Montana labor news., 1935-02-21
Wings Over Washington
By LEN DE CAUX

mas ndQ a lot TO DO with TINS shit.
The Senate defeat Of the world court
was an outward and visible sign OF
unruliness among the hill-dwellers OF
Congress. But even more significant
is the rough Shedding which the admin
istration's security program is exper-
iencing-mostly over labor bumps.
NRA, with its hearings on code labor
provisions, made an effort to shift the
weight back to the executive end. But
American Federation of Labor leaders
took advantage OF the hearings to de-
clare the workers disillusionment with
NRA; and to turn their attention away
from hopes of betterment there to
hopes of Congressional action on the
Black-C onnery 30-hour week bill. The
renewal Of the auto code, with the OBJ
~jectionable Auto Labor Board, gave
the final shove. Our answer is the
30-hour bill" said William Green, in
the course of bitter comment on the
code renewal
Green's severe criticism of the Wag-
ner-Lewis bill was a shock to the ad-
ministration wheelsmen. Remembering
the A. F. of L. leaders support Of the
last Wagner-Lewis bill, they expected
him to give this one a good sendoff,
with only mild criticisms. Instead
Green vigorously attacked the tax-re-
mission employers feature, and ad-
vocated state subsidies, with higher
standards required of the states than
those embodied in the bill. He de-
manded provisions against workers be-
ing forced to contribute, and higher
pensions and unemployment benefits.
But Green's criticisms are mild in
deed compared with those Of many
Senators and Congressman who inter
pref the last elections, not so much as
a mandate to support whatever comes
out of the White House, as a reminder
from below that the forgotten men of
factory and farm still feel forgotten and
neglected.
Chiefly under fire in the Wagner
Lewis bill is the federal payroll tax Of
3 per cent to be RENTED to employers
when state unemployment schemes are
enacted. The presidents advisory
%council. to the Committee on Economic
Security, Of which Green was a mem
Der as well as industrialists such as
Gerard Swope and Walter Teagle, op-
posed this feature and favored state
subsidies. But they were overruled.
Experts consulted, or not consulted,
on this issue are indignant. Abraham
Epstein, one Of the leading authorities
on social insurance, declares that 90
per cert of them consider that the
principle of tax remission to employers
is absolutely wrong; that no real
standards are laid down for unemploy-
ment insurance, and that the result will
be a "hodge-podge Of As different state
schemes" most of them quite unsatis-
factory.
These are the more conservative
critics. Further to the left is Sen
H. L. Black d., A1a) who declares
that the federal payroll tax is in effect
a sales tax, which the employers will
pass on at once in higher prices to the
workers and others least able to afford
it. He demands that the money be
raised in such a way that the burden
cannot Immediately be passed on to
the workers-through taxation Of high
incomes and excess profits.
This Black amendment is close in
deed to one of the basic principles of
the bill introduced by Representative
Lundeen Of. L., MIMI, which is the
rallying point for the extreme left op-
position to the administration bill, and
has won surprising support in Con-
gress.
Fear of radical criticism and amend
ment in the House labor committee
induced the administration to entrust
the Wagner-Lewis bill to the conser-
vative ways and means committee.
Immediately two dangers to the pro-
gram doomed up-neither Of them
from the employers and stand-patters
side. On the one hand, the Townsend
S2OO-a-month pension agitation threat
ened to boost the ante far beyond the
small pensions proposed; on the other,
the Lundeen bill, backed by consider
able pressure from unions and unem-
ployed, reflected urgent demands for
immediate insurance protection for
those now jobless and raised the issue
of making the rich pay for it rather
than the poor.
Two different tactics have been
adopted to fight off these two dangers.
Widest publicity and ridicule have
been directed against the Townsend
planners. The ways and means COM
mittee is willing to forget all time lin
its when any witness will make wise
cracks against the $20O-a- month pen
sions. Against the Lundeen bill, 81
lence and suppression Of criticism is
the tactic-going to the point Of bodily
violence against one witness who
wished to take more than five minutes
testifying in favor Of its principles.
DiOCiio WOluS OF warning ABOUT
deep and bitter resentment" in labor
ranks and a growing spirit of re-
volt" are not idle words. Many Con-
gressmen know this, for they are
flooded with letters and resolutions,
telling them Enthusiastically that the
working people demand something
more substantial than political sops and
meager doles. 1t is these demands
that are shifting the Washington cen
ter of gravity toward Congress, on
which ~momentarily, at any rate, there
is a greater weight of popular pressure