The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-01-17
Iobess Councils Make Demand for L. S. Congress Hearing

sold by American factories in one
year was 300 Million pairs"
"These men and other millions like
them can not buy shoes, cannot buy
food, cannot buy shelter, because they
have no way to work and raise money
to buy the abundance Of shoes, food
and shelter in the nation. This wide
spread want in the midst of plenty
is Americas paramount problem and
upon its solution hangs our future
These denunciations of American
capitalism, however, have been made
public only since the appearance of
William F. Dunno, credentialed by
VIM. z. Foster, National Secretary Of
the Trade Union Unity League, and
Lewis Weinstock, National Secretary
of the A. F. of L. Rank and File
Committee for Unemployment Insur-
ance.
So devastating was the exposure Of
the purposes of the Black Bill and
the position of the A. F. Of L. Of
ficialdom by these two witnesses, that
a general call has been sent out by
the A. F. of L. and the Senate Com
mittee for a mobilization of support 4
ers of the Bill.
This accounts for the appearing
before the Committee and the en(
dorsement of the Black Bill by SUCH
individuals as Levine, from Paterson. '
N, j. claiming to represent more than
so per cent Of the silk manufacturers
in that city, the silk industry in Al
lentown, Pa. and certain manufac-
tuers in the Southern States. Levine
made admissions before the commit
tee that are of basic importance to
the American working class in de-
termining the tactics of struggle in
the organization of the silk section
of the textile industry. He support
ed the bill in principle but stated he
believed it would be better to start
with a 40 hour week and under no
consideration to limit the hours of
work per day. ~
He believed that discretion should
be invested in the employer as to the
distribution of work time in any
given week. He stated that out of
more than a thousand silk plants in
Paterson ne spoke for 531 and that
the great majority of these plants
were operated by a man, his wife and
children; that hours of work ranged
from 9 to 16 per day; that whereas
in the pre-war period silk weavers
received IL cents per yard, they now
receive two cents or less per yard
but are producing from 10 to IL times
as much as in the pre-war period:
that in the three years of the crisis
wages and the total income of silk
workers have been reduced more than
so per cent.
This revelation Of feudal condi-
tons prevailing in what is generally
considered one Of the most modern
industries in America is by no means
an isolated example 1t is plain that
the Black Bill, without such amend
ments as those proposed by the T.U.
U.L., prohibiting reduction of wages
and STIMULATING a national minimum
wage law for all workers, could re
suit only in putting the powerful
weapon of government enforcement at
the disposal of the share the work
scheme with its objective of whole
sale impoverishment and pauperiza-
ton OF the American working class.
1t is quite clear that the Black Bill
and its demagogic wording has great
dangers for American workers. The
unity Of A. F. of L. officiaIdom and
expressed in the period OF
the&boom before 1929 by the formula
workers management cooperation"
is now being manifested through such
legislative proposals as the Black Bill.
Sign of Desperation
1t Is in the exposure of the purposes
of such legislation. an integral part
Of the drive of Wall Street capitalism.
against the living standards and So
cial conditions of the American mass
es, that the Importance of the strug-
gle against this Bill both in Wash
lngton and throughout the country
by the TUUL and the Rank and File
Committee Of the A, F. of L. lies,
That the A. F. Of L. leadership is
forced to adopt such elaborate. com
plcated and dangerous maneuvers is
testimony to its desperation, faced as
it is with the rising mass movement
against the starvation program of the
Wall Street Government and the
whole hunger offensive of the Amer
.Uan ruling class.
The developments In Washington
around the struggle against the Black
Bill by the revolutionary trade union
and the Communist Party
permit of only one conclusion: that
It is now necessary without further
hesitation to throw all available forces
into the organization of the struggle
Of the A. F. of L. membership against
The bureaucrats, really to give organ
zed direction to the tremendous re-
volt that is under way in the unions
affiliated to the A. F. Of L. and the
Railway Brotherhoods.
POcketbOOk Workers