The Turn of Events-A Review of Global Fronts
The Turn of Events-A Review of Global Fronts The World Scene With the EHagian armies continuing to make big gains west of the Dnieper in the South Ukraine, reaching as far as Krivoi Rog, there is...
...The original effectiveness of Russian criticisms of the capitalist world, derived from the fact that they were based upon high moral considerations...
...ana "lat other .m-usures, such as price ceilings for > <4 and <rlulh...
...Trode-Uaioa Conference Asks Sf rone Ft PC...
...The sentence of guilty in the Levy case has bant widely attributed to his stand on Negro sfecrimination and his record as s union asm...
...of the Presbyterian Labor Tempi*, sod Rabbi Sidney Goldstein were also among tat supporters...
...The Wall Street Journal of October 20 reported, for example, that the United States plans to set up a "monopoly" in the foreign communications field...
...The same paper plainly states that "the most outstanding factor has been the lack of foresight by India's own civil governments, central and provincial," and adds that "the responsibility for the breakdown inescapably rests in the last resort upon the authority of Britain, and its immediate representatives bare...
...1 The same dispatch mentions that whan Mr J Amery said "there is real cause tor anxiety"] he called forth the caustic comment of a fellow countryman "and real ground for protest, top...
...Nor, we imagine, could the British Government pat up a very strong case for refusing to transfer a proportion of its very productive stock interest in A agio-teaman to the Uaated States in part sattiarnant of it* debts...
...For some time after the shortage was an established fact...
...the Government has a minority share in the stock and ban th* right to nominate the chairman and one drreetot of a board of eight...
...Except for a few .labor papers, however, the trade unions have kept quiet, for politely political reasons...
...Indian wheat continued to be exported to the armies in Persia and the Middle East...
...Such major actions in the sphere of pokey, however, are merely symptomatic of a gaaarai attitude...
...It will be in teres ting to so* what conditions they are, and to what anient Italy will be forced to comply...
...One reporter writes of the "haggard faces and dessicated bodies of Indian famine victims wandering aim-( lessly through the streets or lying helpless on the sidewalks of Calcutta and other cities," At every stop, passenger trains are besieged by hungry peasants crying for food...
...Simultaneous with these losses of food was the appearance in India of more than 500,000 evacuees from Burma, and a large influx of troops...
...largely Indian) were responsible for feeding] the people did not go down well with the...
...Does he intend to back up Britain and the United States in the thorny task of subduing Japan, or will he, once the Third Reich is subdued, allow England and the United States to handle Japan alone...
...But this internal unity now shows strong signs of disintegrating, and the reasons are not hard to find...
...All signs point to a willingness on the part of the British and American governments to lean oyer backward in acceding to Russian request*, unquestionably out of fear that Russia would again, in a huff at being rejected, effect an agreement with the Third Reich as she has an agreement with Japan...
...There is no tremendous groundswell...
...other hundreds died by the roadside on their way to Calcutta...
...One other straw in the wind is the current situation ii...
...The latest speaker on behalf of such a moratorium is former Ambassador Joseph E. Davies, author of Miation to Moscow...
...After the sudden attack on Pearl Harbor, this country was united as- it has not been united for a long time...
...A "Fair Racial Practice* Act" was are* posed by A. Philip Randolph...
...In Bengal itself, the Governor constantly^ interfered with his Ministry in the handling of the situation, leading eventually to the enforced resignation of the Prime Minister...
...Deputy Solid Fuels Administrator for War...
...The Administration, however, has dismally failed to nuke adequate provisions for workers in the important war production areas, many of them new mushroom communities, and in so failing has looted the well-known fact that the production front in asasbci wag is jaat aa imgnrtant as the tring Hue...
...On the military side, more than one paper, Indian and British, has called attention to the dangers attendant upon thousands of persons dying of starvation in a province "which is the operational base of a large army...
...Since the very beginning of the war, it should be noted, the tendency in Britain has been for liberals to question and prod the government, whenever it seemed necessary, with the reaaK that the British government, heeding many ef the criticisms, has made enormous progress in unifying the country behind the war...
...Laonnet Hosie...
...HOW IT BEGAN...
...are dying- by the thousand...
...Lines fire and six blocks long wait patiently for bowls of thin, watery gruel from a free kitchen...
...Lord Wool ton...
...Governor of the Vatican, hod conferred in London and here with important groups...
...Dumnsfcy, Randolph and other speakers pointed out, as an instrument of post-war reconstruction and for fulfillment of American ideals of riseni way in social, political and economic life...
...If this power continues to show a capacity for carrying on a successful duel for positions with the Wehrmacht, it will have to be given greater consideration than it is even now being given, unless Premier Stalin should confine his demands to modest limits, something which no one who has studied his career would believe him capable of doing...
...The Communists have shown a hard-headed desire to end all mutual criticism by their endorsement of such a much-criticized figure as Mayor Frank Hague of Jersey City, vicechairman of the Democratic National Committee, and they naturally expect British and Americans to do likewise...
...ar RFC subsidiary creates' for the development of foreign oil fields, is hanriling negotiations with the oil companies One plan is for government participation in a new joint company through purchase of comma* ' stock...
...In the first week of October 527 persons died in Calcutta hospitals from starvation or its attendant diseases, and many more in private homes and on the streets...
...Overt labor troubles do not, however, tell the whole story of disunity within the United States under the misapplied coercive measures of the government toward labor...
...The decisions of a War Labor Board have, in effect, expropriated this stock in trade...
...The minora and the loggers are simply not going to stick to their dirty and back-breaking work unless they get a decent wage...
...Thus a combination of acts of God...
...Preliminary discussions are under way in the State Department and the FCC...
...Stalin's Military Power Crucial to in understanding of the present international situation has been the revelation of Russian military power...
...And the Wall Street Journal reported last week: "The United States Government is considering financing a large scale development ef petroleum properties in the Middle East" In concrete terms the Government would pat up 125 million dollar to help exploit TexatStandard 'Oil properties...
...One dispatch describes the "walking skeletons covered with sores...
...The London Timet, from which the last words were quoted, adds that this "humanitarian considerations apart, must give the greatest concern to the Government and military authorities," RELIEF MEASURES...
...But that Buesia is not alone in pursuing nationalist aims is illustrated very clearly in the ambiguous Senate Foreign Relations Committee resolution on post-war cooperation, which has been forthrightly attacked by a minority favoring a clear-cut resolution...
...The chief stock in trade, of a bona Ada labor union is the maintenance and improvement of conditions of work...
...Treasury representative...
...The Secretary of State for India was careful to point out that the ministry in Bengal was composed • if Indians...
...Every British citizen is shamed and sullied when his Indian fellow subjects die of starvation...
...Finally the Food Grains Committee of the Government of India has (in the middle of September) submitted a report, and put forth a plan designed to bring "some degree of remedy," if it can get 11 provinces and a score or more of big States to agree...
...RATHEB LATE...
...In the United State*, however, the tendency of liberals has been to defend every step of the government, with the consequence that the stage is now set for the squelching of liberal criticism behind calls for "unity" all around...
...When Burma was conquered by Japan, India lost the large imports of rice which are absolutely essential to her...
...CONDITIONS GRUESOME...
...Iran...
...2. The National War Labor Board rejected the September wage agreement between the Illinois Coal Operators Association and the United Mine Workers of America which called for pay of (8.50 per day and ordered a daily wage of S8.12V2, bnt provided for payments in overtime wages that would bring weekly earnings $10 above the level indicated in the September agreement...
...Giraud and Badoglio...
...These Commissions with Industry and government representatives are planning areas of investment in Mexico, Bolivia and many South American countries...
...And shortage of shipping made it difficult to get food from outside the country...
...the passage of the SmithConnally Bill in the United States and the British policy in India that has eventuated in the horrible Bengal famine—an event that is roundly condemned in all the British liberal, labor aad reform journals of aay standing and is even sharply criticized by the conservative Timet of London...
...English and American criticisms of Russia during the first two years of the present war had an effectiveness that they have lost as a result of official policies of "practical expediency" in dealings with Franco, Darlan...
...and elected a committee te work also for a permanent FEPC...
...But tfc< real forces in the Council are Standard 08> General Motors and International Basin"** Machines...
...nothing whatever...
...The expropriation process has taken place primarily in the name of avoiding inflation...
...Wor*t of all, it it largely a manmade famine...
...3. General war production during .September in the United States wss termed "disappointing" by the War Production Board...
...The largest step forward has been made in The joint government-industry investment plans for South America...
...The current plans are te amalgamate the nine companies now operating in the field into two combines, one embracing telephone communications between the United States and foreign countries, and another handling telegraph, whether by radio or cable...
...Confusion as to jurisdiction of Centre or Province over foodstuffs was allowed to interfere with proper distribaliou...
...Indian...
...This Foreign Trade Council, beaded by Eugene P Thomas, was created to represent Amenk** investors, who have an estimated worth of property in Axjs-helti lands...
...When the question of unity is broached, however, it is always well to inquire: "Unity for what purpose...
...The signs are most apparent in co»ma> nications, oil, aviation and South American business...
...MISMANAGEMENT OF SITUATION...
...Samuel Wolchok and Morris Milgrim, voted to raise a fund of $?5.OOP to promote this aim...
...Under the auspices "of the Rockefeller Committee, the United States has created an Inter-American Developmental Commission, with similar Commissions in the South American countries...
...Such criticisms are based on moral values, and the values, when applied in discussion, relate inevitably to Russian affairs and to the biases of Soviet partisans in our own ranks...
...pressure groups shaping financial and economic policy towards Italy and other Axis countries >s ta* lit tie-known and unpublicized National Foresjn Trade Council...
...ta* _ * true tier of property and the possible eme« »¦"¦** of state capitalist machine* icaLawrence Feriiiworth stated in The Leader last week that Ennco Galeazw...
...British Minister of Food, said on October 5th that Britain would "dip into her grain supplies to help relieve the famine in Bengal...
...One British analyst...
...This willingness to fall into line with Russian demands is particularly underlined in the acceptance by Great Britain and the United States of the Communist-directed Yugoslav Partisans and the cooling of the British government toward the Yugoslav Government-inExile, which has moved its headquarters from London to Cairo...
...General management of the domestic scene is not all that it should be, and it is having its effect in much unnecessary discontent and uneasiness...
...Negro spokesman, at the SDF "Conference to Combat Race Prejudice" last month, and according to the labor leaders, who met at Freedom House on Wednesday, Buch a bill will shortly be introduced in Congress The labor conference, which included Rudolph, David Dubinsky...
...i HORRIBLE SIGHTS...
...The Government is- accused oil shifting the blame while insisting on control...
...And as a result of the general attitude of treating labor as an unruly stepchild and in general flying in the face of liberal opinion, many chickens are now coming ho aw to roost...
...It is admitted, however, that rationing will be difficult, and slow to get going, and that owing to the shortage of shipping it will not be possible to rush huge supplies to India...
...bama, Indiana and Ohio...
...There have been food riots in, Kashmir in which seven persons were killed by troops...
...Free kitchens to the number of 150 had been opened in Calcutta by September 25th, but most of them by private relief societies...
...should also have bean taken before tills...
...It bas not carried oat its promise te rod back prices...
...Australia has sent 50,000 tons of wheat to India, and from other sections of India itself 28,000 tons of grain were sent to Bengal during the ten days prior to September 21...
...The present resolution, very obviously, commits the United States to...
...This turn of affairs strongly affects the internal division of opinions in the United States and England, particularly as concerns liberals and reformers who criticize certain aspects of social life...
...Free Attorn Levy Representatives of 100 trade unions aase joined in support of federal legislation te one* any discrimination on account of race or crest illegal...
...Dubinsky told the delegates "an exeMt *sn found to tmpnson Levy despite the bet sf evidence against him...
...The News of the Week 1. The "Big Five" railroad operating unions voted unanimously to take a strike vote of their 350,000 members as a result of the 4-cent per hour wage increase awarded them by the government in September in place of the requested 30 per cent increase...
...Labor on Rampage| . ,*rh*t the ead*a\ >r *b fjchieve stability along reactionary lines such as tisane mapped out in the PresiderrtiaUi'-irapleraanted SmittwCoanally Bill is not gofcsg W| was Men daring the past weak in the decision by the ultra-conservative raffaS labor unions to take a strike vote and the continued strikes of coal miners in Ala...
...Whether the forces of liberalism in the United States will go along with the new program of averting attention, both at home and abroad, from actions that conflict with deep mural principles remains to be seen...
...Under the British set-up...
...Among the long-term plans of the Food Grains Committee were the importation of 1,500,000 tons of cereal during the next year, a third of which would constitute a central reserve, and 1,000,000 tons a year thereafter for an unspecified period...
...the single most dominant obstacle in the effective utilization of manpower is ear national wage policy...
...Many hundreds of these sufferers reached their goal, only to die in the city streets...
...A permanent agency to regulate "fair employment practices" was needed...
...Recently the Council has been negotiating with U. S. government officials on a wide rang of subjects which include suet matters a» m* operation of Italian industries probable rtomic policies in liberated countries...
...From the first it was obvious that whatever stocks were on hand must be handled with great care...
...Negotiations hem been handled through the State Department a* far as the British are cor.ce!-nec\ while the Petroleum Reserve Corp...
...The plan calls for rationing in all cities over 100,000 population, strengthening of procurement agencies, and an increase of supplies...
...of which also there is a shortage...
...Green Light far Reaction All indications, in short, point to strong officially sponsored reaction both in England and the United States, only in part hinging on efforts to achieve "unity" with Russia...
...The worst mortality is among the children and the women...
...The learned decisions of Dean Morse and Professor Taylor will not change this hard fact...
...The Government is, however, opening free kitchens...
...Few gains were made over August and there are many indications that, without a radical chance in methods, the production ceiling" hss been attained4. Unless there is a drastic change in conditions there will be such a shorlaee »f bituminous coal this winter that "everything mil be out except war production, electric power plants and railroads," a special Sena it mu ostigating committee was told by Howard A Gray...
...In the words of the Calcutta Statesman (British owned newspaper) "The pretent Bengal famine constitute* the worst and mott reprehensible administrative breakdown tinee the political disorder* of 1980 and 1931...
...1. The Administration has made excellent provision for ear armed forces, with the result that their morale is very high...
...Calcutta's already inadequate hospitals are filled to overflowing...
...Amery, speaking in Parliament, admitted that he was worried about the areas with dense population^, such as the coal fields of Bengal, Januhedpur (site of the great Tata works now busily turning out munitions), Bihar, Indore, Mysore and Bangalore...
...FAMINE SPREADING...
...Ltd-, the British-backed monopoly...
...The Government had ample warning...
...The London Tribune now reports that Signor Galeazzi had conferred with representatives of task Council and U. S. government officials concerning "financial and economic matters...
...AND CKKTAJNLV NOT ENQUGH., Th 'e are all goo.I measure...
...A proposal similar to the projected set-up in communications w-as made last Tuesday night by Juan T. Trippe, President of Pan-American Airways, who suggested that United States aviation be represented after the war by "one strong international American airline" operating under government regulation through the Civil Aeronautics Board...
...Early in September there were about 80,000 of them walking the streets, lining up at the free kitchen-1—some run by the Government, some by private charities...
...the ill-fortunes of war and lack of foresight on the part of the authorities produced a realty serious situation...
...Descriptions of scenes in India today beggar the imagination...
...Questions thai remain to be answered in the immediate future are: Does Stalin want for Russia hegemony over Eastern and Middle Europe and the Balkans...
...Henry Fuller ton...
...The M^yor of Calcutta sent an appeal to the United States for help, but the response has been "rather negative," which has caused bitterness among Indians...
...tsproprietimg two WLB ' lABOR'S chief activity today—with the exception of the Communists who have oeen pursuing an anti-labor line—consists of griping and grumbling at the War Labor Board...
...Bengal is the worst sufferer, but famine is widespread...
...But a dispatch from London says "arguments presented in Parliament hare to thai effect that the provincial administration...
...Police patrols each morning gather the corpses of those who died of starvation during the preceding night...
...6. Vice-President Wallace charged that the big railroads, through behind - —.<-r.es rate-fixing, had imposed rate differentials that unduly handicapped the South and West for the benefit of the industrial Northeast 7. The main news of the War was the continued steady advance of the Itu* u . raies in the South Ukraine...
...but there are enough ripples W the tide to indicate the direction of the wind...
...Cholera, dysentery and typhoid stalk in the wake of famine, especially in the suburbs...
...Should these and other situations be allowed to contina* gsave rasnlto will be .felt in war production, and the outlook for coal is already decidedly below >ar...
...as well as strong Ineatfship with the huge Pirelli combine, with whet* it maintained relations on synthetic rubber: General Maters controls Adam Opel A.G- °°* of the leading German car manufacturers...
...Considering Stalin's reliance upon "realpolitik" and the mood revealed in the United . States Senate, together with the BritishAmerican policy of "practical expediency" in dealings with Darlan, Giraud and Badoglio, it is evident that the circle of Power Politics has been completed...
...It is a known fact that the quit rates in the best-paid war industries' are high, suggesting that wages alone are not the root of the trouble...
...Also the Committee advised the discontinuation of exporting rice from Ir.dk...
...American advisors predominate in the government including D. Millspaugh as financial advisor and Dr...
...When Russia through its internal policies flouted these values, it last the support of idealists throughout Ike world...
...One of the ministry of Bengal stated that the most appalling feature is the death-rate among the destitute who have trickled into- Calcutta seeking food...
...Clippings and Comment By DANIEL BELL Notes on the Monopoly State THE Monopoly State—a new form ef controlled economy, with private monopoly organization of industry interwoven with the state for joint action in the economic and political field—is one of the tendencies emerging out of the war economy...
...It is significant that essential war workers are being supplied with subsidized food by their employers...
...Iran is seeking credit in Washington...
...In the meantime, semi-official sources in the United States and England are calling for a moratorium on criticisms of Russia and Stalin, and such a moratorium would be entirely logical...
...Parenthetically, the recent World Bank and Reconstruction proposals advanced by the Treasury envisage private investment programs backed and guaranteed by the state...
...The Turn of Events-A Review of Global Fronts The World Scene With the EHagian armies continuing to make big gains west of the Dnieper in the South Ukraine, reaching as far as Krivoi Rog, there is every indication that the po&fcar eomplnrian of the war is changing to give greater effects to Soviet demands, the latest of which is reported to be a "corridor" to the Aegean Sea...
...Bnt it is admitted,that the whole situation was bungled...
...Children dig in piles of garbage, or contend with dogs for scraps...
...The only* trouble is 'at they sli-iul I have been taken long ago...
...Profiteering ran riot, and was to flagrant that the Punjab, with a surplus of wheat, refused to allow it to be exported to Bengal lest the Government of Bengal should make a profit on the resale...
...Amery, Secretary of State for India, told the...
...Similarly...
...5. In response to protests from topflight labor leaders Green, Murray, Whilno el ai President Roosevelt promised—to make a survey of living costs...
...A plea to President Roosevelt to intervene m behalf of Alton Levy, former ILGvrV organizer now serving a hard-labor term alter ar, Army court-martial, was also made...
...After a year of war, England went through a full debate on the conduct of the war, and it seems about tune that the United States had such a debate...
...International Business Machu owns plants st Sindeifingen, Berlin, Pans and Milan...
...Although Bengal is the most seriously hit, by this disaster, Mr...
...Gunther as U.S...
...2. The Administration has locked kher within the "Little Steel" formula aaatthe implemented Sreith-Connally Act, whft* leaving a clear track to higher profits far the corporations and food processors...
...The object wouki be to create a strong, privately owned system, backed by government prestige and authority and operating aa a rival to Cables and Wireless...
...says this: "The United States will not be satisfied with lending financial support to a nation whose richest natural resource* remain in the hands of a foreign monopoly (The Angle-Iranian Oil Co...
...Over the past two years, as a result of the war, government and industry have been closely tied in many small ways and many large ways, like two men running a three-legged race • * • tnsim**$ and the Axis /*\NE of the more importan...
...By its own statement, the War Labor Board has done something it has called 'stabilizing wage rates.' . . . "In the last analysis, the tax policy must be the chief weapon for curbing inflation...
...in Rumania and-ltaly...
...Reports from India also mention Orissa, East Bengal and the Bengal-Assam frontier, and Bihar...
...The War Labor Board has been raked in this' column for the breakdown in the collective bargaining structure, by Selig Perlman hi those pages for the usurpation of trade onion function The most concise indictment that I've seen however, appeared hi the October loch issue of The Call: "When the history of the labor movement in this war will be written, it will be seen that the single most potent force m undermining the strength of nil mil sod labor was the War Labor Board...
...A member of the Bengal Assembly said that in Barisal district, once called the granary of Bengal, children and infants were being sold...
...and no matter boar distasteful it would be to British monopoly-capitalism te have!, to- share its haFpy -hupting ground* with an aggnessive partner on the other side of the Atlantic, the economic sacrifice would be more than offset by the political advantages inherent in 'ultra-imperialism...
...The real basis of reaction in all countries is, of course, the drive of power-holding elements to consolidate their positions, and this drive is every bit as strong in England and the United States as it is in Russia, although in England and' the United States it is tempered by the forces of liberalism and reform, which do not exist in Russia...
...British public...
...In the meantime, the Bengal Government has released large quantities of wheat and flour at controlled prices, confiscated half a million pounds of rice found in Calcutta shops and will distribute it...
...More is promised...
...Even members of the army are succumbing from hunger on the streets of Calcutta...
...Investment is carried on jointly by government and industry...
...House of Commons on September 24th that] besides Bengal the areas most affected were parts of Bombay, Madras, Cochin and Travan, core...
...Another report mentions the bloated stomachs of little children, mothers suffering gravely from malnutrition and meat collapsing in the streets...
...Italy is new a "co-belligerent," hot in the armistice terms "other conditions of political, economic.and financial nature with whmh Italy will be bound to comply will he transmitted at a Inter date...
...Almost immediately following this initial loss came cyclones, tidal waves and floods which devastated large sections of Bengal...
...The 'Black Death1 in India India is in the grip of an appalling famine...
...No sufficient steps were tsken to prevent hoarding, both private and public, and the ensuing rise in prices...
...Standard Oil has direct subsidies...
...POLITICAL AND MILITARY IMPLICATIONS...
Vol. 26 • October 1943 • No. 44
