Toledo union journal. [volume] (Toledo, Ohio) 1942-current, 1944-04-28


and in our families bodies.
Our wives and parents hum
bled themselves to do the laun-
dry for their relatives and
ours, all for very small price.
We wouldn't think of doing
such thing now! No, sir, they
can do their own laundry, and
we'll buy our own groceries,
IL you please!
BIG SHOTS
We're big shots. We're work
ing. 1t doesn't matter that
millions of us are employed
only because an equal num-
Der of young men have tenn
porarily left their jobs to fight
for their country. We have a
vague notion that for some rea-
son or another we will con-
tinue working indefinitely.
Such is not going to be the
case, according to all past
precedent. Following the Eu-
ropean invasion we will get a
taste of the layoffs to come,
and at the complete termina-
ton of the war the full mean
ing of the word "unemploy-
ment" will be brought home
to us.
When this time comes we
hope to pull back the curtain
and behold host of wondrous
social and economic advance
ments. But dreaming and
wishful thinking won't pro-
duce such an accomplishment.
Neither will resolutions nor
promises, nor pretty speeches!
The often repeated state
ment that servicemen intend to
have something to say about
postwar prosperity is only par
TALLY true. 1t is a fact that
above all others these men
should be entitled to have a
voice in determining how this
Country should be run. But
they will accomplish nothing
unless il is by united action.
II must be done either by use
of the ballot, the picket line,
a united serviceman's organi
zation with a real progressive
program. or by some similar
means of exercising mass pres
sure. And they must not be
misled to the point where they
are fighting against their own
interests, as did certain vet
erans' organizations who dur
ing the past ten years thought
il their patriotic duty to break
strikes whenever they occur
red in semi-organized terri
tory.
What the boys are really
fighting for is a better Amer
lea, where there is an OPP
portunity for all who desire
employment to obtain it. They
are fighting for things like the
six hour day and the thirty
hour week, with forty hours
pay, with no loss for holiday
offtime; the guaranteed annual
living wage, with provisions
for accumulative sick leave
pay, an equalized wage scale.
nation wide, with which to
meet a nationally stabilized
cost of living with effective
price control.
POSTWAR PICTURE
The postwar picture should
offer returning servicemen
and their families, as we'll as
all other workers, complete
social security with old age
social security.
Office and clerical workers
should receive much more lib
eral wages; utilities should be
wrested from private groups
which exploit the people, in
terest-free government loans
should be established, giving
greater encouragement and
opportunity toward h o m
ownership; fair system of
taxation should be worked out,
based upon ability to pay,
slums must be wiped out,
tax: slums must be wiped out,
and the government should
embark on program OF spon-
soring educational projects in
Guiding American government
and civics. practical economics
and other subjects necessary
for the fulfillment of a normal
mode of living. Public parks
and recreational programs
should be advanced on a much
greater scale than ever before.
II these things are to be ac-
complished 1t will take all OF
the combined efforts of the
servicemen, organized labor,
and those interested in the
welfare of the common man.
II they are not in the postwar
picture, at least most of the
above named advancements.
the war will have been fought
for a far different cause than
we thought.