The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1932-01-22
What They Mean by
Unemployment
Insurance
By HARRY CANNES.

Father Cox is not the only leech VINO has s&
tached himself to the emaciated unemployed
He is new entry into a well-filed field, glutted
with organizations offering the unemployed an
sorts of plans" some revolutionary sounding,
others apparently shouting for "unemploymsnA
insurance" but all designed to keep the workers
from struggle as a class for real unemployment
insurance
In this series OF articles the various schemes
will be analysed The class forces behind them
exposed, and their programs ripped open 50 taaa$
the reactionary content becomes clear.
One of the newest entries is the Joint CoC11s
mittee on Unemployment recently formed. Tbs
guiding spirit is the Reverend Music anoEhaR
Father Cox who has learned left phrases more
glibly and who wears a Socialist" button instead
of priests frock.
In order to go Father Cox one better In the
religious line Rabbi Wise's assistant Darwin J.
Meserole is placed on the Executive COMMITTEES
OF this outfit. Strikebreakers such as Sidney
Hillnan president of the Amalganaated Clothing
Workers, and Emil Rieve, president of the AM
erican Federation of Full Fashioned Hosiery
Workers, play prominent part in this group
who seek to mislesd the unemployed into a
swamp of futile petitioning.
Scientific Charity"
This latest organization was devised chiefly,
however, not to lead the unemployed so mucn as
leaders of the Socialist Party, the League for
Industrial Democracy-in other words, the petty
bourgeoisie, the small business men, the fascist
leaders of the various unions who seek a system
of scientific charity"
The central plank of the Joint Committee on
Unemployment, in their own words, is as follows
I'VE convinced that there is further
need of study experiment in the matter of
unemployment insurance in the United States.
l. g. tod,
unwilling to establish unemployment insurance
a scale sufficiently large to cover the work
of the United States. 1t, therefore, be-
comes the duty of both the State and the
Federal Government to enact unemployment
insurance at once. Unemployment insurance
Is necessary part of the economic program
and the program of national security
workmen's compensation old age allowance, or
mothers pensions"
1t all sounds SO simple! The government should
do its duty" Glasses are wiped out by phrases.
The unemployed should rest comfortably in the
flop houses or on the streets, content them
selves with breadlines or starvation until in the
name of national security" the stalWart liberals
are able by education to convince the rulers
that unemployment Insurance. be it ever so
skinny, "is a necessary part of the economic
program" of capitalist exploitation.
Industry and Government
=. INDUSTRY is unWllng, say GnlS strange COLI
lection of sky pilots and socialist misleaders,
therefore the state and federal governments
should do something. But this is trying to make
the workers believe that there is a separation
between the industries, say, for example like the
United States Steel Corporation (ruled by Nor
gan g. Coz, the Pennsylvania Railroad (Mellon),
on the one hand, and the state and federal gov
ernments on the other Industry" and the
banks are owned by the leading representative
OF the capitalist class, the class that con-
trolls the state and federal governments. If one
is unwilling" the other acts accordingly.
The object OF this scheme is, first Of all, to
mislead the workers to the class nature OF
the capitalist government; to spread the illusion
of hope that the capitalists will awaken to their
duty" They aim thereby, to avoid the nasty"
conflict of rapidly growing mass struggle which
will force the capitalists to grant, willing or
unwillingly, duty or duty, unemployment IN
surance at full wage rates
After all, the liberals, the petty bourgeois be-
hind the Joint Committee on Unemployment
have big stake in capitalism They are stock
and bondholders, They do not want the profits
of capitalism interfered with to the extent that
dividend and bond payments will be injured.
Every one who repeats the slogan ''unemploy-
ment insurance" should be asked some blunt
questions. How will 1t be obtained? How much
will it be? Who will administer it? Where will
the money come from? What about the war
budget of capitalism? How can immediate relief
be forced from the capitalist class right now
while millions face death by starvation?
These questions the Joint Committee on Un-
employment let's well enough alone.