Devoted the A Yugoslav Weekly to EDUCATION Interest of the Workers ORGANIZATION • CO-OPERATIVE OFFICIAL ORGAN OF J. S. F. and Its Educational Bureau PROLETAREC COMMONWEALTH NO. 1977. Published Weekly at 2301 So. Lawndale Ave. 23, ILL-, AUGUST 1, 1945 VOL. XL. ENGLISH RECONVERSION BUILDING ON SAND The Yugoslav Thesis SLUMS-WHOSE RESPONSIBILITY? punch England may be jumping U. S. industry and labor to the ...From a lecture by Stoyan Pribi- Elimination of the slums districts in our cities is a laudable ob- bungalows.”' jective in “beating bombers into chevich, Time-Life correspondent, and one which has the support of all progressive organizations U. S. unions have discussed and argued in favor of converting given in mid-June before an ex- and individuals. The Federal Government has made an effort to aid cobwebs, huge aircraft plants, that would otherwise go to into the clusive semi-official audience in m the elimination of these disease and crime breeding districts by While the U. S. situation remains production of prefabricated homes. London, as printed in T. & T. means of Federal housing projects, but its efforts have been limited in exploratory stage the British have gone ahead and announced a by the Trends & Tides, editor and pub- to much too small scale the opposition of the private construction that their aircraft industry will turn out 50,000 prefabricated aluminum lisher Louis Adamic): and other special interests. houses in 1945 alone. For the purpose of this editorial we will not enter into an analysis On the principle Already scheduled is a 5,000-unit monthly production. American of self-deter- of the Federal vs. private interests issue, except to say that in nination of nations, Yugoslavs our union representatives are particularly irked at American industry’; opinion the private interests have shown little inclination to tackle the haini Venezia Giulia up Isonzo failure to devise a plan to reconvert to housing because they nave to problem on a scale which will attain the objective of final and total figured that many U. S. aircraft plants could satisfy the desperate tiver as Yugoslav natives of that slum elimination. egion outnumber two to need of many European nations for prefabricated housing. Now, the> Italians We will, rather, touch on an angle to which, we think, far too me. Furthermore, Yugoslavs ar- contend, the .British manufacturers will have the jump in the new little attention mas been given, namely, the slum owners and the slum market. lue that they are a small nation dwellers. which twice fought on Allied side, Union leaders in the construction and aircraft industries are espe The slum owners have been criticized on several counts, but main- that traditionally indulf,'?d Cially bitter because England itself has been in such need of pre y for allowing the properties they rent out to fall into such deplorable n expansion against the Yugoslav fabricated homes that the U. S. has knocked down temporary houses condition. The criticism is justified in many cases, particularly so ancls and the Balkans, erected for war workers in boom towns and shipped them to England and that where the owner milks it of every cent of rent he possibly can, but Yugoslavia —LPA. xnsequently needs never puts a cent back in the way of needed repairs or improvements, trcngest Allied guarantees against n such cases there is no possible way of preventing the property from uture aggression—the more so as eventually becoming the worst type of slum. ill Italian governments after the THE MEDICS, TOO, WANT A FENCE There is, on the other hand, a type of renter who would turn any ast war pursued a policy of exter- place A few years ago the stuffed-shirt hierarchy running the state into a slum, and that in a short time. We have seen, here in Cin mination of the Yugoslav popula- cinnati—and (Wis.) medical society had an apoplectic seizure everytime someone it is probably the same in other cities—a whole section tion while in this war Italian oc- of the mentioned group health or dared to suggest that perhaps the pay-as- city turned into a slum district by a shiftless class of people who cupation armies committed mass you-go method of financing medical care was inadequate to the health came here in recent years to take war jobs and who were evidently ittrocities equal to the worst deeds needs of the people. just not accustomed to live under other than filthy conditions. They of the Gestapo. The high priests of organized medicine seem to have changed themselves ruined the houses in which they lived, and being of a When one remembers that 1,- migratory nature and always the have their minds before the growing demands for modern sensible means of on go, spread the ruin to many 500,000 Slovenians are wedged in properties. financing medical care. In fact they like the idea of prepaid medical between 125 million aggressive I rom plans so well that they were importuning the recent legislature to give what we have observed, we believe that the most pressing Germans and Italians, and that in 1 them a. monopoly on the plans. ieed in connection with the problem of slum elimination is a program this war Yugoslavia lost 1,700,000 Under the bill sponsored by the medical society the only medical With permission of Chicago Daily News Courtesy Appreciate America, lac. of education—education for the slum-creating property owner, to con lives for Allied cause, one realizes vince him public plans which would have been availabel to consumers would have been that the interest must be better served, and educa why the frontier dispute with Italy civilizing those established by the society itself or by the county medical societies tion—of a nature—for the type of renter to whom we refer is in Yugoslav eyes a question not red in the preciding with the approval of the state organization. This was obviously a paragraph. The latter need is the most imperative only of legal technicalities but also Brewery scheme to fence out cooperatives, labor unions, and other groups which POOR EXAMPLE —The Worker. OF AMERICAN JUSTICE of human ethics and sheer biolo- have pioneered in groups health. In other words organized medicine Bethlehem Gives a Fortune to Crooked Lawyer, He Fixes gical survival. attempts to establish a monopoly in the administration of the purely Judge, Corporation Gets the Loot, but Escapes Punishment Yugoslavs also emphasize that business features of group medicine. Shame in a Evidence uncovered by a House committee which is looking into by controlling Trieste Italy could Courtroom Cooperatives opposing the bill sought to amend it to give doctors Few indeed can be the responsible citizens the conduct of Federal Judge Johnson of the Middle District of Penn- dictate or choke off maritime trade of France and the United the right to participate in pre-paid medical plans established by groups Nations who derive pleasure sylvania is extremely disturbing. of nearly 50 people much from the trial of Marshal Petain other than the medical society. They A beer salesman sells decisions to million of state also sought to write into the equally Yugoslavia, As he returned to France, the trial is necessary. He betrayed his coun bill language crooked corporation lawyers, and the judge delivers according Austria, Hungary and specifically stating that the bill did not preclude the for- try and his country’s pledged word by giving up the fight to contract! To what extent are these practices common in other courts? Czechoslovakia. Therefore, at the against mation of medical plans by other groups. Germany. He continued to betray France, throughout rule, by Our Federal judges serve for life. They are clothed with extra- peace conference Prague, Vienna his col Altho the legislature did not adopt the amendment proposed by laborating with the enemy, by leading ordinary powers, but no one acting for the people presumes to and Budapest will very likely sup- Vichy Fascism and by lending the cooperatives it did tack on an amendment allowing ask how strength doctors to parti- those powers port Belgrade the of his prestige both to collaboration and Fascism. A verdict cipate in other organizations. This are exercised! in opposing Italian amendment passed * * of guilty only was after several * is the possible one—although actual carrying out of assemblymen domination of their Mediterranean voiced their suspicion of the bill and recalled that the a death sentence, if delivered, is improbable because age Judge Johnson is disgraced. Some of his associates are on the way outlet. of his and medical society in the past has refused permission to physicians to political complications to the penitentiary, but the biggest culprit goes scot free. Yugoslavs point out that the Al- involved. participate in group health plans and had caused hospitals Guilty though Petain is, it to dis- The Bethlehem Steel Company wished to absorb the Williamsport lied Military Government works w’ould have been much better had he criminate against doctors who did. never lived to go on trial. It is not inspiring Wire Rope Company which, through mismanagement or for some other under Fascists laws and with Ita- to see witnesses, like There is a very encouraging aspect to the fight in the legislature. former Premier Reynaud, in effect reason, was in receivership in Judge Johnson’s court. 'ian local personnel sometimes re- defending their own errors of judg- It indicates that even the reactionary medical politicians, having found ment and weaknesses by testifying against Those who had put their money into the Williamsport cruited from the former Fascist him. It is not inspiring that they can’t hold back the future by dragging their concern de- that troops had feet, have de- manded something a Administration, to clear the court of Petainists and supporters of democ cided to climb the wagon and, like decent price for their property. Bethlehem which regime on if possible, do the driving themselves. a racy because of the wrangling between them. It is not comforting —Capital knew better way to handle the deal. It gave $240,000 to its lawyer. might prejudice the result of an to Times, Madison. Americans that the man on trial one regime He contacted Judge Johnson’s “bag man,” and Judge Johnson did the eventual plebiscite. They worry is whose the long recognized' in a policy of rest. The Williamsport company was handed over about imperialistic intentions expediency and for whom our Adm to Bethlehem for of Leahy nourished a small percentage of its real value. the Rome regime and its laxity in sentiments so cordial. Bilbo, Our Adolf Hitler and his Nazis must have had some Shame Apparently nothing is being done to prosecute Bethelehem or any weeding out Fascism. And they sardonic pleasure If the in permitting Petain to get out of country needed an object lesson in the need for a Fair Em- of its officials. The latter say they didn’t know what their attorney wonder whether certain Allied cir- Germany and return to the land ployment did against which he committed Practice Committee, there he stands—Senator Theodore “The with the $240,000. They paid out other large sums to grafters who had cles toy with the idea of strength- treason.—The Chicago Sun. Man” Bilbo Mississippi. of (he entree to Johnson s court. In those cases, too, Bethlehem pleads ening reactionary forces in Italy Senator Bilbo breathes bigotry, prejudice, narrow-mindedness and complete ignorance of what it was all about. by promising them Trieste and Ve- malice at every pore. He * * * traduces a woman critic as a “Dago,” and lezia Giulia as appeasement for One Town's Experience calls it an old Southern custom.” He rants against Does anyone in his Negroes “Com- right senses believe that kind of a “cock-and- anticipated losses in the Deodeca- Johnstown, Pa., was not all of one when, years munists” and Jews, and talks mind nine ago, its of “liquidating” them for daring to ad bull" story? The individual or corporation that bribes a nese and North Africa. However, Chamber of vocate public official Commerce decided to “cooperate” with the dress manu the FEPC. v and fixes” his satellites is the chief offender against the public wel- if anti-Fascist forces should secure lacturing firm of Goldstein and Levin in bringing its plant So long as a man like Bilbo Congress from can so abuse the prestige of the iare. Will and the Department of Justice be content to punish preponderant influence in the Philadelphia to their city. , not only, Senate but he small fry and the the country stands permit the corrupt whale to swim away, gorged with tome government, the Yugoslavs Many of the city’s “brain trusters” feared ashamed. The shame can best be tha the* advent of this expiated by writing into the law the the loot of a sordid deal?—Labor, Washington, D. C. would very probably show far garment factory would standards of fairness swallow up all available female labor—at and decency which the great majority of our acre willingness to better citi- compromise. wages—leaving little for store and domestic help in the area zens accept.—The . Chicago Sun. The peace Others conference would then worried that an influx of “labor agitators” would follow in the lave decide an wake of Danger Signals to between auto- the dress factory, thus disturbing Johnstown’s non-union equi Reappearance nomous Trieste under Yugoslav librium of a not-so-long-ago of red-baiting on a national scale is an alarming era. sovereignty and an Still others A "WAGE RISE" CAN ALSO BECOME development. international were not quite certain that Bethlehem Steel and Car A port of run jointly by negie- Steel, city’s The latest talk of red plots’ in Hollywood and the armed forces, Trieste Bel- the giant industries, would look with favor loth by congressional grade, Prague, Vienna, Budapest upon the arrival of the dress factory WAGE voiced sources, are straws in the wind of a plan in their lordly domain. As in STEAL, AS PROVED BY EVENTS and Rome. many another Pennsylvania By o launch a nationwide witch-hunt. town, steel reigns supreme in Johnstown RAYMOND HOFSES, Editor, Reading Labor Nevertheless, today Advocate .Such a move would logically develop into a union-smashing drive the Goldstein and Levin firm, according to American unionists -is it did after the last “The Observer,” Johnstown’s largest and are telling as a whole have less buying war, and as it always developed wherever used, SAYS SPECULATORS brightest weekly, has become the right story both here an “economic and when they assert power with more money. It is also and in Germany. civic asset.” It has doubled its original working that wage increases are America learned an ARE CLEANING UP staff and is planning an expansion program. necessary possible for wage rises to be favor- important lesson in this war; working together Most important, it has to avert a post-war depression we can recently signed a labor contract ed by the biggest business interests overcome our enemies and our greatest obstacles, both at home IN RAIL REVAMPS with the ILGWU adopting the full set even more md abroad. of union work standards. The process disastrous than the one (if prices can be increased as Solon Boosting Hobbs Bill, of evolution—from a “runaway’ which started in October, Let us not forget great plant in Philadelphia to a union shop 1929. much or more) as a means of rob- the battles still lie ahead demanding the Cites Grotesque Profits Made on in Johnstown—has not been a They are right because utmost unity—Japanese rose-strewn path. It was a tough battle when the bing the workers of the dollars fascism in the Pacific, jobs and security at Northwestern Stock all the way—even though with government stops being lome. Daily out strikes—and the Wagner Act played the cus- they saved during this war when World.. Wall Street speculators have an important part in even tomer for the products of inning.—Justice. Amer- they bought and kept war bonds made ‘'grotesque” profits on new ican industry, then it will be ne- The above possibility empha- stocks issued when bankrupt rail- cessary for the people is WOMEN FACE tant to declare their positions. themselves by TEST roads were reorganized, it was to do the sized black type because that is Exceptions are Mrs. Edith made by Tarkington. buying. They are right [N N. charged by Congressman C. W. EOOTH TARKINGTON j One is that precisely the effect that wage in- HOUSE Rogers (Rep., Mass.), because in this war, as in the last who says, Reed (Rep,. Ill.) in i we propose to “bestow the bless creases will have if they are ac- a long speech RAPS one, the productive ability of in- The nine women members of ‘lt seems to me only simple jus- PEACETIME DRAFT ing of complete disarmament on companied by corresponding in- to the House. Booth dustry has been stepped up by im- the House will have a tough time tice,” and Mrs. Helen Gahagan Tarkington is one of the Germany and Japan, thus giving creasees in prices. Douglas Reed used the Chicago & North country’s I proved machinery and more effi- making up their minds on the pro- (Dem., Calif.), who open- best known authors and every German and Jap a higher *y Western as an example. playwrights. J cient methods, so that a drop in posed “equal rights for women” says she is against it. Millions have derived j standard of living, while we put “Speculators purchased C. & pleasure from consuming ability will quickly re- The average worker is not a amendment to the Constitution. Mrs. Emily Taft Douglas (Dem., his books and plays. n ourselves the tribal load, de N. W. preferred stock as low i sult in the loss of millions of jobs student of economics. But the Although the idea is not a new 11.) says she will make her posi- as That he also thinks clearly on j v’otmg our time, our skill and the $2.25 a share,” Reed said. “Soon social questions They are right because, as the war average worker ought to under- >ne, having been introduced al- ion known when the resolution is indicated by a ives or our young men to the po after reorganization of that road etter he tapers off and finally comes to an stand how a “wage rise” can ac- nost every year since 1923, it now reaches the floor of the House, wrote to Congressman tentialities of destruction.” was completed, a dividend of Ludlow, end, ten or more millions of men tually become a wage steal by pon- :omes up when there are more others among the nine are equally $2O “Louie” progressive In- Tarkington makes the whole a share was paid on that stock and and women in uniform who, today, dering recent events in the coal vomen in the House than there reticent.—Bascon N. Timmons. diana Democrat, expressing grave 'dea of peacetime conscription its present marked price is $75 a are doing a lot of consuming and industry. lave ever been. And this time, too, concern ever the possibility that ounds ridiculous.—Labor. share. Congress may no has enact peacetime — producing at all, will need to The miners got a rise—and who t received the approval of the producers. louse QUESTIONNAIRE “Thus these speculators have conscription as a result of what he become They are right -*an say that they did not deserve judiciary committee, some- A father and his young son were made a neat profit of 4,222 per calls “ this present $2,500 CONGRESS because large surpluses in the pos- it? But immediately, thing that was never done before. walking fit of our vola- and with one day, when the boy cent. tile session of the owners of industry government Opponents point and emotional thinking.” 'EXPENSE' ITEM approval, the price of out that there asked how electricity passed will result in intense “Common stock in the same re- Tarkington points out that one international Joal to the consumer was boosted s a catch in the idea of equality.