davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Proletarec. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1906-19??, 1946-02-06
CONSUMERS Co-0ps Will GROW FASTER

When We cast u first vote, a majority of the people in the United
state HVed o n farms. Now about 800 of the people live in small towns
and cities. This nonagricultural 500 of our people think more and more
IN terms of what affects them as consumers.
e defned. One group seeks to lower living costs and thus increase
consumption. The other seeks to raise prices on commodities produced
or labor sold.
I'M all people are consumers, regardless of whether n not they
producers Nch1ldren and old people, generally speaking, are not
prOducerS), 1t follows that the consumers approach to the solution of
The worlds economic problems will have greater and greater appeal
the older nations.
1t IS, perhaps, inevitable that consumer cO-operatives will grow
Easter as Time goes on, than the strictly producer, because as consumers,
u wants and needs are more o less identical. Assconsumers We all
van an economy OF abundance, and if We ever get an economy of
abundance 1t will be because consumers organize to get it.
If you think this out you will see that social security programs
are closely tied IN with the same urge that drives the masses of people
toward tn cooperative movement Perhaps you will also come to re
gard rnatlonal debt, now o large that the government is compelled
to reduce the interest rate almost to the vanishing point IS something
IN n way If a social blessing, because it destroys or muzzles one of
me monsters which has, thru the ages, sucked the life blood Of society,
namely interest. Remember, interest is called "usury" in the Bible
A. w. Kicker, in Farmers Union Herald.
Proletarec. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1906-19??, 1946-02-06
THE ISSUE OF DEMOBIuZAU0N

General Eisenhower has injected some measure of order and
stability into the rehabilitation process, but his intervention clearly
fails either to make any fundamental change in an iI-conceived system
or to bring any comfort to its victims. The General is probably not to
Convinced of the danger that he will too soon run out of army he
cannot for example, undo the harm caused by General Narshal's I'M
fortunate assurance of three months ago that all men With two O
years of service would be eligible for discharge in March. He cannot
restore the morale of men who had every right to expect their freedom
on points, in February and who re now told that they must idle away
another six months of their lives. Nor can he alone make the sweeping
change in the entire rehabilitation system that was officially limited at
when the G. l. demonstrations reached a peak two weeks ago. Any
drastic change involves the framing of a clear-cut occupation policy
and that is a job for Congress and the President, not the Chief of Staff
Admiral Leahy, the Presidents military adviser, is quoted by Drew
Pearson as saying that Jul force. in Germany and Japan could be cur
tailed, without sacrificing their effectiveness, to the point where the
task could be handled by volunteers expressly recruited for the pur-
pose, while the Pacific islands could be safely left to policing by the
navy. Adequate manpower is avaiabie-and more would be available
to the degree that the army were rid of it's caste determinations and
other Objectionable features. The real question is n of inteIligentlv
distributing that man poWer-The Nation.
Proletarec. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1906-19??, 1946-02-06
BRAzEN u LEGAL

The January issue of Textile Labor official organ of the Textile
Workers Union of America, carries d story that shows how we'll the
interests of the nations corporations were safeguarded during the
war years. It concerns the Union Manufacturing Company, of Union
Point, Ga.
In an effort to discourage union organization, Harold Lamb, com
pany president, distributed a bulletin among his employees which
warned them Of the heavy strike losses workers would sustain and, at
the same time, gloatngly proclaimed that amy losses W. the COM
pany) sustain in 1916 will be made up to u by government out of our
profits in 1914 and 1945"
Just as brazen IS that!', commented Textile Labor"
Well, yes, it is a brazen admission. But it's true. And it's likewise
legal.
Who made it legal? The answer is that the public officials elected
by the votes of workers did the job. When? The answer is it was done
during the regime of the late President Roosevelt, the golden idol
whom 81 many common people worshipped.
Roosevelt signed the bill that made it possible for corporations to
recover billions of dollars of taxes if their postwar profit failed to
hold out. The workers didn't know much about it then. Certainly they
didn't know that the tax refund measure was, in reality, a union
busting law.
Working people, who took Roosevelt handouts IS a substitute for
Justice, may grippe about the Roosevelt administrations concern for the
future of private profit industries. But that won't do them any
good now,
The only really effective thing that Americas workers can do to
safeguard their future is to use their power to take over the industries
and the nations resource. for all the people. That way lies justice and
freedom, not the favors of a kind master-ReadmgL Labor Advocate.
Proletarec. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1906-19??, 1946-02-06
STILL KILLING
COAL MINERS

Another dust explosion in a West
Virginia coal mine. More workers
killed, more widows, more orphans.
Every expert agrees such tragedies
are unnecessary.
The cost of rock busting" the
mine and other safety measures
would be comparatively trivial, but
the mine owners hunger for pro-
fits makes them careless about hui
man lives. When the state legisla-
ture attempts to strengthen the
law, powerful Hobbies swoop dawn
on the capital.
A Federal law, rigidly enforced,
is the only way out. The mine
which refuses to adopt safety de-
vices should be closed down and
kept closed until reasonable safety
is assured.
Proletarec. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1906-19??, 1946-02-06
How Do They Coz Awuy With II?

Inc price the consumer pays for coal includes the cost of carrying
Vorknnens compensation; that is, the OPA allows the mine operators
to add to the selling price of coal enough money to insure very mine
worker under the respective States workmens compensation system.
Despite this, j, is revealed that the victims of the December 26h
disaster in the mine of the Kentucky Straight Greek Coal Co. at Pine
vile, Ky, were not covered by workmen's compensation insurance.
The company pocketed the price increase allowed for this purpose.
thumbIng its nose at both its workers and the public.
A somewhat parallel case wa that revealed several years ago
when the OPA permitted a coal price increase to cover overtime paw
Tor Saturday work. The previous price had been based n a five-day
week, no overtime being worked and therefore no overtime rates being
paid. In order to increase the output of coal, 81 vitality needed for war
purposes, the OPA put through a price increase to cover the extra pay
Tor overtime. Months later it was found that many mine operators,
although receiving this increased price for their coal, based Oh over
time rates, were still operating on the old fve-day schedule and were
paying not cent for overtime. Here, again, the operators were
brazenly pocketing the increase while the workers and the public were
left holding the bag.
What w e want to know is: How is it they IT. able to get away with
this form of robbery? When are the workers and the public interests
Proletarec. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1906-19??, 1946-02-06
SOME ODDS AND ENDS

The House Un-American Activi-
ties Committee, alias the Rankin
Committee, has just passed it's first
birthday. There's one baby that
hasn't shown any signs of grow
ing in wisdom and judgment with
time.-The Cincinnati Post.
More merchant seamen lost their
lives during the invasion of Min
doro in the Philippines than did
soldiers and sailors who participat-
ed in the action.
Despite many handicaps, the
American people managed to spend
a record amount of money during
the holidays. The scarcity and poor
quality of the goods were nicely
offset by their high prices.-How-
ard Brubaker in The New Yorker.
A Boer War veteran was deco
rated by the Mayor after 43 years.
Maybe he will get a house to live
in after another AZ. = St. Louis
Post-Dispatch.
Two hundred and fifty miniature
toilets were mailed to members of
the New York Legislature by the
UNIFORMED Prison Officers Assn,
Inc, in a campaign to get toilets
Gov CinH Cin0 nr1orIC pniptinn ont
that more than SO years ago most
cells for inmates we're provided
with flush toilets, Dan Harvey,
president of the association, said:
'All we want is to be on a par with
the inmates, and surely that's not
too much to ask for in the atomic
age"
The only excuse vouchsafed for
the British presence in Java is that
they're doing it for a pal. Like
murder, empires are becoming a
little hard to explain.-H. V. Wade
in the Detroit News.
In IN. 4, d Seeu com-
pany received an urgent request
for a shipment of sauerkraut seeds
49,. in Newark, N. j., a taxpayer
sought a deduction in his income
tax for making blood donations ...
in Indianapolis a man set fire to
the hair on his chest when he
yawned and his cigarette dropped
inside his shirt 80. and in Kansas
City the editor of The Star was
asked by a letter writer, ''Is it true
that anyone over six feet tall
doesn't have to pay taxes?"-W. E.
Farbstein in the New York Times
Magazine.
(From The Brewery Worker.)
Proletarec. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1906-19??, 1946-02-06
HOW WE'VE RUINED
FERTILE LAND

In the past 100 years, Americans
have destroyed 230,00O,0 600 acres
of formerly fertile farm lands, or
more than six times the area OF
New York state. The destruction
is rapidly continuing. Unless it is
stopped, America faces a hungry
future.
That startling warning was is
sued by Hugh H. Bennett, chief OF
the u. S. Soil Conservation Serv-
ice. He said the United States has
400, 900 900 acres of good farm
land left, or only twice as much
as has already been destroyed.
The destruction was caused by
poor methods of cultivation and
unchecked erosion, Bennett ex-
planned. He declares that we can
not afford to waste another acre
Proletarec. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1906-19??, 1946-02-06
TWO PLUS TWO EQUALS FOUR

We are thoroughly in favor of Labors demand for a standard of
living at least as high as that which prevailed during the war. For that
matter, we want workers to get the full value of the product of their
toll undiminished by deductions for profit.
However, while we are willing and anxious for workers to get
more of the good things of life, w re ire not going to permit them to be
kidded. Even when they kid themselves We are going to insist upon
calling attention to their errors, mainly because we ar of the working
class and can't afford errors.
Accordingly, w war; the working people of America against n
plan for wage adjustments that permits employers to recover wage
raises by increases in selling costs.
That, w e insist, is no way of elevatng living standards. On the
has accumulated during the capitalist era and of making wages after
raises less valuable than they were before.
The value Of a workers earnings is not measured by the figures
on the pay check. 1t is what a worker gets in the market when he ex-
changes his pay for the things he and his family needed that determines
labors reward.
Moreover, price increases do more than balance-or over-balance
wage raises They are a clever, and none too subtle. way of cheating
case to demonstrate what we mean; it has happened.
Thus, a worker who saved $1875 in "the best investment in the
world three years ago had invested the equivalent of close to four
tons of rice coal. Today, the present value of his investment" is
slightly more than two tons of the same commodity. The more he has
saved the greater has been his loss. If wages AND prices continue to
rise the loss will continue to become greater.
Workers don't have to understand economics to know when wage
increases arr in dollars only and not in goods. An 81 it can be expected
that the present strike wave that is engulfing the nation will not be
the last one-f prices advance with O r beyond wages. The level is
likely to go up and up until it will be an easy matter for the system
to pay its debt to Americans who sacrificed to finance the war in the
capitalist way.
It's IS simply as two plus two equals four that when wages 9 I'D
o dollar and prices are raised to enable employers to '"recapture" that
dollar nobody has gained anything in wages but somebody has lost
something in savings.
Wage raises that come out of the profits of owners are gains for the
workers. Price raises that make dollars less valuable are, among other
things, a clever and possible a dishonest way of discounting of a debt to
the people-Reading Labor Advocate.
Proletarec. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1906-19??, 1946-02-06
HOW RUBEN
TRIMMED "SUCKERS"

Reuben E. Michigan played a
sure thing" game, using various
aliases the Department of Agri-
culture charged this week.
Under n name, he ran the In
ternational Market Forecast Blu
reau. He advised its. subscribers to
sell or buy cotton or grain, because
prices were going up or down.
Under several other names, he
bought OF sold cotton and grain
futures" through brokerage firms
always doing just the opposite
of what he advised the clients OF
his bureau. When he told them to
buy, he sold, and the other way
around.
The clients who took his advice
lost their money, but they pushed
the price up or down to help Nc
Guigan make profits.
Anyone who takes advice from
even an honest "forecaster' = in
the grain, cotton or stock market
is a sucker. If the ~forecaster
really knew what was going to
happen, he would get rich by play
ing the market himself, instead of
giving advice.-Labor.
Proletarec. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1906-19??, 1946-02-06
WHY COMPANIES
PROVOKE Strikes
TAX REFUNDS WILL
PAY LOSSES

Washington, D. C. - One of the
frankest admissions so far made that
employers are using tax savings
to finance a war against labor has
come from a big textile plant in
Union Point, Ga.
1t is owned by the Union Manu-
featuring Company and union
workers have gone on strike be-
cause the management refuses to
put into effect National War Labor
Board orders
In response, the company, in a
circular distributed to employees,
brazenly boosted that it will lose
nothing from the walkout,
ANY losses we sustain in 1916
will be made up to us by the gov
eminent out of our profits in 1914
and 1945," the circular declared.
What the company referred to
was that, under the 'carry-back'
provisions of the tax laws, passed
by Congress to facilitate reconver-
sion, it will be entitled to rebates
from Uncle Sam, which will be
sufficient to take care of any losses
it may sustain in the next two
years.
Proletarec. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1906-19??, 1946-02-06
INDUSTRIES PICKET line

No masters of industry arr to be seen carrying placards and
trudging doggedly through ice and snow around closed factories
When you draw around $3.50 a n hour, sleeping or waking, every
hour of the day, you can do your picketng much more comfortably.
All you have do to is to sit in a swivel chair and give orders to
hold up production until you get the prices Or profits you want; or to
say to the unions "there is nothing to negotiate or "there is nothing
TO be gained through collective bargaining"
Somewhere amid the overstuffed chairs and deep carpets of Wall
Street skyscraper offices, big business organized its own kind of picket
lines long ago.
Fnanciers whose names are hardly known to the public but who
determine the policies of many of our biggest corporations, decided to
won their full demands.
Through the policies they laid down to management, they placed
an invisible, but most effective, picket line around American industry
Full production was not to be permitted, they said, until after the
excess profits tax was repealed. Even after that, is was to be held up
until prices were raised. And workers were to be admitted to work
only at wage rates which would keep their take-home pay far below
wartime levels.
Inscribed on the invisible phcards of indusrys picket line is the
one word, "No"-"No' to the unions when they ask for higher wages;
No" to the government when it asks negotiations and makes fact
finding awards; and NO" to the public when it asks full production of
consumers goods-CIO News.
Proletarec. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1906-19??, 1946-02-06
LEADS WORLD!

America lost nearly $50 mer-
chant ships due to enemy action
during the war, but it has still as
four times as many such vessels as
it had in 1889, the Maritime Com
mission revealed.
The report of the commission
showed the U. S. wound up hostili-
ties with $500 seagoing cargo ships
of 1900 tons or more, more than
the rest of the world combined.
The unprecedented" shipbuilding
job performed by American work
ers made it possible for this coun-
try to become the worlds leading
maritime power, the commissor
added.
Proletarec. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1906-19??, 1946-02-06
SOUND ADVICE
FROM WALL Street

Crooks are r~acketeers, says the
Wall Street Journal, have found
a pot Of gold" It's the savings of
war workers and veterans, and
the war bonds tucked away by
Woodworking Americans during
the past four years"
The journal" fills three col
umns with a list of schemes, both
old and new, by which workers,
veterans and their families are
being fleeced Of Hundreds of mil
lions of dollars"
1t gives some good advice. Sum
med up, it means don't buy any
thing until you get the facts about
it and know the seller is reputable.
Before you invest, investigate. -
Labor.
Proletarec. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1906-19??, 1946-02-06
WHY 3O-HOUR WEEK
Is INEVITABLE

AN almost human machine
which will eliminate the need for
bowling pin boys" has been in
vented by an employe of the Elec-
trio Boat Company, Groton, Conn.
a news item says.
Probably boys are better off at
home than at bowling alleys, but
this invention is an extreme ex-
ample of the fact that practically
no job is safe from archaeological
progress" Who would have thought
a machine could pick up the scat
tered pins and set them up again?
Jobs vanish and the need for hui
man labor decreases constantly.
The only practical answer to this
problem is a reduction in working
hours. Some day the 30-hour work
week will be adopted by sheer
force Of necessity, but why wait for
another depression and thus cause
needless human suffering?-Labor.
Proletarec. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1906-19??, 1946-02-06
HUGE LOSSES

Uncle Sam is due to take a
terrific beating on surplus war
property, Federal officials re-
vealed in November. They pre-
dicted the government will be
lucky if it RECEIVERS IS per cent
of the value of such surplus, esti-
mated at all the way from 60 to
100 billion dollars.
Vast quantities of planes and
aircraft parts have become obso-
lete and will be sold for scrap, it
was explained. Many shipyards
and other facilities built during
the war r useless for peace-time
purposes, the officials declared. A
good deal other equipment, much
of it scattered around the globe,
will be ''sold for a song"
Proletarec. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1906-19??, 1946-02-06

WHEN PHILIP MURRAY, Go
President urged the government to
take immediate steps to outlaw
gigantic tax refunds to American
corporations, he was asking the
Truman administration to undo one
Of the actions of the Roosevelt adj
ministration.
| am not asking why Murray and
organized labor generally did not
fight that piece of class legislation
when it was in the making nor to
raise the question of why Congress
enacted and the President signed
such a law. l believe l know the
answer. It was because there was
a war on" which required the full
cooperation of all economic factors
in the nation and because Congress,
the President and Organized Labor
knew that profits, and not patriot
ism, was the only thing that would
ecure the cooperation of the few
who really own the United States
of America.
Tax refunds was the price that
the owning class demanded.
THE FACT is that-so long as
the economy of the nation is per
mitted to remain private property
and so long as the right of owners
to reap profits from mere owner
ship is recognized - the owners
have the rest of the nation at their
mercy.
The people who do the owning
need not open their mills if they
don't want to-. They can dictate
the terms under which wealth will
be produced and let the rest of the
nation go hang until those terms
r met. And that is precisely what
they have been doing-in peace
and in war-right along.
AN EXAMPLE OF how utterly
indifferent to the general welfare
private-profit business really is wa.
furnished during the depression
that began in 1929 and lasted unit
the waste and profits of war pro
vided the only incentive for indus
trial activity that capitalist bust
ness recognizes.
Millions of people were idle ant
poor-poor in pocket and Door il
spirit-during that dismal decad,
-. and for no good reason. TIL
Proletarec. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1906-19??, 1946-02-06

The Labor Department urges
veterans and others to study medi-
cine. 1t insists that by 1850 we will
be short 10000 doctors.
Proletarec. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1906-19??, 1946-02-06

HyEH4
country was just as rich then as il
was during the war years. The
metals and minerals were all in the
ground. The land was just as fer
tile. The people were just as eager
to produce and consume the pro-
ducts Of industry. But millions had
to remain idle and hungry just the
same because the owners of the
nations resources refused to per-
NIT their use under any terms that
did not provide a profit.
An then, again: when the wal
called for ar expansion of their
industries, did private corporations
rush to meet the national needs?
They did not. They knew that the
industries already in existence
were able to produce all and more
than could profitably be sold under
normal capitalist conditions. They
know that, after the war, there
would be no profits on their war
investments. And so while workers
continued to invest their lives for
the nation, private capital refused
to invest its own dollars and forced
the general public, through the
government, to build the industries
that were necessary for the win
ming of the war.
l AM RECALLING the cold
blooded business practices of cor
poration heads now because they
explain why it was that Labor's
leaders and the peoples represent
atives in Congress and President
Roosevelt tolerated a law which
made taxes a permanent take
from working people but only a
loan from the owning class. They
had to do it. AS "Schnozzle" Du-
rante would state the case, chem
were the conditions that pre-
vailed"
That's the way the capitalist
craftsmanship and private
profit system works. It's the only
way it car work. Capitalism could
not live any other way.
Proletarec. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1906-19??, 1946-02-06
LOSES OUT AGAIN

The Duke of Windsor returned
to his native land recently, hoping
to be appointed Ambassador to
France. He was turned down. The
best he could get was the promise
of the governorship of a British
colony in Africa or the West Indies.
Proletarec. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1906-19??, 1946-02-06
ALABAMA NEGROES
MAY VOTE

For rs years, Negroes have not
been permitted to vote in Demo.
cratic primaries in Alabama. The
other day the Democratic Execut-
i've Committee changed the rule,
but provided qualifications cal
culated to bar voters who were not
acceptable to the machine.
Proletarec. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1906-19??, 1946-02-06

Exactly
Attorney-Where was the de-
PENDANT milking the COW?
Witness-It's hard to describe,
judge, but if you'll bring in a cow,
I'll show you the exact place.
Proletarec. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1906-19??, 1946-02-06

Self-respect is the noblest gar
ment with which a man may clothe
himSelf.-S. Smiles.
Proletarec. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1906-19??, 1946-02-06

Prudence is the necessary in
gredient in all the virtues. - Jere-
my Collier.
Proletarec. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1906-19??, 1946-02-06
It's Nice System For The Owning
Class But How About Workers?

HOFSES, Editor, Reading Labor Advocate
Proletarec. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1906-19??, 1946-02-06

A Yugoslav Weekly Devoted to the
Interest of the Workers
OFFICIAL ORGAN OF
J. S. F. and It's Educational Bureau