Marriages in Wartime? -A Noted Psychiatrist Says 'Yes"
Marriages in Wartime? —A Noted Psychiatrist Says 'Yes" A. A. Brill Discusses A Social Probiem By Dr. 4. 4. ••ULI. jLeARRIAGE ig an old institution which has been gradually ^???&??1 with the dawn...
...The job-freezing order issued ia tat middle of April was bad enough, as is, now gamaasj recognized, but even worse was the harsh, arbitrary ananer in which this order was put over...
...Labor can reply only through political action...
...It nan* > replaced by a more flexible yardstick that corraamOP...
...Their reversal is one of those things which has been politically promised but seems likely to be found to offer familiar "insuperable technical difficulties...
...Consequently it is assumed that there are more marriages during wars, and that for some reason or other, they are all wrong...
...There is every reason to believe that the entire anti-labor crusade is centrally organized, inspired and promoted...
...Or take Commiasioner McNutt's handling of the ana-power problem...
...I Standard of New Jersey, SmrbnoT Atlantic VjSniag I have each built pipelines across Pennsylvania^rOm the I tanker termini in Bayonne and Marchs Hodfc *¦> tw Pittsburgh and Cleveland area...
...On the basis of labor unity and political organization in the states we could go forward to a national political party that will be truly representative of the labor, liberal and progressive forces in this country...
...And I see no reason why it should not be the same during illis war...
...Hence the little producer (and most of the lease-holders in Western Pennsylvanian fields are little...
...It was also branded as "a lie" I by the...
...That perfectly good gasoline was being pumped into the ground in the very toughest area where "A" cards 1 allowed only a gallon-and-a-half a week sounded like § a Nazi rumor for a while...
...We cannot permit ourselves te b) stabbed in the back by our own fascist-minded nssetaev aries nor can we put up indefinitely with the pianissimo confusion, delay and high-handedness of the geOaWaOOt war agencies in Washington...
...For lack of storage space the excess gasoline was being dumped back in abandoned wells...
...That is how it is done in Bthan with excellent results...
...As time went on, there developed tbe modern institution of Marriage...
...W 090-Price Policy: W e need a unified program based on the etabsBeatMl of living costs through price controls vigorously eaAaon and coupled with rationing and subsidies where...
...Labor's enemies are carrying their campaign to Congress and the State Legislatures...
...But truth, even in wartime Amer-1 ica, is likely to get a hearing, particularly if enough I people are outraged...
...I Over recent years Western Pennsylvania has been I served less and less by its local gasoline panetocers...
...It is imperative that the AFL...
...nnt la ? niivoHt emotional manifestation, and that emotions do not last forever, but are very changeable, any sensible observer can see that no reform will ever reform marriage...
...Florida production has been § discouraged...
...Of course, to some extent, absenteeism in this country today is not only lower than it was in World War I, but it is probably lower than in Great Britain af this time...
...It is not just the relaxation of restrictions that urges the yoyng man in the armed forces to marry...
...especially in the states, emanates from a common source...
...A wave of reaction is sweeping the country aimed directly at the trade union movement...
...And it has lived up to its pledge, despite what the sensational scareheads in the daily press would lead the public to believe...
...We have thought that in civilization one must live and let live...
...Attempts to roll back prices have so far been feeble...
...Passing laws to put men in jail never solved great human problems," is Sokolsky's comment...
...WMC, etc J. Leaver u,fry...
...And those that I have seen from the last war, have all turned out to be successful...
...Instead, organized labor is now menaced by one of the most vicious antiunion crusades in decades...
...In New York State we have shown an example...
...1. 4 Work ob...
...They have been able to sell against the local producers by reason of their control of the outlets...
...A great philosopher said, "Marriage is like a beleaguered fortress—those who are outside are trying to get in and those who are in are trying to get out...
...Latest official reports indicate that in February of this year only 0.02% man-hours worked (2 hours out of every 10,000) were lost in strikes...
...The carefully nur- | tured myth is that oil is short in the East snd § that any and all means most now be employed to move oil east...
...Hunger drives them to steal, rob and kill...
...The only effective answer is a powerful political organization created by labor, liberal and progressive elements, that will ftght against the reactionary tide, that will fight to pre' serve and extend the fundamental achievements of the New Deal...
...When the first reports of it I were heard they were sent to the Pittsburgh Rumor I Clinic for investigation...
...At any rate, the Little Sem formula cannot remain a fetish forever...
...In these elections nothing less than the New Deal, its achievements and objectives, will be at stake...
...and the Petroleum Administrator for War I back in December...
...This was stopped when it looked as if Congress would get wind of it...
...In other words, 99.989i of the time was worked without interruption...
...they outlaw the closed shop...
...They restrict strikes and picketing...
...It is I also being used as an argument Tor the Western Penn-sylvanians to get themselves back in the midwest or District No...
...the CIO, the Railway Brotherhoods and the United Mine Workers join hands nationally and locally, in combating this growing menace to their common interests and their most precious rights...
...2. Goverameer-Moeooemeef Union Even more unsound and unworkable is coercive freezing...
...I have never seen such marriages and.if they ever take place in that fashion, I have to assume that, the girl must be foolish, and that the marriage will not be a success...
...Under ordinary conditions we do that, btrt here again there are plenty of transgressions because the natural aggressive instinct in the animal is to try to get what he craves...
...Within the framework of general ?????* stabilisation, wage adjustment can very well be Mft h> collective bargaining, arbitration and over-all contest >? the War Labor Board...
...caq, therefore, say that marriage is a legal and religious IsKmilion for the purpose of safeguarding the family unit...
...The instinct of self-preservation, like the instinct of reproduction, hid to be controlled with the advance of civilization...
...The two great Oil Pipelines which the Majors | snd Hsrold Ickes want go through the Western 1 Penngyhanian fields...
...It is a matter of record how eager organized labor has been to stimulate production and increase output...
...THERE are definite signs that much of this legislation...
...And the Golden Rule tells us to regard our neighbors, to reepectrhis rights, etc...
...In other words, they give the same excuse for their aggression that the animal has always shown...
...War is an outburst of mass *~ aggression...
...If I were writing this a few months aeo> ? would have had to say a good deal about absenteeism...
...But, through these three lines, which could materially alleviate the East Coast . shortage by pumping out Pennsylvania gasoline, have been stopped...
...Marriage like everything else, is an institution evolved by civilization, and civilization means renunciation...
...the CIO or independent groups, such as the Railway Brotherhoods and the United Mine Workers, is aroused over the Administration's present wage-price-manpower policy...
...I speak from, my own experience, and I have not seen all sueh marriages, but I have seem a great many tflat were contracted during the last War and a number of them during this War...
...When labor began protesting against such unfair sal one-sided enforcement of the stabilization program, on answer was the "hold-the-line" order of April fttk hy which even the power to adjust inequities and iiuqaalilm was taken from the War Labor Board, and altaoaah some of this power has recently been restored, the fa> damental situation remains unchanged...
...His I report, his pictures and his interviews were unequivocal...
...In Washington, the Senate, working itself up into a fury over the coal crisis, passed the Connally bill, which the House Military Affairs Committee then promptly rewrote into an outright, anti-union measure, embodying the worst features of the old Smith bill...
...Certainly all the forces of reaction in industry and politics are supporting this drive, directly or indirectly...
...Something must he one not only in self-protection but for the sake of high man* and maximum efficiency in the war effort...
...has brought out no more natural gasoline than was absolutely necessary to extract the crude oil from which their famous Pennsylvania Grade lubricating oil was made...
...But I do feel that there is an emotional factor of which this young man is not at all aWare, that perhaps drives him to marry when otherwise he might have waited...
...We- have married this Wonderful Girl, and now we feel she is not so wonderful, or we have married this Wonderful Man and we now find that he is far from it...
...In ether words, we are not satisfied with any emotional restrictions and history shows that many very thoughtful men and women -have made efforts to reform marriage...
...4 they order the registration and licensing of union officials and hold individual union members subject to fines up to $500 for allegedly illegal acts committed by the organization or its officials...
...It has something to do with it...
...We are recognized as an important political power in the state and both political parties have to reckon with the ALP in their legislative plans...
...Ultimately our view should be national...
...general picture—a savage anti-union cnawdi at the one side and unsound, inequitable, luiworsash policies on the other—is certainly discouraging te then of us in tbe labor movement who realise that ear as* job now is to support the government to win the oar and smash fascism...
...h> lated and ineffective...
...TX/E love to read such books as we love to see such movies and " plays because by doing so, we are re-living our own difficulties...
...Those opposing it believe in long engagements...
...But we still continue to crack jokes about marriage...
...realistically to actual price levels, and the Warle** Board must be restored in full, its old power te eW with inequities and inequalities...
...The revised Connally bill is so vicious and so dangerous in its implications that even such anti-union elements as the Scripps-Howard papers and George E. Sokolsky have warned against some of its features...
...Labor leaders, both AFL and CIO, have advanced carefully thought out plans to this end, but these plansnrhave generally met with a cold reception from government official and management alike...
...Its record in the war effort, industrial and civilian—is one of which we may all be proud Surely the trade unionist is justified in expecting that there should be some recognition of this fact in s chsnged sttitude on the part of management and of those in power in politics...
...And if one reads the daily press, he finds a great deal about the ¦transgressions of the marriage laws and the punishments meted out those perpetrating it...
...set-???, that labor haa had no remains representation in policy making or administration, "naturally labor resents having drastic, sweeping erects shoved down its throat withoat even a chance te make its voice heard...
...Ae soon aa primitive S'W began to live in organized society, probably a clan, it was nd that sex must be curtailed...
...The American Labor Party has united significant sections of organized labor, both AFL and CIO, within its ranks, side by side with large groups of liberal snd progressive citizens...
...Under such conditions, widespmsi unrest and dissatisfaction are inevitable...
...The first and most essential requirement is unity within the ranks of labor...
...Tbe notorious Christian American Association, a Klan like group, is said to be behind it...
...I never believed in them even during peacetime...
...By and large, it may he said of the manpower and...
...urgent matters of wages and working conditions am sometimes permitted to drag on for months withest action, perhaps in the end to be thrown out wholes* because of some change of regulations, as when 10?· out of 17,000 cases were peremptorily thrown out at the issuance of the "hold-the-line" order...
...teat once the most democratic and most effeeeOS SF ? roach in handling problems of labor, wages, prises eye msnpuwer...
...Labor everywhere can do the same or even better...
...And I have no doubt at all that that factor exists also besides the other factors that the boy knows the girl, wanted to marry her before, and now fearing that some other boy might take her away from him in his absence, and his anxious desire to reproduce himself, causes him to marry her as soon as possible...
...v...
...Today this is unnecessary...
...The masses of workers, particularly in the war industries, are angry, restless, discontented...
...Rickenbacker's demagogic misrepresentations...
...Usually the hero is a perfect male and the heroine is a most adocabiy perfect female, and the author puts all kinds of frustrations and difficulties in their way'until finally, perhaps after 1,000 pages, they fall into each others' arms and live happily ever after...
...The 1944 elections are fast approaching...
...movsmp^g at stake...
...These bills are drastic beyond measure...
...THI...
...Labor is vitally concerned with winning the war...
...Making awanb retroactive is obviously not enough to offset the da way done by interminable delays...
...That is why they are trying to inflame public opinion and incite the soldiers against organized labor...
...As long as labor remains divided against itself its enemies will have an easy time...
...It has been shown that whenever there were any wars or revolutions, and they go together, the aggression that was let loose also affected sexual aggression...
...Wages are fmsm but living costs remain high and keep moving up...
...Perhaps most exasperating to the great em d workers is the incredible dilatoriness of the War Lab* Board and other government agencies/ Cases invotvae...
...BvJOW what is its relation to war...
...But the development of Administrative policy in the past few months has given rise to a good deal of perplexity and confusion in labor's ranks- It is not too much to say that every section of the labor movement, every responsible leader of the AFL...
...Labor has always been ready to make every sacrifice for victory...
...The key to the whole problem here, es m other aspect of the industrial war effort, is joint Pa ernment-management-union cooperation Such...
...Labor must be made a full pertnor ? Ijf!, war effort, with an equal voice as well as ??·?» obligations ???} equal responsibilities...
...The reactionaries have their eyes on the poet-war period...
...They want to deprive labor of its only weapon of self-defense—its unions...
...But Secretary Ickes and his Oil Company associates 1 show a singleness of purpose in their diagnosis of I what is tbe proper cure for the petroleum desperation of the East...
...We cannot sit by and let things get worse...
...In the last election, despite the general reactionary trend, we were able to poll over 400.000 Tote...
...It is a known fact that when there is a threat to life there is an increased desire to reproduce oneself...
...You might say they just want sex, and knowing that they may be killed,- they don't care what is going to happen . Again I would repeat, that those I have seen were not of that type...
...Those who do not say that and who do not live up to their contracts are usually a mal-adjusted type who will try over and over again and in the end they have neither e faithful wife nor children to look up to them...
...2 ration area, so that they may nee four instead of V/2 gallons a week...
...In more than 25 states, bills to curb unions hsve been introduced into the legislature, and ineight, at the time of writing, they have become law...
...Labor resents being tracts...
...Streams of tank cars have began to i ramble eastward on the rails...
...They fostered that condition of desperation, by permitting the three trans Pen iamb siiisn lines to pump in the wrong direction...
...In other words the Majors, | who have sold themselves and the country on the 1 idea that Western Pennsylvania should be served 1 by petroleum which flowed West from the tankers I of the East, are now selling the idea that Oil Most § Flow East...
...The Dumped Gas Scandal Ickes and the Oil Crisis By DAVID A. MUNRO I PITTSBURGH—The program of Petroleum Adminis-I » trator Harold LeClair Ickes and his business as-1 sociates—"pipelines at all costs" for the major oil I companies—has achieved its crowning success in Western Pennsylvania, where the little producers have been : forced to pump nearly all the gasoline they produce : back into the ground...
...A few days after Pearl Harbor, organized labor voluntarily surrendered for the duration its most precious right—the right to strike...
...Seek as attitude is hardly calculated to raise morale er ceanint national unity...
...Labor anoojg* grren adequate- representation on all government ?????» concerned with the war effort, such as WPB...
...Organized labor must act promptly not only in its own interests but in the interests of the entire nation, in the interests of the national war effort, in the interests of victory...
...It showed that the producers of Pennsylvania's famous lubricating oil were now unable to sell any hot a small fraction of* the gasoline that they were forced te produce in order to get the oil oat...
...Three weeks after first publication of the stories detailing the deliberate wastage of gasoline, the Post-Gazetto found the PAW shipping tank-ear loads of Western Pennsylvania gasoline out of Pittsburgh westward, to Detroit for consumption in Canada...
...It is our duty to act and act at once...
...Prices have been going up without interruption so that living costs are conservatively at least M% asttj January, 19*1...
...As a rule, they depict the difficulties that two human beings have in entering into the mating functions...
...They want to make sure right now that labor will be helpless and impotent when the war is over...
...But this program has not been carried out Profits have risen sky-high...
...And yet this repressive measure now hangs ominously over the head of every single labor organization of this country...
...This figure is not only an all-time low but it is markedly under the previous all-time low, 0.06% for 1942...
...McNutt's so-calhf labor advisors were not even consulted on regoatuoa of such far-reaching consequences...
...And its actions have confirmed its words...
...if it had to be coerced into doing it* duty...
...Against this background and upon this soil the major oil companies are conducting one of their greatest high-pressure campaigns...
...The Post-Gazette beginning last month ran it all on the front pages...
...The Need For a New Gov't Labor Policy By charles S.ZIMMERMAN THE labor situation today is darker and more threaten-* ing than it has been for years...
...Jr But while we press for a sound and workable tff^ «nent policy, we most not lose sight of our main 1** tnienapment—and that is to bea...
...It is surely unnecessary in these columns to rehearse labor's war record...
...I see no reason why such couples should not marry...
...The wave of anti-union legislation is the responsibility of the reactionaries in both parties, Republican and Democratic alike...
...The majority of men will say that when they talk about it, and they ere perfectly right...
...4. Independent PolWeof Organisation But we must recognize that the problem is basically political...
...It mas meet and defeat the anti-union crusade and it most una* sufficient pressure upon the Administration te gat * to make a drastic revision of its wage-price-maapseor policies...
...mitted no more than a 15% rise above wage levels sj that date...
...Everytime a war starts, those entering into \t will always claim that they need more space, Lebensraum, because they have not enough raw materials, meaning thereby food, etc...
...Any sensible young woman who is courted by a young man for a few months knows or should know what is going on and know her own mind about it...
...What I have in mind about war marriages, are marriages that are contracted by boys and girls who have known e|bch other a^nd who thought of marrying before, but the boy having been called into the armed forces now wishes to marry before leaving...
...From the very beginning, organized labor supported the President's seven-point program of economic stabilization—the program oi controlling prices, regulating wages, limiting salaries, restricting profits and draining off excess purchasing power through equitable taxation...
...tbe re*t-UsW»T ¦¦wnnwnt against labor as expressed in the flood ef «w onion legislation in the states and in Washimr»m^"J •ary existence of an effective trade ur.ior...
...I consider them like chronic -ulcers or chronic diseases...
...Consequently rules and regulations, probably;called taboo*, were formed for the regulation of onr rnating'instincts...
...Yet the Administration's rigid wees, freezing policy, based on the Little Steel formula, pes...
...The fuel is a "natural gasoline" which is ordinarily blended with higher octane gasoline for motor car consumption, but which may also be used "straight...
...Estimates of the gasoline wasted in Western Pennsylvania are in terms of "hundreds of thousands of gallons a week" by the Post-Gazette...
...The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette sent a reporter out I into the oil producing region to investigate...
...They make virtoaHy impossible the normal functioning of the labor movement...
...I I ?? ALLY the question of fee excess gas is used as a political issue to embarrass Harold Ickes...
...All of the forces that are trying to destroy the trade unions are also hostile to the New Deal, and labor has hitherto looked to President Roosevelt with confidence for understanding and fair treatment...
...Rigid wage-freezing is both unnecessary and tmwefkse* and may become intolerable if prices are pel mittel1 * go on rising...
...The administration's wage, price and manpower policies have broken down...
...But the sensible man and woman of civilization counters that by saying, "well, she is a nice girl, she is a good wife, she is a good mother and I am sure I could not have done any better...
...There is nothing wrong about it and as far as my experience goes, such marriages have been at least as successful os those that are contracted during calm and peace...
...Organized labor must act on many fronts...
...Bot the implications of the fight in Western Pennsylvania go far beyond the concern of rationing...
...Those who talk about war marriages assume that boy in uniform meets girl and they immediately get ¦ married...
...marriage'can be readily comprehensible...
...Recent impartial surveys have given the lie to Capt...
...jLeARRIAGE ig an old institution which has been gradually ^???&??1 with the dawn of civilization...
...As marriage is a restriction of the greatest emotional outlet that man has, namely, the sexual instinct, there have always been resistances against it.' And wherever you go, whether it is in musical comedies or at social gatherings, you will hear jokes about marriage...
...We have done something...
...Considering that marriage ?» i"» ? f; r...
...The same situation prevails if you read novels, or go to a movie or watch a play on the legitimate stage...
...Respohsible labor leaders, among them the most loyal supporters of the New Deal, have made no secret of their dissatisfaction with the way things are going...
...Tankers hsve disappeared on the ran from the Gulf Coast...
...Labor has repeatedly stressed that it is ready to do anything and bear any sacrifice that may be needed for victory...
...And most of it is not wilful work-shirking at all but is due to conditions beyond the control of labor, i. ?., inadequate transportation, bad housing, etc...
...It is any wonder that organized labor is restless and disturbed...
...We get all kinds of luxuries through civilization, but we are also required to give up some of our primitive instincts, at least to control them...
...A situation such as this, grave enough at best, is doubly serious at this crucial moment of the war...
...During ordinary times aggression is controlled by religion, by ethics, but we still need .many policemen to watch us...
...Unless we begin organizing now for effective action next year, all may be lost...
...Joint committees should be* set up in every state and in every community to defend the labor movement against attack and to bring labor's case to the people...
...Congress has killed the ceiling on sakrsa...
...As family units make up the clan, the nation and the race, the importance of...
...It is sorely time for responsible leeda» »labor to wake up and take notice...
Vol. 26 • May 1943 • No. 22
