Montana labor news., 1944-02-24

tions, and above all should prevent the
material resources and the political and
military prestige of the United Nations
from being used to buttress either reac-
tionary feudal factions or small revOlu-
tionary sects which are not genuinely rep
resentative of the peoples concerned.
Secondly, the United Nations are ere
ating a number of international agencies
to deal with urgent specific problems.
Already we have the international Labor
Office, set up after the First World War,
the conference ON food and agriculture
with its continuation committees, the
United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation
Administration, and the conference on
refugees and migratory peoples. Plans are
in process for the organization of agencies
for currency control, for international
banking, for foreign trade and invest
ment, for transportation on the water and
in the air, and for educational and cultural
collaboration. The policy of developing
specialized agencies to work on these
urgent international problems is timely
and sound. Labor has a three-fold inter
t0I Ill lllClll. L cls W SUAl0 against OlAAbA
agencies being used for Interior political
purposes by any faction or nation; second,
to provide, where economic matters are
involved, that they be designed to maxi
mize production, not to curb it in favor of
privileged monopoly or imperialistlc
groups; and, third, to have competent
labor representatives included in the con
ferences in which policies are made, and
on the staffs of the resulting administra-
tive agencies. Thus far, organized labor,
as such, has not had its due part in these
very important plans and agencies.
Finally, the -Four Great Powers-Amer-
lea. Britain. China, and the Soviet Union
have taken the initiative in projecting
a general program for international Sc
curitv. The principals of this program as
outlined in the Four Nation Declaration
at Moscow are admirable. They call for
an international organization to be estab-
lished "at the earliest practicable date
and to be CHASED on the principle Of the
sovereign equality of all %peace-loving
States. large and small, for the mainte-
nance of international peace and secur-
ity."
Labor has its indispensable role to play
in this very important program for mutual
security. 1t should be ready to share i'll
the development Of the concrete institu-
lions needed to transform these general
principles into an operating international
authority. 1t should be alert to see that
no deals about territories, or spheres OF
influence are made which would destroy
the moral prestige of the United Nations.
If should work for the modification and
the ultimate elimination Of imperlalistlc
controls of all kinds. 1t must also do its
part to keep the -Four Power arrangement
from becoming a mere Power-Alliance,
and thus fail to discharge its responsible
itv as trustee. The acid test of this
trusteeship will be whether it moves as
rapidly as events permit to organize the
more inclusive and democratic interna-
tional agency.
Most important of all, American labor
should be organized to make its full power
felt in the 1914 election. Our government,
in both it's executive and legislative de
partments, must be in the hands OF lead
ers who will not allow these basic issues
of domestic and world policy to become,
once again, the football of petty partisan
politics.