Montana labor news., 1938-11-03
Reasons Why Jerry ].
0'(onneII Should Be
Returned 10 Congress
Continued from Page l

be at any expense to the $50 fami-
lies and then, by electing another
Hoover, either Republican OIL Demo-
cratic, gain control of affairs for
another four years. That is n of
the paramount reasons why it is
vital to protect the New Deal by
electing a Congress that will uphold
President Roosevelt, continue eco
nomic and social reform, and build
for permanent recovery. The other
chief eason why it is SO utterly
pressing that a New Deal Congress
be elected is that election of a re-
dictionary Congress would make
possible some sort of an attempt to
impose a dictatorship upon America
such as is already depressing the
peoples of Europe.
How r the people of Montana
to contribute to progress in the
present election? They can do their
part by returning to Congress men
such as Jerry O'Connell, present
congressman from the First Con-
gressional district of Montana, who
have by past deeds and their prom
ises in this campaign, indicated with
out equivocation that they will sup
port the President, that they will
support the New Deal, that they
will guard against any return to the
old days Of complete control by the
predatory interests, that they will
refuse to bend the knee to the forces
of concentrated wealth with all Of
their kept press, with all Of their
wealth, with all of their power in
whatever manner manifested.
Western Montana's congressman,
Jerry O'Connell, has gone down the
line fighting the good fight for the
rank and file of Montanans, for the
rank and file of Americans. His
fight has been |consecrated first to
the working masses, first to the aged
who are in dire need of a security
that the old system of Hoover and
Mellon and the corporate forces that
supported them refused to allow,
first for the millions of workers in
America and Montana who through
no fault of their own have been
thrown into the heaps Of unem-
ployed merely because our engines
Of production produced with such
liberality that the unemployed and
the exploited consumers could not
buy back the product of industry,
first for the unorganized workers
who have been refused the right to
collective bargaining until a Presi-
dent like Franklin Roosevelt and
congressman like Jerry O'Connell
made it possible to achieve, against
the fiercest type Of opposition on the
part of the owners of industry, such
an elemental privilege, first for
those unfortunate individuals who
after spending their lives as work
ers for a wage in industry find their
lives blighted by an occupational
disease or injury, first for the dis
franchised, the friendless, and the
hungry and tired. Jerry O'Connell
has never endeavored to attack any
legitimate enterprise merely be-
cause it was big and rich and power
full. AS long as such an enterprise
played fair with its employees, kept
faith with its consumers, and did
not attempt to usurp the functions
of government, contributed its fair
share to the essential expenses of
government O'Connell has done
everything in his power to aid such
an activity.
1t is because Jerry O'Connell has
always fought to the last ditch
against special privilege, against low
standards of living, against all of
the long line Of abuses that have
been piled upon labor, upon the
consumer, and upon small business
that he is today being subjected to
the TRADES of abuse and v%illification
that clutter up the pages of the COM
pany press and fill the ether with
malidictions. If O'Connell had been
content to "be good" and play the
corporation game he would not be
subjected to the countless attacks
from a hundred contaminated quar-
tiers that r aimed at him today.
If O'Connell had become a tired
liberal or had quit the liberal and
labor and farmer forces cold like
some well known renegade progress
sives have done, he would today
probably not be troubled with any
opposition whatsoever. But he kept
the facts, fought the good fight and
today is fighting for his very politi-
cal life against every corporate
plunderbund and agent of reaction
in every one of the seventeen coun-
ties that constitute the First con-
g%ressional district of Montana.
Every sort of a campaign lie, half
truth, and insinuation that can be
conceived in the minds Of the clever
hired lawyers and newspapermen