by the police red handed and identified by tbe wvunded victim, were liberated as tbe result of the efforts of their "unions...
...its own wage rates...
...And if Davis is not letting Congress stampede him into firing employees alleged to be Communists, he is to be admired for insisting on proof before making people walk the plank...
...on the subject just as it was about to fcsee it...
...But it is clearly inferrable from the figures on savings...
...Each inflpB^fl^snss^^^-JfA dustry fcught for I ft/Psf favorable wage dif^rau ?? / ferentiai...
...Leber's heart and head are what seem to be otaytng teg-nf-war...
...The natural fellow to that is "throw the rascals out...
...as tbe hospital staff is largely Stalinist, my son stands guard at his bedside and we are trying to got permission to take him elsewhere...
...In another form and other words, the call is a further recitation of labor's grievances The text of Murray's call states: "A very serious crisis has developed witb reference to our national economic stabilisation policy as enunciated by President BaoMvdt...
...It all depends on who's talking...
...A short while ago he might net have been certain of a good word even from a majority of bis own mine workers, much leas other union* His personal duel with Roosevelt seemed almost to have isolated him...
...A movement.organized here enlisted the names of 2Q0 prominent Americans in a letter to President Avila Camacho and some measure of protection was afforded these men...
...at...
...The CIO-AFL position Is essentially that of the constructive critic who is doing tbe painstaking Job ef digging far the root ef the trouble, aad offering criticism coupled with constructive suggestions as alternatives...
...D. C —Informed circles hart think Roosevelt is preparing to cut the ground under John L. Lewis' position with a tsafiy tough roli-the-pr ices-back campaign...
...What happens to...
...figures estimate the 1943 inflationary gap at tie billions...
...The CIO-AFL position not only contrasts with that of Lew» but ft differentiate* also from another position—that of tbe Communist Party-National...
...Elmer Davis has had a heartbreaking and thankless job...
...flies and savings were expected to draw off $31 billions, leaving $tff HBfonsto speed, ^tt .was estimated that goods and services available in 1942 would draw ??.?'?????^,*, That, according to...
...Test Brown is aware of his shaky position est .evidenced in his in again-out again-fcaigan tactics on grade labeling this week...
...But Gillette's courtesy could not conceal the obvious import of his statement He was stating, bluntly, his lack of faith in "they," and "they* could not have referred to anyone other than the Chemical Division of WPB and the alcohol-oil trust...
...These five distilleries, or some of them at least, had been approved for management and eventual control and ownership by independents after the special Senate Committee on Rabber had exposed one peculiar situation after another peculiar situation...
...They were sitting directly before Gillette...
...My friend Gironelia-Adroher, whose skull was fractured, is in a hospital in a critical condition...
...4...
...alternative that if the fight on prices in unsuecessf ul it will set the stage perfectly for public support of labor in coming back with a renewed deep and for «rage increases...
...And the almost 26% of tbe population who last year earned less than $1.000...
...Whitman and Boyer remained silent...
...The straggle for decreased living eosts—er else increased wages—at the moment revolves about Che always dramatic figure of Lahor** Angry Man...
...Stalinists Renew Terror Drive On Socialist Refugees in Mexico [Editor's Note: The following personal letter from Victor Serge has just come into our hands...
...Individual k^\j*f^^aiF employers kept up ? I down wage rates by "\V ' ; ' seeking favorable •eerentials over, competing employers...
...This Story is so incredible, even in these days when the dollar-a-year-men direct a goodly part of the WPB machine, that sections of the picture must be revealed again: 1. The rubber story first began to smell when charges were made that great financial interests, particularly the Dutch-British-American interests, which owned the rubber plantations in the Dutch East Indies, ware determined to prevent the development of synthetic rubber which might cheapen rubber and threaten the money invested in the natural rubber plantations in the post-war period...
...The main gap in OUA figuring was its estimate of total national income and of prices.' JaWtoadl of reaching tbe expected $117 billions, national income reached only $I«6 WlMna* Instead of M9 Kitten» being tbe Batten's bill for the things it benight, prices took $744...
...This feeling has been building <up steadily for months as a result of: 1. Inequality of sacrifice in the war effort, with labor doing all the giving and Big Business doing all the toking...
...There is a new and sobering awareness in Washington of labor's responsibility for the reactionary Congress now in session...
...The order giving the regional War Iflbor Board independent power to set regional rag* rates is tending to set up again the Vitt» of North-South wage differentials which ¦Ugoed labor so long...
...aceompmshed this tear h> poam* tbe popular and easily understood proposition: And it is equally obvious that these «iu «·* - . » ¦ * . sS4^^^M^*&ie«Mb aiMiiMi ? two *>eys...
...VICTOR SERGE ?J3...
...There's a war oa aad we can't be bothered with current problems...
...G. Farben cartel of Germany story added to the smell when the secret agreements witbin that international trust were exposed...
...But Senators were not satisfied by any reform in WPB...
...They have therefore turned this letter over to The New Leader for publication...
...In the absence of Cowles, who was directly responsible for tbe job of organising OWI's domestic set-up, a number of queer characters got into OWI...
...The 6CV of the nation who earned between $6.000 and $10,00 saved altogether singst $? billions...
...An article from Victor Serge, in our April 17th issue, described the break-up by the Communists of the Ehrlich-Alter meeting.] > MEXICO CITY, April «, 1943...
...Jeffers was appointed and given complete authority over rubber production, but not over the alcohol production program...
...It seems almost certain that they are trying to learn my routine, and are spying out the lay of tbe land...
...K The measure of Lewis's ability as a gee-erat la observed here iti tbe fact th«t although labor still retains faith in Roosevelt in a bread sense, Lewis has ? si Leaded tu presenting tbe picture of Us duel with tbe FreaidMt as Roosevelt ve...
...projects were surveyed by engineers, and finally, only about a month ago, Ive projects were approved...
...They insisted that the Army sad Navy bad stated the military requirements for alcohol had been reduced and this justified their action...
...LaUbr Committee lufes Oaster of Brown ¦I''- By JONATHAH STOUT WASHINGTON...
...said Senator Guy Gillette of lows, chairman of the Senate committee...
...Only in Communist quarters has it been suggested that now would be a good time to start a dual union movement in the coal fields and take tbe mine workers away from Lewis...
...Gillette developed that Whitman and Boyer Had est gotten approval from Donald Nelson, administrator of WPB, or from Jeffers, for their decision to put the five projects "on tbe shelf...
...Last year, chemists found that butadiene could be manufactured from grain alcohol, distilled from farm products...
...Personal savings are figured to deduct another $27 billions...
...The ? Hf ' fought for a favorHsajf—flr able wage differed - 1...
...The offer, made ?, Chairman Donald Nelson to AFL Pres-illiam Green and CIO President Philip envisages a vice-chairman for each of ? labor organisations...
...Sacs s move is the only way open to Roosevelt to creek the soundness of Lewis' demand for increased wsges for his mine werkers...
...sgain...
...Brown's consistent appointment of Michigan \ ¦« points to his building of a political machine «t*te...
...And there is little doubt that nothing could please Lewie more...
...WASHINGTON, D. C.—OPA Administrator Prentiss Brown has had on his desk for over a month the facts with which to deflate the Big Business propaganda painting the horrors of inflation as an argument against labor's demands for wage increases...
...Administrator Prentiss Brown may be the tip-oft...
...Let labor wait until after the War...
...Elmer Davis would not now be having so mUch trouble...
...6. WPB appropriated $100:000 to survey the applications and projects proposed, largely by independent groups, including cooperatives...
...One might say none in Washington tops him for honesty, integrity and ability, but that might be open to double-entendres . . . so much of official Washington being what it is...
...7. In one month, the Army and Navy and WPB developed a "new situation" where these five projects were "not needed...
...Some expressed that the motive behind the •to** offer might be the idea of divide and lute...
...figured wrong last year...
...according to the ???, had no savings at all, bat went still further into debt to the extent of $400,000,000: Review and Comment on the Davies Film, 'Mission to Moscow...
...And that lies behind the joint strategy of the A FL and CIO in demanding a roll-back of prices rather than an increase in wages...
...Below the $3,000 class, savings begin to drop fast...
...While the first thought wa* that ***** is building for a senatorial comeback, nuiders^lnsUt his real objeettv» is <ft* ^jj™*" of a party machine for the Adininistra* - * * fa OWI * Jjf Gardner Cowles had stayed on the job of "«ng up the domestic branch of OWI lei Us : primary organisational phase instead of going gallivanting off to Russia with Willkie...
...It would also have the effect of cutting into the present Bsaoimity of rank-and-file labor's support of UwU...
...And, in the view of the strategists, the John L. Lewis policy of insulting on wage increases serves only to drive still further the wedge between labor aad the unorganized public...
...Two meetings were ? this week, with Executive Vice-Chairman Partei Wilson present...
...The friends to whom it is addressed felt that the best guarantee of physical safety for Serge, Gorkin, and the other anti-Stalinist socialists now in Mexico City is to make as widely known as possible die current sinister moves by the Mexican-Spanish Stalinists against these men...
...And they're the boys who are responsible for the brickbats coming Davis's ,way now...
...we ????!»« '"JtoWUgrt'1'1 t»><> which labor took more ssaaXftftrttr century to win stands in dangir 4 bring wiped out as a result of the decen-?ation of authority of the War Labor Mrs...
...It would seem the most sensible coarse for the Communists to drop this whole business, since the organised attack on the meeting was insanely on justified, and has bad rather the effect of compromising them BIT la* sinister thing is that they seem to behave in a manner that disregards all rational political considerations, either from senseless fury, or else according te directives whose hidden aims we dopt yet know...
...Another $6 billions was saved bj those who earned between $3.000 and $6,000, but it took 17% of the population in this salary class to do what 6% did in the higher salary bracket...
...Mn^SJetsttSteB has reached the .point of crisis in ito lebor relations ;. * ¦ · The AneFKin Federation of Labor ? ft»ht-ing current Admintitration policies every step of tbe way...
...April 1: We have observed in the hut few days so many suspicious goings and comings in the street outside our apartment, notably the presence of automobiles full of men, without lights, that I have gone elsewhere to sleep...
...this week, Lewis baa taken over the symbolic leadership of labor's fight in a stunning comeback that promises to make labor history...
...The result is that as ¦any different wage rates are beginning to •toesr as there are regions...
Vol. 26 • May 1943 • No. 18
