Montana labor news., 1934-12-13
DRIFTS And RAISES
(This &C N contributed by Butte
rs Union No. y

We 3 just read a V. P. Report
from 60 Chile in the christian
Scienc s; 3nitor which is as follows a:
"Chil 3 upper mines are working full
blast q copper exports are heavy in
con 20 conditions in other copper
pre- g countries.
igust, Chile turned out $4,000
te bar copper, almost equal to the
"a e monthly production of 1928 in
a ~ i year before the world wide de-
preston.
Most OF the exported copper has been
shipped to Europe, leading to the be-
lief that the increased demand may be
due to munition building"
Chile Copper is a subsidiary Of our
A. c. M. Co. and was bought with some
of the millions produced in Butte,
however there is no sign of any in
creased activity around here.
This is evidently the Great Snakes
part in the new drive for Industry re-
covery" and the "help America rebuild
program that we hear their fellow in
dustralists spouting about v the
radio and press.
At a time when labor is asked in the
interest of recovery" to make "sacri-
fees" and reasonable concessions" our
overlords do their part by half aband-
oning their Montana properties and
leaving their subjects here half desti-
tute to make prosperity for Chile.
1t will be well to remember this when
they start their usual poverty striker
wall when the forthcoming legisla-
ture tries to enact laws to make them
compensate the Butte miner for loss
OF health in producing the purchase
price of Chile Copper.
What a break for President Roose-
veltl Big business is now going to CO.
operate with him to bring about re-
covery. They have even been kind
enough to draft a recovery platform
which will be submitted to the Presi-
dent for his help and guidance. Two
Of the planks in this platform have
special significance for labor, whether
employed or on relief. One advocates
that relief problems should be turned
back to the states and local govern
ments as soon as possible. This means
a drive to cut down Federal Relief ex-
penditures and to further reduce the
pitiful living standards of the unem-
ployed.
We recommend to these money-grab-
bers hat they read the story of the
French revolution. When told that
the starving French pheasants were
asking for bread, Marie Antoinette
said, "let them eat cake" And a few
days later they chopped off her head,
and also her Kings head. Some of
that same sharp medicine would do a
lot of good in II own country.
Another plank in the platform of
big business would give every worker
a chance to bargain individually and
free him from any coercion from in
dependent labor unions. This is mere
ly reaffirming the open-shop, anti
union policy which big bushes has al
ways adhered to-. OF course the Nat
ional Association Of Manufacturers
does not want to see labor organized
into strong and militant unions. La
bors answer must be a renewed and
intensified effort to organize every
worker and to smash the company I'M
ion. The unemployed must resist every
attempt to reduce their already made
quate standards Of relief.
1t is difficult to forsee just how much
influence big business will have on the
President but the fact is he has stood
for too much nonsense from the profit
seeking parasites already. By March 4,
1888 he Numbered from the Capitol that
the "money-changes must be driven
from the temple" But the money
changers are still in the temple and
100000 people are on relief. Now
Harry Hopkins talks about subsistence
homesteads. Shall we have recovery
by making us a nation of peasants
And Mr.. Ickes speaks about a vast
housing program if the building trades
will accept lower wages. But are the
banks to take less interest and the
manufacturers lower prices? Not on
your rugged in~dividualism. That
would interfere with profits and bus
mess men have been assured the Gov
eminent will depend on individual ini-
tiative and a fair" private profit to
furnish the driving power for recovery.
In this closer understanding between
business and government, in this open
drive against labor and relief standards
there is more than a hint of facism,
which Bill Dunno has called the bes-
tial child OF a declining capitalism. But
the final word will be said by the
workers, on the farms, in the factories
and the mines and perhaps they will
say it like the French peasants did in
1889.
Have Co..rona IT, paosA p~s-ac ,