Comparative Patriotism
Comparative Patriotism ?YKRYTIMK a wildcat strike takes place there it a more-or-less justified outcry against it. But such laboi irregularities arc strictly unofficial. The great union* are...
...It must be clear now even to the most jaundiced eye that it is the working class which is most con-aistently patriotic...
...The questions asked here are why the Russians are permitting the Nazi army to get a breath* ing apell and rush reinforcements against the Allied armies stniggling for a foothold on the Western Front for which the Russians have clamored so long...
...But rather than bring up the wage scale of the foundries, the Administration thinks it can force the workers of the aluminum industry to take jobs in the foundries by closing down the aluminum plants...
...Big business, therefore, is bending every effort to keep free competition and free enterprise out of the postwar civilian production picture...
...De>ji i< aome injustices and inconveniences, the working ponu-Iat i6ti...
...The foundries can use up to about 15,000 additional workers...
...If he does come now, De Gaulle is likely to display the unusual sight of being draped in icicles in Washington in July...
...If this bill la passed in its present form and the President doe* not veto it...
...The subsidy would amount to a comparatively small sura...
...Generally, wages have not kept pace with advancing prices...
...And the credit for it belongs entirely to the Administration, which put it through by Executive Order after Congress refused to enact a labor diaft...
...It is determined to increase msejspiBia ;n every way possible...
...In either case, friends of price control enjoyed the pleasant surprise of seeing the House this week knock out the Bankhead amendment to the price control extension bill which would hare given clothing profiteers an additional f860,000,000 this year...
...The Bankhead amendment has gone • to conference...
...The great union* are against wartime strikes and do everything possible to brill,' them lo an early 'end...
...The most conspicuous of these right now is the drive to break the price front, to burst the dam set up •gainst inflation...
...The Senate had passed the Bankhead amendment, and meat political observer* thought it would sweep through the House...
...It would b the most disastrous ssbolage of our entire war effort that ran be imagined...
...They don't need to...
...which keeps the flow of supplies going to our fighting forces, has endured no great hardshipr...
...In the House, every greedy lobby has joined in the hacking away of price control...
...The additional profits will go into the tills of manufacturers and dealers...
...Price* will jump Wage* will have to be rained...
...be, because the civilian needs for aluminum pot* and pans alone are enough to keep the industry going at fall employment...
...The N*z«mrmy lies before the Russians on the Eastern Front...
...Bu on the whole, the supply of consumption goods has remained within reach of the average rilixens pocketbook...
...The explanation given here for De Gaulle's action is that he was trying to force American recognition of his committee as the official French government...
...Perhaps the Communists who were busy so long explaining to us that we should pass np the Japs and eon* centrate on the Nasi* can now explain to us why hey are passing up the Nasi* and concentrating on the Finns...
...William Smith White, AP war correspondent, quoted Major Edward Wagenaar, commanding officer on aa American hospital ship, as saying bitterly: "Our men over there have told us of French women who get so much a head for killing Yanks...
...Everyone above » third-grade moron knows that such plans cannot wait •ntil they dust off the peace table...
...It is reported that 45 American and British liaison officers with Tito lost their lives...
...Council ami the food manufacturers and dealers •re threatening to sabotage and blackmail their country...
...Fred M. Vinson, Kconomic Stabilisation Diierlor...
...The pretended purpose of (his piovision is to advance the prices paid to cotton farmers...
...But having started the toboggan ajMs, the problem now is to maintain the second stage Itrtl without letting things dip below that mark...
...Ami there is no plan at hand by which the obvious tea he accomplished aensibly and efficiently, even at that late date...
...With the exception of some wildcat strikes, the unions have kept their no-strike pledge...
...British collaboration and support of the Communist propagandist* I* what gave the imaginary Tito legend it* wide circulation...
...Breaking down price controls will throw our entire home-front economic structure out of kilter...
...The deflation of Tito at this inopportune moment ha* caused an awkward situation...
...Here is a case where la shift to civilian production is justified...
...0n* of the point* of confusion is that, of the swing lark frees war production to civilian production, part u jaatiaed and part U unjustifled...
...But, no, that's not permitted...
...Official reports received here from General Eisenbower's headquarters ascribed impaired cooperation between the French population and the Allied armies to the fact that General De Gaulle pulled out th* French liaison officers who had been scheduled to accompany the American and British troops...
...And the only hope lies in the fact that Ha hackers of the Murray and Kiigore bills this week were entertaining suggestions of getting together and working eut their differences into one bill...
...la the meantime, we have the following silly situsttoas: While |the Administration, through the latest War Maaeewsr Ceaas*ie*ion order, clamp* down aa astatic labor conscription plan .,„ the nation, ssdhacts and cancelled orders in the mas* prodactiea war industries are facing thousands of walker* with ••employmeal...
...Washington circles ate now alive with questions a* to how it was possible for 12,000 Nazis to wipe out th* thousands of Partisans Tito has claimed to have under his command...
...The labor union will, in e»eel...
...In addition, provision has lieen made to permit court injunctions to hold up OPA orders and for court review which might postpone the enforcement of an order until the war is finished...
...This guarantees such a profit to cotton goods manufacturers as will force a 10 per cent increase in pikes...
...De Gaulle was scheduled to come- to Washington to discuss lllie problem of recognition with President Koosevelt...
...And, finally, the bill now provides violator* of OPA orders may escape with little or no penalty...
...2—As t result, people generally, and industry partieslarr/—Ud in this movement by the forces of big business—are turning their eyes toward of big bsaines*—arc turning their eyes towsrd J—A tremendous pressure is building up on this ¦ subject hi Coagreea, in the War Production Board, Ik* Army, the Navy, the Maritime t'otnmiasion, thv PeJitics—industrial polit ica—is mixed up in this up" to its eyeballs...
...The foundries could get ail the men they need if they raised their starvationwage scale...
...Amendment after amendment has been adopted to raise profits and increase prices...
...The National...
...Official circles here coupled with De Gaulle's action* the reports of American correspondents at th* front that an undetermined number of Frenchmen and French women have been acting as snipera under Nasi order...
...The chief reason is that It is a low-wage industry...
...One amendment outlaws any ceiling prices on agricti|tur»l products even after they are processed...
...l o n g h e a d Steal O e f e a f .d Political circles are trying to decide whether it was the approaching November elections or the certainty that President Roosevelt would veto the bill and therefore force Congress to remain in session through the political convention period...
...The latter lias the endorse-*»t of AFL, CIO, and Railroad Brotherhoods...
...You'd be surprised at the number of casualties that were hit by women...
...Tito teoend Deflated Despite frantic British efforts to keep it intact, th* phony Tito legend is now shattered to bits by tti* authenticated reports received in official quarters in Washington of the Nazi paratroop raid several weeks ago...
...The letMa] (rem the first to the second stage, therefore, is Jsjtllii and healthy...
...For instance, because of decreased need for aluminum for war purposes, we have closed down »!*>' aiinuni plant...
...Untin piny m en t, therefore, becomel the A dm in titration'I mailed p»t behind itt labor contcription plan...
...That pledge wa* given with the diatine understanding that the price line sis to be held It is certain that such assladjiistntents will ecroi as will disastrously interfere with the maniifae lure and shipment of arsse and supplies to o» men desperately Ighting on battle line* stretrhini from the Pacific to France and Italy...
...And some of it lias been expressed in editorials thi* week in the Washington newspaper...
...Several important things hart turned up in that picture...
...In jL Meantime, our august statesmen have been leisurely gpttmc ami thinking about the natter while confusion | m keen piling up a t their doer...
...And the reason for ^-Jkbs a* . . «—Big business is determined to maintain its Industrial monopolies...
...One is the Murray hill, the ***** the Kilgore bill...
...Aa the Washington Star observed editorially, the Finniah campaign is one which will occupy the Rmsian* a long time and will sidetrack them from (to quote the Communists' own second front propaganda) the main enemy—the Nazi...
...there is a well-nigh universal attitude that everything's nearly over...
...Here in a contraat which should be publicised by every labor and liberal paper in the country...
...are fully aa important aa the obvious one...
...Twe bills on this subject have been wandeiing around ¦m halls of Congress...
...draws attention to the fact that this end will not be served...
...There is every reason to take a serious view of that treed . . , deeper and more complex reasons than the iitbet obvious one of keeping a full supply going to ear armies in France, Italy and the South Pacific...
...For instance: i—Victory is completely taken for granted...
...be released from their no strik pledge...
...Some sections of the working class have suffered because of this lag...
...It is now accepted here thet the two American officer* who returned to Washington from lite'* headquaters a couple of month* ago were telling the bald truth in report* that Tito'* Partisan Army ia mostly an imaginary one, winning imaginary battles against the Nasi* m the fertile imagination* of Communist propagandists...
...Why D i d Russians itort D r i f t Against Flaw Now...
...our whole economy will be thrown into contemn...
...The Senate passed the .bill to extend the authority of OPA with amendments that opened wide the gates to inflation...
...It doesn't make as***, dee* it...
...Why the shortage in that industry...
...ffk* Instance, getting our war production into high **«r teak more initial effort, manpower and materials Eg- |a Beaded te maintain it in high gear...
...t, reconversion plans have been batted around in frnfress and in administrative agencies for over a fnr, with nothing to show today for all that thought •««»t increasing confusion...
...Thit iroiild wot hart hopp'nrd without tjftrtnt price eotttiol ond ration hi g. We are witnessing now an all-out effort on the part of war profiteers to wreck the Office of Price Administration...
...One of the most im-aertsst is that the immediate effect of the new western front on the home front has been the accelerates* of the shift from war production toward civilian JNWductiM...
...Senator Wagner is authority /or the statement that these concerns are now reaping profit* nine times as high as those which they received before the war...
...But on the other side, the employers' aide, there are constant drives against the welfare of the nation, led by the highest chiefs and powered by the support of great and well-organized bodies...
...It is the profiteers who are willing to unile...
...Prices of oil and oil products are also to be allowed lo skyrocket...
...Capital Comment By JONATHAN STOUT Chaos in Reconversion fjf**»INt;TON, D. C—On the basis of fuller re-aerts, there's * complete picture now of what effect (¦•invasion news has had...
...Mooed Confusioo 8*try child over the age of ten has understood since ?be outbreak of the war the necessity of planning a tutern to the peace without needlessly making it iMfher for a war-burdened people...
...The story appears to be that a Nazi paratroop division, consisting of about 12,000 men, surprised Tito's headquarters in Crotia and wiped out the entire force with the exception of Tito and officers who managed to escape with him to Rati, Italy...
...Some of it has been vocal...
...And the fat boys •rt laying the groundwork for that right now...
...Let him look at the contrasting pictures presented by the trade unions and profit-hungry lobhiex in Washington...
...And now the Russians are developing their feelers to Mikhailovitch for a deal which wlB leave Prime Minister Churchill hanging way out mm the limb...
...Ostensibly, the reason given out is that worker* are needed in the metal-casting foundries...
...Hi dieii country's effort at this crucial moment...
...The British forced King Peter of Yugoslavia to dismiss his pro-Mikhailovitch cabinet and Constantin Fotich, hi* Ambassador to the United States...
...Thousands of aluminum workers are jobless...
...And Mr...
...leer e a s e d Opposition # • 0 * <*oell* Opposition to De Gaulle visibly stiffened in Wash, ington this week following revelations that just shortly before H-Hour of D-Day General De Gaulle suddenly called off French participation in the invasion by cancelling the orders of several hundred French officers scheduled to land with the first waves of Allied troop...
...The increase in prices necessitated by th« Bankhead amendment will mount up to many hundreds of millions which will be taken from the pockets of consumers...
...Four Nazis divisions in Finland are not the Nasi army...
...Opening of a Russian drive en Finland instead of On the Nasi* ha* caused a lot of sharp eyebrow-raising here...
...Vinson explains that if farm prices should be raised, it ran be done directly and at slight cost by means of a subsidy...
...Hence the whole problem of cutbacks and reconversion remains planless, chaotic, and in-••herent , . . and this in reflected in, our man •ewer situation, which is equally plsnless and (haotic as an inevitable result...
...Joblessness is the gimmick that makes it work...
...And the less obvious reasons, believe me...
...Here is something for every citixeu to contemplate...
Vol. 27 • June 1944 • No. 25
