The Omaha guide., 1946-10-05
THE ROAD BEYOND
IMITATION
BY Walter ID. Reuther, Pres.
United auto WOrkers-CIO

BY Walter ID. Reufher, Pres.
United Auto WOrkers-CIO
Fighting initiation is a full
time job for Americans of all
races, religions, and creeds. 1t
is not a job that any one
group can do alone. And it is
a job that requires the united
effort of all kinds Of Ameri-
cans for the profiteers who
charge inflationary prices do
not discriminate. They soak all
sections of the public. regardless
of whether their customers are
Catholic, Protestant, Jewish. Ne
gro or white.
But for minority groups. the
Gripping of OPA and the subse-
quent profiteering have implica-
tons that are not appreciated at
first glance. A continuation of
gouging prices shoddy materials.
rising rents can only lead to a
fraudulent prosperity, to be follow
ed inevitably by a resounding big
crash.
At a time of wholesale unem-
ployment and breadlines, even a
permanent FEPC. if we had one.
could do relatively little to check
a reconverSion to Jim Crow en-
ployment practices. The presence
of hunger and Of a job scramble
would easily outweigh principles
of job equality.
The widespread education on
race relations in recent years will
largely go down the drain if A
merica is treated to a bust that
could only be worse than the 1929
collapse. In the hysteria of their
fears, some of the very people who
have supposedly become enlight-
ened on interracial matters would
look about them for an easy-to-
spot scrapegoat.
It does not require deep thinking
to predict the encouragement they
would get from the Talmadges,
Coughlinites and race-baiters. Per-
haps the Negro would be the LIST
scrapegoat. Or, in view of'the wide
spread Anti-Semitism in America.
the political demagogues might
take over where Hitler left off,
place the blame for every econo-
mic i'll on four million Jews. But
be it Negro, Jew. Catholic or or
gained labor at first, not one mi
nority group would long be safe
from blind hatred and terrorism.
And so we see the economic base
of racial and religious prejudice.
Just as social scientists have
shown the correlation in the past
between the number Of lychings
and the success or failure of each
years cotton crop. so too can we
predict a nose-dive for goodwill
and minority group understand
ing if America goes into an eco
nomic tailspin.
The only language that prof.
teers will understand is militant
strike action by consumers. The
only recourse of tenants against
unfair rents is action in concert
with their. neighbors, white or
black. The only block in the path
of the race-baiting hate tribe will
be our rugged determination to
prevent the economic breakdown
which breeds discrimination.
Under the revised OPA, consul
mers are already taking a beating
from a form of legalized initiation.
Price control. as currently admin
istered in Washington, is a sham.
Ceilings and controls are being
lifted and relaxed right and left
in response to the pressure of the
profiteers.
The battle-ground against infla-
ton is now in each and every
neighborhood in America-and the
responsibility for policing price con
trolls rests with individual consul
mers and housewives. But they
must act collectively-on the ba-
sis of a common plan of Sction-
if the fight against initiation is
to succeed.
It's up to the buyer to choose
between initiation followed by de-
lation, unemployment, depression