The Farce of 'Austin-Wadsworth'-The Case Against Labor Draft
EUBANKS, SAM B.
The Farce of 'Austin-Wadsworth'—The Case Against Labor Draft By SAM B. EUBANKS Executive Vice-President, American Newspaper Guild, CIO; Chairman, Free Labor Committee, Worker* Defense League THE...
...It provides in the most perfunctory manner for the feeding, housing and working conditions of such labor conscripts...
...If we were to follow Attorney General Biddies recent advice the Austin-Wadsworth labor conscription bill would have to limit conscription to "whites" only...
...Yet, is it true that this could not have been avoided...
...2—Correct conditions in the community that make it impossible for labor ta be efficient by providing proper housing, transportation, child care centers, raiiticet service, etc...
...In that way it has vindicated itself...
...And it is this developa est that underlies the revision of the attitude toward the Soviet dictatorship taking place ia certain business and intellectual circles...
...To this question a negative answer is given by Laaki and by implication by many other authors...
...The bulletin then details the reasons for fallure to realise on this enormous labor potenial under such headings as Inefficient Managerial Organization...
...The figures1 of Borisov snd Grinevetsky now sound like fairy tales...
...Lack Of Adequate Medical, Sanitary or Safety 'Programs ; Lack of Sustained Cooperation with Representatives of Employed Workers,- Mental Fatigue due to Noise, Confusion, Monotony, aad Boredom on the Job...
...i Moat significant in this connection is the recently published study of the industrial joletkms section of the Department of Economies st Princeton University, te a forty-eight page pamphlet this impartial agency discusses "max imam utilization of employed man-power " It finds: The most valuable single source of unused manpower in America today Bee within the labor force already employed in war indos tries...
...Yet, it should not be overlooked that a democratic development of Russia's revolution would have brought about a quite different situation in Europe and over the world...
...h leaves the choice ef workers to be transferred with the local draft boards...
...organization...
...It is not surprising that the answer wss overwhelmingly affirmative...
...In the words of the Mayor of Free port...
...The New York rimes, for instance, reports the...
...The opponents of the Austin Wadsworth Bill of course, believe such tesrlslstinn emend But this much is clear—everything which be a betrayal of our faith m the democracy for which we are fighting...
...War Manpower Commission as "worried about the number of women who are leaving industry...
...In other words, the Borisov committee planned to build annually in the first five years railroads of greater mileage than that of the Trans-Siberian line, and in the following five years half of this...
...i-^The Gallup 'poll determines to its satisfaction and that of the editors it serves . that a. labor draft for war industries is ¦ favored by 7S% of the public 4—The opinion-sounders in Washing-ton fbsd sentiment among Congressmen for early action on the Austin-Wadsworth bill, now in the hands of House and-Senate Gommittees on Military Affairs...
...Jjjfre is less reason to,question such a possi*Uity now that the granting of considerable 2*jh* by the U.S.A...
...Anxiety because of Accident and Health, Hasards on the Job...
...The peasants' economy would have .¦ndergone a rapid improvement, their cooperative organizations would have flourished, the .^amtry's inner market would have expanded , immensely and the huge masses of the peasantry would have proved eager to participate in country's social activities and cultural life...
...elaborated a detailed plan in this field...
...During the first year of the decade, up to 3.000 versts (about 2,000 miles) should be build annually, and later 8.000 versts (about 5,300 miles...
...It is to be merttioned particularly that he also repeatedly and persistently pointed to the bright prospects of the Kuznetsk Basin...
...4—Coordinate government age noes adsasp authorities affect labor mobilisation, the War Manpower Commission, War Production Board...
...He emphasized the necessity of a large-scale development of the power supply system, of making" wide use of water-power and of local fuel, resources, and a wide technical reconstruction of the industry, of moving industry to the East, etc...
...44Reflections on the Revolution of Our Time...
...During the whole first year of the war, with tremendous consumption of military equipment —the Red Army fought almost exclusively with its own weapons...
...For the second time in s week, qeietly...
...These boards, aetoriomtly lacking ia labor representation...
...j ' " levltes OitcHmieofios Afoimtt Mimoritiet IT is preposterous to presume that worker* ''drafted into these jobs under a eempechery service act would be any better able te do the necessary, work under the same kind ef management conditions and the same g otc meats* fasdifference to their welfare...
...If the Sow of volunteer labor into these centers has slowed down despite the various preaeaPSs employed by the.War Manpower Commission, it is entirely understandable...
...Bet sak the seme individuals...
...5—Let the appropriate government agoasy keep the public informed on emergencies due to labor shortages snd provide the facilities to mobilize volunteer labor as .wa* dona for the New York freight yard, the Mew Jersey tomato cannoriea aad in s * score of other instances...
...Bat, of coarse, they don't know about the Kremlin Gremlin...
...Even before the revolution, there was already f reneral realization of the pressing need of •training every effort in perfecting the transportation system...
...The item appeared as "CIO Communis t Councils'"' A short while ago Barry Bridges, wellknown fellow-traveler ia West Coast labor, was announced as "Bridges, the famous Communist trade-unionist " It took s front-page editorial ia the Boat issae to explain that typographical errors cease as they mast to sU linotypes, to the "Daily Worker" too...
...The iawe ia here—and the Aiimiijia^rajion will have to...
...They are leaving becaase ef impossible housing conditions, lack of transportation facilities, lack of phut com m ma alios, anhssKhfnl working conditions and inadequate medical care...
...2—The New York Herald-Tribune snd the New York Times declare editorially in favor of a national service act...
...Evea s man of such extensive knowledge as Harold Laaki has succumbed to this argument, though he is fully aware of the despotic character of the Soviet dictatorship Bis.argument runs thus: The urgent need ef safeguarding the country against assault from without made it necessary to develop its industry with the utmost speed...
...Ia a front-page story shout Yugoslsv I iaaarrectica the "Daily Worker" referred 1 to "General Draja Milhaitevtteh's patriot 1 guerrillas...
...To realise the rapid strides of Russian industry in the past 25 years4, it need only be compared with the tragic state of the Russian army's supply in 1915-1916...
...v.>All the Austin-Wadsworth Bill proposes 1a te delegate authority to the selective senates system for drafting many thousands as^^sniaera into over-crowded war production censers...
...At an aircraft factory during two months when 4,000 women were hired 3,000 quit...
...Excessive Turnover...
...This was by no means a Bolshevist plan...
...The point at issue is whether the scale of the 1930's eould not actually have been achieved within the framework of democracy...
...For these major factors ia the condition ing of labor for aa all-out production program the AastinWsdswcrth Bill advocates no remedies...
...Yet, it was by no means the strengthening of the dictatorial regime upon which he predicated his plans...
...that under a democratic regime the process of industrialization would have taken a quite different course...
...Workers recruited for war plants are not tearing their jobs becaase they are unpatriotic or aa willing to work or ia most cases bees use they are seeking other jobs st higher pay...
...A free Peasantry tea" Foreign Capital A DEMOCRATIC course for the Russian revo" lution would have meant a harmonious ecpn•art with a free peasantry as its bedrock (let us remember the elections of the Constituent Assembly...
...The character of the Austin-Wadsworth bill should arouse instant opposition from every labor anrf libera...
...It should also .be noted that in his book Grinevetsk—who was not an economist but an engineer—posed and shed light on quite a few industrialization" problems, on problems which even ten years or more after his death were but partly solved...
...is apparently acknowl•ftejl as a prerequisite to rapid recovery and •**P*ji»ion of the Soviet Union's economy after %*ar...
...The nightmare of Europe's f ascistification probably would have been avoided or, at any rate, it would not have reached its present gruesome stage...
...Consequently, there would have arisen no need for the hypertrophy of the war industry which took place in the Soviet Union in the last decade...
...That, in affect, is what the GpJlup poll question asked...
...National spokesmen for organized labor have toocJemned the act in principle...
...It will be no exaggeration to assert that up to 1950 the network of railroads in European and Asiatic Russia will have to be augmented by at least 250,000—300,000 versts (167,000—200,000 miles...
...knif Greet Britain fills in the remaining gap...
...The -quit rate at some plants currently has almost equalled the hiring-in rate...
...One thing, however, can be asserted confidently, viz...
...But a strong democratic republic prospering •*ooomieally and culturally could have ensured tb* influx of ample funds from abroad on conditions which would have proved beneficial to flk country's quick economic development...
...It provides for the suspension of collective bargaining contracts insofar as they may provide for union shops or dosed shops...
...Speedy development of industry and means ['.Communication and roads and railroads was IJ#e than a possibility...
...For many years, Communist ¦•ftors used a demagogic bogy trying to Wgnteri the people with the assertion that a recourse to credits from abroad would "bring *¦* country into bondage of the foreign finance capital...
...Inadequate Training...
...This growth has proved a surprise to a great many persona...
...They have gone bsA to their homes snd they hsve advised their Winds snd relatives to stay sway from the aseamdes despite the lure ef relatively high wages...
...j Local draft board members cannot have the technical knowledge which selection of ¦ |H bat i for complex mass production industries luTimfaa Granted there is insufficient labor available in some war plants to attain pisihstllim geote, these are the things to be done: 1—Compel war contractors to utilise efficiently the labor force already at their' disposal...
...Faulty Selection and Placement...
...A shipyard hired 800 women in two months while This procession of workers out of war plants 350 loft the payroll in the same period, will not be cured, by a compulsory service law...
...From 1881 until 1980, more than 63.000 miles of new railroads were buiit in the U.S.A., whereas the total mileage of the Soviet Union's railroads (in the country's boundaries existing ia 1939) at the moment of Hitler's assault was less than 55,000 miles, snd even with the inclusion of the territories which were annexed since 1939, less than S5,0PS miles...
...The Austin Wadsworth Bill sponsors carefully avoid the hateful subject of the unused labor pool composed of citizens who arc victims of racial discrimination...
...Let us point to one instance ?hieh proves this...
...The ceahsss aim were attracted to the new war plants found conditions such as are suggested in the Princeton report...
...If we picture the course Russia's revolution would have taken if it had followed democrtic lines, we may make bold to Question this alleged inevitability...
...Weald yea leave year family and travel to a strange city, pay- exorbitant rent ia a dirty, overcrowded rooming house, spend two or three hoars a day in aa overcrowded has to aad from work, be ill-nourished on highpriced food, aad take a lob ha a plant where management Inefficiency makes it apparent that there already is a surplus of labor for the ass eat of work being dene...
...To be sure, it would have required huge funds '*"J*ilitaI Investment...
...This the country would i'sve lacked...
...Indeed, it is difficult to imagine that s democratic regime would for more than a decade have concentrated all the country's resources on the development of war industry, recklessly reducing for the sake of this task the production of vitally needed every-day consumers goods...
...lecturer, New School for Social Research fi the present war] the Soviet Union has emerged as an industrialised country with highly developed war industry...
...Without the influx of foreign capital therefore the rapid development of industry and 5*5** of communication would have perhaps MvVed impossible...
...Administration support for the legislation they sponsor would place Austin and Wadsworth in fine with Roosevelt policy on Labor legieMgimn for the first tune...
...It calls for registration of all men between the ages of 18 and 65 and all women between the ages of 18 and 50...
...8—Recruit from the labor reserve that is available among citizens who are victims ef racial prejudice...
...4' Even « the present Congreaa there are few members whose anti-Labor record is as consistent as that of either Senator Warren Austin (Vt) or Rewwt*etrtative 'Jjkm* Wadsworth (N...
...r The bill affects the freedom of every able-bodied man and woman in the nation who is not hi military service...
...56-57.] Is this argument correct ? Would it actually have been impossible for Russia .to develop her industries with accelerated tempo under a democratic regime ? We shall not dwell here upon the great progress of Russian industry in the 1890's sad, later, from 1908 until World War I. Let us regard this only as a start for the large-scale development of the future...
...If government snd industry in cooperation with organised labor will direct their attention to remedying these fundamental faoita much pt the manpower problem will disappear...
...0ne of the fundamental prerequisites to a 2**«lopment of the country's economy on a high Jf**l would have been the wide extension of jp country's network of lines of communicaAs long as it remained inadequate, it '"'Id have been extremely difficult to overWm« the primitive conditions of the backward ¦"•ant economy and to develop the country's Broductive forces...
...In his book, Grinevetsky quite openly envisaged Russia's development into a peasant democracy...
...Taking into account the extremely' difficult situation existing at that time, Grenevetsky "limited" the program of railroad construction for the first decade to 60,000 'vereoj''*(abbut 40,000 miles...
...Physiological Impairment due to Chronic Ailments, Bad mating Arrangements, or Other Bad Physical Conditions on the •Job...
...unobserved, the little red midget pulled s widget on the gadget ia the Communist printing plant, aad the "Daily Worker" I editors had some tall explaining to do...
...Ineffective Supervision...
...According to it 35,601 versts (about 23,700 miles) were to be built in the first five years after the end of the war and 17,565 versts (about 11.700 miles) in the next five years, i. e. about 35,000 miles of new railroads in ten years...
...The /supply from the U.S.A...
...In order to grasp the significance of these figures, one should remember that the whole mileage of the TransSiberian railroad, from Chelyabinsk to Vladivostok, is 4,635 miles...
...Yet that is a much fairer question and the answers already- are available in surveys less publicised than that conducted by the Gallup poll...
...The very next day the editors 1 took pains to point oat that "Geo...
...The best informed observers agree that there is s tremendous labor potential still unused within industry's 'own backyard.' This labor potential may well exceed the equivalent of five million man years, not of the services of new, green labor, but of the services of man and women who are already a part of the eaperieneed personnel of industry...
...This is the stage setting for action: 1—-The War Manpower Commission rives publicity to the necessity for transfer of 2.500.000 workers to essential industries...
...As early as 1916, a committee of the Ministry of Communications, headed by the Assistant Minister Borisov...
...La., "Of equal importance with winning the war ia the necessity for keeping Negroes oat of skilled jobs...
...Insufficient Sleep amj Belaxation due to Bad Housing Conditions...
...A Bold Flan tor Development IN the spring of 1918, when Russia's wrecked * economy was already nearing bottom, Professor V. I. Grinevetsky in his well-known book "The Post-war Prospects of .Russia's Industry'' advanced a much bolder plan for the construction of railroads...
...On the contrary, he visualized the development of a full-fledged democracy in Russia...
...Can ase this opportunity to scatter T^Httrrl trade unionist* throughout the country Sewthern draft boards, can bead Negroes more irmly to underpaid jobs...
...t.* V The attitude towards labor expressed in such messares as the leslle WssWccift" SHI is typical of the totalitarianism agahast which the United Nations are aaoMBShmf...
...Lack of Recreational Arrangements...
...The Austin-Wadsworth Bill ia rites diecrimiaatioa sgaiact ¦iaciitUa...
...It empowers the President through the agencies of Selective Service and the War Manpower Commission to send any number of such registered eligibles to work for private employers in any occupation he deems essential in any part of the country...
...eplempea#*i The Development of Soviet Russia - What a Democracy Could Have Done By SOLOMON M. SCHWARZ Noted Russian economist...
...fko A *"v* to en*ct * L*bor Ccwription measure will provide a crucial test for liberal forces in the political arena...
...Harold J. Lathi...
...If not now," — he wrote, — "then two or three decades hence, the elimination of the backward primitive economic leftover,- the increase in output end exports, as weV as of the population will make it mandatory to bring the density of our European network at least up to that of the present one in Germany and England, Le., to a density five times greater than that of 1910, A more formidable task will have to be tackled in the Southern regions of Siberia, in the Steppe Region and in Turkestan...
...The natural response wouM be "Is that necessary...
...Under the circumstances, this aim could only be achieved by a sharp lowering of the living standards for .the working masses...
...No mere orders from Moscow, yea know . . . aad after all a gremlin simply has te lad things to da...
...Mik- I hailovitch is hot s patriot', he is s I traitor' , . ." Earlier the "Dsily Worker" carried a story shout the new consumers' parleys now being held by the CIO Community Councils, long notorious ss party-Mac eat" its...
...At the time of the Soviet Union's involvement in the war, the total mileage of its railroads (exclusive' of the about 10.000 miles in the newly annexed territories) was less than the mileage of new-built railroads in the USA in the one decade of its moat intensive railroad construction...
...This could be achieved by the construction of 8,000—10,000 versts (about 5,300—6,700 miles) annually...
...It is argued that the dictatorship created the industry snd, by so doing, successfully prepared the nation to meet Hitler's onslaught...
...Yoa see., ever since the Comintern has been cteselvad, he's been s little mixed-sp...
...Such a policy would have been impossible under a democratic regime...
...The people would never have accepted it Therefore, a dictatorship was necessary in order to accomplish the task on hand...
...TW» would have created an atmosphere highly favorable for a large-scale development of the country's industry and means of communication...
...woman, "Would you work in a war plant - if needed ?" aad the answer will be "yes...
...Various liberal groups have indicated their opposition...
...V: , the act seeks by compaislao can be achieved , by voluntary rupiTsllsa The MSB's pi a i laians koto ma* enssjtf , 1 which eamta...
...Actually, the idea that Russis's rspid industrialization would have proved impossible without a dictatorial rule is only one of the many Communist fallacies to which even serious and clear-minded people frequently fall prey through a kind of mental inertia...
...That Kremlin Gremlin Upsets The Daily Worker •TTHAT Kremlin Gremlin is on the loose again bat this time is doing some broken-field running toward the wrong goalposts...
...His sharp criticism was directed not only against the economic and social policies of the Provisional Government of the prerBolshevist democratic era of the Russian revolution...
...Ask any American man or...
...Given the opportunity for voluntary cooperation with management the geversamnat te create the eonditioa under which human beings can work efficiently free Antericaa labor will prod ace whatever is required for - a war ia its defense...
...The basil...
...argument is that during the process of industrialization the standard of living of Russia's toiling masses had to be lowered sharply...
...The need for it was **Wy acknowledged and adequate plans were ¦heady made...
...From 1917 until 1940 the whole increase in the mileage of thje Soviet Union's railroads (within the boundaries existing in 1939) was only about 12,000 miles...
...Even after two years of war, the bulk of war production— probably 75-80 per cent—is turned out within 'meeountry itself...
...Chairman, Free Labor Committee, Worker* Defense League THE atmosphere of "public preasure" for a National Service Act (Labor Cc*tscriptx»)f and the reconvening of Congress has put th* dormant Austin-Wadsworth bill at the top of theAmerican^ home-front agenda...
...But there is larking a. general understanding of the anb-democratrc nature of soy such proposal, and there exists a general misunderstanding of the deficiencies of such a proposed remedy for the ills of the war production machine...
...ir»k*a ******* M«ai tjb* wnkm «f its reactionary friend* and those of its liberal friends...
Vol. 26 • September 1943 • No. 39
