It Just isn't Logical
Harding, T. Swann
It Just isn't Logical By T. Swann Harding ASTEREOTYPED editorial haa been appearing in all aerte of newipapcr* ever since we (at into L ike war. It is reprinted every time there i* a atrik*. The...
...Real injustices'should be eliminated...
...One of the main objections to sit-down strikes wss the fear that the mschinery and equipment might be injured...
...Without the worker there is no capital...
...thsy just wanted a dole...
...In the first place strikes are normally railed for some cause, some injustice, real or fancied...
...AnTI-RACIAL bias such as anti-Semitism, and pretentions of superiority such as "aryanism," are inimical to the true interests of our people...
...The boys at the front may not realise that now, last ska boys who marsh bom* are always very different fallows from the boy* amid the torture* and dangers af th* front lino...
...They had no knifs out for anybody...
...They earnestly believed that prosperity was just sronnd th* corner because they plaintively yearned to find it ther...
...Don't they know there's a war on T Soldiers, sailors, and marines can't strike...
...The worker's health, well-being, and general psychology are of the utmost importance...
...But this very pivotal position imposes upon the worker, upon labor in general, the need for leadership in the fields of liberalism, whether in thought or in religion, or in economics...
...Hence the strikers are essentially lighting under adverse condition* for th* welfare of the boys at the front To imagine that dark and -bacar* hostilities naturally generated in the minds of th* boys when at the front will remain latent there when they com* home is to fly in the face of history...
...Why ar* wa ae reluctant to b* logical...
...They fait net at all revolutionary They last wanted a few dollars to- tide them aver...
...According to spokesmen for th* family-si**" farmers here, several Congressmen are considering an investigation of the whole land disposal program unless Clayton proposes a program satisfactory u> the small farmer...
...If anything, being a white-collar guy, I should be prejudiced against unions...
...They believed in the American system...
...It is fruitless to cite origin...
...This statement immediately aroused a howl...
...They had fought to keep It just as it was and joblessness and breadlines form ss integral part of thin American system they loved...
...For th* editorial appesis repeatedly...
...They too had grown hostile to striking workers while they were in uniform st starvation pay...
...Why doesn't management summon experts in medicine, human relations, and psychology and such other sciences as are appropriate to prevent a strike from breaking as it would prevent machine breakdown ? * * • InSOFAR as labor strikes for just causes, it is doing its bit, during war and when subject to public censure, to produce and maintain better jobs for Johnny when lie comes marching home...
...It is difficult to understand why men and women who live by the sweat of their brows should permit themselves, on occasion, to be persuaded by glittering blandishments of false hope to join groups and movements whose very fundamentals are contrary to the best interest* of labor...
...Yet there is no reason for treating machinery better, than workers...
...But that does not prevent me from seeing the illogic of this composite editorial...
...Management will take the most elaborate precautions to see that the machine equipment is the best to be procured and that it is maintained in running order— i. e. will not go on strike, bresk down, refuse to run, dam up production...
...The question is not whether .. man is a Jew or a Catholic or a Protestant...
...It la quit* obvious that strikes and striker* are unpopular bora as wall as at th* front It take* considerable rourag* to By in th* face of at"'' adverse public opinion...
...The stride* which wo have made in the few centuries of man's recorded existence, great as they ar* in relation to what has gone before yet small in prospect of progress to come, are largely the achievements of the worker...
...Labor is as much a part of the factory's necessary equipment as is the mschinery...
...Then Jamas G. Patton, presi-j dent of the National Farmer* Union, charged thst j Clayton's action would result in domination of the j program by the National Association of Real Estate Boards and result in helping the big landlord ! interests...
...No meeker men existed than these...
...Fear Huge Grab of U. S. Land by Speculators j Washington, d. c —Fear that land speculator*, i hug* banks and insurancs companies will grab most ] of the 8 million acres of farm land that will be dis-i posed of after the war was voiced this week by i progressive farm and labor groups, i Th* farm land is under the supervision of W. l I Clayton, Surplus War Property Administrator, who ; announced that the land would be disposed of j through the Reconstruction Finance Corporation...
...For union labor will have to reckon with the wrath of our boy* when they return from the front...
...whether he is white or black...
...Vet if labor is *ver to batter its eon-dittos, it must do so now whan factorial hum...
...whether he earns his living at manual labor or as a white collar worker...
...In the sense that laboring men understand the term, 1 have never worked in my life...
...Labor's stake is the greatest for the working man is the mass of mankind...
...The lsnd will either be sold as part of a real estate speculation program or else will be dumped in uneconomic units that doom the owner to failure or foreclosure from the start," Patton charged in a statement carried by Labor Press Associates...
...i hope that he will be ever alert to the responsibility of maintaining them unblemished snd progressively brighter and more securely...
...For th* boys at the front are waiting for the plane engine*, or gun mounts, or radar part* these guys should be fabricating...
...It is assumed they were wrong, and they are letting our boys down...
...By sow it ia beginning to make ms tired and I should like to rant a little about it Th* editorial habitually runs to the effect that a new Strike has just broken out involving so many hundred* •i thousands of workers who ought to know bettor to let our boys down...
...Engineering and inechsnical experts are...
...It would mean beginning starvation at a new level of solvency...
...In striking daring wartime labor know* It accept* the onus...
...I just wouldn't know, but I'd like to...
...Many of them freely admitted to me that their share of th* bonus weald merely enable them to y off their debts —bat then they could start even again, and their face) beamed aa If that meant something...
...The story of the treacherous enslavement of millions of workers in Germany, in Czechoslovakia, in Hungary, in Italy and in France, the direct result of fascist exploitation, is an historic record written in blood and tears wheh every worker throughout the world should memorize as a caution and a warning of what befalls those who, in greed and avarice, forego the basic tenets of democracy...
...whether he is a doctor of philosophy, or went to work from the fourth grade...
...Later they had been beaten from pillar to post, jobless, hungry, and unwanted...
...It cannot hope to do so during depressions...
...The tailoring groups in benighted Germany that in a moment of economic and national hysteria permitted the rise of Hitler and his mob by treading upon the cracking backs of minorities builded only to a climax of self-destruction...
...These men had no grandiose plana for collectivism and security for all They had no particular animosity towards labor...
...In either case management is usually at fault...
...Anyone who saw and interviewed the bonus army which invaded Washington som* year3 ago as I did—knows batter...
...Why do we tad facta so repulaive...
...But management does this regularly...
...The fact that it ia wholly illogical never seems to occur to editors and publishers ef newspapers...
...where educational facilities are available to all aad where religion i* not a matter of tolerance but ef God-given right...
...contamination by it leads only to rot and decay...
...Any movement that seek* to set man against man, race against race, is false and poisonous...
...In fact I am even getting sick and tired of it...
...Labor's stake in the present conflict is not only to win the war, but to insure, by ita own participation that in the peace that follows, thst svery one will be recognized ss s full-fledged member of a democratic society where justice is for all...
...In response to this criticism, Clayton has stated j that the Government will follow a policy of selling surplus real estate in family-size parcels to farm purchasers who will cultivate the land themselves...
...Labor cannot afford to be bigoted...
...Narrowness numbs ths mind...
...There you have it, th* last psrt in almost pur* journalese...
...In final desperation, when you might have supposed their discontent would have been at Its height, grown toxic and corrosive with ike years, they marched on Wasb-isnrtee, What did they want...
...In view ef these facts it sees** to aa ksmbl* onlooker Hkc me that republication ef that perennial editorially constitutes shameful waste ef time, paper, and technical and literary skill, If say...
...The j Washington Poet pointed out' that the RFC knew , "nothing about farming" and was the worst agency I to handle the problem...
...Fascism, which must be exterminated snd its very roots pulled up and destroyed, strangles labor and every concept of progrea* and freedom for which th* working man has toiled through the centuries...
...But where is the technical staff to attend these matters...
...I have been part of management at times and 1 know by experience how very faulty it can be...
...They were perfectly willing just to stick around in penury and take their chsrfces in the good old way of free American rugged individualists...
...The worker has these precious rights within his control...
...The editorial concludes that labor is sowing a harvest of hat* and hostility for postwar days...
...The justice of labor's action is never considered at all...
...I never belonged to a union...
...The really good farm land will be sold at prices I bid up to a point where it will be impossible for it | to yield a return from farming that will enable the j owner to pay out," Patton said...
...Fancied ones seldom if ever appear under competent, professional management...
...Management will freely sdml this yet insists upon exercising greater rare about the machines than about the men...
...They had no yen to kit of union labor...
...Labor dare not be narrow, tabor commits slow suicide when it is shortsighted...
...What counts is whether he is a good citizen, liberal in recognizing the right of his neighbor to worship as he sees fit, to esrn a decent living honestly, and to educate his children, all in peace and dignity and with regard to similar rights in his neighbors...
...But management refuses to take the same attitude towards workers, and that is illogical...
...How can labor be so selfish, and short-sighted ? Next some war correspondent is quoted who tells how violent the boys at the front become whenever they hear af a Mi ike...
...Democracy is a principle without which labor is slavery...
...Those men also had bean in a war...
...Labor Must Show the Way By Harold L. Ickes Secretary ef the interior THE war which we are now waging is in large measure labor'* war...
...Neither racial not religious intolerance can be supported by labor if the working man's future, regardless of his race or creed or color, is to be safeguarded and kept on that high plane which we in America have so long striven to -achieve...
...where economic opportunity is enjoyed by all...
...Unless job standards, wages, and work condition* are kept at as high a level as possible, Johnny will com* marching home to mada work, breadlines, starvation wag**, and unhealthful working conditions...
...called at the first wobbling of a machine to prevent it from breaking down...
...Now no one could be further removed from labor affiliations and associations thsn I am...
...Bigotry begets besstisliiy...
Vol. 27 • August 1944 • No. 35
