The Illinois standard. [volume], January 01, 1949, Page 4, Image 4

About The Illinois standard. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1948-1949

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Editorial
Greetings/one and all!
We have but a single New Years’ resolution—to make
the Illinois Standard quadruple its circulation during 1949,
with the help of its good friends.
But we offer heartfelt New Years’-greetings to:
• Mayor Martin H. Kennelly, and may your crusade to put
real panties on the Madison Street strippers be draped with
success!
• Colonel Jacob M. Arvey, and may you remember in ’49
your Convention heroics on Race, Creed and Color in '48!
• John (Bunnie) East, and may you never regret the
millions of dollars you were accused of pouring into Pro
gressive coffers while your lieutenants in Springfield were
voting to keep Wallace off the ballot!
• Superintendent Herold C. Hunt, and may you bear in
mind during '49 that the good people of Chicago brought
you here to clean up the schools—not whitewash them!
• Governor-elect Adlai Stevenson, and may you of the
noble brow remember often that not a machine but the
people sent you to Springfield—and can remove you there
from!
• Rent Director Norman Shogren, and may the New Year
see you replaced by someone willing to see the tenant s side
of the case as important at least as the landlord's.
Why not FEPC, too?
After several years of inactivity, the Chicago division
of the Religion and Labor Foundation has returned to life.
Its initial release indicates that concentration is going to be
on the safe issue of Illinois’ whittled-down Workmen’s Com
pensation law, passed in 1911.
Campaign is being launched to hike workmen’s com
pensation rates in the state by at least 50 percent. The
Foundation points out that if an Illinois worker is killed
in an industrial accident, his boss pays as little as
$3,200, which is $200 less than a Wisconsin employer
must pay for loss of a thumb !
The $2,432 paid a workman here for loss of a foot com
pares with $7,000 paid in Wisconsin.
We agree with the Religion and Labor Foundation on
the need for action to correct this—and quickly. And we
agree that the fight should be carried on at Springfield in
an organized way, making enough noise to out-shout the
multi-million dollar lobby of the insurance companies and
mine owners.
At the same time, we marvel at the Foundation’s
failure to mention the forthcoming campaign for an Illi
nois Fair Employment Practices Law as equally—and
perhaps more—important. Certainly, FEPC is an issue
around which religious and labor groups have united in
creasingly in recent years.
True, FEPC bills have been opposed in recent Assembly
sessions by Illinois Federation of Labor lobbyists Victor
Olander and Reuben Soderstrom, for reasons at which we
can only guess.
Among prominent Chicago AFL leaders in the newly
reconstituted Foundation group are Nick DiPietro, Tom
Slater and Anton Johansen. And former CIO Education
Director Kermit Eby is also on the executive board. Sure
ly, these men are not deliberately avoiding the FEPC
fight, merely because of the unspoken possibility that
IFL leaders will renew their opposition this year. Or
are they?
By Peter Williams
Pass the morphine, Pappy.
This hurts.
Pumpkins, loyalty cheeks, spy
scare—all kid stuff. Here is the
last word, the final coup of a
world seeing red: It is now dan
gerous to teach people how to
read.
“Dangers of Literacy” is the
heading of an editorial in the
(Springfield) Illinois State Reg
ister. It announces that comes
the next generation, 500,000,000
people will have learned to
read. It goes on:
“This would seem tc be all to
the good. . . . But the serious
query is: What are they read
ing?”
And it tells what:
“They are reading Communist
literature in its most realistic
interpretation. ... Yes, literacy
has its hazards. . . . The chal
lenge is greater than the threat
of war.”
Holy Name Cathedral packed
solid—and then some—for an
nual Midnight Mass on Christ
mas Eve. However, WBKB tele
vised the ritual for the first
time. Which posed the problem
for the hundreds turned away:
Should we miss the colorful
spectacle and chorale—or go to
the nearest bar and catch it on
TV?
—-O—
For niftiest piece on anti
Semitism you'll ever see, pick
up . . is it true what they
say about Cohen?” new pam
phlet put out by Jewish Labor
Council. Text by Bill Levner,.
art by Ad Reinhardt. Local JLC
office at 166 W. V'ashington.
_n_
Memo to A1 (Page 8)
Vaughan: In last week's list of
sports "bests'1 for ’48 you forgot
one item:
BEST FIGHT—Ringside Chi
cago Stadium, between an irate
wife and the blonde that hubby
had no business out with.
—O—
Neither the Chicago Sym
phony nor Chicago papers are
talking about symphony sub
scribers who are going to seek
their culture elsewhere if Wil
helm Furtwaengler, swastika’d
swayer of the swizzle, becomes
guest conductor next year.
Looking at
By Rod Holmgren
ILLUSION still persists i n
many minds that there’s unity
among labor on at least one
issue — Taft-Hartley.
There’s not even' unity on the
need for com
plete repeal.
And almost as
much d i s -
agreement a
mong labor as
among m a n -
agementon
what kind of
labor law
should b e o n
the books when the 81st Con
gress first session ends come
summer.
Willingness to “compromise”
and retain the “better” features
is expressed not only by some
AFLers, but by many of the
group around CIO’s Murray.
Even more dangerous than the
use of TH weapon by employers
against unions has been its use'
by unions against unions. Shock
ing—that’s the only word for
raiding and intra-union knifing
which rightist leaders have pegJ
ged on the TH non-communist
affidavit requirement.
Desire to keep this require
ment in whatever new law is
enacted is a key reason for the
willingness to talk “compro
mise” — as if you can com
promise with an A-bomb!
But more sinister than lack of
unity on complete TH repeal
is the refusal of top AFL, CIO
and Brotherhood officials to
recognise the need for a bang-up
backhome mobilization to clinch
their election victories in the
place where it counts—on the
statute books.
I was broadcasting a labor
commentary for the Chicago
Federation of Labor in the
spring of ’47 when the Taft
Hartley bill was up for debate.
It's hard to forget that when
worried rank-and-filers got the
idea of a cross-country caravan
to Washington, to dramatize the
nation’s opposition to the bill,
CIO’s Murray and AFL’s Green
would have none of it.
They relied on two things:
1) expensive newspaper ads and
Among those figuring to ditch
their subscriptions is Mrs. Char
lotte Falstein—secretary to
Democratic Boss Jake Arvey.
radio programs, which can be
useful but never replace the
hard job of mobilizing mass
protest actions; 2) Harry S. Tru
man. Result: the Taft-Hartley
law was enacted.
If anyone doubts the feasibili
ty of sending mass delegations
to Washington to demand com
plete TH repeal, let him talk to
Chicago’s union printers, who’ve
had the whole book thrown at
them. Let him talk to the down
state miners, who’ve had two
injunctions hit them as they
fought for pensions and pay
boosts.
Let him chat with the CIO
packinghouse workers, who lost
their strike last spring because
of weakening by TH pressure.
Or the CIO oil workers, whose
west coast strike has been
ground to a standstill by TH.
My hair—what there is left
of it — stands on end when I
read Washington reports that
delegations from AFL, CIO and
Brotherhoods have conferred—
separately, of course — with
Labor Secretary Tobin and
agreed on TH repeal, on resto
ration of Wagner Act, and
amendments to the Wagner Act.
It’s on that last point —
“amendments to the Wagner
Act”—that the good old-fashion
ed sell-out is being readied.
'A'
Newspapers played up
story about the little Love
joy, Georgia girl born with only
stumps for arms, who is being
outfitted with artificial arms and
a college education by workers
on a railroad that runs by her
house. But no mention of fact
the collection was started by a
member of the Brotherhood of
Railway Engineers, and that
hundreds of members in various
Brotherhoods kicked in.
☆ ☆ ☆
Illinois State Federation of
Labor is conductihg an elabo
r a t e—and expensive—referen
dum election for top officers
and executive board members.
The new two-year term begins
next April 1. Reuben G. Soder
strom is undisputed in the race
for president, as is candidate
Victor A. Olander, running for
secretary - treasurer. John M.
Fewkes, president of Teachers
Local 1, Chicago, is running for
a vice-presidency.
Here's that mandate again!. . by Bernie Asbel
MANDATE, mandate, who’s
got the mandate?
A loose mandate was found
lying around at 226 West Jack
son. That’s the Chicago area
■rent office.
|E verybody
I claimed it and
I no one knew
I whose mandate
lit was. A pee
| pul’s mandate?
| No - ope. Presi
I dential m a n
Idate? Not ex
1 actly. Property
„wners manaate? Well, they
wouldn’t put it that way.
In absence of a good claim,
it was named a mandate of the
80th Congress. And here’s its
payoff: Three out of every four
landlords who asked for a rent
raise last year got one. A simi
lar comparison for tenants ap
parently would be so bad, none
has been made public.
Three weeks ago, this reporter
asked Norman B. Shogren, Chi
cago rent chief, to leave his
office for an afternoon to visit
some of the sagging shacks for
which his office has approved
rent boosts.
He was asked to go and see
just once families of five and
six living in single rooms re
furbished from coal bins in
Near North Side basements—
where tenants have waited liter
ally months for action on rent
overcharges, while Shogren
promised landlords three weeks
service in processing rent raises.
So far as I know, Shogren re
mained on Jackson Blvd., look
ing for a mandate from some
body. His boss, Oscar G. Abern,
regional expediter, came up
with the 80th Congress idea.
They passed a law to “relieve”
landlords, the argument went.
It is a mandate to us, the ad
ministrators, to follow the spirit
of their intent.
Not meaning to get off spirit
ual level, it is said that Shogren
and his friends had their man
dates crossed. It seems the rent
chief, himself a former real
estate operator, figured the elec
tion wrong—even, perhaps, as
you and I. How was he to know
that Dewey would lose? What
was good enough for the 80th
Congress would suit a Republi
can 81st. Why change mandates
in midstream?
The 80th Congress now is
mandated into oblivion, and the
Dewey Congress was stillborn.
The people voted for housing.
They voted against gouging by
landlords. They voted against
the Rent Act of 1948. There is
your mandate.
Whether Harry Truman will
now order a change of policy is
of little matter to those who are
so beholden to mandates. The
people have ordered one. Match
up the campaign promises
against the vote and see what
the people ordered.
Tenants of Chicago have the
right to demand of the rent off
ice that it stop being a Land
lord’s Aid Society. They have
the right to demand that
tenants’ complaints of over
charges get first call on investi
gating personnel, and let land
lords park their “hardships” at
the door, if the office is under
staffed.
One Franklin D. Roosevelt
demonstrated more than once
—in the period of Norman Sho
gren’s government service—
how the people can be protected
even within the limits of a bad
law, until a good one has passed.
The CIO last week called for
the removal of Tighe Woods,
Federal housing expediter, for
spineless administration of the
rent law nationally. As the
people of Chicago organize for
a new rent law, Mr. Shogren
may need hindsight to see which
side his mandate was buttered
on.