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amencan socialist monthly Symposium: Why Labor Should Support Roosevelt John L Lewis Why Labor Should Support the Socialist Party Norman Thomas The Left Wing at the Cleveland Convention Haim Kantorovitch For a National Constituent Assembly in France Marcel Fourrier Resolution on War "Fools Rush in ... Herbert Zam Jurisdictional Disputes and Labor Boards Joel Seidman Draft Program of the Spanish Socialist Party July 1936 vol. 5 no. 5 15 cents among our contributors Friedrich Adler Sidney Hertzberg Devere Allen Daniel W. Hoan Jack Altman Sidney Hook Angelica Balabanoff Darlington Hoopes Ernest Sutherland Bates Jessie Wallace Hughan Otto Bauer Edwin C. Johnson M. V. Baxter A. Jugow Anna Bercowitz Haim Kantorovitch David P. Berenberg Maynard C. Krueger Andrew J. Biemiller Leo Krzycki Hannah M. Biemiller Harry W. La idler Henry Black Margaret Lamont H. N. Brailsford Joseph P. Lash Roy Burt Harold J. Laski G. D. H. Cole David Lasser Albert Sprague Coolidge Alfred Baker Lewis Theodore Dan Edward Levinson Franz Daniel Arthur G. McDowell Max Delson Broadus Mitchell Robert Delson Reinhold Niebuhr S. A. DeWitt Kirby Page Ernest Doerfler Marceau Pivert Harold Draper Paul Porter Mary Dublin Joel Seidman Justus Ebert Clarence Senior Ernest Erber Tucker P. Smith Harold U. Faulkner Mark Starr David Felix Rose M. Stein Ben Gitlow George Streator Elsie Gluck Norman Thomas Albert Goldman Frank N. Trager James D. Graham Glen Trimble Edward Grove August Tyler Murray Gross Vincenzo Yacirca Alice Hanson John Wheelright Powers Hapgood Herbert Zam Marvin Halvorson Jean Zyromski amencan Table of Contents Symposium: Why Labor Should Support Roosevelt 2 John L. Lewis Why Labor Should Support the Socialist Party 3 Norman Thomas The Left Wing at the Cleveland Convention 8 Haim Kantorovitch For a National Constituent As- sembly in France 12 Marcel Fourrier Editorial Staff Resolution on War 15 "Fools Rush In—" 18 David P. Berenberg Herbert Zam Haim Kantorovitch Jurisdictional Disputes and Labor Boards 21 Devere Allen Joel Seidman Andrew J. Biemiller Draft Program of the Spanish Socialist Party 26 Roy Burt Book Reviews: Harry W. Laidler A Program for Modern America 29 by Harry W. Laidler Anna Bercowitz Reviewed by Harold U. Faulkner managing editor The Life of Friedrich Engeis 30 by Sustav Mayer Reviewed by David P. Berenberg July, 1936 Labor Fact Book III 32 Prepared by Labor Research Association Vol. 5 No. 5 Reviewed by David P. Berenberg OfFicial theoretical organ of the Socialist Party of the U. S. of America Published monthly at 21 East 17th Street, New York by the American Socialist Monthly Subscription One Dollar and Fifty Cents a Year Entered as second class matter, November 8th, 1934, at the post office at New York, New York, under the Act of March 3, 1879. Symposum: Why Labor Should Support Roosevelt John L Lewis HEN George L. Berry, Sidney Roosevelt has undertaken and accom- W Hillman, and others organized plished more for the workers than any Labor's Non-Partisan League, it was with other president in the history of the the firm conviction that labor should nation, and labor owes him a debt of give its full support to the re-election gratitude that can be liquidated only of President Roosevelt, and that this by casting its solid vote for him at the should be done without regard to po- coming election, regardless of party litical party affiliations. The American labels. labor movement is not a political par- The worker need only glance at the tisan institution, it rises above all party record to be convinced that he should lines. Its purpose is to achieve for the support President Roosevelt. Consider workers those things that rightfully be- what has been offered labor by the long to them. This can best be accom- present administration under the lead- plished through the force of united ac- ership of this great humanitarian: na- tion by the entire membership of the tional recovery, public works, nation- labor movement. Employers, capitalists wide relief, social security legislation, and big businessmen are organized to old-age pensions, unemployment insur- defeat President Roosevelt, if possible, ance, aid for the blind, elimination of and labor proposes to see to it that they injunctions in labor disputes, regulation do not succeed in this destructive effort. of the coal industry, end of cutthroat They have their American Liberty business policies and practices, right of League, United States Chamber of Com- labor to organize and bargain collective- merce and National Manufacturers As- ly through representatives of their own sociation through which to carry on choosing, and many other things. their campaign. These organizations are Through Labor's Non-Partisan League working with all the venom and bitter- these eloquent facts will be brought ness at their command. But Labor's forcefully to the attention of the voters Non-Partisan League, speaking in behalf of the country that they may have a of the many millions of men and women clear understanding of the vital neces- voters who earn their living with honest sity for the re-election of President toil, stands in the way of the success of Roosevelt. His great reforms must be these three reactionary organizations, retained and maintained, and others and shouts to them the warning, "You equally important are yet to be secured. shall not defeat President Roosevelt!" We are convinced that these purposes At this critical time labor must and can be accomplished by retaining Pres- will present a united front to the de- ident Roosevelt in the White House for structive forces of reaction. President another term. [2] II. Why Labor Should Support the Socialist Party Norman Thomas HIS article is written with special ful and genuine Farmer-Labor Party. reference to the brief and positive I suspect that Mr. Lewis' himself would statemenT t by John L. Lewis telling why admit that tl^pse cbridition^ ;were not labor should support Roosevelt. The met by an^^g.^o^lMt "that recent case I want to present is much bigger conference' a4:.•'tfeff^dtcl Morrison or by than the support, or failure to support, the program which it laid Sown. Th^re any individual. I am arguing for some- is therefore nothing except for those thing and not against someone. Least of who are convinced socialists to make all am I trying to raise the issue of the their own campaign. Anything else personal merits of myself or any other would be a kind of suicide, a confession candidate as against Mr. Roosevelt. that our socialist diagnosis and our so- Another word of preliminary explana- cialist program were wrong. Mr. Lewis, tion may be in order. I deeply appreciate I am sure, will not argue that Mr. the fact that Mr. Lewis has contributed Roosevelt has been a socialist or that a statement to the American Socialist he has offered the equivalent of Social- Monthly. It is a good omen for the fu- ism to the workers, and I suspect that ture, an evidence of a new point of view he is logical enough to agree that con- on his part, that he is willing to argue vinced socialists can scarcely support the case. I, in common with socialists with good conscience a man who is try- generally, am a hundred per cent behind ing to prolong capitalism by reforming the efforts of the Committee for Indus- it somewhat. trial Organization to organize the un- Mr. Lewis' position is that of an organized on industrial lines. We are ardent labor man who is not a socialist; very hopeful for the success of that who takes stock of the reforms of ad- movement. Some time we expect to vantage to labor which Roosevelt has work with the leaders of that movement brought about; who hopes for others and the rank and file on the political that he may bring about, and then de- front even as now we want to work with clares for the vital importance of re- them on the economic front. I am not electing Roosevelt. It will be observed taking a Socialist-Labor Party position that he has not declared for the Demo- as against a Farmer-Labor Party. I share cratic Party but only for Mr. Roosevelt. the hope of my comrades for the devel- However, he and his associates will opment of a Farmer-Labor Party that have to vote for Roosevelt and Garner, may be a genuine instrument in the and then, I suppose, pray whatever gods emancipation of the workers. there are that they may spare the Presi- The Party has declared itself officially dent's life so that we shall not get on what the conditions are for a success- Garner! Loose as political affiliation is [3] American Socialist Monthly in the United States it is impossible to had been violated? vote for Roosevelt without voting for Mr. Lewis, to his great credit, sent an the Democratic Party, and the Demo- investigator of his own into Arkansas. cratic Party is no vehicle for effective That investigator brought back a report reform. of the desperate plight of sharecroppers Even from a standpoint of mere im- and agricultural wofkers. In many ways mediate demands of a very moderate sort they are worse, not better off, under this the position of Mr. Lewis and his friends New Deal Administration. The bene- is open to question at two points: first, ficiaries of the agricultural program of as to the value of the things done or the New Deal have been the landowners, proposed by Mr. Roosevelt; second, as the great planters. Thousands of the to the danger which threatens the coun- workers have simply been driven com- try if Mr.
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