Evening star., 1934-09-02
LABOR WEIGHS NEW DEAL
AND REPORTS TT TLACKINC
Strikes Tell Story of Loss of Faith
AS Promises Fail, Federation
Official Declares.
BY MATTHEW WOLL,
~NetD occasions teach netD duties,
Time makes ancient good uncouth." I"

q tHtS HuNSS QHCISHt gOOU uHCOuLH.
~ o WROTE the poet James Rus
sell Lowell in the reconstruc-
ton days following the Civil
~ War. Surely no one who has
lived through the eventful
months since the coming Of the new
deal could doubt that the occasions
have been new and the sequence of
events rapid and at times little be-
wildering. For labor these new occa-
sions have taught many duties that
are both strange and novel Thus La
Dor day this year comes as an i'm
portant time to stop and take stock
both of achievements and of trends.
Let us begin first with the assets,
which are both tangible and in
tangible. 1t is variously estimated
that there are from 100000 to 81
100000 more men and women work.
ing this year than in March last year.
There are millions more, especially in
the building trades, whose hope Of
employment is infinitely brighter in
September, 1884, than a year ago, be-
cause the housing bill has passed and
public works, ever slow in starting, are
nearer getting under way.
Then, too, there are home owners,
most Of whom are workers, whose
homes are more secure today than
before because special protection
has been thrown around them by the
Government. To other workers,
whose life savings have disappeared
in closed banks or evaporated in some
wildcat speculation sold as an invest
ment, the bank guarantee and the Sc
curities acts are new elements of as
surance. To demoralized families on
relief the brief months on c. w. A.
formed a stimulant and diversion
from the Illustration of idleness and
destitution. To the embattled farm
ers the A. A. A. has meant a cash
return for doing what under ordinary
conditions would have been counted
economic suicide; yet a generous Gov
ernment has given dignified assent to
such policy by the payment of mil
lions Of dollars.
Life frightened in C. C. C.
To 100000 young men between the
ages OF 10 and Is the opportunities
of life are brighter and woodlands
of America better appreciated after
the productive months in the forests
OF America In the Governments civil
ian conservation camps. Finally, to
workers in industry the new oppor-
tunities for organization under the
recovery act have been evidence of
Governments concern for fairer deal
ing in the economic struggle.
Or If one turns from the achieve
ments to the trends of the new deal
one finds ti1e. firm and decisive words
used by the President himself-thats
having set our hands to the plow, we
shall not turn back. Action was de-
manded and action the country got.
There is to be no right-about face;
the. marching orders are "forward!"
To this declaration there is added the
generous enlargement of employment
by the Governments public works.
Jobs win be found, whether in null
titudinous relief activities or In plant
ing or drought assistance.
Where the trend of the new deal
discloses weaknesses, there Congress
will be asked to fill out the outline,
as with the trades disputes act. When,
furthermore, workers face a future
haunted by fear and insecurity, a hu-
name Government will throw a pro-
tecting arm about the worker and save
him from the hazards of accident, ILL
ness, idleneSs and old age.
Goal Not Mean One,
The trend, then, is clear in speech
and state paper. Government exists
for the Individual; it will do for each
man what he cannot or would not do
for himself. This is no mean aim that
the new deal has set as its goal. Amer
lea under its institutional changes will
be q different land-and who can say
1t. will not be a better land?
But what price the new deal? In
gaining one new liberty is labor losing
some ancient freedom? Does Gov-
eminent extravaganza today mean the
threat, If not the fact, of imitation to-
morrow? How are all these social
devices to be paid for upon that post
poned pay day? VIII a bureaucracy,
once established in Government, pro-
ceed to abolish itself when the emer-
gency is over? These are some of
the second Thoughts" on the new deal
that labor, even in the moment Of its
support of the Government, does not
ignore. For the labor movement has
a destiny toward which it must press,
whether new deal or old. Administra-
tons come and go, but the labor
movement continues, because it is a
missionary movement.
To labor, then, the new deal has
defects which, if not fatal, are at least
serious enough to warrant attention.
To take legislation born of an
emergency, wrought under the pres
sure Of time without public debate in
the national Congress, dictated by ex-
ecutive authority, and seek to make
this the substitute for laws hammered
out on tie anvil of discussion in a
thousand local public forums of the
land, is to tread the path of dictator
ship, whatever be the explanation or
however rhetorical the language. Labor
is too deeply committed to both the
spirit and the letter of democracy to
accept such pretense. While one ad-
ministration may use such power
wisely, another may not.
Strikes Tell Story.
Nor can labor view these last
months without profound disappoint-
ment. Labor was promised a new
deal. 1t was to be given rights In
fact formerly denied save in theory
Collective bargaining was to be legal
lied. The workers rights to self-or-
ganization were to be protected. The
months that have elapsed have beer
q sorry tale for labor. A shifting, i
not an opportunistic, administration
which concealed behind its bluster q
lack Of sympathy or understanding o.
labor philosophy, has reduced the
promises of the new deal to a success
sion of disappointments. But, more
serious, there is always a peril II
holding out to men too rosy hope
1t is the peril of rapid disillusionment
Strike after strike in America-th'
largest number in our entire histor.
tells the story Of loss Of faith il
promises and programs.
Nor is this all. Not only has labo
H1nx. Ia& loryy, I,.KA k,,sSiv,ace hoe Iaax