Labor And National Defense
MURRAY, PHILIP
Labor And National Defense = By PHILIP MURRAY (President of the CIO in the Survey Graphic) T^OTAL WAR means total defense. This is possible only with the •*• full co-operation and participation of...
...But we all realize that much depends on the swift effectiveness of American production...
...Its treatment of its employes was so severe, he affirmed, that strikes broke out...
...Harry M. McCasRrin, Rock Island...
...The grand jury indicted two utility companies, the Illinois-Iowa Power Company and the Missouri Power and Ijight Company, on five counts of criminal conspiracy, and two executives, Henry Ij...
...Magnificently, where it has a chance...
...the late Herschel V. Tell, Rushville...
...Philip F. La Follette appointed him to the circuit bench, will oppose Justice Chester A. Fowler, who is S«ek4»g~ another 10-year term at 78 years of age...
...Hanley, vice president of Illinois Power, and James D. Mortimer, former president of the huge North American system...
...This job cannot be left to industry itself, as it was in 1917-18...
...Grand jurors contended that at least $9,100 of this amount went for campaign contributions to candidates for various state and municipal public offices, while a total of at least $21,800 was paid out of the secret funds -to municipal officials and politicians to secure ^favorable regulatory ordinances, [franchises, and lighting contracts...
...Other utility executives and employes were named as conspirators but not as defendants...
...These enemies want to scuttle the Wage and Hour Act, nullify the Wagner Act, shelve the Walsh-Healey Act and crush bona fide labor unionism...
...TQETHLEHEM was one of the firms which failed to supply armaments* in sufficient quantities or with sufficient speed in the last World War...
...The very reverse is true, as the record of 1917-18, and the recent story of British industry, so forcefully reveal...
...Civil retreat can be just as disastrous as military defeat—in fact, to sacrifice progressive labor measures is to lose the first battle for democracy...
...Its labor turnover was enormous...
...The preservation of democracy is a twofold task...
...The front-line defense of civil liberties for all Americans is a truly independent, powerful and responsible labor movement...
...Industry which refused to take labor into full partnership failed to do the job...
...U. S. Navy Awards Huge Oil Contract to Highest Bidder...
...Reis, Brilliant Jurist, Seeks High Court Post Alvin C. Reis, distinguished Wisconsin jurist who presides over the first branch of the ninth judicial circuit, announced last week that he will be a candidate for justice of the Wisconsin supreme court in April, 19 41, elections...
...Guy M. Gillette, Iowa Democrat who is •hairman of the Senate campaign expenditures committee, charged in a radio address last week...
...To fulfill its obligations to the millions of young Americans who are to be called for military service, labor must assume its full responsibility for an adequate supply of armaments...
...LABOR PARTICIPATION through genuine collective bargaining in all steel plants', shipyards, "plane factories, tank arsenals is necessary to insure the adequate production of defense materials today...
...second, we must develop adequate defenses against the enemies of democracy from without...
...the late former Illinois Secretary of State William J. Strat-ton...
...Judge Reis, who served the state brilliantly as chief counsel of the Public Service Commission until former Gov...
...CERTAINLY we cannot defend our democratic society by forti-^ fying industrial dictatorships...
...These, and other factors, made it impossible for Bethlehem Steel to discharge its responsibilities in the World War...
...During the year ending May 31, 1918, 98 per cent of its workers (56,771 out of 57,423) left for other employment...
...The two low bids were submitted by companies offering Mexican oil for sale, Stone declares, and "the Navy Department rejected their bids because it did not wish to buy Mexican oil, and in so doing, it joined in the boycott by which Standard Oil has been putting the squeeze into Mexico," Not only was Standard Oil's bid the highest, but even more shocking is the fact that the huge petroleum company charged the Navy 89 cents a barrel at a time when it was selling fuel oil to private customers at 80 to 85 cents a barrel, Stone charges...
...The committee chairman •'guessed" that the 1940 elections "cost the American people more than 20 millions of dollars...
...Labor participation in the production of war materials is essential to the success of this phase of the defense program...
...yet only 133 of these guns and 600 shells of a single caliber reached the front in time to be used...
...Can it go on refusing to bargain collectively with representatives of its employes ? To disregard [ decisions of the Labor Board and the Circuit Court of Appeals I affecting its steel plants and | shipyards ? To flout the Supreme Court in refusing to abide by the Walsh-Healey Act decisions...
...First, we must encourage and extend the democratic way of life in government and in industry...
...While there have probably been irregularities, frauds, violations, and abuses in all elections of the past, I believe that I do not exaggerate when I say that never before in American history have we seen a more patent, potent and potential attempt to influence the American electorate...
...THE PRODUCTION of defense materials is labor's major responsibility...
...The indictment charged that from 1934 to 1939 secret funds aggregating at least $77,000 were raised by the utility companies through attorney kickbacks, secret construction company rebates, padded expense accounts of employes, and surreptitious salary refunds...
...WPA Defense Projects First An arrangement between the Works Projects Administration and the war department will give blanket priority to all projects designated by the army as "important to national defense...
...both must be prosecuted simultaneously...
...This is possible only with the •*• full co-operation and participation of labor...
...Oral P. Tuttle, Harrisburg...
...Are we going to permit a repetition of this responsibility ? Former President William Howard Taft, then co-chairman of the National War Labor Board, on several occasions stated the reason why this steel company was unable to contribute adequately to national defense...
...Judge Reis has a wide background of public service, having served in both houses of the Wisconsin legislature where he became widely known as a fighting opponent of private utility empires...
...One of labor's responsibilities is to see that no such destructive program succeeds...
...Although its bid was 10 cents a gallon higher than the low bidder, Standard Oil recently received an order for 500,000 barrels of fuel oil from the Navy Department, I. F. Stone, associate editor of the Nation Magazine, charged in a recent issue of that publication...
...New Policy...
...o> Probe Reveals Corrupt Utility Manipulations The long arm of the private utilities has reached out to corrupt Illinois elections and legislators, a United States grand jury charged at Springfield, 111., last week after examining evidence for three months...
...Despite vast expenditures for aircraft, no American fighting plane flew at the front...
...Labor bears this responsibility gravely, realizing that should a major emergency occur, we could not buy guns, shells, gas, planes, tanks from the Allies while gearing ourselves for our defense...
...No one can foresee what lies ahead...
...State Rep...
...Lew Wallace, Mattoon...
...Labor's responsibilities in this country's defense effort are obvious, and it is equally clear that labor is prepared to discharge these obligations in I establishing impregnable defenses...
...The London Economist has recorded the tragic failure of British industry to produce adequate armaments, particularly tanks and aircraft, before labor was invited to share in the program...
...Labor demands that industry get on with the job by getting on with labor...
...H. D. Tindall, Murphys-boro...
...How is labor carrying out its responsibilities...
...It is labor's responsibility to see that the disastrous policy of Britain from 1936 to May, 1940, is not pursued in the United States...
...Uninformed critics urge that nothing be done to improve and democratize backward firms because the fulfillment of defense contracts would be jeopardized...
...The army ordered 20,000,000 hand grenades—and Pershing bought the hand grenades from the British...
...But to answer this question fully, it is necessary to ask another—Are powerful persons who are now, as always, bent on the destruction of democracy, going to be allowed to impede labor in assuming its full share in defense ? For example, are we going, to let the Bethlehem Steel Corporation continue its violations of the National Labor Relations Act...
...Stone's article, entitled "The Squeeze on Mexico," asks if "the good-will of the Standard Oil Company is more important to our national security than the good-will of the people of Mexico...
...Do we want to hear the same story in 1940-41...
...Are we going to tolerate the granting of over one billion dollars in government contracts to a firm with such a record...
...State Rep...
...A graduate of the University oi Wisconsin and of Harvard Law School, Judge Reis served with distinction as a major in the United States Army during the World War...
...The indictments named as recipients of illegal political contributions from the utilities State Rep...
...In the last war, our Ordnance set out to build 20,000 guns of all calibers, and provide munitions for them...
...European experience clearly proves the sacrifice of labor's rights to be a first step toward the loss of freedom by religious groups, political groups, racial groups and, finally, even by business groups...
...1940 Election 'Most Corrupt' In U. S. History Never in American history has there been a "more patent, potent, and potential attempt" to buy an ©lection than in 1940, Sen...
...His 19 months of overseas service included action in the battles of Chateau Thiery, St...
...C. H. Mullen, Knoxville, and Mark A. Saunders, Kewaunee...
...Mi-hiel, and Meuse-Argonne...
...The one is not possible without the other...
...In the light of this twofold purpose, I conceive that it is labor's task to help save democracy against its enemies at home who demand the weakening or the repeal of social and labor legislation...
Vol. 4 • October 1940 • No. 50
