The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1943-09-16
LABOR WILL PROTECT ECONOMIC
INTERESTS OF ITS MEMBERS

TRADE UNIONIsM has suddenly found some
= unwonted champions-provided it is pure anc
simple"
Mighty daily papers are digging into then
norgues for tintypes of pure and simple
lnlOnlStS.
Forgetting they once lambasted such unonists
Tor allegedly pure and simple wage and hour de-
mands, they now dwell with nostalgia JUNCTION or
the merits of unions that eschew all politica
action.
The august New York Times edtorially ina
gines that unions are economic not political insti
tutions" which must deal with pure and simple
economic issues in a non-political vacuum.
Even Pegler may cease for a moment to see the
IN his own bile and blossom out with an essay OF
sweetness and light if he chances to discover this
kind Of unionism that even he can prase-a kind
that never existed, does not exist today, and could
not exist in the future.
Sidney Hman, chairman of CLOS political ac-
ton committee, recently undertook the monu-
mental task of educating the editorial writer's of
the New York Times on labor history.
He pointed out, in a letter to that paper that
WorlImen's compensation, abolition of child labor
sanitation and safety measures, social security
recognition Of collective bargaining rights, and
minimum wage and maximum hour standards, are
all economic measures that were only obtained
through labor political activity.
Particularly today, he noted, wages and hours
of work, the prices a worker must pay for food
clothing and housing, and the amount of money
he has left after taxes are all largely determined
by legislative and executive agencies Of govern
ment.
BY failing to take political action therefore, a
union fails to carry out it's basic task of protecting
the economic interests of it's members.
But those who view with alarm abors increas-
ing political activities also fortfying a second
line Of defense.
If compelled to admit unonists have the right
to vote and can use it to advantage, they retreat
to the position that such labor political activity
may be all right if it is unorganized, unfnanced
and ineffective.
After all, even Pegler would approve of union
that had no dues and no members and engaged in
no activity.
That is why there is so much press disappont-
ment that the Smith Connally Act has failed to
destroy all of labor's rights to engage in political
activity.
And that is why there is such lively interest in
the anti-labor press as to how unions propose to
finance their political activities.
Labors enemies are seeking desperately for
some device to bypass the Constitution of the
United States and to deprive American working
people of the right to engage in political activity
in any organization effective fashion.
If we go further than the above ABC's of
political action, and start to spell out words, one
great and 2larng fact energies that should be
obvious even to New York Times editorial writer
namely, that the present war has advanced the
political consciousness of American working
people to point from which there is no returning.
1t has shown that every Of labors gains,
and the very life Of its unions and their members,
are at stake in this war against Fascism.
Labors decision to make the winning of this
war it's first and all-important task is a political
decision of the highest order TO carry it out de-
mands the broadest political activity and states
manship Of national and even worldwide proper
tiOnS.
Labor has set It's hand to the political plough,
and all the forces Of ignorance, reaction and de-
featiSm will not make it turn back.