Toledo union journal. [volume] (Toledo, Ohio) 1942-current, 1946-11-29
Washington
LaborReport

Some OF us toresaW ana
prediced the crash of 1929,
the drift to World War II,
and the inadequacy Of the
New Deal, particularly after
it had been slowed down in
1897 and halted in 1888 by a
bipartisan coalition OF reac-
ton fronting for non-partisan
concentrations of growing
economic power.
During the recent war, we
tried to protect the home
front, so that when the vet
erans had, as the ads put 1t,
grown up in a fox hole"
they could come back to q de-
cent home, the security Of a
productive job, and the OPP
portunity to improve the
sandard of living for them
selves, their families and fell
lOW-VeJeTdIlS.
Again we were licked. The
same concentration Of eco
nomic power, made fatter,
stronger and sassier by war
profits that increased corpora.
tions" liquid assets from 25 to
50 billion dollars, beat down
all measures for postwar plan
ming in the public interest.
At the same time they did
their own private postwar
planning early and often.
Two-thirds of this program
has come to pass: wages are
lower, in weekly totals and in
purchasing power; we do have
industrial war and more Is in
sight. The. third objective,
hours-for which General Mo-
tors President c. E. Wilson
continues to cry-may yet be
attained. Reaction know s
where we're going, and we're
on our way.
FREE ENTERPRISE
Flying the banner Of free
enterprise" and subsidized by
millions of tax-deductibls
funds, monopolistic force 5
have confused, divided, set
against each other and finally
stampeded the American peo-
pie into a retreat from the fu-
ture, back to normalcy," F"
back to the trickle down the
ory of prosperity that be-
trayed us in 1929 and, even
in 1899, maintained a So
called hard core of unem-
ployed totaling 100000.
Here we are, 40 days away
from a new Congress, dedi-
Gated, in the words of Harold
Knutson, Chairman Of the
House Ways and Means Com
mittee, to a return to NOR
malcy," a word coined by
Warren G.. Harding in one OF
his lighter moods
In the fight to come we will
continue to do battle for a ma
tional health program, for a
permanent FEPC, for a high
er minimum wage law, for
Federal Aid to Education, to
outlaw the poll-tax and to
provide for federal punish
ment of lynchers.
On some of these, we will
be faced with the difficult
practical problem of deciding
what to do about ersatz sub
stitutes. Senator Taft Is like
ly to insist on passage, be-
fore 1948, of some sort OF
legislation under the labels of
Housing, Health, Education,
Minimum Wage, and a Per-
manent FEPC.
The task of digging out, as
sembling, fairly interpreting
and relating the facts Is i'm
mense. The time Is short,
shorter this time than 1t was
after World War l. The size
of the machine Is greater, the
complexity Is greater and the
speed Is greater.
Eventually, II we unionists
and liberals do our staff work
and our field work well, at
the grass roots, on Main st.
and in Washington; II we as
semble a picture of what Is
and Of what might be, in terms
that appeal to the common
sense of the American people,
attention will be paid and sup
port given. That may be by
l948, or 1882.
When the bomb was dropped
on Hiroshima, its ultimatum
was Cooperate or die"