The Labor Vote and FDR
EVERETT, MURRAY
The Labor Vote and FDR By Murray Everett T*HK United Steel Workers at their Cleveland convention this week launched labor's fourth-term,) drive for Roosevelt after hearing Phil Murray...
...lewis and Labor Disunity IOHN L. LEWIS'S rambunctious note in asking back his check from the AFL seems to indicate that the...
...But Avery now announces that despite the vote he will not sign a maintenance-ofmembership clause...
...In t*he rest of the country there was no excitement, nor was fear expressed st the unprecedented exercise of military and presidential authority...
...But when the President called out troops, took over the plant and forcibly evicted Mr...
...But in the "war of nerves" the Administration "held tt* line...
...British Labors Whitsun Parley By GORDON SCHAFFER foHiical **d industrial correspondent of "Reynold* Newt" (Load** Sunday paper), end radio commentator, t Member of Executive Council, National Union of Journalist: LONDON.—While the armies of Britain and her 1 allies are massing for the Second Front in " Europe, political parties and groups in Britain are *'fOs*ing ahead with postwar plans, jjjj The Labor Party, which meets at Whitsun for * what may well prove the most vital conference in - Its history, is submitting to delegates* from trade ¦ arnicas and local parties a far-reaching scheme for postwar reorganisation...
...Put the result will be to create one huge black market...
...The Government has promised a White Paper on the subject and Sir William Beveridge, author of the Social Service Plan, is busy on an independent report...
...A study was proposed of the President's war powers, with practically no support found for the entire proceedings smacked of dictatorship, snd Americans were charged with the duty of reexamining the Constitution, and to stand fast in the face of what looked to most Congressmen and editors, as the first step to totalitarianism...
...Sewell defied the War Labor Board he was viewed as just an old conservative...
...The motive will be to "end black markets...
...In the international field Labor stresses the view that Anglo-American and Russian cooperation ahould form the'nucleus of world organization, and that there should be strict control of the sale of arms and total disarmament of Germany and Japan with international control of their economic and financial systems...
...This subject is likely to be the most discussed of all for it is one which nsturally affects everybody...
...With this picture in mind, it is likely that labor unrest will increase...
...When Mr...
...The electrifying news of invasion undoubtedly will put a damper on any threat of strike...
...The conflict in the Parliamentary Party over Mr...
...This conflict within the party may grow fiercer in coming months...
...Murray's support of the President marks the turn et a new trend in CIO...
...Human Rights By Clifford Fortter npHE battle of Montgomery Ward brings to the * fore the old struggle between property right* and human rights...
...whether the tank «u-file of the union will follow through is another matter...
...The battle, however, has been hard snd the wsy tortuous...
...The great human concepts embodied in the Bill of Rights have received priority over all others in the hierarchy of rights now established by Supreme Court decisions...
...DeWitt ordered the evacuation from the Heat Coast and the subsequent imprisonment of Ko.000 American citizens...
...The parly's plan for full employment will be made public in a week or two...
...In st least one branch of our government has the conflict been resolved in favor of personal rights where these have come into conflict with property interests...
...The union won the election and the plunt hus been turned back to the management...
...Whether the advantages, which are momentary, will outweigh the disadvantages is a moot point...
...How different the temper of Congress and the press in the spring of 1942, when ia purported compliance with an excutive order...
...And **at will Phil Murray and the steel workers do when the steel workers' request for the 17 cents an hour Increases is rebuffed—as most likely it will...
...The Labor Vote and FDR By Murray Everett T*HK United Steel Workers at their Cleveland convention this week launched labor's fourth-term,) drive for Roosevelt after hearing Phil Murray call for a fourth term...
...And when victory is won we have got to build for peace, a planned peace, a permaP nent peace, bringing world sccur' ' Ity and world prosperity...
...one cannot estae out enthusiastically for Roosevelt snd still raise a militant, red-hot issue...
...If so, there will be prolonged jurisdictional dispute all over the country and labor will be given a black eye...
...some may swing to the support of the .Socialist Party...
...It will be recalled that although the Fourteenth Amendment was intended to benefit, primarily, the liberated Negro, the fabulous Roseoe Conkling snd other leading lawyers, representing, of course, the propertied interests, had the amendment so worded and interpreted as to limit the power of the stales to regulate business...
...The member•Wp...
...It had no other way out...
...The action was expected...
...Regsrdless of how much has been prated about the Bill of Rights and the noble concepts for which this war is supposed to be fought, it eeeme clear that exaltation of property righte it ttill the order of the day...
...The Labor Party plans involve major changes...
...And the continued fragmentation of labor, caused by political pressures outside the labor movement, will do great harm in the postwar years...
...And Isbor has turned...
...Already there is s strong restivenese in Detroit and 01 the West Coast...
...At the CIO convention in Philadelphia last November, Murray spoke w sharply on the need for revising the "Little Steel'V^ f*mula...
...Aneurin Bevhn, who led the revolt against Ernest Bevin's new strike regulation, is symptomatic...
...There is strong evidence that OPA is giving in to sll the demands of industry and will go <U wn the line in increasing prices...
...They knew that Murray—snd the Isbor vote -^•would support the President, if not out of conviction than out of a "lesser evil" psychology...
...General John I...
...And from the Slaughterhouse Cases until the 1930s the rights of property were exalted over those of person...
...Rather do I wish to emphasise the different approaches and reactions of the press and Congress where the questioned exercise of presidential power impinges on the one hand on property rights and on the other hand on personal rights...
...And this brings me back again to the Montgomery Ward situation...
...His views were strong enough to force the Communist unions to reverse themselves •a the issue...
...But there is little dcubt, from a long-range point of view, that disunity in the labor movement is extremely dangerous...
...Montgomery Word Runaround TPIIK Montgomery Ward case is taking on the aspect of a race within a squirrel's cage...
...Arthur Greenwood is standing firmly on the need for the majority decisions to be respected and in doing so he has the hacking of his own administrative committee, the National Executive of the party and the G'eneral Council of the Trades Union Congress...
...Foreign policy, Labor suggests, should be directed towards the creation of a general international organization embodying all the useful machinery of the League of Nations, a world court of international justice for the development of international law and encouragement of the International Labor Office...
...The end of rationing is a prelude to the decline of an effective OPA...
...I am genuinely concerned, however, with the temper of the people as expressed through their Congress and the press...
...Keen today there are Senators and Representstiven who charge the Administration with being too nice and lee good to the evacuees still in concentrstion csmps, although charged with no crimes...
...And so in the coming ¦•enths there will be a softening of criticism of the Administration, at least from the top leadership, and stronger attacks on-the opposition...
...hi the words of Arthur Greenwood, leader of the party in Britain's House, of Commons in an interview wttn me, "aunougn great ' sacrlfloM must atill be made in ttjfrr mighty struggles now aplynoachlng we know now that victory is certain...
...I do not mean, however, that these concepts are directly opposed to one another in this particular rase...
...Almost unsnimoiisl.v the newspapers found a basis to rationslize the tragic event...
...In Congress the mood was that the evacuation was not ordered soon enough, that no punishment wsh being meled out to these helpless, innocent citizens, and thst they were being "coddled...
...For example, their proposals for a national Shealth service visualize preventive as well as curative measures, the establishment of health centers, a national full-time pensionable medical service and a nation wide network of improved services for midwives, health visitors, home helps and home nursing...
...Properly vs...
...At the same time internal difficulties in the party will have to be sorted out within the next few months...
...For the Colonies, Labor proposes an international colonial commission which will serve as adviser to the native peoples and a policy of economic planning to provide for the adequate nutrition and industrial development of colonial territories...
...But if the invasion news continues good and if employers seek to take advantage of the situation, a fa Montgomery Ward, then strikes may flare again...
...Aneurin Bevan, and those who support him, claim that in resisting strike regulation ihey are voicing the opinion of wide sections among the rank and file who are concerned at what they regard as a failure of the party to mobilize its strength for the struggles—industrial and political—which they believe lie ahead...
...In San Francisco, machinists, both AFL and CIO, have refused to go bach to work because of a wage dispute...
...For coal and power the formation of a national corporation to own and supervise the administrstion of sll industries concerned is recommended...
...Congress immediately ordered and undertook official and unofficial inquiries into the entire procedure...
...The case, therefore, will go bark to the War Labor Hoard, which throws it again into the lap of the President...
...While for civil svistion the party would like to see the formation of a world air authority, so that world airways are operated as a public service by a body acting as trustee for the peoples of the world, whether they are able to run an aircraft industry or not...
...More than likely, some court action will be taken this time to force Avery to sign the contract...
...All of these thrpe reports sre likely to appear almost simultaneously and they will provide a wide basis for discussion, The Labor Party is certainly getting Into its stride as a contestant Tor power...
...At the moment the steel ¦ workers are engaged in a bitter fight with the War Labor Board in •heir efforts to obtain a IT cents an hour increase and crack the "Little Steel" formula...
...With the development snd strength of trade unionism, and the consequent establishment of picketing as a constitutional method of pressure, the Supreme Court at last finally recognized the higher claims of the personal right...
...I am not debating here the constitutionality nor the wisdom of the requisitioning of Montgomery Ward or the evacuation of the Japanese Americans...
...Avery, the press of the country almost unanimously pictured the "heroic" old millionaire ss a crusader, defender of solid Americanism, and staunch representative and symbol of the tradition for which millions of drafted American boys are "prepared" to lay down their lite far away from home...
...There is little question that the real reason behind the rebuff to Lewis is political...
...The end of rationing may make some people feel easier, but it doesn't mean that more supplies are on hand...
...Separate documents have been prepared on international postwar settlement of land and agriculture, nutrition, civil aviation, eoal and power, transport and full employment These are in addition to the ' policy reports endorsed by last year's congress on housing, national health, local government and the 'colonies...
...There is •*und to be some tension, in the union...
...Not so, however, the r<st of the country or other hi iin< he?-, of the k'ovi 1 iinieiit...
...In some steel workers' lodges, resolutions have been passed for independent lalMir action...
...f Oil housing the party proposes vigorous controls with the participation of the Building Trade Union, restrictions on luxury building and nationalization •f land in the vicinity of towns...
...Thus far, the issue has been soft-pedalled at the convention...
...Over the country, too, the fact that top leadership will soft-pedal criticism of the Administistion will cause some tensions within the unions...
...For about seven months the CIO leadership snarled and scolded at Roosevelt in the bspe of swinging him td the "left...
...Murray, of •¦arse, will support the Administration...
...But this does not aolve the question of the Little Steel Formula...
...on the whole, will swing into line—hut with a lot of grumbling...
...The press has acted little better...
...This reflected a growing insurgent mood and « militan, v among the nation's workers, 'n succeeding aseiths, Murray's criticism grew more tart and on the haae of national service he defied Presidential pressure aad remained adamant...
...From the beginning the West Coast papers screamed for the heads of the Jspanese-Amerlean population...
...burly mine workers' leader is preparing to go all-out in his threatened chemical organizing drive...
...The CIO local is a lodge of the United Steel Workers, the AFL local ia an affiliate of the International Association of Machinists...
Vol. 27 • May 1944 • No. 20
