THE NAM'S NEWEST PROPAGANDA PACKAGE
Coleman, Mcalister
The NAM's Newest Propaganda Package By McALISTER COLEMAN Martha's Vineyard, Mass. IAM in receipt of a garland of literary offerings from the gifted—well, perhaps the word is rather "hired" than...
...Sewell Avery's sit-down strike has held up the delivery of mail order catalogs...
...Or maybe this one from Sarah Cloghorn: "The golf links He so near the mills That almost every day The laboring children can look out And see the men at play...
...and has pretty pictures of the little Boston boys defying the redcoats and scabs going to work in a factory—happy scabs too, since they are exercising their "right to work" without benefit of labor unions...
...Then it tells how a "quiet young man," (and I may say that it is a relief to learn that he was not noisy on a Saturday night in a Midwestern industrial town) walked into a "popular grocery store and after buying a sizable order, slapped three silver dollars down on the counter and said, quietly, we presume, "Take it out of that...
...Morris Rubin, or Mrs...
...All we girls might gather round the piano and sing "Solidarity Forever" or some of the songs of the late Joe Hill such as "Sabby Tabby Kitten," which is really cute...
...Reluctantly leaving the ineffable Peg, we turn now to a neat little number called "Pattern of Community Progress...
...It doesn't have to be original, Gott sei dank...
...It starts off excitingly enough about "The Silver Dollar Mystery...
...She says that after the Mr...
...IAM in receipt of a garland of literary offerings from the gifted—well, perhaps the word is rather "hired" than "gifted"—typewriters of the press gang for the National Association of Manufacturers...
...0 Pioneers...
...It is called "Program Notes" and it is "A Personal Service to Program Chairmen of Women's Organizations Supplied by the Home and Industry Committee of the National Association of Manufacturers, 14 West 49th Street, New York City," in case any of you gals want a batch of them...
...I must confess I was a bit disappointed at coming on the answer so early in the narrative...
...It says: "Various conditions may reduce employment opportunities...
...In conclusion I want to thank the thoughful soul who sent me all this NAM literature way up here in the sticks where there is an acute paper shortage, due no doubt to the fact that Mr...
...It seemed that a local company with a large payroll had thought up the cute scheme of a "Silver Dollar Pay Day" so as to show the community what this company was contributing to the community which hadn't seen any silver dollars in moons...
...And then how about refreshments...
...What About Refreshments...
...It was Saturday evening in a Midwestern industrial town" is the intriguing lead...
...So that one must be for the kiddies...
...Under the heading of "Head Off Wild Rumors," Walter Junior writes, "Since the start of the war program, there have been rumors that this or that company was reaping tremendous profits...
...Then it tells you to look in the Constitution and see where it says that you don't have to join labor unions...
...The contents of these brochures, pamphlets, leaflets, and reports run all the way from sheer poesy to illustrated primers about what a good life we are having in America compared to what "the lesser breeds without the law," who haven't heard about free enterprise, have to put up with...
...Norman Thomas, Mrs...
...Isabel La Follette she might get some interesting suggestions for her quiz programs...
...One pamphlet called "The Freedom We Defend" is evidently intended for the kiddies because it is written for a 10-year old audience (or isn't it...
...Quite a hotsy-totsy idea, that one...
...What, you will say in your peevish manner, has this got to do with "The Story of Pinville" ? Nothing, chum...
...Don't tell me that the NAM isn't setting up the girls to a snack...
...Some of them are over-strict public regulation of private enterprises, unwisely adjusted taxation, temporary dislocations caused by improved technology, monopolistic policies of corporations or labor organizations, or unbalanced prices...
...I think we would all go for that...
...Peggy, you can say that again...
...A sort of Utopia of Userers...
...Then here is one for the ladies, God bless 'em...
...This is the story of Pinville, a mythical town which grew up around a pin factory...
...You'd Be Bored Well, space limitations prevent me from keeping you in suspense any longer, so I will now tell you about the answer to the mystery of those silver dollars...
...I am a little breathless in my admiration for the complete coverage of all cross-sections of American life which the literature of the NAM achieves...
...One of the "lighter touches" in the NAM Miscellany of Malarkey is in a brochure written by Walter Chamb-lin, Jr., Executive Director of the NAM Washington office, entitled "Know Your Congressman...
...For my part I would advocate something stronger than toasted cheese sandwiches and a spot of coffee after listening to an NAM orator...
...I thought maybe the NAM was carrying on the crusade of the late William Jennings Bryan for free and unlimited coinage of silver, but I was mistaken, as usual...
...She says "a bit of cheer is welcome in these days of extra stress and strain...
...I am myself competing for Peggy's $25 War Bond prize for short verse that best expresses the idea that America offers everyone of us an opportunity to make his dream come true...
...When the electric light companies were putting on similar shows they used to serve toasted cheese sandwiches (toasted on an electric toaster, of course) to the ladies after the speaker had told them what a fiend in human form Sen...
...Martin who saw his town going to hell in a hanging basket because it didn't have any industry and who pulled it out of the dumps by starting up a pin factory...
...It's just there to show you that the hired help has to spend its money for groceries et al and that there wouldn't be any grocery stores if no one had any dol- : lars, whether silver or greenbacks...
...It is quite long and wretchedly written, and I am sure you would be bored to death with the whole business...
...Then there is a picture of the Pilgrims having a pretty tough t. "ie landing on Plymouth Rock and Whitman's poem, "Pioneers...
...Peggy has a pretty good idea about what she calls (using quotation marks for reasons best known to herself) "the light touch" for the programs which her mob is putting on all over the country...
...The Silver Dollar Mystery' Peggy says she is working out some quizzes and word games for the especial benefit of farm women's clubs...
...Catch on ? The story of Pinville picks up from the end of the Mystery of the Silver Dollar, and it is about a far-sighted man named Mr...
...This whole schmier is edited by pretty Peggy Eaton, whose picture appears on the first page, and Peggy will help you out by supplying any sort of narcotics in propaganda form you want to peddle around your neighborhood from a motion picture showing free enterprise in action (although I don't take it she will provide the pictures of the Memorial Day Massacre in front of Tom Girdler's plant) to a publication telling you how to bulldoze your local Congressman into voting anti-labor bills...
...So how about this one from Charlotte Perkins Gilman Stetsen: "// fifty men did all the work, And gave the price to five, And let those five make all the rules— You'd say the 50 men were fools, Unfit to be alive...
...Perhaps if Peggy would write to Mrs...
...Big from the NAM has shot off his mouth about the glories of free enterprise and all, there might be "a refreshing program break with'a half hour of piano music...
...George W. Norris was...
Vol. 8 • June 1944 • No. 26
