The labor advocate. [volume] (Cincinnati, Ohio) 1912-1937, 1916-02-05
FRANK WALSH ATTACKS
IMMIGRANT "UPLIFTERS"

Philadelphia, Pa "Docile subserv-
iency, not Americanization. is what YOU
desire is the concluding statement of
Frank Walsh, chairman of the indus
trial Relations Committee, in a letter to
Frank Trumbul Chesapeake & Ohio
railroad official and chairman of the Ma
tional Amercanization Committee, which
held two days meeting in this city,
last week.
Mr. Walsh had previously urged the
committee to favor trade unionism as
the greatest Americanization agency He
received an evasive answer.
IF you are determined wilfully to
neglect the American trade and labor
union as an Anericanzation influence"
now writes Mr.. Walsh, Il can not avoid
the conclusion that docile subservency,
not Americanzation, is what you desire"
Among the active members of your
committee are many large employers
who are relentlessly resisting any move
ment that threatens to free their en-
ployes from industrial Tyranny and
gross economic exploitation, and by thus
freeing them to Americanize them, in the
only true sense in which that word can
be used
Attention is called to the absence of
any relief from conditions existing in
large employments, the managers of
which are actively connected with the
National AmericaniZation Committee,
and who ignore, as Mr.. Walsh states,
that the problem of the immigrant is
the problem of the wage Garner"
Mr. Walsh prints long list of these
managers which includes railroads, the
steel trust. and other large industries
that resist unionism and exploit their
workers.
81 find much positive evidence that
your efforts are primarily directed to
strengthening the chains of industrial
tyranny in this country" continues Mr..
Walsh. you propose to sanctify and
confirm oppression by waving the Ameri
can flag in the face of its victims, and
by insidiously stigmatizing as unpatriotc
any attempts they may make to throw off
the yoke of the exploiting interests you
represent.
You cite with approval the policy of
employers who have used compulsion to
force workmen into night schools where
they may learn English You would
have employers extend their arbitrary
control over the lives of the workers to
the workers leisure hours, debating to
them what they shall do in the evening,
and threatening them with the loss of
their opportunity to earn living-that
is, with starvation for themselves and
their families, if they do not obey.
And it is admitted by you that this
hateful use of arbitrary power by the
employer is for the purpose of defeating
the efforts of strike agitators, preventing
strikes and increasing the economic
value of the worker to his employer.
II do not doubt that your committee
will be friendly to slight wage increases
to limit that threatens to drive it,
victims to desperation. But in the ligh
of the policies which ! have pointed out
and the attitude which apparently ami
mates your committee, | am not pre-
pared for any really effective exercise OF
influence to this end, and | must poin
out that even in accomplishing actua
bettcrments, if any be accomplished
, your committee and those operating
with it, obviously will be acting in th
: spirit of men who keep their live stool
% well fed and healthy in order that the,
may work harder and bear their burden
less complainingly.
Il should rel oicc to believe that ! an
mistaken in my Judgment OF your ac
tivities. The need of Americanizing thi
a nation, of conquering it for its own peo
, pie and making our American ideals ef
y fective, was never greater 1t can b
done only by freeing the workers iron
industrial oppression, and that can onl
. be done by the collective action OF tn
{ workers themselves