Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-09-02
Wheeler Warns
Labor TO Fight
War Betrdyers'
Workers Will Lose
Rights of 100 Years
If Conflict Comes.
Senator Avows
Special to THE DETROIT TIMES

> - SilFANA<A<ot LII DNPbs 9
Senator Burton X. Wheeler warned
workers of the country yesterda,
that labor will lose all the rights
il has won in a hundred years i
the United States enters the wars
in Europe and Asia.
In his address, delivered at al
America First Day rally at Potta
wotamie Park, Senator Wheeler
told the large throng that AmericS
faces a grave crisis and a decision
soon must be made and asked:
''xVill IL be peace or war, free
dom or slavery, democracy or
dictatorship"
CALLS ON ALL WORKERS
He continued:
To-day could well be an his
toric day II we had the will, the
courage and the intelligence to
make IL such. Today the work
ers of this nation could and
should resolve that this republic
will not become embroiled In a
foreign war.
To-day the workers OF this ma
ton could and should resolve
that they will enlist and fight
In a war--a noble war-a war
against equality with other
groups In our nation, war
against monopoly, war against
disease war against all our
unsolved problems.
"How I wish II was this war
against unsoIyed domestic prob
lens that President Roosevelt
meant when he said last week,
\ we have war To win
DIFFERENT KIND OF WAR
cit was this kind OF an eco
nemic and social war that the
President dedicated himself 20
in the first years of his admin
istration. II IN n different kind Of
war which the President IL
talking about today. Now he
speaks OF "A European and Ash
attic war.
"a war will send the American
boys 10 the slaughter pens OF
Europe-a war In the Pacific tn
preserve the British Empire: n
war TO save the Chinese city Of
Hong Kong for British exploita-
ton, war to maintain British
subjugation OF the Malay states
and India. where 1000, 900
people live in abJect poverty and
slavery"
Men who pose as friends Of the
farmers and the laborers and urge
America into a foreign war are
betrayers OF the workers. Senator
Wheeler said. He continued:
"These men are the real enc
niles OF the farmers and the
working man. for they would do
more than exploit those who
work-they would exploit and
sacrifice the very lives of the
farmers, the laborers and their
sons.
HELD WITH0tT PEER
Talk about Benedict Arnold!
Talk Of traitors. Talk of Fifth
Columnists, Those labor leaders
who would send their workers
into bloody war are without peer
among the Judas Iscariots of all
history.
in any war II IN the men
and women OF labor who do the
fighting and the dying-and the
paying.
\ "The day this republic IL
! plunged Into war labor can Tor
get these hard won rights. Some
will tell YOU II will he only tenn
porary, that IL II better TO have
an American dictator than a
foreign dictator. This IL sheer
poppycock. IL took a hundred
years TO win the right TO col
lective bargaining! Once II Is
lost labor can bid IL goodby for
generations"
SHOCKING AFTERMATH
The shocking aftermath of wal
was pictured by Senator Wheeler
He said:
"And In that period that fol-
lows war when young men re-
turn from bloody battlefields-
armiess, legless, eyeless and dis
ilIusioned--when the armies are
demobilized, when the ranks of
the unemployed are swelled by
millions and millions, when the
national debt has reached not
so or 20 but 100 or 200 billions
of dollars: when debt repudia-
ton and imitation followed by
defiatiOn come, when n nation
wallOws In a slough of social.
economic and political despOnd
then the American people will
turn to the man on horseback
then there win arise a native
American fuehrer to lead an
American form OF fascism.
"War will cost us democracy.
Tolerance and understanding
will be replaced with bigotry
and prejudice. Civil rights-all
our personal liberties-freedom
Of speech, press, religion and as
semblage will be gone. Freedom
our priceless heritage Of 1875,
will have been sacrificed upon
the altar Of war.
SEES UNIONS CRUSHED
Labor unions will be ruth