That Protest Vote

...His accomplishments have given labor the dignity it was long since entitled to...

...Failing him, we would definitely fail ourselves and those who are to come after...

...It seems cockeyed...

...We shall have the peace that belongs to graveyards...

...CANDIDATE DEWEY promise* that hi* election will giv* us heavenly harmony between the executive and the legislstive branch** of government...

...Dirrrtnr, I'nion Hrulth CtnUr, I.LC.W.V...

...Th» ' I *fie»m on November do** not *eem to me doubtX fat, but when I eeeenre the many and direr** re...

...It has passed plenty of reactionary legislation...

...IF we lived in a world in which decency, gr*titude and truth prevailed, Senator Wagner would have no need of waging a campaign for re-election...

...But- after ail-perhaps It is nothing more than a bad dream...

...This body has the initial say about all labor legislation in the upper house...

...If all the friend* of labor were to join in naming the worst possible man to run the affairs of this committee, they would surely unite on Senator Robert -A...

...So there has always been, at least, a good fight against reactionary measures...

...Thomas does not stand for these views—not so you'd aattee it...

...like Manet's quantum theory to reeoneile individual ran^ness with total predictability Ncthmg has puttied me mere than the discovery that cartel* intellectual*—and here I'm net using- the word laaeii ally mean to east their ballot* for Norman Tjjamsf They are net vetaran member* or adherents at the Jeeialiet Party, who ha** voted the straight ticket M often that a pious regard for their own pa*t deters th«m from doing otherwise tbj, you...

...Per reasons which they no doubt honestly think cogent they are everse t* any far reaching socialization of th* means of production Thomas ardently favor* a*ch socialisation...

...I had to unlearn that, for the truth is that the nearer we come to thinking ef only one thing at a time, the nearer do we come to not really thinking at all...

...President Roosevelt, like President Lincoln in his time, like Prime Minister Churchill in ours, like every chief executive in times ot dire and pressing national danger, is wielding exceptional powers...

...Taft...

...Just by • habit of thought which is Very characteristic of thos* whom, for want of a better name, we call intellectual...

...To the younger people Senator Wagner is known only as the father of the National l.*bor Relations Act...

...Let us send him hark where he* belongs—to the U. S. Senate...

...But, feeling sure that he ha* no chance, they are going to vote for him, notwithstanding the diametric opposition between their views and his on these vital issues...

...while the obsessed ones, losing all sense of proportion and distracted by a haunting fear, are driven into a completely illogical and worse than sterile course of action...

...The Smith-Connally Bill, the Demobilization Bill and the Property Disposal Bill were all bad...

...To have Dewey with a harmonious supporting Congress would be too much to endure...

...In fact, if such world existed, Senator Wagner would not have had an opponent to contest...

...Wagner when he was State Senator and hi* . prpround interest in the well-being of the wage-earners If the State...

...On Election Day w« shall decide whether it is to be nightmare or reality...

...WeLL, they start with a negation...

...Senator Tobey will rule over the Senate Banking and Finance Committee...

...On both these scores, if Thomas had the least chance of election, they would vote against him "with both hands...

...He wilt lie needed to legislate for the returning service men end Women...

...If the Republicans are in the majority in the 7!>th Congress, the man at the head of it will lie the well but unfavorably known Gerald P. Nye, of North Dakota, This is the arch-isolationist of them all It can easily be imagined how he would manhandle a bill to provide appropriations for our participation in the new world organization Or lit the forward-looking citizen picture the future of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee...

...And so again, how do they get that way...

...They are virtuous citizens...

...and voting, right or wrong, is for them an act of civic virtue...

...It was Senator Wagner who made labor's right to collective bargaining the law of the land...

...It becomes *W for interested demagogue* to r»ise a hue-and-cry •g*in»t dictatorship, and honest democrats with singletrack minds obsessed with the horror of Stalinism, are under a psychological compulsion to echo the cry...

...Its present leader is Senator Elbert D. Thomas, of Utah...

...But not for them...

...If Matthew Arnold did nothing else, he is to be remembered for one line—"to see life steadily and see it whole.** And that is just whst these prospective voter* for Thomas have lost the knack of doing...

...George M. Price was director...

...To think is to consider the relations among things, and to think fruitfully i* to consider their relations in process of change...

...They are all-out for vigorou* prosecution of th* war and for an international organisation to enforce peace...

...The reactionaries will have a clear majority...

...Some of them have even been defeated...

...They are dead set vii voting against Roosevelt—only that and nothing more...

...The results of-that investigation can today be found on the statute books of New York in a body of labor legislatin for the protection of the health and the 'safety of our workingmen, women and children of this State...

...At present its doings are presided over by Tom Connelly, of Texas...

...Bill of Rights which would include educational opportunities and medical care...

...So, what to do...

...Social Security laws, such at Unemployment Insurance, Old Age Pension, and the Wagncr-Murray-Dingell Bill now pending in Congress...

...And this, I repeat, is characteristic of the'intellectual whose trade it is to pass judgment on socialpolitical events without the sobering and cheering influence of active participation in the practical activities of sn organized movement working constructively toward a positive aim...

...Plenty of others might be mentioned—reactionaries who will be placed in positions of power by a Republican victory...

...And the President has often used his influence against the worst iniquities...

...For 40 years Senator Wagner fought for the under, dog...

...When I was a schoolboy, we were taught in our textbook of "mental philosophy"" that it is impossible to think of more than one thing at a time...

...You'd expect them, then, to vote for Dewey, which I* the only way they could make their votes count for Roosevelt's defeat...

...But in most cases the leading Democrats have been on the right side...

...ThEY have in past years had their trial marriages or »t least their amourettes with Russian Communism—and, being essentially earnest, honorable, and humane men, they experienced »n agonizing disillusion•nent, from which they have not yet recovered...

...To have Thomas E. Dewey as President would be bad enough...

...By his long year* of devoted service to all that stands for justice and fair play, he has earned our whole-hearted support...

...The people, in such a world, would, regardless of political affiliations, religious faith, color j or creed, be proud to send Senator Wagner back to Washington and thus enable him to serve his fellowmen...

...The Congress which we have now is no shining example of intelligence...

...The President will be with them...

...They becam« so obsessed with fear and hatred of dictatorship that they see it wherever they turn their eyes...

...Robert F. Wagner—Labor's Friend By Pauline M. Newman Ed...

...The difference it that, since th* demagogue* know what they are aiming at (which is certainly not the maintenance of living and functioning democracy), they are able to work deliberately and skilfully for their clearly seen aims...

...What use he would make of his position there at the bottleneck through which legislation must pas* can lie easily imagined...

...Senator Wagner will also be remembered as the able chairman of the important New York Stat* Factory Investigating Commission of which the late Dr...

...km Edi reriol— Nightmare or Reality...

...This committee practically dicates to the House...

...Dewey *is elected along with a Republican Congress all that will be changed...

...But alas...

...Or cast a prophetic eye on the part which the Senate Education and Labor Committee may play in the serene and united doings of a possible Republican Congress...

...Congressman John Taber will see to it that nothing good gets through the House Appropriations Committee...

...And so it goes...

...After all, boycotting an election has on some occasions been considered * form of political demonstration—and not only by Hock Finn's father...

...To realise the seriousness of the danger voters need look at only one very simple thing that will happen if the Republicans gain control of the House of Representative...

...How do they get that way...

...The magnified and multiplied image of that frightful reality makes them blind to all other realities, good or evH, in the actually complex and changing scene...

...At present the chairman is Carter (Mass, of Virginia...

...I think it is...

...Imagine him framing th* measures to implement our entry into the future United Nations Security Council ami introducing them to th* Senate...

...We know that he will stand by and support the policies of President Roosevelt...

...In fact, he is now—despite his having to campaign—sponsoring legislation designed to broaden the G.I...

...They might stay away from the polls and either sit at home, fasting and weeping over their country's transgressions, or "get away from it all" by going to a show or otherwise making merry...

...tiw ,t,jfh v*ri*u* parson* assign for their intention to rat* tbi* w*y or that, I feel the need for something...

...He could hardly foreshadow anything more alarming...

...an esthetic if not an intellectual disgust for the avidity with which Dewey eats his own words, for his eagerness to lie all things unto all men, if by all means he can catch votes, and the cheap vulgarity of his whole campaign, makes it morally impossible for them to line up for him...

...One other point: Senator Wagner will be needed in the U. S. Senate when peace treaties will be coming up for ratification...

...But no such world exists today...

...But if Mr...

...An evil fate has decreed that if the Republicans rule the next Congress thi< very man will serve as chairman of this crucial body...

...So there's only one way out—namely, march into the booth and turn down the lever for the one candidate who opposes everything they stand for, who, stands for everything they oppose, snd who, by years of colloguing with Communists, sneering -at "the bogus democracy of bourgeois parliamentarism" and advocating what he called "workers' democracy," split and crippled the once strong and justifiably proud Socialist Party...

...It is really a horrifying prospect...

...In the Senate the Appropriations Committee naturally occupies a key position...

...Hence we must *ee to it that Senator Wagner is re-elected by an overwhelming vote...

...Instead of Congressman Sabath, of Illinois, Hamilton Fish wilthecome Chairman of the Rules Committee...

...In the midst of future attempts to scuttle the labor movement it will lie the first hurdle for anti-labor Isws...

...His record as a legislator, as a defender of the common man, as a promoter of adequate medical care for all the people and above all—as one of th* finest human beings—entitle him to the vote of every man and woman of this State...

...Some of us, however, remain* ber Mr...

...In a smooth running and harmonious Dewey administration its presiding genius would be none other than II11 am W. Johnson, the same Johnson from California who was so deadly effective in his fight asfuinst the League of Nations...