The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1930-02-28
The Right TO Work

The Right to Work
The Communist unemployment oenonSOraClohS III
half dozen cities from coast to coast are not danger
ous The unemployment situation behind the demon
straton is dangerous.
No amount Of police clubbing OF Communists Is
going to solve the unemployment problem. The Com
~nunists are inhnitesinal in numbers and influence In
this country They could Do wiped out tomorrow
as so many conservatives hope they may be-and the
political social and industrial conditions Of the coun-
try would not be altered a particle
There is something at once sinister and pathetic In
the idea of some American officials that 1t is CRIME
to mention the word unemployment. They are Ike
the people who would fight epidemic by denying
its existence.
AQitators do not cause unemployment. Unemploy-
nent causes agitators. Why shouldn't it? The rght
TO work is inalienable
If man can not find work and if his family is
hungry what do we expect him to DO? Make speech
on the blessings of prosperity?
If the unemployed do no more than parade to
city hall and plead for help city is lucky The po-
lice should be glad that the weak and hungry are
expressing their protest in such harmless manner.
The trouble With us In America is that we have
been sef-rghteous about national prosperity Tor
~ long we now can not think straight and feel
straight on the subject We acting as though
man out Of work is leper or criminal
The great army of unemployed today are not
criminals II anything criminal Is involved II Is Ihe
system which has created them.
The working people Of this country we're not made
for o1,r industrial system. The system was made for
them. And. unless our system provide steady
work and good living for the rank and file OF the
reoule. it Is a rotten system, which some day Will
fall of its own weight
With all our talk about American efficiency What
are we doing to prevent this endless cycle Oh uneni
povn1ent which swings back to mock our government
and curse our workers periodically? In the hard times
of 1921 a national commission was appointed so that
the tragedy would not happen again. but even the mild
recommendations of that commission never have been
acted upon.
For years these mild recommendations for federal
employment exchanges and statistics and provisions
for spreading construction work over lean years have
been before congress- but there has been no action
because the White House the congress- the chambers
of commerce the boosters and the wel-ed have been
hostile or Indifferent.
Meanwhile every year the unemployment prob
lem grows more serious as the advance of machines
scraps human labor At our recent peak Of prosperity
the unemployed numbered from one and half to
three millions. And now, during the temporary In
dustral recession no man knows whether the number
is four millions, or six, or seven.
We can not know the facts, because We are the
only great industrial nation in the world which fails
to gather federal unemployment statistics. Today
can only guess at the truth from the reliable New
York state figures which show that this winter is the
worst-except 192t-in fifteen years.
We believe American conditions are fundamentally
sound that The potentiaes of prosperity for all the
people greater in this land than in any other but
prosperity is strong enough to withstand the
creeping disease of unemployment unless the political
and industrial leaders fight that disease honestly in
diligently and coUrageously.
With the coming of spring passing out of
the worst part Of the depression but depression will
come again and again, next winter the following,
unless We face and begin to conquer this industrial
blight.
Indifference in this hour is treason.
The millions of walking the streets today
have right to Jobs They should demonstrate. They
should agtate. They should endeavor to awaken the
government to its responsibility.