The Home Front
BOHN, WILLIAM E.
The Home Front By William E. Bohn Personel Feelings and Historical Events I AM writing ihi» on Tuesday. AprfJ ? Itbte-possible U hfl Ii advance, bet very l'kely tomorrow will be on* of t he greet...
...I didn't dance and sing as deliriously aa most ef others...
...The ALP, with considerable Communist membership, is the designated representative of the PAC in the state, while most of the "right-wingers" have set up their own organization in the Liberal Party...
...There waa every prospect of having a decent and permanent German republic...
...It is quite possible for a similar situation to develop in the New York City Mayoralty campaign...
...Bot W* knew Nazism and Fascism...
...No, In no time at all...
...Mass exportation of German workers to aid in tht reconstruction of Europe haa been denounced by Irving Brown, former national AFL organiser...
...Nationalism wa* etronger than it had ever been...
...A good many of them, unlike the editors of PM, seem to take jasek* seriously...
...Despite the supposed snti-labor trend in state end municipal legislation, the Hartford (Connecticut) City Council has passed an ordinance authorizing the unionization of city employees...
...In answer to President Wilson's appeals the German people had rieen...
...Hays, who was, in those days, Chairman of the"Republican National Committee- Mr...
...they had things sowed up in auch a way aa to make international life practically impossible Trade went down...
...Reactionary, unscrupulous, and cynical, the American Nationalists are counting heavily on exploiting war-weariness and the effects ef casualty lists to gain an initial momentum...
...No matter how battered and impoverished the world may be now, we have a chance to rebuild it Thus far the fashioning of the United Nation* organ, ization ha* followed the old and bad imperialistic model...
...Thia assumption seems to as* directly contrary to the fact The League waa bound to fail—no matter what nations joined or failed to join...
...The majority thought the great allied victory made the world just sbout right The wicked Kaiser had been besten, the virtuous allies would be in charge, the boys wem coming home, there would be no more casualty lists—we should hare clear sailing hsto a better future...
...W* knew them before other Americans did...
...The »aide* ©of...
...The constituent assembly was to meet In Petrograd, as it was then called...
...We bad no illusion* about war...
...We could see that the great powers, despite Wilson's idealism, were bent on carving out new and bigger empires...
...A little snom than 27 years ago, starting from right out hem at the corner of 16th Street, 1 marched with hundreds ef thousands of men and women up Firth Avenue...
...But there Is all through hi* analysis an implication that the failure was dus exclusively to American refusal to cooperate...
...wa ectifl Ima al of the «ahnen aad we mast bear a pert ef vat blame...
...Those camps existed ten year* ago, and the emaciated victims—all of them German*—wer* being tumbled into mass grave...
...lach one ef as gem ea with his tasks, joke which seem pretty dull ia the midst of global affairs, with one eer cocked toward the west coast aad the other toward Germany...
...But the ? auk and file chose to stay home...
...A good life cannot be achieved with auch mean...
...Million« of persona all over the world am watching, listening, hoping—jest as I ass .aad as yon are...
...The reason for this is to be found in the bitter factionalism prevailing in the PAC between the "left-wingers" and the liberal elements...
...whet—now—do yen think of this victory...
...Tkewgh we iefft set of the losga...
...He analyse* clearly th* causes that led up to President Wilson's tragic failure...
...But, despite all this, we were not over optimistic...
...Provisions of this measure guarantee the unionized employee full protection, provide for arbitration, bat prohibit sinke» and work stoppages...
...You can tee Waat · had piece of logie tie H»ys reaeewing up sees us to...
...Knowing these things, we wem ready to light Hitler then...
...W* felt that the Russians should be given every chance to carve out their own sort of future, end we felt sure that the imperialistic powers of western Europ* were against the revolutionary forces there and everywhere...
...Our answer is that we am net sorry...
...Liberals hope that the CIO advisers at tht San Francisco Conference will similarly oppose tht use of slave labor anywhere and thus support the raust of free labor everywhere...
...Thi* is significant, since Brown has recently* been appointed to the Foreign Economic Administration to aid the re-establishment of free German and Austrian trade unions...
...2. That effort* be made to work out agreements among labor, induitry and farm group* with veterans' orgsniza-tions snd...
...The program a* outlined list* these objectives: 1. That the AFL take the lead in sponsoring and supporting legislation— national, stats snd local — which will facilitate the return of veteran* to civilian life...
...We knew about the secret treaties...
...We are inclined to say: We scorned the League, aad it failed...
...Like others of my generation...
...A ninety percent turnout of any one of the large CIO unions (membership and families) would have been sufficient to decisively swing the election...
...No doubt he was sincere...
...Also, there will be many non-union member* coming back who will appreciate assistance in getting into organised trade...
...He takes ft for granted that if the United States had joined the League of Net ions there would have been no more wsr...
...It is a record of failure...
...the dancer* on Fifth Avenue could hav* had even a glimpse into the future, their feet would have gone dead...
...LABOR NOTES By Annamarie Crocetti PaC has met its Arat off-year election with a partial defeat The results of the Detroit municipal election, stripped of all bombast, represent a definite loss of prestige to the PAC...
...Nothing more appropriate thsn to eut an occasional caper, to exchange witticisms with the girts on the sidewalk, to drop out now and then for inspiration at a barroom and then fall into line a little farther back with added seat I was walking arm-in-arm with men who had worked with me in an organization known as Friends of Ger-msn Democracy...
...yog wanted to fight...
...The Kaiser had made off with undignified haste...
...As in a dream, 1 feel that life hi driving on toward ends that I do not like and in weys that I cannot control...
...Should the ALP engage in the same tactics attempted by the Detroit "leftists," the result is bound to be a bitter conflict with the equally powerful Liberal Party, and if Detroit is any indication of what happens when "left-wingers" take over, PAC will again meet with a thumping failure...
...He really thinks that if we will all agree to (top thinking everything will come out all right Blotting out history and depending oa slogans seems to him the perfect road to h·ppiness...
...The Beut Kranriaeo Conference will be*in iu labom and over ia Germany — with dramatic limine;- the American aad Enteian tercet will join to start the anal phase ef the European war...
...Fellows like the editors of The Doily Worker and PM yell themselves hoarse trying to convince the world that Stopping to think ia treason...
...It was bound to fail because it was an attempt to freeze the world into the shape liven It by the conquerors...
...vERY now and then some pacifist or Norma* Tbomss Socialist writes see a Vitter or drops in to ate saa Be says: "Yon chaps aa The Now Leader helped to rouse the American people against Hitler...
...AprfJ ? Itbte-possible U hfl Ii advance, bet very l'kely tomorrow will be on* of t he greet days of history...
...exclusively for New York City...
...The thing bap gone so far that th* other day one of the editors ef PM spent his good spam making sport of justice...
...if we go into the United Nation* Security Council, it will succeed...
...Thia in the face of a voters' turnout totalling only ten percent of the possible vote...
...The government* of the great powers were' bent en looking after what they considered the interests of their own nations...
...Something good may come out of California...
...Walter Reuther, nationally known United Automobile Worker* officer, not only failed to be elected to the school board, but ran last of all the candidates...
...Now we are »boot to emerge victorious from aa*char great War...
...Production went down...
...The 27 years since then have been divided something like this: 3 years of relief and reconstruction, 7 yesrs of a sort of prosperity and 17 years of depression and war...
...Re-employment and assistance to veterans of World War II i* high on the agenda of the AFL Executive Council, and the Labor League for Human Right* is gearing itself to help out on ? national icaie...
...Reasoning hi this uncritical way, a lot of IntaBagewt aad high m inded ¦¦Mirfat* aa wall aa some pretty low-minded connivers am trying to clout as Into the BOW federation without giving us time to think...
...Poverty and hunger went "p What has happened slaVe is s res.lt af all that...
...a* well as it* enemies...
...We had hopes, but they were dimmed by our fears...
...Aren't you sorry for what you have done...
...It is a haunting, nightmarish sensation...
...I notice in thia morning's papers paragraphs from an Interesting address made by Will II...
...But a* the delegates gather at San Francisco them are signs of better things...
...It wa* bound to fail because It bad no plan to atak* the world a livable place...
...Hays show* a fine and clear insight into the domestic history of the time...
...We knew iu dirt sad Its degradation...
...The Fourth of July will see ex-Senator Reynolds publicly launch hi* new party, the American Nationalists...
...They hop* to seize the balance of political power and then attempt, on a nationwide seal*, to introduce their brand of "American" fascism...
...8. That the 900 Central Bodies of ths AFL, functioning in every industrial city and district of the nation, form special committees to help find jobs for returning veterans in their localities, and to stimulate concerted action by all groups in each community along these lines...
...In a little office hem in New York we had written leaflets that had been scattered all over Germany by our fliers...
...In th* meantime, he is setting up s quasi-underground organization...
...For in New York the split is even more pronounced...
...We bad high hope* for the Russian revolution...
...Most ef our fellow citizens are shocked at pictures of the deed 1ft German concentration camps...
...I ham the strange feeling of baring lived through it all before...
...It is difficult to justify th* 64,000 orders issued by the...
...government agencies on the proper kind of legislative and administrative action...
...Bureaucracy and the red tap* traditionally associated with it should be the concern of the Supporten of the...
...And we did not expect to win utopia with tank* and guns and bombs...
...Quality of administration, not quantity of regulations, should be th* standard of efficiency...
...Whatever we shall have now, it will be better than what the Fascist dictators would have given us...
...1918 to 1945 I MUST confess now that our hopes were only partially and fleetlngly realised but actual event* have been worm than our dsrkest feare...
...It seemed to him very funny that at auch a time, when ail that need* doing is to give a quick okay to Dumbarton Oaks and Yalta, writers and statesmen should be holding np the march of events by quibbling about right and wrong...
...Drawing on anti-labor, anti-Semitic, anti-foreign-born and Jim Crow elements, hi has succeeded in setting up about 60 "cells" in New York City alone...
...So we wer* sober in the midst of the hilsrity...
...MoRK than 1,600,000 members of the American Federation of Labor are in the armed forces—when they return they wilt naturally look to their unions for assistance in getting their jobs, back...
...Theee cells am tightly organixe* group* of 10 members each...
Vol. 28 • April 1945 • No. 17
