Twin city review. [volume] (Champaign, Ill.) 19??-1929, 1922-02-10
THE PLANS OF BIG BIZ"

and thai il is against labor In every
case. - We need net further eeul-
asent ~ LEGAL conditions. and Efadn-
ating from city and state, where We
find everything against Us we nsacb
ear national government We are told
that cur government eontemplateS the
creation Of 4 department Of wei
fare and the present department OF
labor vii We part q the new de-
parsmeat.
The plan seems 70 Il 70 place in
the Se-ealled sNelfafe Dparlment
three major diNisions-f0hllC Health.
Education AMI Labor. The new la
Dor division would then ee governed
hv a new section. TO b known as
Compulsory Investigation Of Labor
disputes FOR Public Information and
later on il seems 10 be their plan 90
enact A compulsory arbitration law,
This nlan has been under the watch
eve of the American Federation Of
Labor officials for some time. and
thew have advised the several labor
unions throughout the nation to enter
their nroteSt 10 Mr.. Walter +. Brown.
Widener building. 18th and r streets,
\. w. Washington. ID. { Aud Why ,
Because il is carefully prepared
scheme To wreck the Department Of
manner during the past several years
that allowed the toilers some amount
of benefit. and that, Of course, Is a
mistake on the part Of capital, II Il
is allowed 10 exist They dare not
eliminate same entirely, SO they oper~
ate 10 the extent of sharing II Of all
power. hand il back To the public IN
another form. which is absolutely use
less so far as il was intended when
the department was created. II this
scheme materialiEes, there vii be no
secretary of labor 10 give lahor's side
of any controversy TO the president
and his cabinet. There viii be no
one who will be in "A position 10 say
the right word At the night time 70
either the president or To has cabinet
We know that the Department Of la.
Dor, in its present form, is not we'll
liked by the exploiters of labor. We
also know that this department Is a
very valuable institution for the
wage earners, and therefore should
be kept up in its present makeup.
We therefore, in behalf of our own
organization, emphatieally protest
against the elimination of the De-
partment of Labor or amalgamation
with any other department, may II
be Public Health, Education, or any
thing else.
The "doubting Thomases" in the
ranks of labor and those who are ever
ready To wait until the ship is about
To sink before they bale water, have
taken but little interest in the mat
ter, but we think that even they have
been awakened in the past few days
by that part of the message of Presi-
dent Harding's, which reads as fol-
lows:
Establishment of judicial or quasi
judicial tribunals for the adjudication
of disputes between capital and labor,
which subject the public welfare TO
the meance of the strike, the lock
out, and the boycott"
Short and snappy, is it not? Moth
ing here TO prove that big Biz was
asleep during the war. Nothing here
to prove that the fight of Howat and
the Kansas miners is not the fight of
organized labor in general. Nothing
here TO prove that some of our big
international officers were either
asleep or wilfully working against the
toilers whom they were pair to rep
resent. When they boosted the present
administration during the last cleo
ton, because the message of our
president means a national law sim.
| liar to the Kansas court of industrial
relations is in the making, and I'M
less we, as toilers, all awaken will
be enacted into the federal law in the
near future, and when that is brought
about we, as workers, will have 70
be awake TO even exist as trades
unionists, but possibly we will then
learn to "vote" cith the wora~as and
| for the workers, AID eliminate those
f.oln office In our organizations who
have been tools at election time foi
capital ever in the past.