A LABOR DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
Oneal, James
NEEDED: A LABOR DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE Acceptance of Employer's Philosophy of Self-Help Perils Trade Union Movement of the Nation By James Oneal Is the labor movement in some respects the...
...They discard old ideas and methods...
...Yes," remarks a Shavian, '"You forget that the Liberty Bell has a crack And Crosswaith—what has he to say...
...Photo-Engravers Would Extend 443-Hour Week NEW ORLEANS— (FPF—A resolution calling upon employers to extend the 40-hour, 5-day week to an photo-engraving employes, was introduced at the convention of the Intl...
...The consolidation of trusts and Industries into great mergers means closing of old plants and Increased exploitation of workers who remain at work In the more efficient and up-to-date plants, thus also adding to the number of the unemployed...
...Outrageous...
...About 3.000,000 people have left the farms for the cities since 1920 to further Increase the number seeking jobs In industry...
...The last word - in Hosiery Machinery tells the same story, increased production with fewer employees...
...Glass blowing machines have made such Inroads on the glass blowers that very few of the old school of mechanics are left The calculating machine performs some of the most abstruse mathematical calculations in a fraction of the time needed for the same task by a mathematician...
...We therefore declare our uidhut taJewrs of an such organisations...
...The crowd came closer...
...Labor Lags Behind Industry What of organized labor...
...The talking moving pictures and radio are putting many musicians and actors on the bread line...
...True, certain reactionary trades union offldah' frown upon the Socialist program...
...in others, wages were reduced...
...Crosswaith was black-skinned but the "black looks" he got were from the eyes of white men...
...One steam shovel displaces 500 hand workers in digging iron ore...
...The manager happened to walk by ! and was approached...
...The Chain Stores are doing to the independent merchant what the Robot is doing to the worker...
...I waited on him in an East Side restaurant In New York for many years...
...Movies and hotels are restricted...
...As machines and mergers displace workers organized labor is sapped of its power...
...Crosswaith followed me down the stairs that leads to food, shelter and society...
...I walked up to the counter...
...This number exceeds by more than a million the number of members of trade unions affiliated with the American Federation of Labor...
...The rural representation in the Pennsylvania legislature would vote against an equal right...
...Two men replace 128 in unloading pigiron...
...In a machine shop 30 employes with new machines do the work of 220 workers with old machines...
...They cherish old ideas and traditions...
...That this is no exaggeration let us quote from the records...
...It is remarkable to note the cleverness and gentleness used in passing the buck...
...That such open outrages are possible in a city that boasts of giving birth to the Declaration of Independence was beyond my belief...
...The workers displaced by the machine naturally cannot buy, but the machine can keep on producing...
...There they no doubt are taught to handle "eaters" as Mac Coleman "handles" kittens...
...His paunch was more than well-filled...
...Enforced Idleness Since the end of the World War engineering In industry and labor-displacing machinery have gone forward with leaps and' bounds...
...In a table conversation with the colored stranger I learned that he has had trouble in this restaurant before...
...The following evening we returned to the restaurant with the object of testing the veracity of the manager...
...I requested the waiter to serve Crosswaith...
...The whole American Labor Movement is in urgent need of a Declaration of Independence and this Labor Day Is appropriate to consider it Its.leading teatores would Include something like the following: "We, the organised workers of the United States, recognising the marked and revolutionary changes being made in industry and the menacing pi ul items that face us and an others who desire Industrial democracy, herewith assert our independence of old formerIdeas, traditions and methods...
...that B'' leaves us helpless before the courts ant...
...Crosswaith was with a white friend of ours at o:'j...
...The manager was sorry...
...The moment we sat down near a table we realized that the Proclamation of Emancipation and the 14th Amendment were unknown in this restaurant...
...Individual effort and management gave way to mass production...
...When that day arrives, which is not so very far distant, if the present rate of displacing labor by machinery continues—and I can see no reason why It will not—then Labor Day like all other obsolete things will be discontinued...
...The manager couldn't understand...
...Machine and mass production is displacing millions of workers...
...P. H. Glenn, of Philadelphia, second vice-president, and Levant C. Caukin, of Los Angeles, third vice-president, and Harry P. Schmal, of St...
...The whole labor movement Is in peril because of unwillingness to change in a world of tremendous changes...
...This can be brought about In a peaceful manner by the workers using their political power at the ballot box...
...Is your order taken...
...And Saturday Evening Post nickels were purchasing "The Next Emancipation," the "Case for Socialism," "The Challenge of War" and other pamphlets...
...The program of the conservative labor men Includes the following items.' Joining powerful industrial magnates In a demand for tariffs that are almost exclusive...
...Labor displacement has been so vast that it is rapidly becoming the rule in industry to employ no workers over the age of forty...
...In some well organized occupations wages held their own...
...Fewer workers produce more wealth than the workers before them...
...In 1900 the annual national income estimated in terms of dollars was about $13.00,000,000...
...Laid Off at 40" Here are a few figures of the labor displacement: Thousands of theatre musicians displaced by the talkies...
...workers seeking security, heard him...
...Nevertheless it is a real remedy...
...SEVEN DAYS IN THE CRADLE OF LIBERTY By Joseph Schwartz OEVEN full days of crusading "with a fearless and tireless worker for Socialism, seven days of comradeship and sacrifice, with Frank Crosswaith In Philadelphia, the "cradle of liberty...
...The whole of American life has been profoundly changed and into the new age unthinking labor men drag old policies and methods that belong to the Infant stage of labor history...
...By hand an expert cigarette maker could make 2,200 cigarettes a day...
...In America sovereignty remains with the individual," reads another...
...Another resolution called for closer cooperation between employes and employers with a view to eliminating alleged existing abuses In working conditions of the industry...
...These higher organisations are again merged into more powerful organizations...
...The rural!tea age in a majority A city ordinance on "equal rights may not be unconstitutional...
...What can be done to eliminate race prejudice in restaurants...
...Tariff Not Our Battle "We affirm that long experience has shown that affiliating with the National Civic Federation and local chambers of commerce whose policies have been shaped by company union magnates has sapped our idealism, dulled our fighting spirit, compromised us in the view of many sincere members and friends, and has won no company union capitalists to our point of view...
...now hazards the very existence of o*r" organisations "We therefore decide to support our"* own party of labor and summon all tbs> trade union, educational, fraternal, cooperative and political organisations of " labor that believe In democracy in Industry, government and agriculture, tt ¦ unite with us in a national conference to establish our party and to contest every city, state, and national election...
...Cigar makers are rapidly disappearing, because the Robots are taking their jobs...
...Futile opposition to the export of capital and resentment against all criticism of this program...
...The following evening we went into a restaurant of another popular chain...
...The Robots are busy piling up huge profits for the masters who own them...
...It was something new in the city of the Corrupt and Contented...
...Mass Production Makes Worker A Cog In Machinery of Private Profit By James H. Maurer SEPTEMBER LABOR DAY In the United States, different from most other holidays, is designated as a day of celebration In honor of Labor: in other words a day of freedom from labor that the Nation may pay its respects to the tolling masses, whose labor, with the aid of nature, feeds, clothes and houses not only the wealth producers, but all others...
...Will you wait on that man...
...The productive capacity of the United States, it will be noticed, has increased over 692 per cent: while the population during this same period has only increased about 50 per cent...
...Small merchants and shopkeepers are driven to the wall...
...At one meeting Crosswaith was saying something about peace...
...Export of American capital is taking a new form...
...That's what all consolidations, mergers, etc., mean...
...Only here and there is even an illiterate politician found who will hazard a laugh by talking this absurd "philosophy...
...In the last ten years the changes have been even rnpre swifter and more significant than Cne twenty years before...
...Crowds Are Friendly A policeman who receives $4.50 a day was heard to say as he left the corner...
...One man with an Owens bottle machine takes the place of 18 men...
...We renounce the early mill owners' philosophy of individualism and opposition to social legislation and assert the claims of the working class a> a' fall messuie of power in shaping kfjkv lation for human welfare...
...while the automatic car doors relieved thousands of brake men of their jobs and at the same time greatly Inconvenienced the traveling public...
...Old methods, policies and forms of organisation are followed and defended...
...We were seven or eight white men and women with Crosswaith...
...The Program of Defeat On this Labor Day how are we facing the industrial revolution with all Its grave consequences...
...It was formulated as an argument against trade unionism itself...
...Modern rail mills that a few years ago employed a large number of skilled iron workers, are now filled with Robots that are operated by a human being bottled up in a steel cage...
...These automatic machines, operated at high speed, produce in a given time far more than what the worker can, but in contrast with the workers the Robots do not consume and thereby create a market for their products as workers do...
...WttB unemployment growing, surely something, must be done...
...And now comes the teletypesetter machine, attached to the receiving end of a telegraph wire, so that when the operator on the sending end starts to reel off the copy the words are automatically set in type without the intervention of any human being between the sender and the finished output...
...Before me was a Ne^ro and a stranger...
...They hemmed and hawed while we insisted on service...
...while last year, as closely as could be estimated, the income of the Nation from all its various sources was over $90,000,000.000...
...Does it discard traditions, ideas, methods, forms of organisation...
...We declare that considering that as the powerful rapitsWiti and bankers of this country SB* organised internationally In the International Chamber of Ootnmerce we herewith abandon our nationalist Isolation and join the International Federation of Trade Unions, sharing in its responsibilities and deliberations, and contributing to the peace of the world and world democracy...
...As a result a few unskilled, poorly paid machine tenders supplant the skilled bakers, who lost not only their jobs but their trades...
...The jobless wanderers are increasing and their dependents suffering...
...It was his belief that new buyers created a change In policy...
...What do you wish...
...On our ocean liners thousands of firemen are no longer needed because a few gauge tenders are all that are needed for oil burners...
...This is the city that shelters the Liberty Bell...
...We herewith also abandon the appeal to industrial magnates of open shop industries for "union-management" cooperation as not only futile but as a barrier to organisation of workers In these industries...
...Working people who religiously vote as Vare and his cohorts dictate...
...This Prosperity The automobile manufacturers some years ago came as a godsend to the workers whom the Robot forced out of their jobs, because the growing auto Industry obsorbed many Job seekers...
...Within thirty years the whole of American industry, has been completely transformed...
...The waiter's face brightened...
...The order was called loudly...
...This Invention will in time throw thousands of typesetters and linotype operators out of work...
...The whole basic philosophy we have criticised must be scrapped before we can make any headway...
...The daily press and the magazines bring information of its grave problems...
...One machine with three unskilled operators now turn out 160,000 cigarettes a day...
...About 70 per cent of the output of the baking industry may be classed as machine products...
...A big majority of the leaders do not...
...When he was half-way in his bow his eyes "lit" on Crosswaith...
...This means that despite the restriction of Immigration the labor market is so well stocked the employing class has all the labor power it needs even with the dead line at forty...
...We declare thatsad experience shows that our pohtbsf policy degrades Labor to the status ef * a beggar asking for legislative abar, that It divides our voting power instant* of ¦p-'Wwy us at the ballot box...
...Let us ask any intelligent worker in one of the big plants of mass production, the worker who is a cog in the plant machine, who is a one-thousandth part in a detailed process of production, whether "sovereignty remains with the individual...
...He was unwilling to meet Crosswaith...
...A lone wolf fighting a glorious battle...
...What a tragedy in a changing world...
...I love him just as every eastsider does, I feel honored and grateful for the opportunity to serve a man who is fighting my fight...
...While he went to the manager she approached me for my order...
...On this Negro, yes...
...The factory farm is also appearing and with Its better use of machinery and large-scale methods less labor is required to produce some of the staple crops...
...The American factory itself is being closed and Is being built abroad...
...The latest figure show that there were 1,400,000 workers In company unions In 1926 and the number is Increasing...
...To fit ourselves and organizations to cope with the consolidations and mergers in industry it is imperative that we consolidate and merge our tirade unions, that we organize on a larger scale by plant and industry, thus m»""t organization adapted to the character of the great industries of today...
...The telegraph printing machines that can be operated by cheap labor are responsible for thousands of telegraphers losing not only their jobs, but their trades...
...Crosswaith made several efforts to attract the direct attention of the waiter...
...There is no greater Hhndon than that social referees come through k gists lion," reads a third...
...Expounding a so-called "philosophy" of individualism and "selfhelp" that had its origin with independent mill owners in the early nineteenth century...
...workers crying for bread and peace...
...An Outworn Philosophy This comes down from the early days of the factory system...
...We waited a few minutes and then requested service...
...Other officers are Mathew Won, of Washington, D.C., first vicepresident...
...He was the messenger of Socialism to a city made infamous by Vare, the Union League, high tariff Grundy, bootleggers—and famous by Betsy Ross...
...White men with poisoned minds...
...i 'HIS Labor Day finds the American working masses facing a profound Industrial revolution...
...We now recognize that the attempt to "sell unionism" to these masters as an asset in plant production rather than offering it to the workers as a means of emancipating them from intolerable tyranny is foreign to a labor movement, repellent to the workers in these industries, and fruitless of any desirable results...
...He was well dressed and had the appearance of a Union League member...
...Company unionism undermines the trade unions...
...France, Italy and Japan and a half doeen other countries combined...
...Why, may it be asked, should the philosophy of the employing class become the philosophy at the labor movement...
...while more than four million of displaced workers are begging for a chance to work...
...Perhaps this or perhaps that...
...American bankers and capitalists are revolutionary in their outlook...
...Tf it Is a union plant it means the loss of practically all the members of the union in that plant...
...Not only is organized labor being undermined by all these factors...
...Take the matter of old-age pensions: all sections of public opinion, religious, social and political are far in advance of the American Federation of Labor which in recent conventions has failed to declare for this obviously justified reform...
...Either opposing or not fighting for social legislation to relieve the unemployed and aged workers on the ground that such labor legislation is "paternalism...
...He's an Intelligent 'nigger.' He can't mean- no harm...
...He was makings strenuous efforts to get some dessert...
...Card sorting machines to analyse statistics, tickets, reports, etc., are tabulated by these machines in a manner that no bookkeeper or statistician can equal for accuracy or speed...
...Reducing the hoars ef labor and increasing wages will naturally help some, but it will not prove s per-, manent remedy...
...Human labor is being replaced by the automatic Robot in one form or other in most every field of industry...
...It is almost hehuess before the courts...
...oh yea, he remembered my face...
...He no doubt remains in a half-bow to this day for we took no pains in turning around...
...law...
...It is a program that sounds the tocslr of Labor in the new age in which we Bva THE MACHINES LEAD US-WHERE...
...I joined the colored man...
...Self-hegp through collective action is the American Federation ef Labor's philosophy," reads an editorial la the A. F. of L news service...
...A third recommendation called for the establishment of unemployment benefits in the union, which would be given to sick, incapacitated men...
...of dollars invested abroad, while out National wealth foots up to something like four hundred billions or equal to the total wealth of the British Empire, Germany...
...I am convinced that the managers of these restaurants as well as the waiters are sent to a training school...
...Oar natural resources and labor saving machines, an great tools of production snd" transportation mutt be used in the interest of all the people instead of, at now, for the profit of a few...
...It must have been an error...
...With the swiftness and power of Niagara organized labor is being beaten in the race for power and is slowly sinking to a position of Insignificance...
...Coordination of labor saving facilities became definite...
...Edward J. Vols of New York was reelected president...
...Maintaining forms of craft organization the basis of which is almost wiped out by machine and mass production...
...Faces softened, brows knitted, arms were folded...
...Whatever differences of opinion may exist in the trade unions every member knows of this revolution...
...The question naturally arises, what an the workers going to do about It...
...NEEDED: A LABOR DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE Acceptance of Employer's Philosophy of Self-Help Perils Trade Union Movement of the Nation By James Oneal Is the labor movement in some respects the most backward element In the American nation...
...The speaker's voice boomed something about man's inhumanity to man...
...Appealing to industrial magnates for union-management cooperation instead of to the fighting spirit of working men and women...
...The statement is as foreign to his mode of life as it is to the Inmates of a prison...
...This Negro- was saying something tint the people were thinking of but were unable to express...
...For as sure as night follows day, we wUI win...
...I have heard him speak...
...Trade unions can be prosecuted for damages due to strikes and their funds may be seized to satisfy judgments...
...The American Empire of business and finance is supreme...
...In this article the editor of The New Leader presents a summary of the shortcomings of this philosophy and proposes a Labor Declaration of Independence...
...In 1900 the United States produced more than it could use...
...During the past ten years the rubber output has increased 83 percent...
...Idle millions of workers walk the streets...
...part ". . . continue to work for the realization of our great Socialist—dream...
...They merge and consolidate their Industries In higher organizations...
...Bat meantime the whole world has changed and today, whatever may be the view of economists, not one wO give his name to this "philosophy...
...Neither does the mathematician, for that matter, but how many of them are wondering what it's all about...
...Being white I received immediate attention...
...white man's trade...
...It is based upon the philosophy of mill owners before the days of the trusts...
...Support of a narrow nationalism that isolates us from the labor movement of the world...
...Now we find the Robot in the auto factories and where 100 men formerly were employed to do a given amount of work, 30 with the aid of new methods and of machines that make machines turn out more work than what a hundred did not so very long ago...
...In 1913 a worker turned out 500 razor blades...
...Politicians and lawmakers solemnly approved it Editors expounded It over and over again...
...end of the cafeteria while I was at another end...
...The waitress politely ignored him...
...Besides, the Robot never goes on a strike...
...The Trek to the Cities The chain store systems In the retail trade are making so many conquests that It is impossible to present any up-to-date figures...
...Sorry...
...They declared that the individual is sovereign and should not be subject to legislation that in any way interfered with the "natural laws" of industry...
...He was reminded of it...
...It was a cafeteria located in the center of the city...
...Many of their employes are jobless and quite a number of the small proprietors descend to the ranks of labor, increasing the pressure for jobs...
...Most every trade and profession Is being invaded by the automatic Robot...
...We declare that the mass production of today swallows up the individual and that Its masters have come to dominate the life of the workers...
...Why can we not have a philosophy of our own, one that is modern and that is adapted to the current changes that are going on in industry, politics and society...
...Now with the aid of the Robot he turns out 32,000...
...Even to criticise them Is regarded by some leaders as treason to the labor movement...
...I'll show them what money can do...
...Night after night crowds reacted favorably to Crosswalth's message of Socialism...
...They insisted that "there is no greater Illusion" than t> imagine that the lot of laboring people could be helped by social legislation...
...Many sympathetic students of the trades unions have been cceapeDed to answer this question in the affirmative...
...Economists appeared before legislative committees and gave the weight of their names to this "philosophy...
...On the other hand we hear much about • "prosperity", but only for the masters who now have approximately fifty billions...
...But why continue...
...Students make it the theme of a steady stream of books...
...In a note penned to me he said in In it...
...Crosswaith and two of us white-skinned ones went into a popular chain retaurant one day...
...Here and there Individual members who fully recognize the dangers da...
...Mergers and Machines The merger of Colgate and Company and the Palmolive-Peet Company threw several thousand salesmen, office workers and others out of work...
...This wealth is in the hands not of these who produce it, but of a hand full of exploiters who by hook or crook arrogated unto themselves our natural resources and own the Robots and other meant upon which mankind depends for its existence...
...The owners appeared before legislatures in England and this country and declared that not organisation of labor but "self-help" should be the attitude of workingmen...
...A conversation similar to the previous evening and recited above, took place...
...He said: "Money is what counts in this country...
...What are the leading aspects of the revolution in industry...
...This whole program belongs to an age that has vanished...
...I repeated the performance with a smile...
...This means 100 per cent displacement of workers in every such exported factory...
...It has advanced with seven-league boots while organized labor has stood still or has lost...
...To ask the question would be to mock him...
...In 1928 a foreign market had to be found for more than half of some of our most important products...
...It is against the policy of the' management to serve Negroes...
...They refused...
...in a city that boasts of being but sixty miles from Gettysburg...
...To emphasise and guarantee oar complete Independence of the two parties of our enemies we pledge that afl labor men elected to legislative bodies must constitute themselves as independent fighting groups of labor, making no alliances, no deals, no fuslom and no compromises with the agents of other parties...
...Labor's backwardness on social, economic and political questions springs from its so-called "individualist program", its clinging to a philosophy of "selfhelp...
...The Socialist Party of Philadelphia will prepare such a bin and make a stab at it...
...I am wondering how many more Labor Days will be celebrated in honor of the flesh and blood toilers before the Mechanical Robot displaces the great majority of human workers...
...Herbert Spencer, the great KngUsh philosopher, made it the basis of bis synthetic philosophy...
...With a trainreil crane, 3 workers replace 2a...
...Working with company union kings and bankers in the Civic Federation...
...Workers are scrapped together with old machines, plants and methods...
...Man Displaced by Robot With the beginning of the present century the process of machine production began on a gigantic scale...
...Tve got it...
...Why don't you serve that man...
...Machine and mass production is now reaching even into the skilled trades where unionism is strongest...
...See the remarkable article by Stuart Chase, Laid Off At Forty, in August "Harper's...
...Insane asylums, almhouses and penal institutions are over crowded and the remedy for all this, says our President, is build men, prisons...
...If any one has a better remedy I surely would like is hear of it...
...Ignored...
...In an Ohio puddle mill recently 250 out of a working force of 400 puddlers were laid off, because the Robot mechanical puddler with the aid of 150 human beings could, in a given time, turn out 500 tons more iron than 400 puddlers and helpers could...
...Photo-Engravers' Union...
...He refused to give me his name...
...And this, of course, means that many more white collar high school or college graduates are looking for jobs...
...His trade union publication brings him the story of the Great Change...
...Crosswaith came to the city for seven open air meetings...
...Joining Crosswaith at the table I was informed that our white friend had to order for Crosswaith...
...Mill owners preached this...
...Labor is weakened and the owning class is further enriched and strengthened...
...freedom...
...I glanced at the dish and at the waiter several times...
...Dissipating our voting power among thousands of candidates of the parties of the possessing classes...
...The mechanical firing apparatus installed by some of the Western and Southwestern Railroads is responsible for the discharge of 17,000 firemen...
...When the spaghetti a la Bologna was being served the warier placed Crosswalth's dish near me...
...An amusing incident occurred In an Italian restaurant in the centre of town...
...Even the successors of the early min owners have buried it in mass production, Is it not a strange and absurd thing that this old system of thought now so thoroughly discredited has Its last refuge in the minds of labor men...
...Stuart Chase estimates that about 4,000,000 workers come under the provisions of company pension systems...
...The head-waiter began to bow...
...The ticket taking turnstile Robots in subways, elevated trains, amusement parks, etc., threw many thousands of ticket takers out of work...
...He seemed to become conscious of—was it tips...
...reduction of overhead cost, laying off of employees, monopoly and increased profits...
...Human workers will either be the beneficiaries of the labor-displacing machine or, like starving wolves, devour each other...
...Though the road at times seems long and hard, do not become tired and discouraged...
...Let industry take its course...
...We declare that henceforth we wffl fight no tariff battles for the masters of industry but wffl summon the organized workers of the nation to an inspiring struggle to organise the many highly protected industries that are not organised...
...Another evening's experience in a Jewish restaurant brought joy to my heart...
...He was "waited on...
...Since 1920 Railroads have decreased their working force 235,000...
...It was the philosophy of mill owners...
...Spenser's works which were widely read in the nineteenth century now gather dust on library shelves...
...This Declaration of Independence * essential to the recovery of the very kxl and fighting spirit of the organized work.' ers today...
...Many editors, copy readers, and reporters will, with the skilled workers, join the ranks of the unemployed...
...and mankind win at last be liberated in a world that was made for those who do the world's useful work...
...One of the group asked the waiter in Jewish "WUI you wait on a Negro...
...There is no law dealing with the subject...
...They close old plants and scrap old machines...
...Elimination of waste, working employees at trip hammer speed and the installation of labordisplacing machinery are the greatest factors responsible for this increased wealth production...
...Not by voting for either of the two old partks which are owned body and soul by the money power, but by voting for the one party that champions the workers' interest, the Socialist Party...
...We Socialists have the remedy...
...Fabulous fortunes are accumulated...
...In New York C/.y 345 linotypers will be replaced by 15 teletypesetters and 5 mechanics...
...For Labor's Own Party "As a natural consequence of all tHk' we declare our Independence of tbv politics, parties and candidates of taa"~ possessing classes...
...in a city that nurtured the Revolution of "7...
...Louis, secretary-treasur...
Vol. 9 • August 1929 • No. 4
