A PAGE OF EXCLUSIVE FEATURES
A PAGE OF EXCLUSIVE FEATURES SOMETHING IS DOING _j AjgjT to f°"—that's the attitude with which all f»W - — jeft the last session of The Conference for j^-jpfta Labor Action held in the Labor...
...To our own comrades, however, we have something else to say...
...who presided at the conference said, in speaking for the women: "As housekeepers, we feel that the country could find a better use for its money than to spend two thirds of every pound raised by taxation in wasteful expenditure, paying for old wars and preparing for new wars...
...and all the songs we could not sing And all the deep repose we never found...
...Instead of industry being managed to enrich a few great owners, we would have industry operated, controlled and directed by the useful workers for the general happiness of all...
...The abort Introduction by Frank Crosswith is equally challenging, declaring that both whites and Negroes should work together to achieve real life, liberty and happiness...
...And we wfll not so soon forget what a battlsfleld looks like when the gas gsasimuis on the front roast forth mto the breath of soldiers the odors of destruction...
...g*y of times after talking with some cynical indifTT* ktellectual or worker when we tear a mocking laying, "What does this get you...
...The glory waned, the glow and glamor paled...
...Phillips writes on the recent Conference of Industrial Women held at Buxton...
...js«w please don't imagine that I am here and now r^-nl the coming of a miUenlum In which Mr...
...001 to our place and listen to F. P. A. play the JWlharp, or play croquet with Alex Woolcott...
...i^?fc» * * * asm* ** We msy we nnd it difficult to think of the PgJ...
...To them we can only say good luck, and may victory be their reward for their splendid efforts in behalf of those who look to them for guidance and encouragement...
...The white worker Is not so weak as his Nerro neighbor, but weaker than he would be if he united with the Negro to better the conditions of both...
...the purpled pageantries, the strut and arrogance are scrolled on tender tapestries...
...I am glad to see that in oar list the working married woman is well represent...
...However, we shall repeat once more, that unless we, here in America, concentrate our efforts on securing the co-operation of our women who are already with us, and take into consideration seriously the need for reaching out after those who are in sympathy with our movement, our organization is doomed to half the strength it to entitled to...
...they will pass with towers and balustrades, and the warm words threading through the twang of guitars...
...l •v**0*4, 0,11 °* a11 agitation for a letter, more realistic and militant labor movement j^HIlir jnto which you could put your teeth was •fR?' - intelligent, alert and determined labor men and gf{ together in the spirit which animated Cfsthering...
...Miss Wilkinson concludes her article by saying that "The Labor Party is proud of its women candidates, and the women M. P.'s who hope to come back will proudly welcome their new colleagues...
...What follows to the answer: The National Executive Committee has just met in Chicago...
...What machinery are we setting up to secure the attention of the women of the country for 1SJ2...
...This is an omen of future possibilities of united effort...
...t Rather 1st us pat cytrndars of gas est the grOses of every war profiteer and banker who cashed ass i Urt lean into heaps of gold, while lungs sad eight sad life of workers and farmers ware eaten up by ghastly cheeses fumes...
...p. u w. THE CHATTER BOX The Lost Tavern j<hey will pass witk^tk* distances that once mad* music in the hearts of men...
...The experiences of the past do not seem to have penetrated the consciousness of our leadership here...
...The press limelight concentrates not on the work they do, but on the irrelevant gossip about them...
...It was all so perfectly wonderful, glorious, lovely . . . these thoughts of our boys in blue and grey and O. D. going forth to battle with drawn sabres and charging mounts and glistening bayonets, always routing the dastard foe...
...Even the advent of high explosive, and belching 16 inch gun turrets, and the spitting machine gun colored up with greater thrill tbe whole vista of crudely mechanized battle...
...What plans have the members made to meet this important situation...
...in Cleveland, the burning Slats of X-Rsy nagatrves in a horrible accident, prooaosd enough of the same poison fumes to kill over six score helpless invalids and trapped attendants...
...Bjt best of an, as I have intimated, was the way all «these went about their jobs...
...nor will our poets weep for tkese since tkat wkick time can rot so readily had better never be...
...we suffer more acutely from the evils of poverty, and from the hardships inflicted on our little ones...
...editor of the NEW LEADER and author of the "Workers in American History...
...I. for one...
...Whatever the final outcome, the women have done their share in bringing the Labor Party and its program before the women of their land...
...It helps to keep workers divided...
...By James Oneal...
...The remedy doesn't lie in that direction...
...Believe us, dearies, »•» are plenty of morningi when we feel that way...
...The boys who g-rvt?OBeiacfco?^eaueay!?only we see to it tfcaf the graveetonee of ear modern men of battle ffiww metre methods dTUtsatloB has s^vstopofl far whets sale slaughter...
...kings, paramours, and shintng retinues...
...The Negro, however, is not the only group in America against vhich prejudice has* existed...
...Every phase is covered, and covered well...
...Page upon page fluttered out of octuple rolls and spoke about man-power and tbe various physical characteristics of the men who made up the national arm-* ies that ranged and shifted over Europe...
...If the old bogey that hn been hanging art nd these parts for so long—the jptt of defeatism—was in the conference hall, he cer¦Oy sever took the floor...
...honestly believe that out of JJL fellowship something fine will come...
...They have so emancipated themselves from it that in many sections Df New England the danger is that they In turn may persecute others...
...We get along rr^hout slave owners...
...Some whites are realizing this...
...Including Jennie Lee, M. P., the numbers ran to about 90, and amidst cheers Miss Lee was asked to say a word of greeting as a Member of Parliament who bad not yet been allowed to vote to all who would vote with her at the General Election...
...10 cents...
...Just is the same manner as the experts dish up weight and measurements and gossip about a Dempsey and his rival for heavyweight honors...
...I do ¦pit Lseum that something was started there in the user Temple that on* day will have Its repercussions taroubout the American labor movement...
...The burden of life falls heaviest upon women...
...Socialists stand for the transference of natural resources, mills, mines and factories tJ Society to be operated ioi- t___ _____ - n all...
...Wil- ' J-b Green will abandon his rotarianism and go to La* and organize somebody, somewhere and the Hon...
...JTitett Woll will forget life insurance and the Naiaial omc Federation long enough to do some real j0fc"-f for his peopi...
...8S women running on their ticket...
...We can get along without their successors, the capitalist owners and masters of industry today...
...Women and the British Elections NO one who followed the campaign .'ust ended by the British Labor Party can fail to have a sense of pride in the way in which they discussed the issues before them...
...What plans are we making to enlist the thinking group of women in this great (in size) city...
...The glory ot war to ended...
...How many women win be trained and encouraged to line up with us...
...The skilled trades and professions were :losed to them...
...To have a very small group of women In parliament is not good...
...Edited by Pauline M. Newman CONCERNING WOMAN A department mf new* a»4 views of particular interest to the woman of the labor movement...
...Hers Is a start then, towards that for which all of sj Save been hungry, lo these many moons, real ac'the on the economic as well as the political field...
...When we rejoice over the Influence, strength and possible victory of the British Labor movement, let us remember that our British comrades have long since realized the marvelous contribution women can make and have made to that movement...
...The rest of the story is stale now...
...And when the world war came on we all sat back to watch a prize fight...
...Marion Phillips, chief Officer of the Labor Party (American Socialist, please note the title...
...The Socialist party admits to its party workingmen and women of all races, colors and creeds...
...For Heaven's sake, lay off «t old-fashioned political stuff...
...Ijhybe It's the Spring...
...T take the taverns from our lives, And then for all you rear against the stars, .Vo day will pass the lovelier, And no Hood will dance The wilder m a song again...
...They have obtained power and this always wins resyt.ct...
...And perhaps, that Is why we are all SO heart ant, all of us, about entering Into another ot such adrsoturss as the last World War...
...But at JJsT rate, no matter how rough the road ahead, it's a ¦¦aj relief to feel that at least you have your feet 9. sand ground...
...Social ownership instead of private ownership...
...time tlowly puffs their semblances into a silken ask...
...and there will be no quiet inn for rest or drawling talest" while the beef crackles and the air is grafted sweet...
...j Oneal contends, might be a way out for a small minority of the Negroes, but not for the majority, and a Negro who bs:omes a capitalist is likely to exploit the remaining Negro workers to about the same degree as does the white owner...
...or stories out of valor and for love and tke rick glow of silence When the fireplace pours the heartcufs full of thrumming wine...
...Then may wt wonder us of Ufe beyond and of the land where, for travellers on wearying roads A bright thatched tavern waits For all the tales we dared not tell...
...It may be said that throughout the Conference no speaker, other than MacDonald, received so warm a greeting, for every woman felt that the entrance of this miner's daughter to parliament had begun a new chapter in women's history...
...In the New Leader (England!, in the Labor Woman and a score of other periodicals, women write on women's problems: women speak, women organise, In short the women of the British Labor movement have risen to this task as never before...
...Perhaps, all that was a plan that the international bankers desired, so that their trump card, the American Army, might retain all its old illusions about tbe guahy glory of battle...
...Jit with this splendid beginning it will not be long bejjre they will come flocking to this standard of hope for those who would begin building for a new America fcaa the bottom up...
...Ton simply couldnt parade a gat tank or make a be-plufflsd helmet of a gas mask...
...which appears in the current Issue of the Labor Magazine...
...Common ownership instead o£ capitaust ownership...
...to know that our children's future is assured: to be comfortably housed: to have work In pleasant surroundings: to enjoy ample incomes with,a few hours of useful labor each day...
...Maybe it's the fact that a Ifrttihim can swing Just so far and that our economic JPfMsm has just about completed its swing to the *J»t Maybe I'm juat an optimistic old fool...
...Dozens of their campaign leaflets are before me...
...yet these were least of what was glory then...
...We want a readjustment of values: less for war...
...Their churches and convents st limes were burned...
...The Negro worker wants as good a irice as he can get for his labor power...
...ha*0* ,oas*how we would rather be ga-ga with men g» Norman Thomas and A. J. Muste and a scad of J*** we could mention than be ever so sane and rich I^Meponeible and all with—well why mention names ? McAlister Coleman...
...That they are all contented and J** you 'boys are just wasting your time with these 2*** doctrines of freedom and the like ? If you've to find some outlet for your energies, why don't you g...
...Hardly a whisper had blown our way about the hellish horror of chlorine and hydrocyanic poison clouds that sneaked up out of cold cylinders into the lungs of living men and made them curl up with agonised convolutions, and froth Into an epileptic death A picture like that before any star-hanging mother would have dulled her patriotic frenzy and given her frantic heart time to settle back Into normal heat SO that her mind might reflect...
...Ever so ¦By folks I meet say...
...And I know that every delegate to 'Pay very well turn out to be a history-making yw—ce feels that way about The Conference for .rogressive Labor Action...
...Os BP- rm not qulte simP,« enough for that...
...Who knows bow many more are in the field speaking, writing and organizing...
...Nor can one fail to see the tremendous part played by the women in the elections...
...Miss Wilkinson states that she has done a great deal of speaking, going up and down the country, and she feels confident that the young woman voter will, in the majority of cases, vote labor...
...I wish you boys and girls could have been there...
...At present Nfgroes are frightfully discriminated against...
...There is prejudice against their eclor...
...The task before both groups is to make both whites and Negroes realize that so long as they hate each other the class that robs both will continue to exploit them...
...Women, realizing at what cost human life is brough into the world, must say with Ruskin...
...Reference to this conference was made in this department a few weeks ago...
...Booker T. Washington urged Negroes to become capitalsts...
...Will the British attitude toward women teach us here the much needed lesson...
...It IB* like the old days when there was real fighting in (be land, with committees taking off their coats and SfQg down to work, with delegates making straight X^n the shoulder talks about actual conditions out in fp field, with the usual long-drawn out debates on the Bsullni of some resolution or other which are the lniiBstili accompaniments of any democratic confergSBj with the younger men pretty well walking away wtth toe bsnors and withal a fighting spirit that was a ftttyht to behold...
...Miss Wilkinson writes: "The Ust of 38 women already chosen by the local Labor Parties as candidates I for the next General Elections shows a | variation in talent and experience that neither the Tory Party with their 25 wealthy women, or the Liberals with their small band of seven can equal...
...2j8»rt of machine we would like to see with im2* displacing power is a political machine of the class that will add all capitalist politicians to ^**my of the unemployed...
...uh another part of THE NEW LEADER you Will Ji the details of the policies and plans laid down at g»* conference...
...Al Lee and other Socialists wit* the acars of many battles on them, who made no attempt in any way to force their political dogmas ¦sea the conference as has been intimated in both tta>iHit and communist papers, but who could give Bb* experiences in the launching of such movements h tfee past and point the way to success in the future...
...In the same Issue of the Labor Magazine, Miss Ellen Wilkinson...
...And even when the ant rumors of tanks, and trenches and gas sifted through the censorship, we refused to douse the glamor of the combat with material analysis...
...It has a rancid taste in most of our minds...
...The Negro wants vhat short hours he can get...
...Democracy in industry instead of autocracy by the petty agents of the capitalist owners...
...And it is the one party that has a program which means emancipation for both white and Negro labor...
...Only the other day...
...So loes the white worker...
...Garvey urged Negroes to ro abroad and create a Black Africa...
...They must work for International good will, and strive for total disarmament...
...I hadn't intended to talk politics at all...
...For It points the way to a. finer and freer and more Joyous life for the workers of America of every color, race and creed, and that 1s the thing to which all of us should be devoting our lives...
...But If a Black Agrica were controlled by Negro capitalists, who owned the mines, ranches, railroads and factories, the Negro workers who were excluded from the ownership would be hardly better off than they are at present...
...to live in peace with our fellows...
...With devilish shrewdness, the big fat boys wno had their dough up on the wrong horse, kept their knowledge of the new-fangled method of dealing death from us, until almost a million of our flowering youth wen "Over There...
...Read them over carefully, find out J*** you fit in and then come along with the best tat'sin you...
...When Irish workers first came to this country they were regarded by the New England aristocracy as a servile class...
...It was poison gas with Its devastating meaning that hastened the and of the war...
...The author contends, therefore, that all workers for wages are In the same essential situation, whether they like it or not...
...Poverty and war are the twin evils of the capitalist system...
...which means destruction of human life, and more of the essentials for the preservation of life...
...Oneal then deals with the old emancipation...
...w — _,_ "g^fittay may be right...
...They were the vic:ims of mobs...
...Of course, poor as the marksmanship on the other side usually was, a few stray bullets managed to kill some of our own heroes...
...That, too, remains to be seen...
...3o does the white worker...
...This...
...This, in my opinion to the secret of the Labor Party's influence on the British public We are approaching a municipal election here...
...The United Colored Socialists of America, with headquarters at 2311 Seventh avenue, New York City, are to be congratulated on the publication of this sound, simply written and noble appeal for unity in the struggle for a more brotherly social order...
...Over the chairman's table loomed the lanky figure ff A. J. Muste, whose battle for freedom for Brookweed Labor College was the primary reason for this \Xnwng the delegates were many of A. J.'t former fjsus, miners, mechanics, needle-workers, railway Step, tae majority at them active now, organizing, sncabjf, giving back to the labor movement the beneJtts thag had received in their years at Brookwood...
...were slow-spoken officials of unions who have Sat bowed down to the fat boys of the A. F. of L. hierarchy, who are still loyal to the A. F. of L. for all the jaoxt-camings of its officialdom, but who want to see It step out of its present dope...
...There is so much to be done, and so few to do it...
...None to my knowledge, and herein, comrades, is our weakness...
...For them, we developed the Day of Decoration, so that their honored graves might not go unreroembered...
...A large Labor contingent would soon end this hectic publicity, and allow us to get on with the work of building a better world...
...there is no true wealth but life...
...The spirit of this concise pamphlet is Indicated in the first paragraph: "To live a happy, free life, with abundance assured to all: to have education and leisure: to be free of the curse of debt...
...During the major portion of that time, tens of thousands of white workers were "ldentured" servants, occupying almost the same status as their colored brethren, exploited by the owners of Industry, whose one aim was cheap labor and high profits, and it mattered not whether these owners got those profits from the exploitation of whites or blacks, Protestants or Catholics...
...This was demonstrated during a srtike in Louisiana in 1919, when, In their work of organising and protecting Negro strikers, three white men, one the District President of the American Federation of Labor, were shot and killed by the company's gunmen, an instance "when a white union organizer give his life in defence of a Negro member of the wage working class...
...However, this group gritted its teeth, and slowly beat down the srejudice...
...The interest 3f both are the same...
...It was a most human sort of conference with vet|pja fighters for freedom rubbing shoulders with the jgT««ntng youngsters who will take their places...
...Decoration Day wfll not be so hear* on the here—> thai year, nor In the years to come...
...We cannot abolish one without the other...
...by James Oneal...
...Why the Liberals, with all their boasted wealth could only offer seven out of their 500 seats to women candidates, perhaps some women electors will ask them to explain...
...Thers was no brilliance in a gas cloud, no heroics ta a body blackened with gas, or in saasclss an knotted as) Ot twitched stiffness...
...and incidentally bo that we fellows would not be cynical and remark on how ungrateful the fatherland was after we had gone out and given up our all for Its glory...
...A PAGE OF EXCLUSIVE FEATURES SOMETHING IS DOING _j AjgjT to f°"—that's the attitude with which all f»W - — jeft the last session of The Conference for j^-jpfta Labor Action held in the Labor Temple at *M length...
...So docs the white worker...
...That the workers aren't worth ""•"•ring about...
...and saving the Republic...
...We feel most intensely the miseries and horrors of war...
...Beginning with "Ten reasons why every woman should vote against the Conservative Government," they tell the Farm Workers Wives to remember that it was the Labor Government in 1924 who gave them the Wage Board, the only safeguard for the farm worker's wage:" they tell the Domestic Servant that "though you may live to-day in fine homes, you all came from homes of the working class, and therefore, when you vote in the General Elections, do not consider how your employers want you to vote, but think of what will be best for yourselves, for the home you hope some day to have, of the needs of your family...
...That picture of terrible death win linger long In the minds of us...
...For 250 years the Negroes were chattel slaves in America...
...The Old Emancipation Mr...
...What of America...
...and the Introduction by Frank Crosswatth...
...Her ability and readiness as a speaker, her fine clear voice and confident bearing, increased the interest which all felt in seeing her for the first time...
...Decoration Day used to be a heady sort of occasion to us when we were what Mac Coleman so lightly terms, boys and girls...
...It summons the Negroes in America to Join it and help In the New Emancipation...
...Perhaps we are just gai^^"big around trying to fix up things and getting Sz**^ httle for all our fussing...
...to breathe the free air with human beings enjoying all these rights, teethe task of the next emancipation...
...M. P., reviews the activities of the labor women in parliament, and the qualifications of those who are candidates in the present campaign...
...tile strikes in the southern states as just jjiffj family quarrel of brother Labor and Brother isa lf it isn't a conflict of class interests whj ^5^** «how so little affection for the other...
...Prejudices A%d Division Anti-Negro prejudice still exists...
...There were Jim Oneal...
...N. Y., United Colored Socialists of America...
...Gee, didn't we just tom-tom upon our heart drums, and whistle Yankee Doodle till Bunker Hill and Gettysburg bobbed up before our worshipping visions, and the eagle shrieked E Pluribus Untiffl into the well-known welkin...
...Such division helps to keep workers weak...
...Americans or foreigners...
...The New Voters But, perhaps the most encouraging prediction as to how the newly enfranchised woman will vote, is made in an article by Dr...
...to know that men are no longer beasts to torture and lynch the weak...
...The Negro wants all the power he can obtain through organization to get good wages and shorter hours...
...Jennie Lee Well Liked There was "an enlivening interlude when the delegates, who would vote for the first time on May 30th, were asked to stand and the tellers were put on to count them...
...knights clanged a ponderous purpose out and heaped themselves to rust...
...They were shunned .n politics...
...Phillips concludes her article by saying that "undoubtedly, the young, ones held their own against the old stagers...
...Mrs...
...The Socialist Appeal The one party that stands for equality of political and economic opportunity as between the races is the Socialist party...
...Adamson...
...Well, as iong as battle was a sort of man to man encounter, where the victory came to the moat stalwart and the ablest fighter, we were sportsman enough to consider the game a manful occupation, and so we managed to sustain our childish notions far Into adulthood...
...The Socialist Message for the Negroes By Harry W. Laidler C1 VERY negro wVrker, every white worker, every lover of democracy in America should read this short, concise, challenging pamphlet (The New Emancipation...
...I think that 13555 mighty signlflcant is brewing and the fact (¦at Mr** ""oil c awls around for an apologetic colbbjb jn The New York Times, making the weakest alibi eg.** thing...
...be and his crowd have left undone, is CpV of its significance...
...Booker Washington's Proposal What should the Negro do to better -oncLtioiv...
...Colored workers should insist that there be no discrimination against them to trade union organizations...
...5i«vfc —-reported that the wheat returns show a large m5-*J_m the "op but the election crop returns last ^2*^r *iU enable the farmer to reap about the Wt* "ftelstion he has reaped for many years...
...Don't you know that 2**n't do anything...
...we will lose the weariness the long roads of dust once harnessed to onr burthened dreams...
...Whether, what we shall say, will be heeded, remains to be seen...
...They have neglected no one...
...but taverns often thousand years, when they will pass, {because tke distances are narrowing doun to hours) then what will be for comrades m a tune...
...Mastery of industry by useful labor instead of mastery by a few powerful owners...
Vol. 8 • June 1929 • No. 20
