Montana labor news., 1938-03-31
Butte Miner Describes
Work Accomplished Al
Commonwealth School

The American labor movement,
growing faster than ever before in
its history, feels the need for more
able and intelligent men and women,
with a thorough understanding of
the movement, to direct and carry
on its manifold activities. To get a
broad, thorough knowledge of all
phases of Labor's activities usually
requires years of experience and
practical work in the movement,
during which time many mistakes
will be made, mistakes which may
wreck important units of Labor's
army and many a promising career.
Nothing will drive home a lesson
as well as hard practical work and
the experience gained from it but
the wise person will try to absorb
the lessons from the experience Of
the past in preference to any trial
and error method of learning the
best procedure. All of which leads
up to the why of Labor schools and
workers education generally. La
Dor colleges do not expect to make
outstanding and nationally known
labor leaders of all or even a large
percentage of their students. They
do, however, turn out men and Wom-
en- well grounded in the theology and
methods of American Labor and
trained to play a substantial and
important part in the movements
progress.
Commonwealth is n Of three
resident Labor schools in this coun-
try and as such is Labor's most i'm
portant center in the South. 1t is
in the midst Of the South's most
pressing problems-among the star
walton paid agricultural workers
tenant farmers and open shop in.
dustrial workers. 1t is oriented tt
the South and fully cognizant of the
pressing need for welding this link
in Labor's chain into bona fide La
Dor and Farmer organizations before
the influx of industrial carpe
baggers'' tears down the Living
standards and irreparably weaken.
the organizations of the unionizeC
sections of the United States. Thu
reality of this danger is shown b.
the almost daily announcement o
the migration of some enterpris'
from unionized industrial center
into some part of the open shop
low paid South.
Commonwealth is situated nea
Mena, in Polk County, Southwestern
Arkansas. The setting, in the Qua
chita Mountains, is colorful an,
beautiful but the people of tn
countryside are poverty ridden, ii
fed, ill housed and ill clad" Just
few minutes walk to one of tn
neighboring farms will acquaint ONT
! first hand, with the living condition
of the southern tenant farmer an
the crying need for doing somethin
about it-now. A trip into Mena,
little city of approximately thirty
five hundred people, will give on
first hand knowledge of what tn
open shop means in lumber and tn
usual local enterprises and the in
mediate need for doing somethin
about that also. And Commonwealth
is doing something about the;
things, effectively and as fast as
can be done in the face of bite
Opposition and with the meager n
sources at hand. Beside the residel
classes, workers education is beir
taken into the field to the worke
needing it most, whenever ar
wherever resources permit.
Instructors, both in the residei
and extension work, are practic
Trade Unionists, men and womt
who have spent years fighting son
phase of Labor's battle. They ha'
been up against the gun; they kno
what it is all about and experienC
hard and bitter, has taught the
what needs to be done and the be
way to go about it. These are
theoretical experts, full of boz
knowledge and very little else, su,
as many of our School of Mines DO
who 90 down in the "holes' of But
II-L-11 IL 4.---t--.. L.. l. L..