Toledo union journal. [volume] (Toledo, Ohio) 1942-current, 1946-03-15
Labor's Fight
BY Ben Dor

question that a lot of people
were asking at the same time:
Was the American labor
movement going to come
through the reconversion pc
riod without losing the
strength it had gained dur
ing the war?
During the New Deal, he
pointed out, and during the
war, American labor had
grown bigger than ever be-
fore in history.
But reconversion was going
to be tough. II would bring
new problems to union leader
ship, and new chances to un-
ion busting employers. There
would be special dangers to
the newer large industrial un-
ions; their problems would be
greater even though they had
na0 less experience,
Last fall, l spoke in small
northern mining town. There
were farmers as we'll as city
workers, and some merchants
in the audience. ] tried to ex-
plain what it is that drives
labor onward today, what it is
that the American labor move
ment is reaching for.
After the meeting, one OF
the miners waited to tell me
how much he agreed with
what ! had said. He was an
older man. He had gotten his
first ideas about social prog
ress when he was a boy, from
a labor organization which Is
today little more than a men,
ory. His organization is gone,
but the ideals for which he
first Joined that group live on
in the labor movement of to-
day.
I've been thinking about
both of these men. | wish l
could find them again and say
to them. Don't worry, boys.
We're over the reconversion
hump and the movement is
still safe. We're still going
strong. and we're going to be
stronger than we ever were.
The movement is going to be
using its greater strength for
the same cause.-The greater
welfare of the common man
for which so many people
have worked and fought and
died in American history"
I'm more anxious to talk
with the miner than with the
lecturer. I want to tell him
about the last few months, be-
cause. in my mind, ne stands
for the centuries of common
people who carried this cause
along before you and / came
into the picture.
In America, the blood OF
that kind of man had been
spilled even before the Revo-
luton began. 1t was spilled
in the Revolutionary War,
and in the second revolution
the one that was called the
Civil War. And it has been
spilled many times since.
There have always been move
ments, parties and organiza-
tions who have fought for the
same things we fight for to-
day. We are the latest in
that series; today, we keep
burning the torch which has
been handed from one group
to another all through his
tory.
It is to all these groups
that I would like to say,
Don't worry. We aren't 60
ing to let you down"
would like to tell them
about what we have already
come through in the short
period since VI Day. About
the strike lines. and the CUTS
our boys have shown on those
lines. About the pickets who
were beaten and killed. just
as in the old days, while the
rest of the pickets stood firm
anyway.
l want to tell them about
the new wage levels that are
being set, and about the new
maturity which labor is reach
ing in the halls, of govern
ment agencies and on the
battle-ground of Congress. /
want to tell them about the
new organizing drives that
are being planned, about the
new people who will get pro-
lection they never had be-
cause of the labor movement
today. About the people who
will for the first time become
militant citizens and work.
ers because of us.
If / could go back to that
town and tell it to that miner,
I'd feel that in way I'd be
telling all of those who came
before us.
I don't want anyone to get
the idea that I'm kidding my
self about the days that lie
ahead. The same people who
are now admitting that we're
not going to crack up during
reconversion are saying that
we will crack up in the next
depression.
The enemy is stronger than
aXyar apJ hn lent onino IN