The Butler County press. [volume], May 05, 1944, Image 1

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Philadelphia. President Roosevelt
in a message to the opening session of
che International Labor Organization,
declared that "the conditions of a last
ing peace can be secured only through
soundly organized economic institu
tions fortified by humane labor stand
ards, regular employment and ade
quate income for all the people."
The President's emphasis on the
economic basis of world peace, as read
to the conference by Secretary of La
bor Frances Perkins, was warmly re
ceived by representatives of forty-one
nations.
Roosevelt Calls On 1L0 To Draft
World Social and Economic Security
Walter Nash, Deputy Prime Minis
ter of New Zealand, elected as confer
ence president, followed the keynote
set by President Roosevelt and made
a plea in behalf of an 1LO program
that would "maximize production" and
free people all over the world from
want.
Roosevelt Declares That Lasting Peace Can Only Be
Obtained Through Organized Institutions
Fortified By Humane Labor Standards
A similar note was struck by Carter
Goodrich, chairman of the governing
body, who called the meeting to order.
He said that the concern of the ILO is
to see that the conditions under which
men live and work are given primary
attention.
The President's message and the
speeches which followed laid the basis
for proposals to broaden the scope
of ILO which will be discussed within
the next three weeks.
"The determination on the part of
PASS THE
AMMUNITION!
One man out of every five in the
armed forces is a union member. But
judging from the average discussion
in any army camp, these two million
trade unionists succeed in hiding
the fact very well. This is the conten
tion of Lieutenant Frederick Borden,
writing in a recent issue of a liberal
magazine.
"Sporadic and isolated support" of
labor is all Lieutenant Borden ever
gets from his trade union brothers in
arms. The soldier who holds a union
card cannot be distinguished by his
opinions from the soldier who has had
no contact with organized labor. In
many cases he is as easily misled, as
hazily informed, as distant and preju
diced as the rest of the ten million
men in the services. And a large part
of the blame for this state of affairs
the lieutenant charges, must be laid
at the door of organized labor—not
for what it has done, but for what it
has failed to do.
Reluctantly, we must agree. Organ
ized labor has been doing only a part
time job for army morale. Through
the Labor League for Human Rights
members of the AFL have contributed
millions of dollars to the USO, to the
Red Cross, and to other organizations
which minister to the needs of our
boys. Labor canteens have met with
extraordinary success in Philadelphia
Boston, Detroit and other cities. But
morale is not exclusively a matter of
physical comfort, entertainment and
recreation. Morale is equally a matter
of sustaining the soldier's confidence
in the home front, his dignity as K I I
individual, and his hopes for n.^mal
security in the postwar world.
Do our trade unionists in the armed
forces know the facts which would
make them proud to avow their union
affiliations, and which would enable
them to present labor's point of view
in an argument? Has organized labor
sufficiently emphasized the import
ance of its function as protector of
wage and working standards and of
the right of collective bargaining
Have we explained to ^ur member
in the armed forces, and to the mil
lions who are not trade unionists, that
just as they are fighting for political
democracy on the battlefronts of the
world, we are fighting the parallel
fight for industrial democracy at
home?
There has been much discussion of
the anti-labor attitude prevalent in
CHUCK ROAST
SMOKED PICNICS
GROUND BEEF
VOL. XLIV No. 5. HAMILTON, OHIO, FRIDAY MAY 5,1944
its member states that the ILO should
continue its activities during the war
years is evidence of the indestructible
tenacity of the democratic way of life,
Mr. Roosevelt asserted.
The tasks you are undertaking,
even at the moment when the tide of
war is mounting, bear testimony to
the fact that the welfare of the world's
population and their liberty are a first
and an ultimate concern of those dedi
cated to root out from this earth every
trace of Nazi ideas and Nazi meth
ods."
The President mentioned the recom
mendations before the delegates, say
ing that in them "will lie the founda
tion of those agreements in the field
of labor and social standards which
must be part of any permanent ar
angement for a decent world."
After referring to Secretary of
State Hull's plans for an international
organization to maintain peace, the
President said he saw as part of such
plans the ILO as "a permanent instru
ment of representative character for
the formulation of international pol
icy, on matters directly affecting the
welfare of labor and for international
collaboration in this field."
Robert J. Watt, American workers'
delegate and international representa
tive of the AFL was unanimously
elected Vice-President of the Confer
ence.
the services, and much comfort drawn
from the fact that the more than two
million trade unionists in uniform are
presumably doing their share to
eliminate anti-labor prejudice. But
they cannot do their share unless they
are kept informed of all developments
in the world of labor. They cannot de
fend trade unionism unless they are
continually aware of its latest prob
lems, needs, purposes and long-range
plans. And it is up to us to pass them
their ammunition.
PROTEST MADE AGAINST
CLOSING FARM LABOR
HOMES PROJECTS
Memphis, Tenn. (ILNS).—A pro
test has been filed with Mai'vin Jones
administrator of the War Food Ad
ministration, against plans for closing
the 12 farm labor homes projects in
southeast Missouri that house up
wards of 500 farm laborers' families
H. L. Mitchell, president of the
Southern Tenant Farmers' Union in a
letter to the WFA head said that his
organization had learned that plans
were under way to discontinue using
the projects as labor supply centers
and sell them out to local plantation
owners.
Mitchell pointed out that plantation
owners in 1939 welcomed construction
of these projects by the Farm Security
Administration because it gave them
an extra labor supply in the cotton
chopping and picking season. He also
said that the government developed
the housing projects following a dem
onstration of 1500 members of the
Southern Tenant Farmers' Union who
in January of that year moved out on
the highways and campcd after being
served with eviction notices when
Missouri plantation owners suddenly
changed over from share cropping to
a wage labor basis.
Ready Ta 'Handle' Strikes
CHICAGO MARKET CO.
Front and High Sts.
New York City.—Reporting that
the Texas State Guard is being
traine dto "handle riots and the pro
tection of vital industries," the Jewish
Labor Committee of this city com
ments: "This was interpreted by
Houston and Dallas labor circles as a
move to break possible peacetime
strikes which may be called to main
tain wage standards won during the
war. Hundreds of Enfield rifles will
soon be distributed to guardsmen.
This plan has the backing of the anti
Catholic, and anti-Jewish so-called
Christian American Association, led
by Klansmen."
Phone 500$
FANCY
BEEP M.
short oalr
SHANK 4.02C
23c
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(wNU Service)
TH E IiUTLER COUNTY PRESS.
Washington, D. C.—AFL President
William Green urged Congress to ex
tend the Emergency Price Control Act
for two years to protect consumers
from war profiteering and post-war
inflation.
Appearing before the Senate Com
mittee on Banking and Currency, Mr.
Green warned of a post-war "dangei
zone" in which prices for the necessi
ties of life may shoot sky-high, a^
after the last world war, unless stric?
Government controls are enforced
Unless this is done, he said, Ameri
can workers now investing a larg
part of their savings in War Bonds
will not receive full value, dollar foi
dollar, when the war ends and th
bonds are redeemed.
Mr. Green offered the following
program for enactment:
1—Extension of the Price Control
Act without change for two yeart
after the war.
2—Congressional support of in
creased appropriation for effective en
forcement of price and rent control
3—Provision of subsidies essentia!
to continued price stability of key cost
of living commodities.
4—A restoration of the relation
ships between prices and wages which
existed September 15, 1942, as abso
lutely essential to make the law work
equitably apd build the morale oi
American w^kers to the highest de
gree of efficienc\
The AFL chief continued:
"The issue before Congress involv
ing the future of price control is nov
drawn. Gigantic pressures are at
work to secure the emasculation oi
price control and to permit wartim
profit gains through price increases at
the expense of. consumers—workers in
industry and trade, white collar work
ers, farm workers and wives and de
pendents of soldiers at the front.
"The drive against continued prici
control does not take the form of open
opposition to the price control itself.
Every worker, every housewife, every
soldier's wife is so deeply convinced
that price control is necessary to pr
tect the budget on which rests then
livelihood that no enemy of price con
trol has dared come out and attack it
openly.
"Instead, the drive is on to makt'
price control unworkable and inei
fective through piecemeal technica
changes, complicated enough to es
cape the understanding of the ordii
ary man on the street. Ineffective
price control is worse than no price
control at all. Price control which re
mains on the books but permits creep
ing price increases, or price control
which is impossible of enforcement
and understanding by every house
wife and every consumer, would be
nothing short of a gigantic fraud.
"It has been urged that price con
trol would be broken up among
Contact
U^)
Green Asks 2-Year Extension of OP A
Warns of Post-War Price Dangers
AFL Chief Condemns Profiteers And Gougers
Seeking To Wreck Price Control By
Weakening Amendments
feiilSfeasfcdfjtfl
number of agencies in place of the
single and coordinated controls now
HIS LORDSHIP'S
CARRIAGE AWAITS*
+?attnt *tplitd ftr
1
tf V
0
i ilj
It
placed in the hands of OPA. This
would breed chaos.
"There is a growing awareness on
the part of wage earners throughout
the nation that unimpaired continua
tion of price control is a matter of
foremost importance to every wage
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earner. Witnesses from communities
in different parts of the country, from
the midwest, south and north will
testify here directly on behalf of labor
in their own cities and towns. These
are not isolated examples and are not
expressions of picked individuals."
Mr. Green then delivered a smash
ing attack upon the most flagrant war
profiteers who have led the fight
against continued and effective price
control. He declared:
'Reasonable profit on investments
is essential to the operation of busi
ness enterprise. Confiscatory adminis
tration of price control which denies a
manufacturer, wholesaler or retailer
his reasonable return would be
strongly opposed by the American
Federation of Labor. With this in
mind, I must say in all fairness that
during recent months the most pub
licized and most violent claims of un
due hardship resulting from price
ceilings have come from quarters in
which wartime profiteering was most
flagrant. At the same time specific
instances indicate that requests for
just and proper relief have resulted in
speedy and satisfactory adjustments
of OPA procedures and regulations.
'Labor cannot be silent about
brazen wartime profiteering in all
branches of industry and trade which
is passed over in knowing silence in
all public policy discussions of eco
nomic stabilization. Has not the Sen
ate Investigating Committe headed by
Senator Truman brought out the fact
that while the bulk of war business
has been given to 100 corporations,
only nine of these have been free of
excessive profits in 1942 Has not the
Truman Committee shown that for
the remaining 91 corporations war
profits reached all the way from 25 to
600 times normal peacetime profits?
"These and other reports on profits
of war contractors speak for them
selves. They are being dealt with
through renegotiation procedures. Far
more important is the fact that exces
sive profits are rapidly gaining in the
production and distribution of civilian
goods. When we consider the overall
picture of corporate profits—and I
don't mean, mind you, profits before
taxes, I mean profits after taxes—we
(Continued on page four)
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