Montana labor news., 1938-12-22
WORK DONE
BY THE WORKERS
ALLIANCE SHOWS
NEED FOR GROUP

heard of in Montana by organized
labor and farmers when a meeting
was called of delegates from all
farm, labor, and unemployed organi-
cations in Montana at Butte in the
spring of 1886. 1t was well attended
by what is now the CLIO group, the
Miners and Smeltermen of Montana,
also A. F. of L., Workers Protective
Union of Montana, Workers Protec-
tive Union of Unemployed from
Butte, Helena, Great Falls, Farm
Holiday Association, Farmers Union,
Farmers Grange, and many other
organizations. The three Workers
Alliance locals in Montana at that
time were represented.
The need for the unemployed to
organize became apparent in the
early days of the depression. Many
groups found that as individuals they
were told they had no right to ask
for food and other necessaries of life
for their families in this land of
plenty. H~igh-salaried social workers
sent many needy men and women
home with thousands of dollars
worth of abuse, but no food or help.
Needy homes were entered upon re-
quest for aid. Sick people, especial
ly pregnant women were scolded,
criticized and abused. Many a man
came home after such a visitor had
been there to find his wife in tears
and on the verge of a nervous break
down.
Soon these unemployed people
banded together in many counties,
chose leaders and became local or
ganized groups.
At this time, about 1894, a group
of these people formed the Workers
Protective Union of Montana with a
state charter. This statewide or
ganization had many advantages
over the local poorly organized
groups and oon grew to % locals
in Montana.
Then the Workers Alliance Of
America, a nationwide organization,
was formed to deal with the nation
wide conditions. The WAA soon be-
gan to grow from three locals in
Montana in 1886, to 20 locals in the
spring of 1887, and over so locals at
the present time.
The WAA has many thousand
locals in the United States. Some in
each state, also Cuba and other out
lying territories.
The WAA believes while 80 cars
of potatoes, so cars of apples, are
rotting in the pits and on the trees
in the Bitter Root, and while the
farmer cannot sell his livestock, wool
hides, wheat, fruit, and many other
products, there should be no one
short of food or clothing.
The social workers tried, and
sometimes even succeeded in making
these people believe it was patriotic
to sit by watching their families con-
tinue the struggle to live without the
necessaries of life, to go without
necessary clothing while the farmers
in the south plowed under their cot
ton crop. The Workers Alliance
teaches that when a family is unem-
ployed and in need, they fall victim
to everything, diseases and ailments,
known to man, and 0 become a
greater burden to the taxpayer and
society as a whole than they would
had they been taken care of in the
right way at the right time. Children
growing up under-fed, under
clothed, under-educated, will soon
fill our Home for Hayward Girls,
Reformatories, Homes for Feeble
Minded, tuberculosis Sanitariums,
Insane Asylums, State Prisons, to
overlooking and will be a permanent
burden on society. For that reason
the WAA says a nickle saved is a
dollar lost.
The WAA teaches that people i'll
need, and families in need who do
not make every effort to secure aid
such as is given today and who do
not help to better the welfare and
WPA conditions of today are not
good citizens. For a good citizens
first duty is to raise a family,
healthy, intelligent, and dutiful to
their fellowmen,
The WAA has fought to bring the
hourly wage on WPA and other
relief work, up to the standard
fought for and established by or
ganized labor.
Before the WAA organized, ERA,
WPA and other forms Of relief work
were paid for at as low as Csc and
Soc an hour, men worked for 1914
days over a period OF ZO to 70 days
to get $40 a month. Now the wage
runs from Coo an hour low on COM
non labor to around 80c, while
skilled cement men, carpenters, brick
layers, ETC., run from 81 an hour to
$3.50 an hour. Monthly allowances
used to be $40 to $48 a month COM
mon labor, now are up to $44 to $50,
with skilled labor getting up to $50
a month.
There is now a nationwide move
to raise WPA monthly allowance 20
per cent for common labor and semi
skilled workers. Thirteen southern
states have already been raised So
to $ll a month.
The A. F. of L., the clio and Farm