Montana labor news., 1939-03-30
Negotiators Convene Today
For Further Efforts al UNITY
The Washington Scene
By N ION
Federated Press

in
this session Congress will have to
take some action with regard to the
Senate civil liberties committee and
its work of the past two years.
The funds of the committee are
practically exhausted and a prom
Use was extracted from Sen. Robert
M. LaFollette prog, Wis.,, chair
man of the committee, during the
last session, that the committees re-
port would be filed with the Senate
by the opening of this session or
shortly thereafter.
In the meantime the committee
has started work on the Associated
Farmers of California and has COM
pleted, it is reported, its investiga-
tory work. The situation uncovered
by the committees sleuths is as
horrifying as anything they have
run across in their two years of
work.
Now it appears that the facts
gathered will be buried in the COM
mittee's report and scarcely get be-
You'd the capitol walls. Money to
hold hearings is short and foes of
the committee are pressing for a
termination of its work.
Without exaggeration, the Senate
civil liberties committee has done
as valuable a piece of work as any
committee in the history of the Sen
ate. 1t has made crystal clear what
many people have long refused to
believe, that persons interested in
retaining economic power will go
to any end to preserve their privi-
leges.
GHgafesat 6 Egd sg.Vgaggtss Sagd qgEgqgw&s
ing light on the Importance of main
tanning civil liberties. Once the right
of persons to protest is stifled it is
not long before their right to decent
wages and working conditions are
ignored and men are again made
slaves.
It is hard to imagine anything the
Senate might do in the coming ses-
sion that would mean more for the
workers of the country than appro-
priation of additional funds for the
civil liberties committee. Vast black
areas on Americas industrial map
remain unprobed and in countless
places the rights incorporated in the
constitution are ignored.
On the west coast employers have
ganged up to form a powerful ALI
ance in opposition to labor unions.
One of their most potent instruments
is the misnamed Associated Farm
ers, backed by big business inter
ests, which only last November sue
ceeded in forcing upon the people
of Oregon the poisonous anti-labor
initiative.
In the fertile fruit fields of Cali
fornia and in the rich vegetable
areas, business farmers treat work
ers as slaves, ignoring even the obi
cation recognized by some slave
holders to provide a living. In back
of the attacks on workers in Salinas
and Westwood stands the sinister
figure of the Associated Farmers.
The Associated Farmers operates
primarily on a vigilante basis. 1t
seeks to set farmers against workers
and small businessmen against farm
ers and workers. It's methods are
ruthless and based on the lynch
spirit.
Evidence concerning the history
and the operation of this organiza-
ton is in the hands of the Senate
civil liberties committee. Names,
dates, places, documents are avail
able and known. With a proper
form and the proper means the com
mittee could show the country just
what the Associated Farmers stands
for.
Without additional funds the COM
mittee will be unable to tell the
country what it knows about this
menacing organization. 1t will. have
to put it in the record and trust to
a few diligent persons to dig in and