AMERICA'S SHYLOCK ROLE
AMERICA'S SHYLOCK ROLE United States Bankers Using Reparations Parley To Tighten Wall Street Domination Of World JfiJITTJXG around a table in Paris a dozen'or so financiers are deciding the fate...
...General Motors Seeks Foreign Jobs For Excess Dollars More profits for American capitalists but probably less wages for American workers will result from the invasion of Europe by the excess capita...
...In the first place, they want to know the total sum that they will be compelled to pay...
...The cow is disposed to kick over the bucket...
...Here the financiers under the name of Experts first came openly into the picture...
...Hut the lie has been nailed down with bayonets and, therefore...
...Who in the United States is the active force exacting every dollar possible from the German workers by using the Allies as a collecting agency ? It is Big Business...
...will join in this number, as well as play several numbers by itself...
...Frigidaire Hands Workers Hot Line Workers are not discharged at the Frigidaire Corp., subsidiary of General Motors...
...France and Italy would become more reasonable towards Germany, if the United States demanded less from them and England...
...Everything else is but 'ornamentation...
...It wa- one thing to declare that Germany had to pay reparations for her wickedness...
...The May Day demonstration in Madison Square GJardenr* will mark a turning point in New York's labor and Socialist movement, B. C. VTadeck and Abraham I. Shiplocoff predicted in short addresses it the Rand School meeting...
...The Allies obeyed the decision of the Dictator...
...Meanwhile the productivity of the average coal miner has been stepped up from about 3.6 tons to more than 4.6 tons a day...
...The interest payments enter the pockets of American capitalists...
...Finally, there is another point to be_kcpt in mind...
...Hardly anywhere in Europe is the workingman worse off than in Germany...
...The Allied debts to the United States amounted to about $10,000.000.000...
...Certain amounts of commodities (reparations in kind...
...While the list of speakers who will address the Garden rally has not been completed as yet, it is :ertain that it will include the most prominent leadsrs-of the Ideal trade union and Socialist movement...
...Practically every New York local of the needle trades unions, all of the affiliated unions of the United Hebrew Trades, the many branches of the Workmen's Circle and the Socialist Party have combined to make this May Day demonstration a historic affair...
...The money was obtained through the sale of Liberty bonds...
...The doors of the Garden will be opened at 12 noon...
...It largely fell into the hands of American profiteers who sold goods to the Allies...
...2. If American insistence upon the payment of Allied debts is the chief excuse for bleeding the German workers, then cancel the Allied debts and let the burden of paying for them fall upon the American capitalist who has been the sole beneficiary of these debts...
...Brewery Workers, Journeymen Tailors, Upholsterers, Mattress Maker and Trunk Makers...
...of France, the largest ' mass production concern in Europe...
...A committee of 100 was elected to look after the details o^the demonstration...
...Great Britain owes money to the United States on account of her own war debts...
...This is the logical solution...
...Frigidaire has a ban* on union men and "agitators", as those who take a job there find oat It follows, therefore, that any man who talks unionism in the shop discharges himself...
...Lastly, an international bank will be set up which will give the financial clique, particularly Wall Street, a grip on the business ot the world...
...It is clear that it is the United States which is holding Germany in subjection not Great Britain, France, Italy and the other .Allies...
...The Reparation Commission called upon them for help and a committee of them headed by General Charles G. Dawes, the Chicago banker, drew up the so-called Dawes Plan...
...Cooperatives are good instru**uta to encourage in this task...
...Germany has been able to keep up her reparation payments, because she has borrowed money abroad, mainly from the United States...
...AMERICA'S SHYLOCK ROLE United States Bankers Using Reparations Parley To Tighten Wall Street Domination Of World JfiJITTJXG around a table in Paris a dozen'or so financiers are deciding the fate of the world...
...Most jjf it from a loan that the bankers, chiefly in America, were to make...
...It was another thing to find enough flc^h to make a pound...
...The company has also refused to comply with the regulations of the Public Service Commission and has apparently broken a previous agreement signed by the (Jovernor of the State and the same company officials...
...Where was the money to come from then...
...All seats, except the platform, to be reserved for the choruses, will be free...
...Germany tried to pay as she was told but by 1923 she could not endure the strain any longer...
...This is understood in Europe...
...Here again American mass production methods introduced after a visit to Detroit are the secret of the company's success...
...The women's section of the Socialist Party, women members of the Workmen's Circle, of the Socialist Consumers Leagues and women trade unionists will be present...
...What is the result...
...Most of these bonds have by this time been transferred to the strongholds of the large capitalists...
...Two things they must never mention in their declarations: 1. The question of war guilt...
...They got less than before...
...Recent steps by these 2 rivals for the automotive supremacy of the world mean that Europe's expanding market for cars will be met by the establishment of American mass production centers in Europe, financed by American capital but employing cheap European labor.' The latest sensation in the Ford-General Motors competition for the European market is the purchase by General Motors of a majority of the shares of the Adam Opel Co., leading German automobile manufacnirer...
...Between 35«t> and 40 of its output is exported and it has assembly plants iu England, Italy and Germanv...
...In a'neat 73-page booklet entitled "You and Your Worki" he advertises the usual array of General Motors welfare devices, designed to keep $20-$25 a week machine-tenders in tbc GMC "family" happy, contented and suspicions of unions...
...Nina Yaieva, talented Russian soprano, and a well known tenor with whom negotiations are now in progress...
...The thousands of boys and girls in the Young People's Socialist League, the Young Circle Clubs and progressive college clubs will bring the element of youth to the affair...
...In my prepared speech ¦find devoted a few paragraphs to showing to* the Democratic Party could not be an gftctive liberal party...
...In 1927 the country produced 597,859,000 tons.1657,804,437 tons in 1926 while in 1918 when production reached a peak it amounted to 678,211,904 tons...
...Beyond that the rest is speculation...
...Hence, the frantic efforts to reach a new settlement today...
...In 1921 this Commission decided that Germanv owed $34,000X00,000...
...Fewer Rail Jobs Fewer railroad jobs than in any January since 1921-22 when the carriers were deliberately subcontracting their maintenance work or leaving it undone in order to administer the unemployment cure to the organized railroad workers...
...They discharge themselves...
...The musical program, which will be in keeping with the spirit of the holiday, will combine attracjona each of which has in the past packed the largest concert halls in the city...
...Because the United States hypocritically asserts that there is no connection between reparations and the Allied debts, Germany must continue to bear the fearful burden...
...Among the organizations which wiill have part are: The Socialist Party, the New York Joint Board of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America and its seventeen affiliated locals, the New York Joint Board of the International Ladies' Garment Workers Union and its 19 locals, the Cap and Millinery Workers Union and its 10 locals including the Joint Council, the International Pocket Book Workers Union and all affiliated branches of the leather goods industry, the Fur Workers Joint Council and 11 locals in New York and Brooklyn, the United Hebrew Trades and all organizations affiliated with st...
...Fuel Economy Hits Coal Diggers Fewer full-time jobs in the coal mines in 1928 than in 1913, is the startling conclusion to be drawn from the U. S. Bureau of mines report on coal production in 1928...
...The money never left this country...
...Nothing could be simpler or more typical of the firm, ruthless, glad-hand tyranny General Motors displays in all its plants and divisions...
...J he limed States entered the war to make the world safe for democracy...
...Today every honest historian knows that this is a cockand-bull story...
...The Democratic Party may be dead jBt it won't be buried until a strong party ff our own forces a coalition of the two conservative parties...
...All in all, the demonstration promises to be the most memorable Socialist and labor affairs in many years...
...During the first year Germany was to pay S200.000.000...
...It tried to stave off a finr.l solution for five years...
...and he is driven unmercifully by a relentless and efficient capitalist class...
...The cap makers will march in a body from their national convention at Beethoven Hall...
...Just how badly Governor Roosevelt fumbled big handling of the proposal for the diversion of 10,000 cubic feet per second on the Americsn side of Niagara to a private company is pajafully apparent from the Open Letter to Senator Wagner from the Public Committee on Power...
...Timely Topics By Norman Thomas Governor Roosevelt's" -.QVStNOR ROOSEVELTS position on most V though not all...
...The New York Concert Band, under the direction of Raymond Cassell...
...It was another thing to collect from a bankrupt nation...
...But two things about the probill are to be commended: (1) it conc*n>a itself not just with marketing a surplus fbrotd but with the whole process of market¦IT...
...Various locals of the Grocery Clerks, Waiters, Cooks, Delicatessen Clerks, Musicians...
...Electricians, Machinists, Automobile and Aircraft Workers, Cigar Makers...
...Thereby the jury writes itself down •s hopelessly prejudiced- and incompetent and Unfaithful to its trust...
...Governor Roosevelt's good intentions, his deaire to act on his own line without consulting available men who knew the facts has got him into trouble and impairs one's trust in his leadership against the clever power companies...
...The pen may be mightier than the sword but the purse is certainly mightier than the pen...
...Both choruses will lead the tremendous audience in the singing of the "Internationale...
...Carpenters, Retail Shoe Salesmen, Mineral Water Workers, Laundry Workers and Teamsters, Box Makers, Bakers, Barbers, Neckwear Makers...
...His lot is made miserable, and the reason for this fundamentally is that the United States insists that the Allies collect from Germanv to rav her...
...So many others volunteered tneir services that the committee was later swelled to 150...
...The plan went into effect on August 30, 1924...
...The suc•*¦» of the Canadian Wheat Pool shows what **n be done hv thpin *° be sure, the fanners' problem involves JJjW than better marketing...
...What happens to the'money that' is exacted from Germany because of her "war guilt...
...questionably the marketing problem is a *t" part of the farmers' trouble...
...He has been too eager to build up the Democratic Party up-state and ta consequence has made some bad appoint¦pats He is, in short, too anxious to be UMideat Though why any Democrat should mw for that office, heaven only knows...
...It employs 30.000 workers at about $1^0 a day...
...All that she has to do is to keep on borrowing and getting deeper into debt...
...The butchers will go in a body from Forward Hall to the Garden...
...reduce this spread is far more than a matf*T°t marketing a surplus...
...has been right...
...Consequently she had to pay the innocent Allies for the damages she had done them...
...Here wc tave a new echo of the extraordinary caste •ad class feeling of the Sacco and Vanzetti «*se, new proof of the justice of certain Socialist criticism, new reason to congratulate the country on possessing Upton Sinclair...
...Then, under the name of "commercialization of war obligations" the private bankers, of course, the Americans, chiefly, will be_pcrmitted to take over from the Allied governments the privilege of collecting reparations in the form of bonds at a good rate of interest...
...America is pressing Germany hard through the other countries...
...in the Rand School, by youth organizations, where plans for filling the Garden will be made...
...He was, as 9* nave pointed out, dead wrong: on the Nljjmts, power matter...
...We Congratulate Upton Sinclair Word has just come that Richard Burton, chairman of the jury for the Pulitzer Prize award for the best American novel of the year, las stated that Upton Sinclair's "Boston,'' which otherwise would have won the prize, was ruled out because of its Socialist tendttcies...
...Great Britain takes money from France and Italy, adds reparation money from Germany and pays the United States...
...It is better to have the German worker redeem our Liberty bonds than to risk new tax legislation...
...The cow had first to be fed before it could be milked...
...paid one dollar he now *H» $1.57...
...The Allies met and decided that Germany should make her payments as follows: ' S500.000.000 in cash annually...
...It employs 12,000 workers...
...Coal of all kinds produced in 1928, the bureau shows, totaled 569,489,000 tons compared with 569,859.000 tons in 1913...
...The ownership of the bed of the river is not determined and consequently the ownership of the remedial works to be constructed in it may rest, contrary to current belief, with the company, whicl is against the public interest...
...What shall we say of « country where even its literary men so naively confess an utterly stupid prejudice...
...To earrv out this altruistic purpose she lent money to the Allied powers...
...That )»'t saying, of course, that the Democratic party will disappear...
...The Germans have lived up to the terms of the Dawes Plan...
...How 2~ ¦ the farmer's grievance one sees when )"* "members that for what the farmer sold j**81* for one dollar he now gets $1.41, but y *«w what he ther...
...In spite of the fact tliat the remarkable development of the present mechanical era rests primarily on power derived from coal, production of coal in 1928 is shown to have been almost exactly at the 1913 level...
...Veteran trade unionists joined with young people from the Young Socialist League and the Young Circle Clubs in telling of the support planned for the demonstration...
...The constant reduction in the number of workers required to operate the transportation system is liecoming a rather old story...
...The bakers, 3,000"strong, will enter wearing white caps indii eating their trade...
...Boston," be it observed, is not condemned as * had novel or untrue to life or to the facts but only as Socialist in tendency...
...The rights of the State ii the new diversion are ignored in the conven don...
...It involves land Jwai and taxes, proper reforestation, adap2"QO to machinery, successful socialization J^atural monopolies for the common good...
...One economist has even used this fact to argue that Germany does not need to have a surplus of exports over imports in order to get on her feet...
...Fortunately the Senate of the United States still has a last word on the subject of this new convention since it involves agreement with Canada...
...So many worse things had been said by non-Socialists that I cut act those paragraphs as unnecessary...
...The City Committee of the Workmen's Circle and its affiliated 2S0 branches, the Jewish Socialist Verband, the Workmen's Circle Schools in Greater New York numbering 26 institutions, the Jewish National Workers 'Alliance City Committee and its 27 branches, the Jewish Socialist Labor Party, the Polish Socialist Alliance, the Young People's Socialist League and its 18 Circles, the Young Circle League having 28 branches, the Youth Group, Fellowship of Reconciliation, Pioneer Youth, League for Industrial Democracy Chapters from the various colleges located in New York City, the Socialist Party City Committee and its 59 New York City Assembly District Organizations, the Socialist Consumers League having 6 branches...
...of General Motors and Henry Ford...
...City con*aa*rs also suffer when, according to figures •*>ted by Senator Capper, the growers of -oonecticut onions get 25 cents on every dol"*paid by the New York purchaser and table P***" from California bring in eastern cities a ton of which the producer gets $26.10...
...Wipe out the inter-Allied debts and the German reparation payments, and American capitalists will soon lose a profitable opportunity for investing surplus funds in Germany...
...More than 100 organizations will flaunt their banners from the balconies...
...His wages are low...
...Similarly it was one thing for the United States to demand from the Allies her pound of flesh...
...The war was won thanks to her unselfishness...
...It was evident that the Allies could not exact what they wanted from Germany despite the free liand given them by the Treaty of Versailles...
...To the Socialist the way out of the present difficulties is simple: 1. If Germany is not solely responsible for the ww, then abolish the reparations she is required to make...
...of the questions wherein - a* ansrreled with the reactionary Republ*~«a (jgislsture...
...France and Italy take reparation money from Germany and pay off their war'debts to Great Britain and the United States...
...It stands in a similarly unsatisfactory relationship to the State of New York, denying any rights of the State to jurisdiction over three quarters of its immense water power, and being subject to litigation hy the State on the constitutionality of three of the grants under which it is operating as well as on the rate af return received by the State from one of them...
...The Yipsels, the L I. D. local chapter, and a number of college clubs wiill be among the orgaizations represented...
...This brings us to the second consideration...
...A group of several hundred college students comprised of Hunter, Columbia, Union Theological Seminary and City College students, will help serve as ushers as well as swell the throne...
...farmer's Troubles Everybody knows that there will be a great •niggle over tariffs and the farm relief plan ffl Congress...
...This is the Socialist solution...
...Other trade unionists will gather at their various headquarters and then descend on the Garden...
...Another "pep'' meeting will be held the following Saturday at 2 p. m...
...They might better be called Dictators...
...First, it is divided up among the Allies in agreed proportions...
...This is the "line" handed to the men and women who make electrical refrigerators at Dayton, O , by Harry Myers, highsalaried superintendent of personnel...
...Once more we have illustrated the breakdown of regulation...
...The fifth year ends this summer...
...Their job is to revise the Dawes Plan, which in turn had revised the disgracefully stupid Treaty of Versailles...
...But bis tactics been bad...
...The Citroen Co., at Paris, has been turning out about 400 cars a day priced under $1,000...
...That sentence fits litis years story based on interstate commerce commission wage, figures for January a> well as it fitted that of a year ago...
...The Experts in Paris will higgle and haggle and finally with the consent of the American bankers will scale down the reparation payments to give Germany a chance to get out of debt sometime...
...Now they register two complaints...
...The value of this grant to the company Is indicated bjr the rise in its stocks during the period of arranging the convention of $62,000,000...
...They are termed Experts...
...and 20 branches of the Workmen's Sick and Death Benefit Fund Society...
...The Republican Party gpd big business which are behind both parties gted it...
...The Treaty of Versailles did not fix the exact amount of what Germany had to pay in order to purge herself from sin...
...Victor Chenkin, who has taken the city by storm with his inspiring renditions of folk songs of half a dozen nations, will be on the program...
...marketing is one phase to tackle...
...Jewelry Workers, Painters, Flour and Grocery Teamsters, Teachers, Bookbinders...
...Let tis take the leading Allies as illustrations...
...An indication of the spirit behind the May Day demonstration was given when fully 500 representatives of New York's labor and Socialist organizations gathered in the Debs Auditorium of the Rand School in a preliminary conference...
...America is the final creditor...
...Madison Square Garden Will Resound With Inspiring May Day Demonstration \JADISON SQUARE GARDEN on the forenoon of May Day will ring with speech, song and cheers in what promises to be the most inspiring May 1st demonstration New York City has ever witnessed...
...The Dawes Plan was arranged in such a way that die payments die German Government would have to make from its own treasury would be increased gradually...
...No doubt some bargain will be struck...
...France and Italy owe money to Great Britain as a result of debts contracted during the war...
...Germany must pay...
...Instead of his getting adequate protection for the interest of the state as he boasted, Governor Roosevelt has consented to i situation which is thus summarized by the committee: 'The company has evaded its obligations to the Federal Government and does not merit either the trust or honor of being singled out in place of New York State as an agent of the Federal Government in this aew water diversion...
...The German treasury, however, was to remain untouched...
...The Opel Co., according to a recent report of the U. S. department of commerce, produced almost half of the 85,000 automobiles produced in Germany in 1928...
...The French and Belgians occupied the Ruhr with the idea of helping themselves to the reparations...
...Only a fifth of the first year's reparation payments was to be raised in Germany...
...This delicate task was left to- a -Reparation Commission...
...Writing in advance of the President's "•¦age and without expert knowledge of the House Committee's bill one must comment *lto reserve...
...Xow she wants her money back...
...S et these art the only two thing.-, that count...
...The announcement of the conclusion of this deal was followed by rumors that General Motors was also negotiating for control of the Citroen Co...
...Shoe Workers...
...If the Allied debts are cancelled, then the funds with which to pay the principal and interest on the Liberty bonds will have to come solely from taxes and the chances are too great that such taxes will take the form of new levies on large incomes...
...The complete list will be announced in a few days...
...This Saturday afternoon at 2 p. m., the women's organizations interested in May Day will meet in the Peoples House to plan participation in the Madison Square Garden Rally...
...To how low an estate the Democratic Party wg fallen nationally I hardly realized until |went to the Institute of Statesmanship at ¦jBjas College and heard what editors, progm— and Senator Thomas Walsh did and 0d not say about the prospects and platform gf the poor old party...
...During the fifth year and every year thereafter reparations would amount to $600,000,000 of which exactly half woukl be supplied directly by the Government treasury...
...The Children's chorus cf 350 voices of the Workmen's Circle Schools, under the direction of Leo Lew...
...The Dawes Plan was frankly a temporary measure...
...There will also be James Wolf, famous basso of the Metropolitan Opera House Company...
...A one day cessation of work of more than 375.000 ^organized men and women workers in New York City and vicinity will mark the celebration on May Day...
...Actors, Theatrical Stage Hands, Butchers, Cleaners and Dyers, Sheet Metal Worker...
...In other words, Big Business not only got the $10,000,000,000 lent to the Allies but it has also been cashing in on the Liberty bonds which were floated to raise those $10^000,000,000...
...He has not chosen his ground ^3 or made his issues clear...
...In the second place, they claim that the payments required in the "standard-' years are far in excess of her capacity...
...and (2) it definitely sets out to use the 2*°hnng loan only to aid and stimulate legits™*t«, farmers' cooperatives...
...2. The Shyloek role of the United State...
...will alternate with the chorus of 200 voices of the Jewish National Workers Alliance in revolutionary songs...
...This was to be accomplished by collecting the interest on German railway bonds...
...Then, a large part of it is transferred to the United States...
...Great Britain has stated officially that she will reduce the debts owed to her in accordance with any reductions that Washington might make to her...
...Beginning with the second year a- portion of the reparations was to come from the German treasury, the remainder from a transport tax and interest and other charges on German railway and industrial securities...
...26 per cent of the proceeds of German cxjKirts...
...The Germans say these figures are too high...
...Assuming, as we do...
...The Treaty of Versailles solemnly proclaimed that Germany had caused the World War...
...It is a matter ef ¦•tter planning and the elimination of middle¦**'S waste...
...At the present conference the Experts for Germany's creditors have offered to fix the total payments at $24,000,000,000 and to require annual payments of about $500,000,000 a year...
...flw insignificance of its financial value to the State may be seen by present rentals, (ranted under circumstances similar to this, which indicate a return to the State of between $37,750 and $68,250 for power which will sell for at least $2,625,000...
Vol. 8 • April 1929 • No. 14
