Capital Comment
STOUT, JONATHAN
Capital Comment The Attacks on WLB By JONATHAN STOUT WASHINGTON, D. C—The War Labor Board may kt tnlfc out from under the wing of the President'* authority under hia emergency wartima powers...
...From the very beginning we have had a basic set against domination of our life by military men or military ideals...
...Union leaders have exerted their authority and Influence to end such difficulties...
...Reps...
...They are well content with the ela.it/e powers and jurisdiction given them by the President's emergency wartime powers...
...If Secretary Stimson will agree to this change, Tha New Leader will support his proposal...
...Alex Rose, American La-JJ Pwty...
...This la a time to advertise our victory and exalt tbe principles which have made it possible...
...If the Tory plan to put the WLB under the authority of Congress shows signs of strength, the Howard Smith cabal may find to ita surprise that Administration forces *n Capitol Hill nay cotton to tha legislative idea—but Will offer their own ideas of what auch a bill should cantain...
...However, under questioning by Sen...
...An Act of Congress, II was suavely advanced, could arm the Board with pence powers and the authority to compel recalcitrant union leaders to obey its orders...
...The Board members, rho are atill nursing a powerful grudge against John L Lewis, were given the sweet vision of being able to (§1 really tough with the emulators of John L. the next tee...
...The Hungarian government is dead-panning the play...
...But the Board members didn't bite...
...It is logical that they should carry on under the same compulsions...
...This Is no time to grow faint-hearted and apologetic...
...The well-informed tend to regard the Argentine as "just old-fashioned South American dictatorship" with a few of the modern economic frills that distinguish that type of military dictatorship from the newer totalitarian type...
...Tories on the Hill have been moving carefully on the plan, the strategy baing to keep Administration forces and labor from writing in opposition...
...To adopt a national service act would be an acknowledgment of defeat...
...That area has acquired unpleasant notoriety as a Christian Front h>tbed...
...Vito Marcantonio introduce a rival bill...
...But no one can pretend that we face such a situation...
...Noah "•Iters, Laundry Workers...
...If national existence were at stake, any means might be tried...
...It is amazing that a man of Stim-son's level mind—he is a great lawyer—should commit auch a patent blunder...
...He is dedicated to the interest of the whole nation...
...Secretary of War Stimson has justified his plea for the proposed measure by insisting on the parallelism between soldiering and working in a war plant...
...The Argentine question is a good one to go slow on, according to well-informed circles here...
...We've been getting part of that Argentine meat—but from Britain...
...The Drive) en War Profiteers Phil Murray's testimony, incidentally, is the opening gong of a new CIO campaign to carry the fight to the war profiteers in a determined publicity drive to expose the real engineers of the anti-labor w«vr...
...Others favoring the bill are Father '•VjttFarge, executive editor of the authoritative Cetholic weekly America, Nathaniel M. Minkoff, secret-treasurer of the 1LGWU New York Dress Joint **»*e\ AFL, Samuel Wolchok, president of the United *«t«il, Wholesale and Department Store Employees, CW, toy Wilkins, editor of Crisis and assistant secre-ttrT «f Hat N A AC P. present Fair Employment Practice Committee JJj*ts by virtue of Executive Order 8802 issued by the froident under his wartime powers...
...Murray submitted figures gathered by CIO Research Director Raymond A. Walsh with the help of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, showing that the coat of living has risen 48 per cent since 1941...
...Maybe somebody should tell Stalin that Tennessee mountain boys have short tempers . . . and will take just so much guff and no more...
...a\ln>d of tha Special House Committee investigating garernment war agencies, the Virginia Tory de-lM|ua>ad WLB decisions ordering maintenance-of mem-SertMp clauses in junion contract* aa violations of the Constitution and called on Congresa to rewrite the pow-«rs at tha Board and limit by strict terminology what tha Board can and can't do...
...Both soldier and war-worker, he says, are carrying on the war...
...Under this scheme they would presumably mount still higher...
...Mm tap* tomwrnrt fepc The National Council for a Permanent FEPC will •tart the New York ball rolling for public support of the Scanlon-Dawson Bill at a mass meeting at Gotham's famed own Hall on Feb...
...The Scanlon-fcwson Bill seeks by legislative action to translate *j* into a permanent expression of national policy <T**i*(i with ample powers to remove all ambiguity ite existence...
...Indeed, the number of tKem would probably be increased...
...No one makes a profit out of him...
...2. The formal refusal of the offers of America and Britain to mediate the Soviet-Polish border question...
...It is further pointed out here that while the United States broke off all trade relations with Argentina, Britain was doing a thriving trade there, buying up all Argentine export meat and wheat...
...and William Wolpert, United Hebrew Trades...
...Howard Smith, reactionary Virginia Democrat, tipped his mitt on that iter «Wi.wMk...
...Polo*** ond a Moscow Saab The latest snub from Moscow on the Polish question appears to be crystallising a solid resentment even in previously kindly-minded quarters against Soviet arrogance towards her quondam "allies...
...Capital Comment The Attacks on WLB By JONATHAN STOUT WASHINGTON, D. C—The War Labor Board may kt tnlfc out from under the wing of the President'* authority under hia emergency wartima powers and aet ne on it* awn by Aet of Conf rets...
...Then Commissioner Hinrichs submitted the BLS figures showing that the coat of living has risen only 23.5 per cent since 1941...
...In order to get anything like the parallelism which Secretary Stimson assumes we should have to make one simple change...
...What Scretary Stimson proposes is that men be drafted by the United States and sent into pUnta to work under fixed schedules of wages—without any option as to place or job—in order to produce profits for the manufacturers...
...We have proved that working ai fret men we can beat the Nazis working aa slaves...
...knder of this move, and its sparkplug,, is A. Philip ^olph, international president of the Brotherhood «f Sleeping Car Porters, AFL Supporting his efforts ¦J "*de union leaders David Dubinsky, ILGWU preei-P*l 8am Baron, Textile Workers Union, Max Zaritsky, United Hatters International...
...It's a good team...
...Kumars that such a plan was afoot have been cur-Hint on Capitol Hill for about a month...
...The Communist* tried to jump the gun on the National Council by having Rep...
...Profits after taxation have already surpassed anything we have known in our history...
...We have distanced all competitors and astonished not only Hitler but even ourselves...
...American war production is our outstanding success...
...The war-w.orker hires himself out to a private employer whose interests are precisely what they were in time of peace...
...They are spending all kinds of money to divert public attention from the fact that the war millionnaires are advancing more rapidly than the armies of the United Nations...
...Crosswaith was appointed to that Board by Governor Lehman...
...CIO President Murray and A. Ford Hinrichs, acting commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, were testifying...
...TPHK breaking of a basic American tradition would require some urgent reason...
...Definitely and consciously during the early days, and less explicitly in later times, our people have been determined that civil authorities and ideas should continue to control our life...
...Through the efforts of the State Department, the European underground has been tipped off to get Jews in Naii-controlled areas into Hungary...
...Charles S. Zimmerman, ILGWU...
...The constitutional prohibition of involuntary servitude is but the juridical expression of a deep and abiding* conviction...
...A quiet arrangement has been worked out which enables Jews who succeed in getting to Hungary to be saved from the Nasi clutchea...
...Kenneth S, Wheery, Nebraska Republican, Commissioner Hinrichs agreed that it would take more than $2,000 to support a family of four on the same scale that $1,400 permitted in 1941...
...Right now we have unemployment in some places because industrial quotas are filled and cut-backs have been ordered, contracts reduced or cancelled...
...you'd be surprised at the things we hear in Washington...
...General Brehon B. Somervell has stated: "The War Department ia most grateful for the almost unbelievable production record achieved in 1948 and recognizes this record to have been a major contribution to the success of the armed forces of the United Nations...
...Abe Miller, Amalgamated Othiiig Workers...
...The united labor support of the National Council's bill has led to an offer from Marean-tonio to withdraw his bill—if the Communists are given a vols* on the National Council...
...IrfM* ond the Argentine Question Washington was bussing this week with two international items: 1. The Argentine break wjth Germany and Japan...
...We are Aghting this war for freedom, and in the midst of the conflict freedom haa been justified by results...
...Publicity is the Achilles heel of the war profiteers...
...The federal government would have to take over all of the war induetriea and run them, aa it doe* the Army and Navy, without profit...
...Such danger spots would not be lessened *y a service act...
...Realists in international politics here have consistently avoided describing the Argentine government as fascist, even in fits ef anger at the Ramirez government...
...Reporters under the ^instein influence hastily scribbled with pencils and came up with the answer that the difference between $1,400 and $2,000 is 43 per cent...
...CIO Figaros on The Cost of Living An interesting session developed this week during hearings of the Pepper Subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Education and Labor...
...The undertaken in these-columns snore than.* year ago work of exposing the war profiteers, which was with the exclusive revelationa of the secret OPA War Prolts Studies, is now being picked up on s big-time scale by the ClO's Phil Murray, Jim Carey and Ray Walsh...
...Since Pearl Harbor strikes in war industries have caused the loss of only a few minutes in each working day...
...The soldier is drafted by his government for a service that involves life and death...
...A neat piece of bait was dangled before the harassed ¦embers of the War Labor Board...
...Involuntary Servitude THU proposal to enact a national service act runs directly contrary to our basic American traditions...
...They have been caused largely by local irritations and led by groups spontaneously formed on the spot-wildcat strikes...
...Scanlon of Pennsylvania and Dawson of Illinois (the latter is the only Negro Congressman on Capitol Hill), backed up by Senator Langef of North Dakota, will lead off trie list of speakers...
...7. The meeting will demand *A permanent end to discrimination through a permanent FEPC by Act of Congress...
...A Negro and The Christian Front If it weren't far from a laughing matter, there would be at least a smile or two in the fact that Frank Crosswaith, ILGWU international organiser organiser, known in Harlem as "The Negro Eugene Debs," is a member of the Local Draft Board at 149th Street and Third Avenue, in the Bronx...
Vol. 27 • January 1944 • No. 5
