The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-01-05

THE DIFFERENTIATION OF LA
Dor. By Robert w. Dunn. Inter
national Publishers, New York.
$190.

HdClOHdI uDllSnerS, NEW 1oIh'
S1.90.
THIS book deals with a process
which has been going on intensive
ly in the United States for decade
and which is rapidly copied and imi-
tated abroad. In various countries it
means various things:
In the Soviet Union, for instance,
to "Americanize" has come to mean
the attempt to introduce methods of
large-scale production, principles of
more efficient organization, scientific
methods of industrializing the country.
The worker in the Soviet Union would
scarcely think of using the term,
which reports state has become ex-
ceedingly popular there, to a speed-up
system applied to himself.
What "Americanize" actually means
in the United States is fully explained
in this important study. Beginning
Immediately after the World War but
especially with the period of the 1920
1921 open shop drive on labor, the
process of "Americanizing" the labor
movement has continued until at pres
ent the organized forces of the work
ing class have been reduced to stray
Cling, wounded and leaderless groups.
In these Understanding" drives,
the American Federation of Labor has
lost million and a half men. The
railroad brotherhoods have lost an
other million. Hundreds of local
unions throughout the country have
been completely wiped out. Strong
union centers such as San Francisco,
have been entirely transformed. Dunn
quotes 1.-The American Plan" open
shop organ of the west, as boasting
in the fall of 1923 that "today 85 per
cent of all men who earn their bread
by manual toll, work under open shop
conditions. What more complete trans
formation! Three years ago over 80
per cent worked under absolutely
closed shop union conditions. Today
over 85 per cent work under open
shop conditions"
Eighty-five per cent Of the indus
trial establishments of st. Louis were
reported to be open shop; practically
every state in the union was reported
in similar condition in a compre-
hensive open shop survey made at the
time.
And what were the methods adopted
in this commendable task of "Amer-
licanizing" the workers?
Dunn gives in great detail such
examples as that of the Industrial
Association of San Francisco where
the notorious "Black Jack" Jerome
was employed: Jerome modified
small army of thugs, gunner, and ex-
convicts, just as he had done in the
Denver tramway strike in 1920. -"
At that time his orders to his hench-
men were: when you shoot, be sure
and shoot straight" Dunn points out
that, "It was Jerome who committed
the first violence in the San Francisco
strike" There were daily lists of
strikers to be beaten up; a whole
chart of prices was worked out vary
ing from $40 to $50 for mere slug
ging or massage" to $3.50 to $1,000
for a thorough-going killing or full
polish"
And all this was accomplished I'M
der the protecting shield of patrio-
tism, the star-spangled banner and
Americanism.
Coincident with these short cuts and
also more direct methods there de-
veloped a whole system of what
might be termed the newer diplo-
macy" in industry, the company
union, the "yellow dog" contract, en-
ploye welfare schemes, stock distribu-
ton plans, insurance schemes and
what not. This too is part of the
"Americanizing" process, and its eff
fects have been more deadly, as Dunn
we'll shows, than even the shirt
sleeve" diplomacy of the strong arm
squads.
The vast amount of material mar
shalled within this volume and the
elaborate and careful treatment of a
relatively new subject bear the evil
dence of great labor and research.
Dunn is probably today our best in
formed student Of the technical and
mechanical organization Of the class
struggle, just as William 2. Foster
the one most keenly aware Of it's inne]
and living forces.
And here we touch upon certain
shortcoming in Dunn's book. Know
ing the tendency of the mind to exag-
gerate the relative Importance of even
the smallest adverse criticism as COM
pared with the highest favorable cri-
ticism, one hesitates to record any
disappointing reactions to this valua-
BILE book. But in failing to present a
clearer picture of the living labor
forces themselves in the process Of
being "Americanized," and in adhsr-
ipO hit foo cloca1xy ~ tho oh;ac&sx,~