"Crimes Against America"
Lewis, Marx
"Crimes Against America" Strikes vs. Profits By Marx Lewis TlUK discussion which hu raged, particularly in the press, since it was learned that it was General Marshall who was eMUOmilbis for...
...During the same twelve months the Christian Mobllixers had 42 outdoor meetings and 28 indoor...
...Congressman Smith, for example, who is joint author of the Smith-Connally bill, has been fighting labor and labor organizations for years...
...If there were not a single strike in America, that would not prevent the Nasi propaganda machine from picturing the United States torn with dissension and beset with strife...
...Most of the Nasi broadcasts do not have the remotest resemblance to the truth...
...Moreover, the theory Upon which General Marshall proceeded, that the Nasi propaganda machine may be at a Joss for material to strengthen German morale unless they get it from the strike threats of American labor, discloses a failure to comprehend how the Nasi propagands machine operates...
...An Editorial— The Herfands Report IN his 170-page report, Commissioner of Investigations Hei lands has given us just the Information which we need about vandalism In ths City of New York...
...But why should this be...
...The record of American labor in avoiding strife during the war is better than that of Knglsnd, where the wsr situstion for a long time was more critical thsn it has ever been here...
...labor's war mm* a* a...
...But it may be true, as is alleged, that there is growing sentiment against labor, which is reflected in the changed attitude of labor's fair-weather friends in Congress...
...In the region from which these youngsters come the1 Christian Front hold 86 outdoor meetings and 7 indoors during 1980...
...These are Congressmen who have never dared to call their souls their own, and who have no convictions that a few votes, if they can be deciding votes, would not change...
...for example, the press had "played up" hslf m prearmmutt^Cto'nntaatic aronts corporations are pitsagush after taxes, ss they hare the four rents an heur or the eight cents sn hour thst working people are trying to obtain to meet in-craammt^lMm*>eSam> the soldiers week* bars sn entirely different picture of who is really prof im*slm*a«'llmlJ...
...If the columnists >and the Congressmen were to dwell on the 80,000 workers who have lost their lives in the mines, mills and factories of the country since Pesrl Harbor, and the 7,000,900 workers who have been injured during the saps* pasted and ha the name places, because they were working Italia* gad intensively for victory, instead of crHhnsamf, tabor» part in the war, the soldiers and the pttbfht fUnetally would know who are their real friends ant sUWrUdcs in arms at home...
...Thst creates labor's dilemms...
...Only three of then go to ithuleh...
...It is entitled to it it certainly needs the friendship af "tfei dimming soldiers who csn easily become, Ss they did after' the Isst wsr, the bulwark of reaction In our country...
...But the agencies by which such support snd sympathy can be obtained are in the hands >:r under the influence of labor's enemies...
...Nothing has happened since to change this fact...
...A large proportion of them are truants from school...
...Gegwjpl MajahfJl's statement it should be recalled, was afcst ttraata- of a rail and steel strike delayed victory sin months, would east hundreds of thousands of lives, and was the 'damnedest crime against Amerfua/' Since there were no strikes, and therefore no actual interruption of either the production or the distribution of the things needed by our fighting men on their Is/ flung battlelines, but only threats of strikes, the question arises...
...Then it says t;> labor: "See, the public resents four attitude...
...Stories are spun out of the whole cloth...
...In effect, it says, **Yon must content yourself with seeing you and pours suffer under grave abuses and the dlilalMiMI amf|ude of bureaucrats—otherwise the puttie will SofmVmn you...
...It wants, It needs, public support and sympsthy...
...In fact, that is exactly what the Nazis did, when there ware no real strikes here...
...First of all, Hitler did not...
...t the eopense of thf>^af|MamT^mmap>tef t sesisst If the headlines were to tell as glaringly of the effort thst is"now being to permit billions of dollsr* msde by wsr contractors to escape the renegotistioa act as they told of the strike threats of the railroad workers and the steel workers to obtain some fraction of the increased wealth these workers arc creating and giving to others, the public Impression of lsbor, and capital, would be different...
...IresricaMy enough, it turned eat that it was not IshssTs desasasm and Unmans, hat General Mar shell's etatssasat aa to what those demands and tarests would do to us in deferred victory and lost lives, that supplied the Nasi propaganda machine the material it used...
...The traditional enemies of labor saw their oppeiiauUy, and they mad* the moat of it They were joined, of course, by the Communists, who denounced labor for threatening the strike...
...Thus, not labor, hat our military leaders who launched an attach on labor, were responsible for what damage wsa done...
...Ignorant kids from slum hams* hanging around meetings held by perverted adults for the purpose of rousing race hatred...
...We get exact facts about 52 poor, perverted kids who beat up Jews arid deface synsgogueti He tells us who they are, boar they got that wsy, and whst sort of homes and neighborhoods they come from...
...32 com* from families on relief...
...An investigation reveals that the Natl propaganda machine scarcely mentioned the subject of the pending wsge disputes...
...What would you expect...
...This phase of the matter can be ended quickly by the Mayor snd the Police Commissioner...
...It was that thsee disastrous results would ensue "if" Hitler were successful in capitalising on strike threats in Amer-ica, since it mould stiffen resistance in his satellite tsausMiss and thus delay victory and cost lives...
...As President William Green pointed out in his reply to the National Commander of the American Legion at the last A reconvention, labor has the same right to be guilty of shortcomings end imperfections as have the members of churches, of fraternal organizations, of indus-trialists, of the Legion itself...
...p>„sv -aii istj ¦ ¦ ^ ,al.im 1 _ - ---, ,d| nlil baixu Tft—_ map ^a^m»m our police mczion im lufjcrTicimU ¦ctjern...
...47 lire in depressed areas, slums...
...I^HE record of American labor in this war is phe-nomenal...
...There are some exceptions...
...It is too much to bstieve that oar military, leaders lack suchr-com-prehension...
...No one contends that labor's record has been perfect...
...It is safer to assume that their real purpose was to hit at labor —in this case below the belt * • * *I*mE Nasi propaganda machine does not need news aa to actual occurrences, here or elsewhere, for piopeasuJa material...
...That—ami not labor's threat to strike unless it » is dealt with fairly and justly—may well be the . "damnedest crime against America...
...These old-part y enemies of labor and the Communists did not reach On same conclusion for the same reasons: the former are the spokesmen for the National Asasthftitll of Manufacturers and all nil»sra who resent the ides that workers cast-ever be anything but hewers ef wood and drapers of water J the Utter are thinking of Russia and what Beams needs to win, even if American labor should be destroyed in the process...
...You have a lot of poor...
...Out of 2,372 Nasi broadcasts made between December 26 and January t, the period when this issue was most prominent, only 36 broadcasts made any reference at all to these lsbor disputes...
...There is, in addition, the record of the police...
...This is not merely the claim of organized labor: it is admitted by every responsible leader connected with the war effort...
...Profits By Marx Lewis TlUK discussion which hu raged, particularly in the press, since it was learned that it was General Marshall who was eMUOmilbis for the dis parsging remark* abaot labor, has reveals*- the fuM extent to whie% ah* fen am at reaction are prepared to go to af|Jk>htb«r the goat for Whatever ineon-venieruia»j>M) h*» brought to the American people...
...The rabble-lousers give political direction to the kids' lust for adventure, to what would otherwise be sheer mischief or disorderly conduct Police measures will give some prossaMsskSsmlnce the outward evidences of our sham...
...But Wags |sf stay just about as they art until dmmf- XBkjjft their parents have decent homes, decent jobs, deasnt lives...
...Not only gunning for labor, but for President Roosevelt, the New Deal, and every measure that sought to lighten the burdens of the plain people during the past ten years...
...the average ia 17...
...You must yield...
...In what way, by what process, could these threats have brought about the disastrous results attributed to them...
...Yet, the truth msy out— if It be thst truth crushed to earth will rise sgsin...
...The no-strike pledge which labor made shortly after Pearl Harbor has been kept 99.9 per cent...
...t But first the press creates a hostile pubfie epiaioii...
...31 have police records...
...J aw vm yvungp persons studied are from 9 to 22 years of age...
...Who could refute or contradict them ? x It is fair to conclude, therefore, that the reason for the attack on labor was not due to the dangers resulting from a strike threat, nor even to fear that without Such threats, the Nasi propaganda machine would be at a leas for material with which to feed the gullible German public, but to a desire to arouse publio sentiment against labor...
...IT must be remembered that moat of these attacks, especially those coming from Congressmen and Senators, and including the attacks that are most vicious, have not been brought on by...
...The "if" In this esse turns out to be very important...
...They so testified during the discussion on the Smith-Connally bill...
...The anawtsr to this question came from others who were present when the statement was made by General m^tJhalL That answer qualifies materially the statement Imputed to General Marshall...
...Congressman Plumley, of Vermont, who became hysterical when Marshall's statement was made, has been gunning for labor for years...
...But, ss he ssid, it wss an amazing record of achievement and adherence to a pledge for imperfect men opersting in an imperfect . ! ¦ —I S WUTKU BM if, notwithstanding this amazing record, the persistent clsmor of the press and some public officiate is beginning to make an impression on the soldiers and the public generally, it is due to the ilmtoikiiiiit sad fslsifloations of that record, most of them mad* deliberately and maliciously...
...What we learn is that the cops on the bast and the sergeants at the desks took the whole matter rather lightly...
...In recent months these traditional labor baiters have been joined by a number of others who were probably never more than fair-weather friendjj of labor, but who went along with President Roosevelt when it seemed that it was the most popular thing to do and was the best way of ensuring their own reelection...
...For this the press is primarily responsible...
...Add one more item...
...Put fit two sorts of facts together...
...An examination of the records of the Congressmen who now insist that war conditions require s shackling of labor and restrictions upon its rights will show that with some exceptions they have always been enemies of labor and always wanted to shackle labor, and tried to do so in the measures they proposed in Congress...
...The cltlsens are in a mood to demand cleaner and straighter action...
Vol. 27 • January 1944 • No. 3
