As the New Deal Dead?
ZARITSKY, MAX
As the New Deal Dead? By MAX ZARITSKY Prominent American labor leader. % A CONFLICT of opinion has arisen over the question, "Is the New Dai. dead?" Some think that if it is not dead, it is...
...Finally, what are the prospects for the future, so far as the Sew Deal is concerned ? There is a danger of the pendulum swinging back...
...Of this amount the AFL quota is $2,000,000, and the results of the campaign thus far warrant the expectation that it will be met...
...In a blood bath of Nazis, many Germans who carried out executions because army discipline demanded it may be slaughtered, including some who hated to do their "duty...
...that it receive credit for the contributions of union locals and union members...
...others claim that the President "has takan a walk" on the liberal and labor forces...
...But their tribute to the New Deal, however urrintentions'ly and haltingly made, is mots in accord with the facts than the views of the liberals who In face of the record' claim that Pre* ri?nt Roosevelt walked out on them, or that there ncv;r was...
...During the past year, AFL members alone have contributed some $25,000,000 to community and war chests and the Red Cross...
...Similar agreements were signed with the Red Cross, under which labor took an active part in the Red Cross campaign last spring...
...aa* The New Leader invites comment aad ducaasion an the problem...
...The Chinese people have endured the ravages oft invasion for seven years, with a courage and fortitude which have won the admiration of the world...
...It is giving in order that home needs—so greatly increased through the disruption of family life due to war—may be adequately met...
...The British are In their fifth year of a war during which their cities have atuffered devastation, and shortages of consutnerr good* have reached the point of absolute hdrdship...
...IT is a truism that among men of good will, * mutual fear and hostility are most readily resolved by free association...
...It includes rest homes and mobile canteens for Chinese workers, and medical supplies for Chinese hospitals...
...It owed them hospitalization...
...The government tampered with them a great deal, as when high tariff laws were passed and subsidies granted for special interests "to develop home industries...
...We need not believe them...
...Labor is fighting to win this war...
...In proving itself s big giver for home needs and war relief, organized labor is rounding out its contribution to the war effort...
...Unions in their daily problems may shift positions and policies from time to time...
...And all over the country labor's contributions, and the chest totals, increased as labor took>over the management ef the campaign among union members...
...Insteady they pay the New Deal tribute by promising to maintain and extend it if they get into office...
...President Roosevelt—and the New Deal— proceeded on a different principle...
...Its tempo has been affected, undoubtedly, by war conditions...
...They charge Roosevelt with remaining fsithful to his pet "socialistic" ideas...
...Intelligent Republican leaders — as distinguished from the Spanglers—know that if they are to stand any chance of winning as Republicans they must subscribe to virtually all of the New Deal measures adopted under the Roosevelt Admit** istration...
...The tax laws are not perfect, nor do they do perfect justice...
...Prosperity, so called, would then trickle down somehow to the "lower" strata of society...
...It has imposed steep taxes on incomes, estates, gifts, and profits...
...The New Deal is not a philosophy...
...To try to do that might jeopardise the victory— without which we could get neither the Old Deal nor the New Deal, but the kind of a deal labor got in Germany and in Hitler-occupied countries...
...This'fund was used, through the British War1 Relief Society, to finance merchant seamen's homes and rest homes for war orphans and war workers—projects which will continue to be supported for the duration of the war...
...It has been recognized in the general press, in advertisements of sppreciation in Chest publications and the daily papers...
...There were a lot of inconsistencies everywhere, the result of all kinds of make-shift arrangements and tamper - ings...
...To interfere with that would be to interfere with natural economic laws...
...That the mass of thoughtful Americans realize this has been demonstrated by the Gallup poll and by aa overwhelming vote in the House of Representative...
...Labor's participation in the campaigns of the community and war chests and the Red Cross developed as a result of its own independent relief activity...
...This is a hopeful, a healing work...
...One in to form a representative federation of all tb states that choose to join, regsrdless of whether their v»n governments are representative or not...
...But how could it escape the effects of the war...
...The common soldier who was the actual executioner is generally far leas guilty than the leaders who decided on the policy of mass execution, shooting ef hostages, death by starvation, and other atrocities...
...It is not a theory...
...This agreement, in which the CIO War Relief Committee participated,- was eeeepted by practically every community where a war cheat was organized...
...Where there is no community war chest, labor sets up its own...
...The community will now recognize, and perhaps for the first time, the trade unions as a body and will quickly discover that workers and their unions are generous contributors to worthy causes...
...But It is not perfection for which we can hope, least of all in wartime...
...Least of all do I believe thai the President has walked out on the labor and liberal forces...
...The same holds true fqr the New Deal Have the necessities of war shunted the New Deal aside...
...If true, it would not be the fsult of the New Deal, but of the war...
...COMMENTING in the December, 1942, issue of the "American Federationist" on the agreement with Community Chests and Councils, I remarked: "The practical consequences of this arrangement are that workers, who formerly were regarded solely as passive contributors, will now through their union representatives have a voice in the allocation and expenditure of all funds raised in their community...
...Beginning with the NRA and on down through the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Wagner Act, the housing legislation, the CCC—all the way through, the same principle was adhered to and the same ultimate purpose envisioned...
...After the United States was attacked, the League formed the United Nations Relief Committee, to take over and extend the work of the Ainerican Committee to Aid British Labor...
...If a retreat m necessary temporarily in order te make an advance that will be of permanent value—a retreat is made...
...They still accuse the President of refusing to budge from his position of using revenue legislation for social and economic reform purposes, of refusing to make labor toe the mark, of taking the employer's property from him when labor walks out on strike...
...THIS year the appeals of the Community Chests and of seventeen War relief agencies have been united in the campaign of the National War Fund, opened by President Roosevelt on October 5th...
...In Milwaukee the per capita contribution of AFL members more than doubled...
...It owed them a living during a depression...
...Sometimes H may do the union move good than a temporary victory...
...But to tamper wtth these economic laws for the direct benefit of the undernourished Or underprivileged—that" would be a major calamity, and a defiance of natural and eternal economic laws...
...But our allies need more than that...
...And this year again, organized labor is mobilised for the campaign and • its own relief program is among those for which funds will be allotted...
...in order that the vital services rendered our "soldiers and sailors and airmen by the USO and War Prisoners' Aid may be continued and expanded...
...The League solved this problem by obtaining an agreement with the National Association of Community Cheats and Councils, which recommended to the local chests that labor be represented., oa their boards, budget committees and publicity committees...
...As a generous giver to worthy causes, organized labor has proved itself an invaluable source of strength to the American community...
...Chairmen, Labor League for Human Rights...
...the Fair Labor Standards Act...
...the War Labor Board, beset by all kinds of difficulties, and not always manned by the same type of persons who sponsored the New Deal, has preserved substantial, if not absolute, justice...
...and this realization is -the beat possible answer labor could make to its detractors...
...The right to strike has been waived—but by the voluntary action Of labor itself...
...On details they differed...
...In Madison, Wisconsin, the chest total, thanks largely to labor, increased 311 per cent, with the workers in one factory turning in the staggering per capita contribution of $36.43, All over the country, labor's contribution, in energy and intelligence no less than in money, has been recognised as an important element in the success of the* war chest and Red Cross campaigns...
...And the imperfections of the tax laws are due, not to New Dealers, but to the reactionary Republicans and Bourbon Democrats...
...It is not a blueprint...
...a scheme enrisaevd wi'b both imagination and sagacity by Ely Culbertsen...
...It even owed them a right not to be fleeced by fraudulent representations of private bankers or divested of their savings by the depredations of public bankers...
...China, and the occupied ^countries* may knew that we in America are ¦ 1 t eager to meet their needs with our substance as well as our sympathy...
...that it have a voice in organizing campaigns and in allocating funds...
...If the New Deal were dead, the Republicans would t>e the first to officiate at the burial...
...Recent events have proved that this prediction was not overoptimistic...
...The top leaders of the Nazi and Fascist parties, their gauleiters in occupied countries, the army officers who have carried out mass executions, should be tried snd punished in accordance with the laws of the countries in which their atrocities were committed...
...It owed them a right to join in unions so that they ceald protect themselves from merciless exploitation...
...Perhaps it was not a philosophy...
...Me* Eorrmea War Giii/f—What Do You Think...
...In New York City, the AFL, CIO, and Railway Brotherhoods have united in the New York Labor War Chest to raise $4,000,000 for the Red Cross, the Greater New York Fund, and the National War Fund...
...The purpose of the New Deal has not been altered...
...FEW will dissent from the general proposition that perpetrators of war * crimes should be punished...
...It owed them better housing, ; which private enterprise might not And it profitable to provide...
...placing a floor under wages and a ceiling over hours, is still in effect...
...But it can never swine back completely...
...That has happened before...
...Through this association, the rest of the community is coming to realise that organized workers are just Americans, eager to win the war and to relieve the needs created by the war...
...If there never was a consistent New Deal philosophy, then it never died, nobody walked out on Jt, the war did not shunt it aside, and no one could h«»» *t~~A ~r - it, either as a reform or an ideology...
...and that it receives full credit ^or its contributions...
...It will be exceedingly difficult to draw the line It has been estimated that already there are about 20.000 cases Us ted with the United Nations Commission for investigation of War Crimea...
...The revengeful anger of the friends aad relatives of the victim will be naturally directed toward the actual perpetrator rather than toward the responsible authority a thousand mile- away...
...The parts did not conform to one another...
...and that labor's, own war relief program be supported by the chests...
...But the reactionaries of the country do not think so...
...But they never shiftn-or should never shift — their aims...
...And through the Red Cross and the National War Fund, it is giving to win...
...Each worker was to make a single contribution through labor's own relief organization, which would allocate the resulting funds to the various relief services on the basis of need...
...Creating scarcity to promote abundance, certainly <ftd not seem consistent— at least not with the theories we have always held...
...It is a compromise—an attempt to get on...
...The Administration has withstood thus far the tremendous clamor for a sales tax...
...By the ead of the war the number will be much larger...
...But there was * no inconsistency as to the asms and porpoise* of the New Deal...
...As the League was preparing to carry out 'his ^program, many established community chests began to convert themselves into war cheats...
...Norman Davis, national chairman of the Red Cross, has stated that without labor's active cooperation, the Red Cross could never have topped its 1943 goal of $125,000,000...
...That program, in addition to the aid to Britain, already mentioned, includes the evacuation of skilled workers from occupied to free China, where they will train other worker* for war industries...
...If, for any reason, it failed to operate satisfactorily, and millions of persons were thrown out upon their own resources, if any, it was unavoidable...
...This will be a profundly important discovery in many communities where the labor movement has until now been regarded as a soulless instrument for getting more wages, fewer hours, and better working conditions for its members...
...And it was passed over Presidential veto...
...Paul it almost doubled...
...In Rhode Island the total contributions of industrial workers totaled $548,750 as against $156,436 for the preceding year...
...In My Opinion CIVILIZATION has to choose between world government and suicide...
...There seem to be two big van of going at it—neither of them the formation of an American-British domineering alliance...
...To seek perfection in it* Ts to hope for the impossible...
...Unlike idealistic philosophers pr theorists, who frequently blame the facta tf their theories do not jibe with them, the New Dealers based their program on facts...
...Its twenty-seven regional directors sre in constant touch with the Federation's 850 central labor bodies, and with the local chest boards, seeing to it that labor is fully represented in the making up of budgets, the planning of campaigns, and the allocation of funds...
...It was that government owed something te the plain people who are the victims of economic laws over which they have no control...
...Time and one-half is still paid for overtime...
...Among them is the creation of a solidarity between this country and its allies which can be an important factor in sustaining their fighting spirit, and can also help to make possible an enduring peace based upon mutual respect and understanding among peoples...
...The Labor* League for Human Rights its mobilising AFL members for this campaign...
...It wiH not be simple to guarantee to all the accused a fair trial before an impartial tribunal...
...In St...
...For no settlement • ill stand ap unless enforced snd validated and progressively sdjasted by a sovereign power...
...Some think that if it is not dead, it is at least unconscious,'shunted aside by the necessities of the war...
...In a remarkably short time, this committee raised some $350,000...
...The reason is simple...
...It is not a complete plan...
...Even the Smith-Connally bill, in which reaction appears, at its ugliest, not only does not prohibit Strikes, but expressly provides machinery by which strikes may be legalised...
...And organized labor is proud to have a share in it...
...Some two million union members are serving with our armed forces...
...The spirit of revenge may ran riot, get out of control, aad result in massacres which will give all Germans s persistent sense of injustice...
...It owed them security in old age...
...Injustices are easy in sack a hysterical mood as ssay sweep Europe after the war...
...We cannot hope to make spectacular gains along the lines of the New Pea) or is the direction of its objectives in the midst of war...
...Not that these laws were never to be tampered with...
...The principle upon which President Roosevelt's predecessors had acted was that if every individual pursued his own self-interest, the nstional interests would automatically be served, thst the economic system operating as free enterprise would take care of the needs of the people...
...On the other hand, many who are really guilty may escape punishment by shifting responsibility to lesser criminals or by turning against Hitler at the eleventh hoar...
...To prevent runaway tribunals from condemning these enemies wholesale without too much regard for due process of law• is a duty of the international commission, and a tough job indeed...
...Oar economic system is pretty much of a hodge-podge, abounding with contradictions^ and paradoxes...
...Whether they are sincere or not, they are forced to recognise that a profound change has occurred in our political and social climate, nnd that all the king's horses and all the kingN men can never again restore the status quo a»tr New Deal...
...Political, cultural, and 'economic realities, rather than pre-coneeived theories or a schematic philosophy, were their basis of action...
...Socialists, should not be disappointed that perfection has not been achieved...
...The economic system, which had collapsed when Roosevelt assumed office, was never built as a result of a blueprint...
...And it has been recognised by the national leaders in fund-raising for war-related needs...
...Yet the dangers involved are apparent...
...But when they were offered a chance to participate actively in a humanitarian endeavor which was important not only to the community but to the war effort, they did what human beings always do when their sympathy and their interest, are enlisted: they responded magnificently...
...It will not be easy to confine punishment to those really responsible for atrocities...
...So long as workers were regarded merely as passive contributors to community welfare—so long as employers turned in contributions levied upon their employees along with their own, and took the credit for both—so long did the workers naturally regard fund-raisipg for relief as something which concerned the employers...
...What do yen think...
...Had he been there at that time, he would have been able to offer some sound advice...
...donated by 4,000 AFL locals...
...The national psychology, our past traditions, the prejudices of the people, were all part of the facts of of life which they had to take into account...
...New Deal measures were not always completely consistent with each other...
...Liberals, progressive laborites and...
...Still others maintain that there has never been a consistent New Deal philosophy...
...jfk This is a service to the war effort whose * importance grows as the war lengthens...
...Union members in war industries sre achieving the miracle of production which has already turned the tide against the Axis powers...
...There may be labor and liberal forces which claim that the President has walked out on them...
...Labor has not been forsaken by the Administration...
...making the best of a bad situation...
...in order that the war-weary peoples of Britain, Russia...
...It msy even be thst the greatest danger ;s that the beneficiaries df the New Deal—and they include perhaps 90 per cent of the entire American people—will take the gains they have won for granted, feci that they are permanent, and forget to register and vote...
...A debate between thorn twe men would be worth s hundred argument* about the peace settlement...
...It also includes warm clothing and blankets for Russian workers, and aid to the courageous underground anti-fascist movements of occupied Europe...
...They claim he wants to undermine the free enterprise system...
...It is working t> win...
...Nor have the poorer classes generally...
...In fact, as recently as last year...
...Through this committee it offered to Federation members a program designed to eliminate the confusion and indiscriminate giving which inevitably resulted from multiple appeals for aid...
...Whether the war leaders grasp it or not remains unknown...
...I do not believe that the "New Deal is dead or even unconscious...
...above all...
...To continue our independent program, under the circumstances, would have been to continue the confusion which the United Nations Relief Committee was set up to eliminate, and would have risked arousing resentment among other sections of the community...
...The National Labor Relations Act functions...
...But I do not consider it true...
...It lacked a blueprint...
...The other is to form a Union of the Democracies, and admit o' her states only when they subscribe to and inaugurate s basic Bill of Rights, a scheme as sUy plugged for by Clarence Strett...
...and they are doing it in spite of frequently atrocious living conditions, long trips to and from work, and a high rate of industrial casualties about which the public hears little, since there is no Order of the Purple Heart for those maimed on the production line...
...But President Roosevelt's position and difficulties were the same as those of that ancient Spanish king who expressed regret that he was not present when the world was created...
...What Roosevelt had to do was partly patchwork...
...A consistent program, come hell or high water, might have merely accentuated existing inconsistencies...
...Central labor bodies and local unions are participating wholeheartedly in the campaign, most often with the full cooperation of management through the payroll deduction plan...
...And yet it is remarkable to what an extent the Administration has succeeded in preserving in wartime the gains made during the past ten years...
...That is why, in this period when the professional enemies of organized labor are doing their best to foment fear and hostility toward the labor movement, it is particularly fortunate that labor all over the country is participating with management and other sections of the community in the raising of funds for home needs and for war relief...
...As President Roosevelt pointed out in his speech of October 5th...
...Thousands may be accused ef looting, rape, or murder who are innocent...
...THE methods adopted varied...
...a New Deal, or that the war ,ha< scrapped it?* American Labor Gives for Victory — The Story of Labor's Relief Work By MATTHEW WOU Vice-President, A FL...
...The measures that were adopted under the New Deal all fit into this new conception...
...Early in the war, the Labor League for Human Rights (AFL) set up the American Labor Committee to Aid British Labor, so that trade union members might send, to their brothers in the British Isles, holding out grimly alone against the Axis assault on "Western civilization, tangible proof of their conviction that Britain's fight was our fight...
...There are those who believe that it is the people Who are now tired of "reform and ideology" and want a breathing spell If they are right, then it is not the President who walked out on the people, bat the people who walked out on the President...
...opening the National War Fund drive, there are things that only the Amencaa people can do...
...The Russian people have suffered icrueily through more than two years of the sndVt barbarous warfare in modern history, Aw, aa never before, these allies need our help Our government is sending huge quantities of supplies...
Vol. 26 • November 1943 • No. 46
