The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1936-05-08
Washington
SCENE
by LEN DE CAUx


plants into hen coops. The mile
MUM has arrived. A sharecropper
gets the benefit payments and the
landlord goes on relief.
well, almost anyhow. The re-
velatiOn made by Secretary of the
Interior Harold L. Ickes, with a
sly grin and a twinkle in his eye,
that the nations wheat king
Thomas D. CampbelI-is a share
cropper, came as a shock to re-
porters at his press conference.
There it was, in black and white,
however. Campbell rented his land
from the Indians and split the pro-
fits on a share basis. That made
him sharecrOpper. He got
around $4,000 for the not grow
ing business and his landlords, the
Indians, are on relief.
Of course. Campbell is a share
cropper in the West and that
makes difference apparently. If
he was a sharecrOpper in the
South he would only get measly
portion of the AAA benefit pay
ments, would be denied relief, and
his landlords would kick him out,
set vigilante gangs on him if he
protested.
1t all goes to prove the old
adage of a venerable representa-
tive of the peepul. Said he to a
younger colleague, There's only
one formula for what's right in
politics. Gods always in the pig
money. He don't lose."
Campbell's in the money. He
don't lose.
Although workers in the labor
movement were not fooled for a
minute by the sanctmonious dec
laration by Arthur Young, vice
president of the United States
Steel Co., that the corporation is
not using spies to check on the &C
tivities of their workers, it came
as a shock to hear the testimony
of the two young steel workers
before the LaFollette committee
investigating violations of civil lib
critics.
These two young fellows, one a
Sunday school superintendent, told
how they had been approached by
the Shiny representatives of the
detective agencies doing the dirty
work for the steel companies, and
how they, in spirit of adventure
and Indignation, decided to accept
the offers and spy on the spies.
George A. Patterson, president
Of an independent union in the
South Works plant of the Carne-
gle Illinois Steel Co. at Chicago,
told his story like a small boy
breathlessly reciting some strange,
horrid sight he had seen. Patter-
son, apparently, still couldn't be-
lieve that it had all happened to
him. There was an air of naivite
about his testimony that made it
all the more impressive and
startling.
Whenever we have a union
meeting," he said, someone al
ways says, I'm speaking frankly,
l know there's probably a spy here
and it'll all be in the company
office by tomorrow but l don't
give a damn. This is what
Think" Also, wildly described
| by Patterson, was the feeling of
uneasiness, of suspicion and mis-
trust prevailing among the work
ers in the mill. Something of the
feeling of Illustration and despair
that must be felt by workers try
ing to organize for a decent wage
and reasonable hours, was felt by
those who listened to his recital
of the methods used by the steel
companies to keep their dividend
payments up.
"Who do you think you should
be loyal to-" he testified was the
argument used to persuade him to
play a dangerous game to tattle
tale on his fellow workers, "the
bondholders or the forenen who
bully you and your buddies ?"
Heaven preserve the sacredness of
the coupon. Workers may starve
Workers may be beaten by ma
tional guardsmen, haunted by
sneaks, choked by tear gas, shot
down in the streets, but the sacred
coupon, it must go on.
AS an impressive footnote to the
question of academic integrity il
the formation of the Campaign
brain trust" by the Republican
PARTY. For four wears come No.