British Labor Plans
Griffiths, James
British Labor Plans By James Griffiths WOU devoting >¦ HS| IllllaUd I¦ IIIIII* of Wenergy to the VWUH «f UH n/, tM lalmr nse.misl km SVitom m grrioa; tame aad UMfil to expressing Um mood and...
...The tremendous importance of the Beveridge plan lies in the fact that it has become the symbol of all thia...
...Nothing was said against adequate medical care, education for children, pensions for the aged and the unemployed...
...All that we need to do is to adopt peace objective* which will require the employment of our material and human means as adequately as they have been employed during the war...
...But as soon as the federal government looks after them, that is bad...
...salaries to t specific figure Salaries are fixed by boards of directors elected by members of cooperatives and expense accounts are audited by .independent auditors and •re subject to review by both the directors ami the members of the cooperative...
...Wo have had twenty years of eonffsrt, strife and po«-ti...
...Obviously they are foretaste* of the Republican campaign for the presidency...
...To this end the government meat have: I, (outre...
...Most puzzling of Mr...
...rise of the inter-war period...
...All these charges are untrue, the Cooperative League of the U.S.A...
...Oat of thia will emerge all over the world strong labor and democratic movements, industrial and political...
...We all know that federal administration is juat as likely to bo good and democratic and popular as any state or county or city sot-up...
...What the governors—not all Republicans—tried to do was to foist upon the people a false issue...
...We have developed an industrial equipment, an organizing capacity, a technical ability in the skill* and crafts entirely adequate to the achievement of the ends we have in view...
...Fulton Lewis Attacks Co-Ops Washington, d. c. (CLNS).-Fuiton Lewis, Jr., radio commentator and columnist, has recently made an attack on the Cooperative movement...
...Consumer cooperatives pay the same income taxes, property and license taxes as ordinary business, they also pay corporation taxes, sales taxes, and excise taxes...
...hear from now until November will be far from edifying...
...Z, Sorb anpervisioa over iadaatry as will make it possible to provide against aati-sorial restrictive practices and artiirial price levels...
...The successful transition from war to peace must involve the eoojmued full utilization of our productive resource...
...Life is like that...
...Can't we cooperate ? In the final analysis, it is the workers who pay for competition...
...lies the hope world aad national reconstruction...
...To enable the state to fulfill its functions it must be clothed with the authority necessary for the )ob...
...t.msaamsiiii — An Editorial Heroics of Hershey T*HK discussions of the Governors' Conference at Hershey, Pennsylvania, had an ominous sound...
...Harnessed to national ends, our industrial outfit lias developed to such an extent as to pat us to shame for being content with the slender output with which we satisfied ourselves during days of peace...
...This happened often during Republican administration...
...Consumers must make application for membership and make an initial payment to become members of cooperatives...
...If Mr...
...Time and again, especially of late, the federal administration has intervened to prevent dictatorial procedure, destruction of constitutional rights, by a state...
...This lino of argument I* stupid ss well as false, and if the Republicans ran think of nothing better, It is hard to believe that the American people will be fooled...
...Lewis did not consult any of the three office* of the Cooperative League, national federation of cooperatives, with offices in Washington, New York and Chicago, nor did he check obviously incorrect material with the office of the Consumers Cooperative Association or Mr...
...This time oar men want to go bark home in order to go forward to new times and better ways of living...
...I come from an area that has paid in full...
...Lewis stated that he is a member of two cooperatives, one te supply electric light and power and one handling farm supplies, yet he made grievious errors in fact which could easily have been cheeked through sources open to any co-op member or to any reporter or to the public at large," the League declared...
...Technology compelled it...
...Anyone may Miy in a co-op aad say one may Jain...
...Lewis charges that the government extends subsidized loans to cooperatives...
...For Britain's future lrfe and development a wise administration of this industry is essential...
...Lewis declared in his column that "the salary of co-op officials must not be more than $7,500 a year, which is too bad, because Mr, Cowden, for instance, undoubtedly is worth several times that salary...
...It was painted as dictatorial, fascistic The governors, however, were pictured as staunch champions of democracy, of states rights...
...The local authorities were represented as being in their nature different, better, more responsive to the will and interests of the people...
...Lewis accused cooperative leaders of using unlimited expense accounts, he contended that the co-ops are evading payment of taxes, declared that the cooperatives are subsidized by the government through low cost of credit and that the cooperatives have become the kind of big business the anti-trust division of the Department of Justice is trying to destroy...
...To do away with this control at the end of the war would be to condemn the industry and all its workers to another era of the old strife and poverty...
...All of this is false, and no one knows its falsity better than the Republican politicians...
...Kven the Wagner-Dingell Bill was denounced...
...Twenty years of competition devastated my native land...
...It couldn't help it...
...I know this well...
...If we are to judge by this preliminary try-out, what we are to...
...Lewis' inaccuracies, the Cooperative League points out, is the fact that he has denounced the co-ops because of their differences in operation from ordinary business and then turns around to say "there is no discernable difference between the private company and the cooperative...
...To ensure that the transition l>e carried out in an orderly manner—without catastrophic breakdown— we urge the adoption of a policy of economic expansion...
...If, having won the war together, the end of the war shall mark the hi ginning of an economic conflict between us, wo •hall throw our victory away...
...During the war national control has been superimposed upon the industry...
...There is a good deal of talk about the competition for post-war markets that is inevitable between our two countries...
...In fact the government has considerable revenue from these loans...
...The labor movements of oar two countries caa aad moot come together and provide the urge to economic cooperation aad collaboration ia policies that will secure the welfare of the workers ia boat laads...
...It can become the basis of an over-expanding series of derivative and supplementary industries...
...The angering Which e.tended right ap to the oponmg of the present • ar bas SO paisonad the wet Is of human rolatioa ships that BO real contentment or poaoa is pisiiklo except by the beginning of a mm chapter...
...This is the same right which is available to other business which may return oveicharges to their customers if they wish...
...Other types of business have access to loans from the RFC and other sources not available for cooperatives...
...That is unthinkable, rnd it must not be allowed to happen Americans will be especially concerned about matters touching the relations between our two countries...
...It is better not to have them than to have Washington dispensing them...
...declared...
...However, there's no limitation on expense accounts...
...The growth of the whole rang* of industries in the held of plasties is merely a single incident showing the possibilities in thia direction What the industry needs is a new beginning, and it cannot get this fresh start aniens it is transformed into a national service...
...We have harnessed our economy to the war effort to sMch an extent that the adjustment required in passing from war to peace will confront us with problems which will call for bold and imaginative planning...
...Ho continued, "the (co-ops) are supposed te taho i our name and address, and whoa yon have bought a eitsin amount, you got year share of •tech.* That ¦gain is untrue...
...over the central banking aad monetary policy...
...There are no provisions limiting...
...An export trade is essential to a national economy...
...For many decades the federal government has been steadily increased its sphere of activity...
...Dewey goes in a* our next President, the process will bo speeded up...
...Actually some cooperatives may borrow from the Bank for Cooperatives at the customary rate of 2'x per cent which is neither charity or subsidy...
...Mr...
...4, Power te take ever, whew aad if necessary, industries which render services necessary for the induotrial and social life of the nalisn...
...During the war we have grown accustomed ro the direction of our national economy with an eye to serving a national purpose rather than for the sake of private pronto...
...Lewis declared that cooperatives caa soU only to itockholder members, which hi untrue...
...Much investigation has been going on and many dtf.nite proposals have been drawn up by governmental bodies, by trade union and Labor Party bodies and by other individuals and organizations...
...I am convinced that technologically the mining industry is entering upon a new stage In its history...
...VnAer the conditions of norma), peaceful living, these resources must be made to serve the highest standards of the life of our people rrnrtead of merely satisfying the demands of the war machine...
...I refuse to accept its inevitability...
...Why should We compete...
...tee war •f 1*11 IS At tbat time British soldterx yearned, not only to to back home, but, in particular, to go bark to the old time*, to the old ways...
...The most rapid advances in centralization were made during period* of Republican rule...
...These things may be good...
...There is only one comfort...
...Cowden, its president, who was personally maligned in the syndicated column...
...In the midst of war we have developed «i rh a productive rapacity as has heretofore been pictured only by our more imaginative experts...
...All of the doings of the Roosevelt Administrstion were pictared as bureaucracy, regimentation, federalization...
...Lewis charges that the consumer cooperatives are exempt from taxes...
...Te accomplish the traasitioa, the central direction of industrial and economic policy moat bo in the hand* of the state...
...Both of these statements are false, the Cooperative League contends...
...Worse than that- we •hall be creating the conditions which will give us a new war...
...The savings which cooperatives return to their members or which the members democratically vote to invest in capital is not income and therefore not subject to income taxes...
...We shall go bock to peace, but we shall look forward toward a bettor civilisation...
...tame aad UMfil to expressing Um mood and responding to the expertaNMM of the ¦¦¦¦It...
...3. Effective management of such Industries as are by nature, or have become by development, monopolistic in rbaracter...
...The problems connected with this industry include all those of which we usually think under the headings of electricity, gas, power, fuel...
...In labor's reoperation, mteraatioaallv...
...TPHIS brings me to the mining industry, with which, as miner and mine union official, I have been so long associated...
...There ia a sharp contract between what ie happening now and what took place (tonne...
...Apparently no attempt was made to check these facts for Mr...
Vol. 27 • June 1944 • No. 24
