The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1943-01-15


facilities of the National Broadcasting
Company We hope you heard it. If
not, you missed an interesting re-
minder of the fact that the great ma
jority of the boys in uniforms who
are risking their lives to save Amer
ica are workers themselves or the sons
on brothers of working men and
women.
Keep Standards Intact
Every once in a while the American
people-and especially those who
make and administer their laws-need
to be reminded of this fact. We hear
too much and too often from those
who would like to drive wedge be-
tween the production soldiers serving
on the home front and the fighting
soldiers serving on the battlefront
These selfish and wholly unpatriotic
propagandists delight in drawing
odious comparisons between the con-
ditions of workers serving in factories
owned by private interests and the
conditions of our men in uniform.
They keep harping on the fact that
while our uniformed defenders get
only $50 month and have to risk
their lives when called upon, factory
workers in our war industries are for
the most part well paid and safe.
Such propaganda is designed to
make the American people forget that
these soldiers, sailors and marines for
the most part come from the great
army of workers, that they are fight
ing to preserve the Americans way of
life and the standards American labor
has won after years of struggle. When
this war is over, the soldiers will feel
that they have fought in vain if these
standards have been destroyed behind
their back. They will feel gypped if
they have to go back to work at star
walton wages and under sweatshop
conditions.
Yet these are the very detectives of
the anti-labor campaign!
And while we are talking about
"safe" jobs, it might be well to point
out that since this war started twice
as many soldiers of production have
lost their lives in industrial accidents
as have our soldiers, sailors and ma
rines in action against the enemy.
Threat To War Bond Program
We had another interesting talk
last week with representative of the
United States Treasury Department.
We discussed War Bonds. We agreed
that the tremendous purchases of
these bonds by American workers out
of their weekly pay is remarkable
testimonial to the patriotism of these
workers and their confidence in Amer
icas future We further agreed it
would be we'll to encourage and stimu
late such bond purchases through the
payroll allotment plan as much as
possible.
For there again is a movement on
foot to scrap the entire voluntary war
bond program and put into effect a
system of compulsory savings" I'm
der this plan, the Government would
direct employers to "dock" 10 per cent
of each employees pay each week and
turn the money over to the Treasury
which would give the workers bonds
in return.
Such procedure is repugnant to the
free spirit of American labor and
would destroy all the benefits derived
from the voluntary plan. Further
more, it is doubtful whether it would
raise much more money than is being
voluntarily poured into the Treasury's
Golfers now.
When a man of his own free will
buys war bonds out of his weekly
earnings, sacrificing the things he
may badly need out of patriotic mo-
tives, it gives him lift and feeling
that he is doing his bit to help Amer
| lea win. When he is forced to buy
bonds, his morale is impaired. He be-
comes critic Of the war effort rather
than collaboration.
| We appeal to the common sense of
| Congress to decide which is the better