Montana labor news., 1935-01-03
DRIFTS AND RAISES
(This column contributed by Butte
Miners Union No. u

Every indication points to a ruthless
drive against wage and relief standards
within the near future. This is direct
ly in line with the recommendations OF
big business. While we would not say
that big business is telling the Presi-
dent what to do, it seems that their
suggestions have great weight. Early
in the Roosevelt regime, Congressman
Joe Monaghan was making a speech
in the House in which he cried happily,
"The Government is now in Washing
ton instead of Wall Street" But when
Joe addressed the Butte miners last
summer during the strike, he did not
seem SO sure. He still had faith, but
it looked as tho his idol might have
only one foot in Washington and the
other in Wall Street.
Harry Hopkins has issued a state
ment that after February l, 100000
unemployables will be taken off Fed
Seral relief and thrown back on local
relief and all the others on the rolls
will be put on work relief. You can
bet this work relief will be IN a bare
subsistence level, worse even than the
present, if they can get away with it.
What effect this will have on the pre-
sent hard-won standards of organized
labor can easily be visualized. 1t will
be constant pressure against high
wages, a constant tendency to pull them
down to the level of the under-paid.
Organized labor must protect their pre-
sent standards with the bitterest deter
mination, with force, of any kind and
as much as necessary, eve if they pull
down the temple.
A year ago we heard much Of high
wages and greater purchasing power,
now its the other way, down, down,
economy, balance the budget. 1t is an
echo Of what Mussolini said months
ago., Civilization must be based on a
lower standard of living" Ali this talk
about lower wages, compulsory arbi-
t~ration, labor truces, out-lawing the
general strike, what are these but the
ear-marks of fascism?
We used to have the word "inalnu-
triton" to describe the slow starvation
of a working class child. Now we have
the word "unemployable" to designate
a man grown old and sick and defeated
in spirit after producing wealth for the
owning class. The word is used in a
strictly i%mpersonal, inhuman sense, as
tho an old man were no longer human
but simply a piece Of machinery that
can no longer be employed. And that
is exactly the way that capitalism re-
CARDS a man who has out-lived his use
~fulness. He must not be allowed to
starve but may be sentenced to a liv-
ing death in a flop-houe or bread-line.
Another favorite term Of government
officials is emergency" Do they use
it in a conscious, deliberate effort to
mislead the people and make them
think we shall eventually have pros
perity again? In all probability, yes.
The present state Of affairs is not an
emergency but a permanent condition
as can be shown by the following facts !:
During the last two months, carload
ing, electric power production, steel and
other lines have made small but steady
gains. And side by side with this in
crease in business activity, UNEM-
PLOYMENT is ALSO INCREAS-
ING.
According to William Green of the
A. F. of L. the increase was from H.
100000 in November to l1,459,000 in
December, a gain of 100000.
All during this depression every bus
mess man, every manufacturer has been
trying to cut costs, adopting new eff
ficiency methods, trying to get rid Of
a man here, a man there. 1t is the
basic nature of capitalist production to
strive to widen the gap between pro-
duction costs and selling price, so there
will be more profit for the master.
Even if Roosevelt should borrow and
spend up to $40,0O0,000,000 we still
would not have more than partial re-
covery. And if by some miracle, the
country did reach a state of compare
tive prosperity under capitalism, it
would be only a few years at most until
we would again plunge into the abyss
of depression. An economic system
that cannot provide security, an in
creasing standard of living, opportun-
ity for culture and self-expression to
all citizens, does not deserve to exist.
1t must be abolished and replaced by
a better system and that is the solemn
duty of the working class if they want
to live on a level better than poems.