The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-12-22
DEPARTMENT OF WAR
WOULD CONTROL LABOR
AND FIX SLAVE WAGES
Industrial Program Is
Barred at Inquiry by
Staff Officer
By Seymour Waldman

w AOF1lNG1O YIN, II. u, IEC.
21.-The New Deals War De-
partment proposes outright
fascist control of labor during
wartime.
This was shown today,
without any Of the customary hedg-
ing or demagogy, by the testimony
given the Senate Munitions Com
mittee by Lieutenant-C Colonel C. T.
Harris. the officer in charge of the
War Departments industrial mobi-
lization plans under the direct su-
pervision of Assistant Secretary Of
War Harry H. Woodring.
The fascist kernel of the plan
proposes to establish "a prominent
f1nancier or industriaIist" as admin
istrator Of a wartime labor board,
who would be assisted by a repre-
sentative Of the Administrator Of
War Industries the Secretaries Of
War and the Navy, and one other
government department"
Fascist Board
Harris admitted that the main
functions of this board, as outlined
in the present plans of the War De-
partment, would be to safeguard
the profits Of the bankers and in
dustrialists, keep wages down and
spy upon and terrorize labor. The
fascist implications of this program
are impressive when it is realized
that American capitalism for the
first time in its history since it be-
came world powerful, plans to dis
pense with its usual front of A. 2.
of L. oficialdom.
Asked by your correspondent
whether President Roosevelt APP
proves of the plan. Harris replied:
"Of course, I can't speak for the
President, but there's no indica-
ton that President Roosevelt dis
approves Of the War Department
mobilization plan" Harris thereby
indicated what is generally ad-
mitted-that no policy plan of such
dimensions as the industrial mo-
bilization program would be pre-
Sented without the expressed or
tacit approval of the White House.
Officially, the plan bears the official
endorsements of Hoover's Secre-
taries of War and the Navy, the very
wealthy real estate operator and
lawyer, Patrick Hurley, and the
millionaire banker yachtsman,
Francis Adams.
Supervised by Baruch
1t is both foreboding and signif-
cant that this fascist plan was
drawn up under the personal SUI
pervision of Bernard M. Baruch,
millionaire Wall Street operator.
head of the War Industries Board
under Wilson. Baruch was recently
appointed Chairman of President
Roosevelts Committee, which. ac-
coroing to the demagogic ballyhoo,
is to consider plans ito take the
profit out of war" 1t is equally sig
nificant that Woodring. who is re-
sponsible under the National De-
tense Act of 1920 for industrial mo-
bilization plans. came out publicly
nearly a year ago for War Depart-
ment control of industry in gem
eral and for economic storm
troops" in particular, and that the
crowd behind the fascist plans of
the War Department is the same
bunch now directing the admin
stration-big business wage-cutting
drive Furthermore, this Chamber
! of Commerce and National Associa-
ton of Manufacturers group is also
behind the present business and
government red-scare drive as the
wedge in the campaign whose ulti-
mate objective is the destruction
of the entire labor movement.
To Assinilate n. r. A.
Just as startling as the testimony
revealing the direct Wall Street war
time centred of labor now being or
ganized YVES the admission that the
Wa Department plans to incorpo-
rate the N. r. A. into its machinery
as socn as the integration of the
two, which has been going on
steadily since the inception of the
N. R. A., is completed. In other
words, as the Communist Party has
4 charged repeatedly beginning in the
early days of the n R. A, war
I preparations constitute the steel
/ backbone of the N. R. A.
We're giving serious eonsidera-
1 ton to the effect Of II. R. A. code
authorities 1.-THE employersl on our
[warl plans" Harris informed the
! Senate Committee.
/ You are planning to abrogate the