Capital Comment
STOUT, JONATHAN
Capital Comment By JONATHAN STOUT Somervell Smears Labor To Stymie Reconversion WASHINGTON, D. C—The Army Service Forces In tit* United States Army is an organization within an organisation,...
...Paul and I had a unique tie in common...
...Bye, bye, for now, Mom...
...Prof..* HJMif Praefifcf/e« Flf.re This week that story Mew up in Somervell's face, fcat of the dirt behind that atory was •ncavered Mblirly this week when twa oMcials ef the War Pr*-uetion Board—V...
...Will write again soon...
...Also, it serves his immediate purpose...
...One of the facta in the tire situation is that tho Army's orders for tires have comprised only 40 per cent of the industry's output...
...A low unemployment compensation rate will help such a drive, by forcing workers into a position where they will have to accept the lower wages that industry wishes to establish...
...The Army, it was pointed eat, could have ordered more...
...One of the reasons the military brass hats oppose this is because they prefer to ha e a fluid reservoir of jobless labor...
...nd it took a united labor protest and threat of revol to stop him...
...Each worker thrown out of a job would receive compensation based on his previous wages and running, not for a few weeks, but for two years...
...Well all miss him...
...Senator Walter F. George introduced the conservative demobilization bill and it has been reported out by the Senate Finance Committee...
...But it bothered him, he said, that other boys should be laying down their lives for democracy while he served his goddess in safety...
...One of them is wrong and the other is somewhere near right...
...And he picked a parachute regiment...
...One day I tried to talk him out of enlisting...
...Because the functions of Somervell's Army Service F»ree ia to run the industrial production end of tilings for the Ainu in the same way that management runs things for the stockholders of any corporation...
...Mick, leave their jobs because they •¦aft got served in reetaaraats near their work, becaase they an forced to live in hovels which have —as investigators found ia one case only three ••Bets la « whole city Mack...
...Workers are to be treated as human beings and citizens...
...oant of unemployment compensation and secondarily that of Federal versus States Bights...
...Somebody, I said, had to stand guard to keep the totalitarians from creeping Into oar governmental structure, from getting into places where they could sabotage democracy...
...Ia the meantime labor's two vice chairmen in WPB, Joe Keeaan and Clinton Golden, went on a tying trip to Akron to investigate Somervell's charges of tire shortages for the Army dee to maapewer shortages...
...There are some things I'd like to tell you about Paul...
...Its main idea is not insurance but jobs...
...Thst wss how I found the second thing Paul and I had in common—a passionate devotion to democracy and an abiding faith in the plain people of America, It was the latter thing that led Paul to his death In Normandy...
...at Has saiMiae la to atop the plan of WPB Cbair-*toa Donah] Mala en to nana* a beerinatag far a plaaaof —iiiii asanra to) pavae tiase by awrmittian...
...And there it fits in very well...
...Bat hia running mats, Senator Truman, is vigorously supporting the Kilgora Bill, The Republicans, too, have chosen their side...
...Too many things can happen—auch aa becoming captured, etc...
...He volunteered at the outbreak of the war...
...Paul and I achieved it solely by reading, study, i rives ligation snd keeping our eyes and ears open...
...yrnes leads Strattqy On George fill I The other force behind the Somervell farce showed Aj'self on Capitol Hill this week...
...There is in it, as the bill now stands, nothing about industry, about helping industry push up to the required level...
...and . .. good night...
...Aihsctaga of less than 20.000 workers in the foundry ¦fa»t*y Bissau itnstf to the military propagandists for ¦J»»*»*is%sr msg* an exaggerated picture of widespread labor ¦e • • i rbsraiV^ *• av a rsfo Plo Tfc*« are two thmsgs behind the So* -nell farce...
...The unemployed worker would remain a consumer...
...t The »nemy is "hanging on the ropes...
...The Senate is debating two answers...
...It is foreseen by labor leaders here that a/soon aa tho war tads, ar aa noon as n transition begins for the return of workers frees war to peace industry, a management drive wij begin to drive down the level of all wage rates...
...One thing is certain, Mom (he wrote), tha difference between life and death is almost 100 per cent a matter of luck, so far as being in the combat zone...
...anti-Communists whom the Communists tried to force out of the government by accusing them of being Communists...
...If anything should happen, you have my order- to keep your chin np...
...That seems to be what Lieut...
...It finally bothered him to the point of enlisting...
...They get the secret...
...Having millions on such -a meager dole would practically take them out of the market as consumers...
...I pointed out the important and valuable—even If less spectacular—work he was doing for democracy In the Civil Service Commission...
...Production at that rate can go on only if it ia balanced by consumption at a comparable rate...
...Nor has the WPB as yet allotted civilian industry any material...
...Its adoption would be a decision to do next to nothing and to leave that little in the hands of the states...
...The two proposals are signs pointing in opposite directions...
...I don't know how anyone is going to do as well...
...David Saposs, at one time chief economist of the Labor Relations Board and now chief economist of the WPB Labor Division...
...And the top limit is set at $38...
...The battle spearheaded by Senators George and Kilgoie made it clear that the issue at stake was primarily the ar...
...A high unemployment compensation rate, it is pointed out, will hinder such a drive by ensbling workers to hold out for two years...
...And its provision for men thrown out of jobs is, too, conceived in the old end penurious Hoover mood...
...Doing a good job ia the most important thing for me now...
...The struggle over these two bills cannot and ahould not—be kept out of politics...
...I've seen men lying in deep trenches killed by artillery shells which happened to burst directly overhead...
...I would venture to suggest thst Psul Lehman was responsible for clearing more government employees than were fired through his work...
...Senator Walter F. George (D, Ga.l, chairman of the Finance Committee and one of the ' • -tiers of the Southern reactionary bloc, brought before his committee and, with all its liberal members absent, obtained unanimous approval of a bill to take the question of unemployment compensation for laid-off war workers out of the field of federal jurisdiction and leave it entirely to the states...
...Paul won't write again because he was "doing a good job...
...While the Army on the fighting front was carrying on one war, Gen...
...r production figures which are not available to ordi-**f mortals outside the War Department...
...So I'm trusting in your love to watch over me and bring me luck...
...Brehon Somervell, head of the ASF, did this week...
...The unemployment insurance provisions would rover practically all the workers of' the nation In an even and impartial way...
...And my answer is that we are winning because our troops have enough »n munition and guns and supplies to drive forward relenUajafy...
...The sale of stocks of goods and the disposition of government-owned plants would be regulated with an eye to continued and increased production...
...This charge astonished official* in the War Man sewer Commission and the War Production Board...
...Fight for Future Jobs TllK main question before us is that of jobs after the wai...
...Assistant President Byrnes, who once was the Administration's Majority Leader in the Senate and knows the ropes in that chamber, quietly had a conference with Senator George and arranged support for the George measure on a reactionary coalition basis of Republicans snd Southern Democrats...
...It makes labor more docile and it keeps workers from asking higher wages...
...tha ****?mm9*m of efviliaa ismWtry wmitwrnrjwr*weeunsj *sxaa ssnamsry product ishi...
...His attitude toward labor is that 6/ an industrial engineer...
...He always did a good job- And now tha job must be carried on by others...
...We had both achieved a highly sophisticated understanding of Communists and Communist Party without ever having gone through the usual schooling of belonging to Communist-front organisations or of having once been fellow-travelers...
...The George Bill reached the floor first, and the Kilgore Bill has been introduced as a series of amendments...
...The George Bill, introduced by a Democrat, it practically a blueprint of the Republican governors' proposal on Reconversion and Postwar Jobs...
...Paul Lehman...
...Re said the Army lacked even half of its "minimum requirements...
...A" due, he said, to labor shortages...
...The veterans of our gigantic war-work effort are offered a period of gray cold-storage as a reward for a job well done...
...As a further test of the charge of the military brass hats, competent official government circles pointed to the situation in the metal foundry industry...
...tiJMu}, Hit* Such corporation managements, Somervell' likes to see a surplus reservoir of' jobless labor...
...Behind the right one are ranged practically alt* of the northern Democrats and a very few Republicans...
...The Army and Navy brass hsts have never ahown **« slightest interest in correcting this fsulty condition in order to attain higher war production...
...Paul was one of the ace investigators of the Civil Service Commission...
...Behind the wrong answer the conservative Republicans and Democrats are taking their position...
...All the brass ¦ats have done ia howl there ia a labor shortage...
...There were none better...
...Paul's last letter to his mother gives some hint of the stoicism with which he faced the price he knew ha might have to pay for his ideals...
...It is fair to guess that 20.000,000 workers will be released from war jobs and that within a year after the end of the war some 10,000.000 fighting men will come home...
...Capital Comment By JONATHAN STOUT Somervell Smears Labor To Stymie Reconversion WASHINGTON, D. C—The Army Service Forces In tit* United States Army is an organization within an organisation, and, M aometimes occurs in such set-ups, frequently foes its own way...
...Somervell listed shortages in 320 different categories °f supplies...
...To furnish places for any such numbers, we must offer jobs to 15,00(1.000 or 20,00$000 more workers than we have ever employed during peace times...
...And now Psul, who loved democracy with a love no man can surpass, lies in a shollow grate in Normandy...
...It was asked, where are theae jobs in civilian industry to which workers are supposed to be rushing T 8e fsr aa the WPB and W MC know, there are no auch jobs...
...The other reason they oppose it is because their Big Business wsr contractors don't want anybody getting a toe in the door of civilian industry until they are ready to reconvert and to exert the force of their great finanrial power to establish new monopolies...
...Somervell was fighting a aetaoatic war of his own—a war against American workers and for the Big Business war contractors with wham he is closely allied...
...The Kilgore Bill envisions s batter, bigger and mora generous way of going at our basic task...
...Vary weh\ Let us fight along tWs lines...
...It is a sure way of preparing for market collapse aad production stoppage...
...This executive would have the task of regulating the industrial shift from war to peace...
...But General Somervell's mistimed attack on labor hasn't gotten itself untangled yet enough to decide which one ha means...
...He has brought the same attitude to the job he is doing for the Army...
...One of those two sentences is right and the other wrong...
...A great deal has been said and written about government employees who lose their jobs either because of communist or fascist connections as a result of the work of the Civil Service investigators...
...This contradiction *f the Somervell statement was suppressed, it was ""¦•I, after War Department politicians put pressure °" C**«ita I. Wilson, executive vice-chairman of WPB, aid Storey May, head of WPB* Bureau of Planning and Statistics, in which Ba»sie and Kaplan are eraTrying to crawl off this not apot, Somervell took to fae radio and the newsieeU thin week and in the aame speech laid these two contradictory things: 1. There is a serious shortage of "trucks to haul the troops forward, big guns and shells for big guns, tires for our planes and trucks, bombs to drop on the frightened enemy...
...There is only a provision that the states be backed with federal funds »o that they can finance their unem-Dlovment insurance programs...
...And that immediate purpose showel itself within 24 hours after his direful press conference...
...Civilian Officials Answer 4>sey Manpower .Of a piece with the Army's finagling with the truth on war production is the charge of the War and Navy Department politicians that the manpower shortage ia caused by the rush of workers to leave the war industries to seek jobs "with a future" in civilian industry...
...The Kilgore Bill goes at the thing from the other end...
...You rarely hear about the hundreds of cases in which innocent government employees, falsely accused by enemies or malicious persons, hsve hsd their reputations cleared by these investigators...
...c ifWMafsfs JUslfa...
...Proving, of course, that ft can be done...
...Am American ' Dies In Action Last week the report reached Washington of tho death in action in Normandy of Lieut...
...The whole business is really very simple...
...Senator Harley M. Kilgore and Senator James E. Murray drew up the liberal bill and the Senate Military Affairs Committee gave it a vote of approval...
...Lewia Bassie and Irviag Kaplan—submitted their resignationa in pretest •tainst War Department suppression of the real facta of war production...
...These programs reave millions of workers uncovered and provide for those who are covered, doles running from $12 to $22 weekly for varying numbers of weeks...
...The bill introduced by Senator Hsrley M. Kilgors (D., W. Va...
...On the subject of displaced war workers, the Kilgore Bill would authorise uniform un -mployment compensation rates thr ughout tha nation, with payments over a tw>-year period ranging from a minimum of $12 to n maximum of $35 a week...
...because you people here at home supplied litem with enough of the best weapons and tools...
...Assistant President" Byrnes, as he is called in Washington, is the man who you may renumber had the inside track for the White House blessing as Democratic vice-presidential nominee...
...The War Production Board has not yet authorised any civilian industry to resume production...
...The basic requirement is a nation continuously able to buy...
...But by that time it was too late...
...So General Somervell found it very congenial to his tastes to call in the press last week and paint such a dire picture of labor shortages and supply shortages for the Arm y as to make victory over the enemy begin to look questionable...
...The first trusts to business, the banks, the corporations, private investment to start the wheels, It is inspired by the spirit of Hooverism...
...If the Army now finds it hasn't enough tires, the fault is entirely and com pletely Somervell's for riot planning ahead properly...
...They analyze ***¦«# And than they make a confidential memorandum r«P0rt to a limited number of key war agency officials, reliably learned that the Bassie-Kaplan report that supplies of ordnance for the Army ground /orBaa were at high levels in July...
...I've moved through areas where shells were bursting all around and where they hit waa luck and luck alone...
...Saposs by accusing him before the tory southern Democratic Representative Smith of Virginia of being a Communist...
...The Communists tried to frame Dr...
...The fault is clearly not labor's...
...It ia reliably understood that in telephoned pre . Hmiaary reports Keeaan and Golden described the Somervell statements aa completely unfounded...
...Yes, yes, said Paul...
...Separation from a job would not turn a man into a half-fad gray shadow...
...Paul...
...is n over-nil war-to-peace transition measure which would give to a proposed director of war n obilization and adjustmsnt jurisdiction over the entire program of war production, transition and demobilisation...
...The Kilgore Bill looks ahead...
...President Roosevelt has thus far remained aloof...
...He wanted action, he said...
...Right now, while I think of it, I want to caution you not to worry or believe the worst at any report of my being missing in action...
...It proposes that we tackle it together, that we put the nation's braina and credit back of industry, t hat our main effort bis centered on furnishing reel jobs...
...Goodbye...
...I'nder the Kilgore Bill, tha V. S Treasury would reimburse tha States for payments above State rates...
...Pail was a good friend of mine . . . and ha was a good friend of many res Jerk of The New Loader, some of whom probably don't even remember his name...
...Neither of us had ever had even tha remotest connection with anything tainted with Communists or Communism...
...The fact that Negro workers ia the foundries in Haskegon...
...Particularly short, he said, were ammuni-'•«», truck!, tires, guns, artillery, etc...
...Yet, despite the fact that job security is certain to continue high in foundries after the war ends, thia industry is still having a difficult time obtaining man-Power because of their low wage levels, and because tha mdnstry has never adopted the inducements in its lsbor *as*stens policy of offering workers in its low wsge ¦Markets tha prospect of promotion on the job...
...The permanent labor force must approach 60,000,000...
...Some years ago he showed JJew York City an example of how to handle labor as the hard-boiled caar of that city's WPA .tyring the depression...
...We miss him now...
...Here, it was pointed out, is an essential war industry "with a future" in civilian industry...
...Nor is the War Manpower Commission, which has to certify every worker changing jobs these days, supplying any civilian industry with manpower...
...Somervell is an industrial engineer...
...Using t),e Somervell report as his basis for action, War Mobilisation Director James F. Byrnes killed the Nelson plan by giving the War Manpower Commission—which is controlled by the Army and Navy via the White House—a .veto over any increase in civilian manufacture proposed by WPB...
...It would set up a Director of War Mobilization and Adjustment vested with sweeping powers...
...that doesn't Inter •* the Amy anal Navy tones bats...
...What should make Paul's work interesting to New Leader readers is that the preponderant: number of those he helped clear were activ...
...So we used to sit sround and swap talk about such problems...
...Paul waan't drafted...
...It was 24 hours after Senator George beat them to the punch that the Military Affairs Committee met to begin its deliberations on the Kilgore Bill, which has the unanimous support of organized lsbor...
...One such fsmous case was that of Dr...
...the Job of Bassie and Kaplan to make a monthly >rof*e«a report on war production...
...The George Bill looks bark...
...As a Big Business industrialist, Somervell finds this point of view quite congenial to him...
...To employ that many workers, our production must be kept—at least—near the wartime level, which ia far above any point heretofore during time of peace...
...was in the uneasy and worriehVatmosphere created bV—the Somervell press conference that the Seriate Finance Committee met the same afternoon and was able to slip over a fast one on the Senate Military Affairs Committee...
Vol. 27 • August 1944 • No. 33
