Toledo union journal. [volume] (Toledo, Ohio) 1942-current, 1944-05-05
Union
Education
BY r. ]. Thomas,
President, UAW-CI0
From Ammunition"


education is. You are the peo-
pie who hold the responsibility
in your hands. You are the
people whose fault it is going
to be if, five years from today,
people say that you have some
card carrying members in
your local unions. 1t is going
to be your fault, because l am
sure the leaders of your union
don't want any card-carriers.
We want people who know
what these problems are, who
belong to union because they
believe it means what the very
word indicates, one person
working with another for the
benefit of all.
Let's Do the Job Ourselves
Recently in the Detroit pa
pers, and in a lot of other pa.
pers throughout the country,
editorials have been published
about our organization saying
that we have our noses stuck
into everything. Well, hell, we
have!--into any of the prob
lens that affect any part of
our lives. Nobody else is going
to take care of them for us.
Our forefathers have fought
and died many times for the
democracy which you and i
have today, and we accept it as
a matter of course. And every
one of us in this room no
doubt does have relatives who
are out fighting and dying for
that democracy. And yet we
have the reactionary press and
others saying that labor is
sabOtaging the war effort.
There is no one that makes
more noise against labor than
Mr. Mccormick, who publishes
the Chicago Tribune, a sheet
that claim is opposed to de-
mocracy. He yellS, America
first. | claim his motto should
be Mccormick first" Amer
lea first! America isn't even
eighth on his list! He doesn't
know what America is! He
doesn't know that you hun
dreds Of people sitting here
are good Americans. He hasn't
found that out yet. How stu
pid. He should go to one of our
educational classes.
Mistakes Allies
| don't think there is anyone
who has ever belonged to this
union very long who does not
know my position on some of
the minority political ideolo-
gles that we have in this coun-
try / don't think there is any
body who can even question
that. But when people begin
making mistakes like McCor-
mick and Hearst about who
our allies are and who our
enemies are, then | begin to
wonder about the future of
America. When these people
try to tell us today that Fin
land is our ally, | can't figure
that one out. Finland is Hit
lers ally, and l personally
don't give a damn what hap
pens to Finland.
Nobody ever accused me of
being a communist, but | think
that Russia has done a splen-
did job in this war and Russia
is our ally, whether McCor-
mick or Hearst like it or not.
1t seems to me that this is so
evident that | sometimes won
der If they can add two ana
two. II they had their way,
we would be giving lend-leaSe
to Berlin.
| happen to be-and | am
not ashamed of it--I happen to
be of German descent myself.
But unless the German p,oy.e
ON the continent of Europe
and their satellites in this
country learn once and for all
how to behave themselves,
then | say they have to be
crushed and we must have UNI
conditional surrender.
1t seems to me that two and
two makes four there. The
delegates from Detroit know
fellow we have there by the
name of Gerald l.. X. Smith.
But in case you don't know,
Mccormick and Smith are
buddies. They're the type of
people who are trying to break
down democracy. And they
call fellows like me "Interna-
llOlldllSlS.
| only want to see fairness
in the world and a little hon
esty Some of this equality of
sacrifice is all / want to see.
And all these jobs can only be
solved through education.
Education for Life
After Hitler is licked, after
Nazism is defeated, does any
one here think that the phi
Iosophy of FasciSm and Nazism
viii be wiped off the face of
the earth? OF course not! Even
Germany will have to be edu-
Gated. After we are through
educating with bayonets, we
will have to educate them with
textbooks. don't think there
is any question about that in
anybody's mind. The Italian