Montana labor news., 1944-02-03

injected a demand for a new deal.
CWhat was actually needed was a re-
vision Of the rules Of the game and a
scrapping of the whole lousy political
deck) But the American public, not
knowing exactly what it wanted, utterly
disguised with what it had, credulous as
ever regarding political promises, and
imbued with the commodity that
springs eternal in the human breast, -
swallowed the bait with avidity and
the New Dealer was handed the same
old deck Of marked cards with 'carte
blanche to deal from top, bottom or
middle as he saw fit. The American
"fuehrer' was on his way.
America was faced with a peculiarly
contradictory situation. Poverty, misery,
even starvation, in the midst of plenty.
Certainly there was a direct and sensible
method Of adjusting the distribution Of
"overproduction" to the needs of the
population, but direct, simple or sensible
methods have never appealed to political
m%anipulators seeking dictatorial powers
Roundabout methods must be utilized to
confuse the public and impress the
~credulous populace with the idea that
the leader" is the "superbrain,' the sole
human with sufficient intelligence to
haul them out of" the mess into which
his predecessors, and their own apathy
have plunged them.
"OverprOduction' was the catchword.
Not even the veriest lunatic would at
tempt preaching o-verproduction Of grain
to the hogs as a reason for a shortage
of "swill." Yet-strange are the ways
of politics-the slogan caught the fancy
of credulous, America.
The Nude Eel adopted the identical
methods Of the German "fuehrer' name
ly initiation, over which Nude Eel leader
ship exhibits so much present concern,
and lol a miracle was wrought. 1t
worked lin more ways than one). Farm
ers were paid a bonus" for mot raisin'
nuthin'," millions of pigs were slaugh-
tered Unfortunately, a processing
tax" was imposed on pork and the price
Of hogs Jumped from 21sc to &c per
pound, while at the same time bacon
went to SOC.
During the first World War farmers
sold dressed pork for as much as 26c
per pound but the price Of bacon never
reached the SOC MARYLAND the criminal
tragedy of the situation was that the
bacon which sold for soc per pound came
from 21bc hogs. DID THE PACKERS
BENEFIT FROM THE PROCESSING
TAx?-AND HOW
The soldier bonus bill was enacted
but despite the billion and one-half it
failed to distribute sufficient "purchas-
ing power to materially effect the stu
alton. made work" was resorted to
under CWA, FERA, WPA, and students
of the economic trend noted at that
time the painstaking care with which the
Nude Eel "%fuerherers' avoided anything
remotely resembling NECESSARY PRO-
DUCTIVE WORK.
Organized labor and the organized
farmer, most vociferous Of the down
trodden groups must be pacified. Or
ganized agriculture was tossed a "smal
slice of the loaf labelled AAA and tt
organized labor was tossed a SIMILAR por'
ton labelled NRA which when its COM
. ponent parts we're carefully analyzeC
r amounted to the abolition of the "yellov
, dog contract coupled with a permission
, to extend its organization. In this con.
nection credit should be given John L
, Lewis, the present Nude Eel anathema
! as practically the only outstanding labo
leader to recognize and take full advan-
age of the opportunity. AFL Leadership
largely missed the ball.") That, how
ever, is neither here no there as peril
nent to our comparison of "fueherer
tactics. Important however is the fac
! that in a process of marked similarit,
\ to those of the European "fueherers
\ American labor was granted a favor"
\ RIGHT WHICH IT ALREADY POS
\ SESSED and thus labor sentiment alonI
4 with that of agriculture was strongl
I consolidated behind the Nude Eel move
n Mt Labor and agriculture wer
I thence forward kept so busy ~analyzin
\ different codes" regulations" an,
\ executive orders and definitions tina
\ neither had time to analyze the economi
! situation or processes on purely logica
\ grounds.
! AS a further gesture Of good will