The Chicago star., November 09, 1946, Image 1

About The Chicago star. (Chicago, Ill.) 1946-1948

Image provided by: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library, Urbana, IL

                
STBTf *£ tSLe
nanoM^l
By
Howard
Fast
IT MIGHT be worth review
ing, however briefly, now that
we have an 80th Congress, the
state of the nation. That’s an old
and an honored phrase; it goes
.... _—back to the
S deepest well
springs of the
\ republic, and
it bears cer
tain proud
| memories too:
| for there was
morethan
one.g rea t
president o f
[ this land who
people and say, much as the
greatest of those we remember
said:
“The state of this nation is
good the heart of this nation
is sound.”
But that man is dead, and there
Is no one today to say such
words; and even if the words
were said, they would be heavy
with mockery.
Yet the state of the nation is
not beyond the control of its peo
ple. We have no millions of un
employed —for the time being.
The relentless. drive toward war
Is slowed —for the time being.
And we have the biggest indus
trial machine the world ever
knew. What then of the state of
the nation on the November of
1946, with an 80th Congress elect
ed and ready to be seated?
• * #
ONE could start in any of ten
places, but housing is as good as
any. The lesson there is easily
learned; I learned it all in one
day when I visited a vet friend
who had found a place .in a
quonset hut one of the lucky
veterans and the hut was set
in mud, and he was living in six
inches of it. I drove forty miles
to see him, and on the way count
ed twenty-two industrial struc
tures, newly built or in the pro
cess of construction. In Seattle,
it is blatant and open: the land
lords strike; but all over the
land, the men who fought the
war are told there is no place
for them to live.
And all over the country, the
landlords say, give us profit such
as a madman wouldn’t have
dreamed of five years ago, and
we will give you housing.
Prices in general concern us—
when we look into the state of
the nation. The average indus
trial wage is still under forty
dollars a week for take-home pay.
But food prices have gone up
well over a hundred percent. I
would ask the 80th Congress to
put the statistical tables aside
for a while. We remember well
enough when a good steak was
twenty-one cents a pound, when
milk was seven cents a quart,
bread six cents a loaf, and a
damned fine suit of clothes an
extra pair of pants thrown in
could be bought for thirty dol
lars.
• • •
I-AW-MAKERS are notoriously
fond of mystery stories for re
laxation; I recommend to our
new congress the most incredi
ble mystery of the day how a
worker can support a wife and
- Oee page «
THE CHICAGO
★ if&g}
Vol. 1, No. 19
Published
Weekly
LABOR IN NEW
WAGE DRIVES
The American labor movement swung into action for higher wages this week, as
the Republican victory in the congressional elections spelled the certain end of fast-fad
ing government control over rising living costs.
Wjk V* frlßj
' n IB BBk "■# M
Picking house workers listen to Wilson Local president Sam
Parks in one of the series of giant wage demonstrations in the yards.
I IMnninwmil II Him lIIIIWH Will 11 UN I Winn
An editorial
Why the Republican sweep?
Grave danger confronts the country as a result of
the Republican election sweep. Reaction has now tasted
its first national election victory in fourteen years. The
Republican Party has won complete control over both
houses of Congress. The 80th Congress stacks up as the
most reactionary since Herbert Hoover was in the White
House.
The reactionary daily newspapers are now trying to
interpret the election results as a popular repudiation of
the New Deal and the twelve years of the Roosevelt Ad
ministration. They are further saying that the Democrats
went down to defeat because of their alliance with labor,
- because of the “kiss of death” of the PAC, because of
“Communism.” In this way they are trying to sow de
moralization, defeatism, confusion and division within
the progressive camp.
IhHHHNHHHHHMBHHHHHHM«HNHNMM^
Chicago, November 9, 1946
n
C c
.
As locals in every major CIO industrial union snd in sev
eral AFL trades prepared for a coordinated drive to boost
real wages, statements of union leaders indicated urgent con
cern to work out wage proposals that would not only equalize
the already-inflated cost of living, but would keep pace with
anticipated further boosts in prices.
Executive board aesolutions of the Electrical, Automobile, Farm
Equipment, Packing, Rubber, and other unions all pointed out that
the general increase of approximately 18>/, cents an hour won in
most or these industries earlier this year has already been swallow
ed up by inflation prices.
• * #
WHILE no specific wage slogan has been set for the impend
ing wage drive as yet, it is generally anticipated that a joint wage
conference will be called soon by the CIO to coordinate the wage
drive more closely than was done in the last national wage fight.
Key union in ffie fight is expected to be the CIO United Steel
workers, whose 900,000 workers in the country’s basic industry may
again set the national wage increase pattern. The steel union has
already scheduled a wage policy conference for the beginning of
November, but many other unions have already worked out a gen
eral wage program.
Now, more than ever, the people especially all
. progressives, must see dearly the real reasons for
the November sth defeat. For without this it will be |
impossible to chart the course by which to reverse 1
the results of last Tuesday.
The Democrats lost the elections, not because of I
Roosevelt’s policies, but because the Truman Administra- 8
tion broke with and betrayed these policies. The people §
voted not FOR Republican reaction, but AGAINST Tru- 1
man reaction. They saw no real alternative between the 1
policies of Truman and those of Dewey or Vandenberg, [
and in fact, there was none.
Under such circumstances, it was not their ties with f
labor that defeated the Democrats, but Truman’s sever- 1
Seo Noxt Pago |
nininiiiK^
How Capt.
Barnes rose
to power
See page 6