Montana labor news., 1934-10-18

outside their homes than five years ago, and
the number who should be taken away from
homes demoralized and brutalized by the I'M
e~xarnpled poverty of the time is legion.
"In homes subsisting on public relief allow
ances are 100000 boys and girls. = . = .
Surveys show that one-fifth of all pre-school
children are undernourished; that one-third
of all children are physically or mentally handi-
capped, and that only 20 per cent of handi-
CAPPED children receive adequate care"
How are the various governments - federal,
state and local measuring up to these emerg-
encies? According to Mr.. Baker, public re-
lief of unemployment falls far short Of meeting
the need" created by the 48 per cent more illness
in families of the jobless than in families where
the workers have full-time jobs. 1T cannot, he
says, pay for medical care" for these sick peo-
pie.
With regard to hospitals whose wards over
flow and whose patients lie on cots in the cor
ridors,' he declares the hospitals and nursing
associations that are supported by taxes cannot
meet the emergency" because public appropria-
tons for their support have been cut down.
When it comes to the 100000 children in
homes depending on public allowances for their
living, Mr.. Baker states they get little from re-
lief expenditures but the barest means of keep
ing the spark of life in the body"
This is the picture of existing nationwide dis
tress imposed on millions of workers and their
dependents by those who own and control in
dustry. They stolidly refuse to reduce the leng-
tn of the work week and open the doors of their
foc4o-;ae +o +ba ;oI1eee ,vO~1-;nr r,a, aud ,-or,a,
unless they are assured the extortionate profits
which they extracted from the workers under
the Old Deal.
Still animated with the never-satisfied greed
of Shylock, too many industrial leaders seek to
apply now the same business policies which
brought about the devastating depression and
which have prevented recovery.
With hearts hardened to the suffering of the
unemployed army so poignantly described by Mr..
Baker, these Industrial bourbons lock their mills,
close the opportunities of employment, and braz-
emily say to the jobless army We will not permit
you to make the things you require for your
selves and your dependents unless we draw fat
dividend checks from all the necessaries of life
you produce. We take this Shylock position des-
pite the fact that every one of the factories which
are now our private property was built from the
surplus wealth which you workers, yourselves,
produced in the years of prosperity, and which
we, under an industrial system operated solely
for maximum profits, supported by the letter Of
the law and the dictum Of the courts, appropriate
ed to be used for your further exploitation.
It is time for America to end this anti-social
policy Of these blatant business reactionaries by
making the 30-hour week, demanded by the
American Federation of Labor, compulsory for
all industries throughout the length and breadth
of the United States.
When that is done, and hundreds of thousands
Of the jobless put to work - at good wages, much
Of the suffering cited by Mr.. Baker will auto
matically cease.
Until the 30-hour week is made compulsory
the suffering will continue and will constitute
an outstanding disgrace to our American civil
cation.