Smash Hits in the President’S Labor News Column
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
UNITED AUTOMOBILE WORKER—DETROIT, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1937 PAGE 5 Maybe Their Mothers Could Answer That Smash Hits in The President’s Labor News Column There is one thing that can be said with cer- Recently the International executive board tainty about the Literary Digest: it is funny refused to authorize a strike, involving a small when it means to be serious, and it is funny number of men, in the Fisher Body plant in when it means to be funny. In the news episode, Pontiac, Mich. This strike was called without Detroit Police Commissioner Heinrich A. Pickert the authority of the International union at a time w. Detroit’s swarming billions of rats, which it calculated not only to injure the union, but to recently reported, the Digest prefaced its story embarrass the entire negotiations with the cor- With this piece from the Pied Piper of Hamelin: poration. Authorization would have placed the Rats! union in an impossible position; therefore, the They fought the dogs and killed the eats, board voted against carrying the strike further. with men in plant, And bit the babies in the cradles, After some discussion the the personally, was able to persuade them to ieave And ate the out of the vats, L cheese the premises, and the strike was ended. soups the own And licked the from cook’s This strike resulted in the firing of several ladles. men. Negotiations on this matter are now going according to accounts, “Goose-step” Pickert, forward. The union, through the International about Detroit’s rat has revised his estimate executive board, is conducting a hearing in Pon- millions to—“There are billions population from tiac to determine the responsibility for the calling rats in Detroit! Yes, billions!’’ Pickert admits of of the unauthorized strike. It is a part of the inability to cope with the situation. Where his plan of the International board, alter fixing re- cats poisons and City hall have failed, this and sponsibility, to recommend to the corporation suggests, Pickert’s short-club experts column the kind of penalty and the extent of penalty might succeed. It is said rat skulls are easier that should be meted out to those responsible. to those of young girl strikers, and crack than This is in line with the procedure followed in since Pickert’s crack regiments have grown pro- many other international unions of the CIO. ficient at bringing down the latter game, it should be but child’s play for him to rid Detroit Professional Provocateurs of rajs. Chicago Tribunt The board is determined that we shall have SWOC Maintains Discipline an end of unauthorized strikes. There is every reason to that professional provocateurs A story sent out from Pittsburgh Dec. 2, by believe THEY WHO TAKE THE SWORD were mixed up in the calling of the Pontiac strike the Scripps-Howard Newspaper alliance indi- and in its continuation. Ifthis is true, or whether cates that the steel companies have really made Fight to Get and Hold Colonial it is true or not, the strike was such as to em- a serious effort to abide by union contracts and Possessions Does NOT Bring barrass the union and place us in an impossible to muzzle rambunctious underlings—something position before automobile manufacturers have yet to learn. Prosperity to World’s Workers the entire nation. If we work together intelligently and honest- The story’s leading paragraphs: ly, we can win our place in the automobile in- “The Committee for Industrial Organization The great nations of the world are today classified into dustry; but if we dn not work together and if steel union’s harmonious relations with more two groups—the “haves” and the “have-nots.” we refuse to abide by the decisions of the highest than 400 employers under contracts have sur- following body of the International union, then nothing weeks of layoffs depression In the first group we find the countries: United vived six and other but chaos and demoralization can result. Those wounds. States, Britain and France. In the second group we dis- Great who are opposed to this orderly procedure, and steelmakers alike “Union leaders here cover Germany, Italy and Japan. opposed to carrying out the provisions of our testify to the phenomenon of a year-old union constitution and the laws of our union, are discipline, pa- which has maintained worked COLONIES AND OVERPOPULATION enemies of the movement and should be treated tiently to settle grievances, educated members as such by all loyal union men. employers.” Those in the first group, it is claimed, do not desire war and won the co-operation of Every good man should be on the job, War union And the story concludes with: because they are the principal victors in the World and watching for the acts of these enemies of the “Now the union, after barely six months, they have either enough colonies, or land and raw material union. Again, every union man should be careful has printed a handbook on how to handle resources within their national boundaries, to feel economi- to understand that only as he acts according to union can lie be grievances . The handbook reprints the cally secure. < the policy of the International contract in full and gives such advice as this: Those in the second group, the don’t have enough to feed and defended by the union. This is the reason why * ‘Get both sides to every grievance. have-nots, claim that the other house their peoples.” we have an International—in order to hold our " The Raw Material Argument ‘Refuse to handle unjustified grievances. powers got most of the loot out forces together and act as a unit, and thus be " of the war. Germany says if she only had the ‘Don’t coerce or intimidate anybody into last They claim that able, through our united strength, to compete they to aggressors colonies taken from her during He may join if threatened, are forced be the employers. joining the union. because without additional land the war, plus a little more, every- with a union man. but he will never make good they cannot secure raw materials, thing would be O. K. This is sheer * illegal 'Don’t be kicked into a wildcat or cannot feed their populations, and unadulterated bunk, for, as Sir Wildcat Communications Norman Angell has pointed ¦trike.” cannot properly care for their out, Another danger to our International, and thus populations in their “restricted” German trade with all German to every local and to every member, is that of territories. Once we get additional colonies before 1914 amounted Who Gets the Gravy? to territory, they say, all our only to one-half of one per cent wildcat communications. Letters purporting from individuals, with- Big business always blames organized labor troubles will be eliminated and of total German trade. come from local unions or for high prices. It is this propaganda that often prosperity will reign. Japan and Italy, too, cry and out the seal of the International, should be antagonizes people knowledge of snarl for colonies, and grab them by every local, because stool pigeons, with little DOES PROSPERITY REIGN? banned economics against organized labor. The big busi- on occasion—Ethiopia, Manchu- spies, provocateurs are out to cause all the A moment’s serious reflection kuo and now How much ness press harps on this subject constantly. Labor China. trouble they can at this time. Any communica- dissipates the fundamental argu- raw material is obtained from expose monstrous deception—the rob- tions sent to your local which do not bear the must this ment in the have-nots propaganda. Ethiopia and Manchukuo? Practi- and farmer. Labor must seal of the International should be forwarded to bing of both worker Great Britain has the greatest cally none. The raw materials the International office. p«g4|particular attention to the enlightenment colonial empire, but has this which these countries need are mi the farmer on this matter. brought prosperity to the millions largely unobtainable from colon- There are a number of organizations in The Bureau of Agricultural Economics of British workingmen, or to the ies. They are obtainable primarily various parts of the country who make a practice reoently reported that of the $331 paid by millions of peasants and workers from within the national boun- of appealing to local unions for endorsement and io its colony? By a typical workman’s family for 58 important India, largest daries of other nations. The col- for funds. Every local should exercise caution of the imagination. 1933, farmers received only $l3B, or no stretch It ony issue in this connection is before endorsing any such organization, no mat- foods in has brought prosperity to the of paid for these sheer subterfuge. ter how pro-labor name of organization 42 per cent, while $252 financial and industrial overlords the the farmers sllß, or 47 Writes the brilliant American sounds. The passed a re- foods in 1913, received of Great Britain. International board foreign correspondent. John Gun- solution to the effect that before any outside per cent. The United States has little in ther: of 1936, the net organization was endorsement, it should For the first nine months the way of colonies, has the best “All the colonies of the given product corporations all whether profits of 14 large food natural resources, but little pros- nations of the world produce be thoroughly investigated to determine were $61,552,000, which was a return of 14.7 perity for its workers. Yet, the only two important raw ma- or not it was a bona fide organization and worthy per cent, compared with $47,085,000, a re- United States has a higher living terials in great quantity—tin of support.