Transcontinental Impressions
WILLIAMS, HOWARD Y.
Transcontinental Impressions Home Front Issues —1944 By HOWARD Y. WILLIAMS TMt or title by MM field director of Hio Union for Democratic Actio* iimi ¦f> kit observations Of TOO couatr y, follow...
...Hsrrison Spangler had better not count too much on a trend...
...The Committee on Economic Development ia playing skillfully on this interest, but no really constructive plan is being worked out by industry...
...I ledum on homo front politics has played lhe "•"d* ef Republican jtistetii" and will prove fatal to progressive hopes in 1944 if it if not abandoned tor an aggressive campaign on basic issues...
...Farmers arc receiving a largei share of the national income this year than they have ever received 1 ney are net yei receiving too run share that they are entitled to, how-over, and we must show them that only a program of fall employment can attain thia end...
...Workers la the long-hour, high-pay jobs are not showing any interest in politics, and will probably absent themselves from the polls m 1944, as they did ia 1941 and 1948, unless the Democratic pollticos put the Republicans on the snot by carrying the Aght to them on the crucial problems involved in demobilisation and reconversion, problems that will become increasingly acute in the months ahead...
...Soldiers are greatly interested in the bill's provision for 24 weeks' unemployment compensation for them, should they need it This bill should serve as another major isauo in the coming election...
...The Republican Party cannot stand up under the atrain of a 1944 campaign fought on these issues, in which it will be forced to defend the record of the Republican representatives in Congress snd make known Its sttitude toward the pressing problems Involved in securing full employment, social security and lasting peace in the post wsr world...
...Thoussnds of workers who have si ready been laid off in war plants in many localities are keenly aware of the possibility of another depression and they will be reluctant to permit the party of Herbert Hoover to try again where it failed so dis-aatrously before...
...Leaders of the furm bloc in their desire for huge profits have deliberately striven for inflation but have deceived the small farmers as to then true aims...
...In Montana, these groups resented an attack upon the bill sent out by the director of the State Unemployment Compensat ion Commieeion on official stationery...
...Then there is a growing...
...If thia is not dona, it is quite possible that the Republican strategy of sidestepping snd soft pedalling issues, of obstructing positive action in Congress, leaving the Administration to incur the blame, will succeed...
...This' is rank isolationism...
...Every treaty we have ever signed, those for arms limitation, for international cooperation, etc., has to some extent limited our sovereignty...
...They have no thought of using the new plants for production of consumers' goods, such as material and equipment for houses to meet the great demand after the armistice...
...In California, the executives of the aircraft industry have sold their junior executives on the idea thst the moment the war ia anded, there must be general layoffs of workers, .with only the retention of those who can be uaed for private production of aeroplanes in the post-wsr period...
...Kolh federal and state action in this matter would get great support from the common people...
...The full Employment Issue ¦ IBF.I \ I and labor organization ia proceeding realistically on a precinct basis, with campaigns to register the liberal vote, and with plana under way for mass meetings with Wallace and other New Deal speakers, and for state conferences to press for adoption of forth right progressive platforms...
...Taxation is another issue which strikes home to the voter...
...The winning of the war as soon as possibli and a permanent peace loom large in the minds of the voters...
...With a high general level of prosperity leading to a widespread restive-ness under wartime controls, there ia s conservative trend away from the party in power, but already fissures are apparent under the surface optimism...
...One resolution that was passed called for international cooperation without limitation of sovereignty...
...Progressives in s state conference, opposed to such unjust taxation, determined to make this a major issue...
...Progressives must stress the issue of full employment, full investment and full use of raw materials with soldiers and war workers by presenting a challenging, clear-cut plan that will guarantee at least 150 billion dollars a yeas in national income...
...Everywhere I found audiences interested ia a presentation of the Wagner-Murray-Dingall Social Security BUL Attacks on this bill by doctors, state unemployment compensation agencies and insurance companies are having little effect on workers and farmers...
...J-'ull employment in the post-war period is an issue that strikes fire everywhere...
...Moreover, labor and progressives are finally awake to the need for political action, and they are organizing early, with emphasis on the local Congressional battles...
...At Missoula, Montana, Republicana from nine western ststes met in conference in October to plan for the coming campaign...
...On the West Coast the ill-will againat Japanese is at moat universal...
...They realize that the most liberal President can be hamstrung by a reactionary Congress...
...One of the moat diacouraging features that atrikes one on a transeonti-nestal tour is the growing minority discrimination...
...Most of the atates get no royalty, tonnage or severance tax from natural resources taken from the state...
...Reaction has done a major job of driving a wedge between ttie workers and the farmers, just as it lias done between soldiers and the workers...
...Voters in Wisconsin are dead set against former Governor Phillip LaFollettr for the same reason...
...Farmers have more money in their pockets today, generally speaking, than they have ever had...
...It mast be one of the major issues of the 1944 campaign, a o • Homo front 11lees COCIAL SECURITY has tremendous appeal to the voters...
...Though Senator Wheeler does not come up for re-election until l'.M(i, sentiment in Montana is running against him, just as it is against Nye...
...The Kepubiicaaa are taking advantage ef the snnoyances naturally re-aaRing from necessary wartime cones...
...The people make trends, and the people still remember the breadlines which flourished during the Isst Republican administration...
...Thia will prove a handicap to the Democratic party in the 1941 campaign...
...There Is widespread resentment jjstarf OPA and War Manpower Com-aitaion controls, especially on the West CaasL Workers in the lower paid air-trait jobs feel that women and new sorters could take their fobs snd set then free for the higher paid jobs...
...Transcontinental Impressions Home Front Issues —1944 By HOWARD Y. WILLIAMS TMt or title by MM field director of Hio Union for Democratic Actio* iimi ¦f> kit observations Of TOO couatr y, follow inq an estenti»e tour plfSIDENT ROOSEVELT'S more...
...This is the weakest link in American democracy and our nearest approach to the msster-race philosophy of Fascism...
...anti-Negro, anti-Semite, and in seme communities, due to the franco situation in Spain, an anti-Catholic sentiment...
...Similarly, by their opposition, the reactionariea have made the soldiers' vote, aubsidies and rigid OPA enforcement to prevent inflation, and federal appropriations for education, important 1944 issues...
...Enthusiasm for Roosevelt has waned considerably, and may give way to disaffection if Wallace is shouldered out of the Vice-Presidential nomination...
...Montanans, Inc., for example, the conservative business man's organization for that state, went on record in favor of the ]()'r federal sales tax...
...Yet there is widespread dissatisfaction with the Administration, especially among dairy, fruit ami nut fanners...
...The Negroes sre generally disposed to hold the Administration responsible for the discrimination in the armed services snd hi industry...
...Thomas R. Anilie'a plan for g. I on a month to every unemployed person ss a firat step toward full employment, makes a tremendous appeal to audiences everywhere...
...In North Dakota, I was told by leaders everywhere that Senator Nye would be defeuted in the coming election because of his constant sniping at the war effort, his playing with "nationalist" leaders like Gerald L. K. Smith of Detroit, and his repeated references to the rebirth of the America First Committee, which em phasizes in the minds of the voters thst he is essentially an isolationist-imperial who cannot be trusted to making a lasting peace...
...Newspapers have lent themselves to the spreading of this poison through unfair and untitle statements with reference to wages, absenteeism, St i ikes, etc...
...a GOP Isolationism (SIMILARLY, the strong isolstionist-imperialist position of so many leading Republican Senators like Taft and Vandenburg, as well as the leaders of the state Republican machines, causes workers to believe that this is the reason for their strong opposition to Wendell Willkie as a candidate Everywhere I found conviction that a Republican victory in 1944 might follow the precedent of the Harding victory of 1920 and see the pesce sold down the river...
...By so doing, we believe thst we will greatly enlarge the nation's security and the welfare of the people...
Vol. 27 • January 1944 • No. 4
