Owned and Published by 
and for Lansing Labor

Phone 2-9621

OFFICE: 109 E. South St.

VOL. 1, NO. 23

Lansing Labor News

Official Weekly Newspaper of CIO Labor in Lansing
MAIL ADDRESS: P.O. Box 657, Lansing 3, Mich.

Subscribed by a Majority 
of City War Workers

5c

$1.50 Per Year by Mail

LANSING, MICHIGAN — AUGUST 23, 1945

ISSUED EVERY THURSDAY

Council President Urges Speedy Reconversion

Little Steel 
Rule Bent, 
Not Broken

WASHINGTON (FP)—Here 
are the highlights of the new 
reconversion policies touching 
labor as announced by Pres. 
Harry S. Truman Aug. 16:

LITTLE STEEL

The presidential order bends, 
but does not break the formula. 
Under his authorization, the 
Natl. War Labor Board is now 
given power to approve volun­
tary wage increases if no price 
relief is sought by the employ­
er.

Wage increases requiring 
price relief must continue to be 
passed upon by the board. But 
the unions may offer evidence 
to show the profit condition of 
the employer and the effect of 
the cost of living on the worker, 
none of which were permitted 
under the old ruling.

CONFERENCE

Truman will call a joint 
labor-management conference 
in Washington soon after Con­
gress reconvenes Sept. 5. He 
hopes to offer a proposal for 
the peaceful settlement of dis­
putes without resort to strikes 
or lockouts. Pending agreement 
on some plan, the WLB is con­
tinued temporarily and the 
president asks labor and man­
agement to continue their no­
strike, no-lockout pledge and to 
continue to comply, voluntar­
ily, with WLB directives.

Letter Swings 
Workers Away 
From Union
Though the union lost in an 
election June 11 at Wohlert’s 
Corp, to determine whether the 
UAW-CIO would represent the 
employes, the union will have 
another chance.

A recent ruling of the NLRB 
threw out the election because 
of illegal interference from 
management, said George Na­
dar, international representa­
tive.

The company, just before the 
election, sent a letter to each 
employe which had asked :

Don’t you feel that the fair
See WOHLERTS, Page 2

Company Cut Wages, But Workers 
Kept No-Strike Pledge—Would You!

“We Kept Our No-Strike Pledge—Would You?” reads a sign 
carried by these pickets, members of United Farm Equipment and 
Metal Workers, CIO, International Harvester Co. employes picket 
War Labor Board offices in Chicago to protest the board’s failure 
to take action against company wage-cutting policies.

—federated Pictures

Timekeepers 
Still Waiting 
For Election
A letter of protest at govern­
ment delay in announcing an 
NLRB election for Oldsmobile 
timekeepers was written this 
week by UAW-CIO Inti. Rep. 
Lyle Stone of Lansing to Frank 
Bowen, regional director of the 
National Labor Relations 
Board.

It was pointed out that the 
petition requesting collective 
bargaining and a union for the 
timekeepers had been filed May 
2. Nearly two months later, 
June 25, a hearing was held in 
Lansing to determine who 
would be classed as timekeep­
ers.

Nothing further has been 
heard from the government. 
Meanwhile timekeepers nearly 
every day ask members of the 
organizing committee why there 
is no election.

It is recalled that when the 
timekeepers previously peti­
tioned the NLRB a year elapsed

Lansing Enters 
Drive Against 
Fascist Spain

Lansing labor this week be­
gan cooperation with a national 
campaign to break diplomatic 
and commercial relations with 
Franco’s fascist Spain, said R. 
E. Richardson, president of 
Olds Local 652, who heads the 
local drive for membership in 
the American Committee for 
Spanish Freedom.

Richardson said he was in di­
rect contact with the commit­
tee’s New York offices at 55 
West 42nd street. He said Lan­
sing union members and others 
would be asked to sign a peti­
tion urging passage in Congress 
of House Resolution 312, intro- 
See SPAIN, Page 3

before the election, during 
which time a third of the time­
keeping personnel had been re­
placed, which, along with loss 
of interest due to the long de­
lay, lost the election by a small 
margin.

To Present 
Many Prizes 
On Labor Day

Arrangements are progress­
ing rapidly for a huge Labor 
Day celebration in Lansing with 
a big parade of colorful floats, 
bands, etc., a dance, dozens of 
prizes and free gifts and other 
features, said Clyde Perkins, 
president of the CIO Council.

One feature will be the sel­
ection of a Labor Day queen. 
The dance, planned as a ,gala 
affair, will be at the Armory.
Among prizes to be given to 
lucky ticket holders are the fol­
lowing:

One Shetland pony
One $100 bond
One $50 bond
Two $25 bonds
One $50 credit for men
One $25 credit for men
One $50 credit for women 
One $25 credit for women

Door prizes at the dance are 
to be two $25 war bonds and 
two or more bundle prizes.

Each local or parts of locals 
(buildings, departments, units, 
etc.) are requested to stage an 
initial contest for a Labor Day 
Queen, such queen to be chosen 
at the rate of 10c per vote; 
such funds collected to be the. 
property of the local or as de­
cided by the local.

See PRIZES, Page 3

Conventions 
For Labor 
Predicted
Among the interesting possi­
bilities arising from Victory 
over Japan is that both the 
AFL and CIO will hold their 
war-postponed conventions be­
fore December.

Although official comment 
for publication was lacking, 
one high source in CIO said of 
the convention outlook that “it 
is a prospect we certainly shall 
consider.”

In addition to other matters, 
reconversion, wage policies, un­
employment and social security 
problems have gained new sig­
nificance since V-J day. Broad 
programs such as these gener­
ally call for convention sanc­
tion.

They Voiced Lansing's Protest 
At Slash In Take-Home Pay

Shown above as they were telling a Lansing rally on the Capitol 
lawn August 12 that the “Little Steel” formula must be broken and 
take-home pay increasd if workers were to survive on 40 hours a 
week take-home pay at less than pre-war rates after war-time income 
taxes are deducted are, top, George F. Addes, secretary-treasurer of 
the UAW-CIO; lower left, Don Falor, sub-regional director in Lansing, 
and right, Lyle “Rocky” Stone, international representative in Lansing.
Though the meeting did not draw a huge crowd, it was part of a 
nation-wide campaign of similar meetings on the same day, which 
added up to a gigantic protest in Washington and was instrumental in 
obtaining immediate modification of the “Little Steel” formula when 
the war ended.

Atkinson in Texas

Robert Atkinson, former vice- 
president of Olds Local 652, is 
now stationed at Sheppard 
Field, Texas, where he is classi­
fied as radio operator mechanic 
and gunner.

Auxiliary No. 76
Next meeting of the Olds Lo­
cal Auxiliary No. 76 will be 
Sept. 6, it is announced.

— BUY WAR BONDS —

Calls Upon 
Government 
For Action

By CLYDE E. PERKINS
President Lansing CIO Council
With the ending of the war 
and all its miseries and mis­
understandings, it is the hope 
of the writer that along with 
military peace we shall also 
have industrial and economic 
peace.

However, the outlook is not 
bright on a national scale and 
in our own community of Lan­
sing the possibility of social 
problems as a result of job dis­
location is not a matter to be 
lightly dismissed.

The real question then is, 
"Where are those laid off go­
ing to get their income from 
to maintain their homes and 
families?"

In Lansing I believe, it will 
be possible to absorb possibly 
25 or 30 per cent of these peo­
ple. However, the continuance 
of that program necessarily is 
subject to the opening up of 
jobs for the other 70 or 75 per 
cent.

If the leaders of this na­
tion will even at this late 
date make speedy plans for 
reconversion and continually 
place responsibility for the 
national welfare of workers 
on the shoulders of our gov­
ernment, the national picture
See RECONVERSION, Page 3

Lansing Man 
Reelected To 
National Post
A Lansing man, James A. 
Bowden, of Olds Local 652, was 
elected president of the Nation­
al Skilled Trades Council of 
the UAW-CIO for the second 
consecutive year at a meeting 
in Toronto, Aug. 3, by delegates 
from affiliated councils in the 
United States and Canada.

Bowden is a past president of 
the Michigan Skilled Trades 
Council and has served two 
years on the GM staff of the 
UAW-CIO. In the Olds local 
he also has a record of labor ac­
tivity which includes having 
been chairman of the top bar­
gaining committee.

News Photo Highlights In The Fall Of A Greedy, Anti-Labor Military Empire — Japan

Japanese attack on Pearl Har­
bor on Dec. 7, 1941, swept the 
U. S. into war. On Dec. 8 declara­
tion of war was signed. Here, in 
State of the Union address to 
78th Congress, the late President 
Roosevelt pledges that the Axis 
powers will be crushed.

Americans fought back hard 
but Japanese had planned care­
fully and they had pretty much 
their own way in the first phase 
of the Pacific war. Symbol of 
early American defeats is the 
death march from Corregidor. 
Hands raised, U. S. prisoners are 
herded by Japanese over many 
miles to prison camps.

The Burma road — lifeline of 
China and vital in the battle of 
supplies. Japanese thrd^v Allied 
troops out of Burma and com­
pleted isolation of Chinese. A 
new road had to be built by 
Chinese and Americans through 
miles of jungle. It was slow 
work but the Burma route was 
reopened.

The way to victory was hard 

but winning of Guadalcanal, New 

Guinea, the Philippines spelled 

defeat for Japan. The island 

jumping which disorganized and 

drove back Japan, is climaxed by 

the flag raising at Iwo Jima.

The imperial fleet was wiped 
out. To combat U. S. sea power, 
Japanese organized attacks of 
suicide bombers like the one 
above. Crew of USS Bunker 
Hill fights to control flames 
where suicide plane crashed into 
flight deck.

Steady raids of B-29s were 
battering Japan’s war industries. 
The empire was tottering. A sur­
prise weapon, the atomic bomb, 
destroyed 60 per cent of the in­
dustrial city of Hiroshima — and 
Japanese morale. Above, the 
plant at Oak Ridge, Tenn., where 
part of secret bomb project is lo­
cated.

—Federated Pictures
Two days after the Hiroshima 
attack a second atomic bomb 
struck Japan. Russia declared 
war. Soviet soldiers like the one 
above, a Korean in the Far 
Eastern army, made tremendous 
gains in enemy-held Manchuria. 
Faced with certain defeat, Japan 
surrendered.

LANSING LABOR NEWS, INC.
MAIL ADDRESS: P. O. Box 657, Lansing 3, Mich.
OFFICE: 109 E. South St. — Phone 2-9621

Entered as second-class matter April 13, 1945, at the post office at Lansine Mich- 

igan, under the Act of March 3, 1879.

A non-profit newspaper dedicated to the interests of the community 
and to the interests of labor here and everywhere. Published every Thurs­
day at the Lansing CIO Council headquarters by the following incorporated 
body, representing locals voting to participate.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS
President - Ernest Miller (Reo 650). VICE-PRES.—Maurice McNaughton (Fisher 
602). SEC.-TREAS.—Kenneth McCreedy (CIO Council). TRUSTEES—George Jake­
way (Fisher 602), William Treanor (Olds 652). MEMBERS—Robert Richardson (Olds 
652), Earl Watson, Roy Newton (Nash 13), Charles O’Brien (Reo 650) Maurice 
MacNaughton (Fisher 602), V. E. Vandenburg (CIO Council), Peter Fagan Adrian 
Jensen (Olofsson 728), Arthur Chappell, Woodrow Brennen (Dairy 93) James W 
Roberts, Dean Reed (SCMWA 276); Louis Newmark (SCMWA 406) Earl McClure 
Melvina Stevens (Hill Diesel 646). ASSOCIATE MEMBERS—Mrs. Robert Atkinson 
(Olds Aux.), Mrs. Harold Wilson (Olds Aux.), Mrs. William McCurdy (Fisher Aux) 
Mrs. J. B. Eno (Fisher Aux.), Mrs. Evelyn Moss, Mrs. Etta Kenyon (Local 93 Aux ) ’

EDITOR — V. E. VANDENBURG

SUBSCRIPTIONS — Included in the dues of participating locals. Individ­
ual subscription, $1.50 per year by mail.

CONTRIBUTIONS—Should be typed double-spaced on one side of paper and 
signed with author’s name, phone and address. Name will not be used if requested. 
Notes on news not written up but containing complete names and all the facts 
are acceptable too. Mail all contributions to Lansing Labor News P O Box 657 
Lansing 3, Mich.

Conquer Unemployment 
Or Be Destroyed—Reed

By H. DEAN REED 
Lansing PAC Director

Many of us woke up Wednesday morning August 15th, with 
a hangover and found we had no jobs. Our government had can­
celled most of it’s war contracts. It is estimated that We will 
have 13,000,000 unemployed. If we have that amount of un­
employed for any length of----------------------------------------
time, it will be an absolute dis­
us to a crisis fully as important 
grace to this country.
as that which faced us at the 
time of Pearl Harbor. We are 
on the threshold of economic 
chaos simply because our con­
gressmen wanted a vacation 

Re-employment, as everyone 
knows, is our main problem. 
Our failure to provide an ade­
quate post war program brings

and did not take care of such 
emergency measures as ade­
quate unemployment compen­
sation, reconversion, full em­
ployment, Fair Employment 
Practices Committee, anti-poll 
tax bill and a 65 cent minimum 
wage bill.

The United States has never 
solved the problem of unem­
ployment; whether we will now, 
God only knows. I for one, and 
every other American, sincerely 
hope that we will.

We will have a partial boom 
due to civilian buying. Practi­
cally every family needs new 
washing machines, refrigerat­
ors, automobiles, radios and 
many other articles, but we 
have to have jobs. We have to 
conquer unemployment or it 
will destroy us. 

Peace Holiday
Stops Labor News

The welcome two-day holiday 
celebrating the war’s end last 
week closed the Campus Press, 
East Lansing, where the Lan­
sing Labor News is printed and 
prevented publishing a paper 
last Thursday.

Distribution to very many 
readers would have been im­
possible anyway, since mailing 
plates were not yet ready and 
the factories had closed, pre­
venting handing them out at 
the gates.

Support our advertisers.

Senate Finds Wages Too Low
10 Million 
Underpaid 
In America

their books to conceal such vio­
lations.

OVER A THIRD OF 
WORKERS UNDER 65c

cording to a recent survey of 
the Textile Workers Union of 
America, verified by the U. S. 
Bureau of Statistics, which 
showed that in the early part of 
1944 an emergency level of liv­
ing required the equivalent of 
78 cents an hour.

By IRVING RICHTER
Inti. Leg. Rep. UAW-CIO

A recent Senate report en­
titled “Substandard Wages” 
blows sky-high the widespread 
propaganda about high wages. 
The report was prepared by a 
sub-committee of the Senate 
Committee on Education and 
Labor.

2,000,000 GETTING
UNDER 40c AN HOUR

Here are some of the facts it 
brings to light. More than 
2,000,000 workers—not count­
ing domestics or professional 
workers—are earning less than 
40 cents an hour.

Actually, as I have learned 
from my own field investiga­
tions for the U. S. Department 
Of Labor, this estimate under­
states the number working for 
less than 40 cents an hour. It 
does NOT include, for example, 
those employed by firms who 
are violating the 40 cent mini­
mum wage, and who falsify

All official government wage 
statistics are based on wage re­
cords submitted by employers. 
No employer will submit wage 
figures to admit a violation of 
the Federal law. BUT EVEN 
THE OFFICIAL AVAILABLE 
FIGURES SHOW THAT 10 
MILLION, OR MORE THAN 
ONE-THIRD OF ALL WORK­
ERS, RECEIVE LESS THAN 
SIXTY-FIVE CENTS AN 
HOUR,

Such earnings, according to 
the report, are insufficient “to 
provide adequate sustenance”. 
The report cites the cost of liv­
ing budget prepared by the Hel­
ler Committee (University of 
California) which estimates the 
cost of living at a “health and 
decency standard” for a family 
of four at $2,964. This would 
require earnings of $1.42 an 
hour.

SURVEY SHOWED 78c 
MINIMUM NEEDED

Actually the 10 million work­
ers who are earning less than 65 
cents an hour are living below 
an EMERGENCY LEVEL, ac-

The human element in such 
sweat-shop wages is shown by 
quotations in the report from 
various workers who earn less 
than 65 cents an hour. Said one 
woman employed in an Indiana 
canning factory at 50 cents an 
hour, “My oldest son, 15, just 
had an appendix operation. It 
was urgent. We did not have 
rtioney to pay for it. The doctor 
was kind enough to say he 
would go ahead and do it and 
let us pay it out later. The cost 
was $180. We are still paying 
on that.”

CAN INCREASE WAGES 
WITHOUT RAISING PRICES

The Senators signing the re­
port represent both parties and 
are from all sections of the coun­
try. They include:

Claude Pepper (D. Fla.)
Elbert D. Thomas (D. Utah) 
James M. Tunnell (D. Dela.) 
Robert M. LaFollette, Jr.

(Prog. Wis.)

George D. Aiken (R. Vt.)
The Senators unanimously re­
commend that the Congress in­
struct the War Labor Board to 
consider as substandard any 
hourly wage rate below 65 cents 
an hour. They show very clear­
ly that profits would permit 
raising these 10 million workers 
to 65 cents an hour without any 
rise in prices.

They recommend amending 
the Fair Labor Standards Act 
to raise the minimum wage. 
(Senator Pepper and others have 
since introduced a bill to raise 
the minimum wage to 65 cents 
from the present 40 cents.)

WOHLERTS
(Continued From Page 1) 
treatment you have received 
from the present management 
indicates your own ability to 
handle your own affairs?”

This unfairly implied that 
the workers, sitting in their 
own union meetings would 
not be handling their own af­
fairs if orgnized.

A maority had signed up be­
fore the election, Nadar said, 
but were apparently fooled by 
the misleading statement in the 
letter. He said another elec­
tion will be requested.

How Many of These Firms Do You Know? Why Not Try Them and Get Acquainted?

Polk Company 
Guarantees An 
Annual Wage
DETROIT (FP) — What is 
believed to be the first contract 
of its kind is the newly signed 
guaranteed annual wage pack 
between the Detroit local of the 
Intl. Typographical Union 
(AFL) and the R. L. Polk Co., 
directory publishers in Detroit. 
It was approved by the union

at its August membership meet­
।
ing. 
The contract guarantees 50 
weeks of work at 40 hours a 
week during the year at the 
scale. The base rate for the 
day shift is $1.61 an hour, for 
the night shift $1.69 and for the 
lobster shift $1.77, according to 
V. Pres. K. A. Hull of the 
union.

It applies to all members 
with five years seniority at the 
plant. Most of the employes 
have at least five years, Hull 
says. Taking Jan. 1 as the date 
all but two qualify for the 
guaranteed year of work. There 
are now about 80 employed in 
Polk’s composing room.

SPAIN
(Continued From Page 1) 
duced by John M. Coffee (D.- 
Wash.) which reads as follows:
RESOLVED, That we the 
people of the United States, 
acting through our elected 
representatives in the House 
of Representatives in Wash­
ington, urge it upon the Pres­
ident of the United States to 
preserve our victory over 
Axis fascism in Europe by 
immediately breaking all dip­
lomatic and commercial re­
lations with the present Fas­
cist Government of Spain and 
maintaining the democratic 
policy of nonrecognition until 
our earliest European allies 
of this war, the people of 
Spain, have once again avail­
ed themselves of their God­
given right to establish in 
Spain a friendly government 
of the people.

Snappy Flint Band Majorette Struts

Norma Jean struts her stuff with the Flint CIO band, while 
Harold Kennedy, director, waves a. baton at the crack musical 
group, which entertained the crowd at the CIO “Break Little Steel” 
rally on the Capitol lawn August 12. The band, organized five 
years ago, numbers 36 musicians', all members of the CIO in 
Flint. The crowd lingered long after the program to hear the 
band play.

prising contract cancellations 
have thrown thousands to the 
streets, unfair rules by USES 
have made it impossible for 
people to draw unemployment 
compensation, admission by 
managements prove they did 
not plan for the future.

Labor is on the spot — they, 
if they hope to continue the 
progress made and get conces­
sions they are entitled to, must 
fight together as never before. 
They will be fighting for their 
very exisaence as full American 
workers.

Labor didn’t celebrate indi­
vidually, because they realize 
that while they are thankful 
for the end of the war, a pro­
gram to insure full employ­
ment is cooking, and that vic­
tory will not be victory, if it 
means another depression.

While contracts, grievances, 
etc., have been in the back­
ground, momentarily, they are 
still there and I hope we are 
better prepared to go on.

CARD OF THANKS

I would like to thank you as 
labor friends at Olds and the 
government girls, Bldg. 75, for 
your kind sympathies and flow­
ers sent to my husband during 
his recent sickness and death.
Mrs. Charles E. Perkins

Around the Shop

By George Nader

By George R. Nader

Lansing, as every typical 
American city, has had nothing 
on its mind but the fact that 
the war is over, the boys are 
starting to come back and the 
world (we hope) will have 
peace again. No one can deny 
it is the greatest, the best news, 
anyone could hope for. It’s the 
news.  

In joining my fellow Ameri­
cans in giving thanks to the Al­
mighty, I hope and pray that 
it hasn’t all been in vain, that 
the blood and human torture 
that was incurred will result in 
a victory for all the people, that 
the workers of America, whose 
record on the home front is un­
paralleled and whose contribu­
tion to the fighting front is 
well known to all of us will win 
a victory of full employment 
and a decent standard of liv­
ing.

I didn’t hear the good news 
until 10:00 p. m., having been 
in a meeting, but the town was 
crazy with joy, and a peaceful 
typical American celebration 
was held. It’s our hope that 
this war will end all wars, that 
humans will raise families for 
a future world, instead of fu­
ture gun fodder.
* * *
With the end of the war 
comes full realization of the 
unpreparedness the country is 
in for full employment. Sur-

LABOR DAY QUEEN CONTEST

given the Local Union or Unit 
also having the best float in 
the parade. This my abe in 
conunction with the company 
or otherwise.

On drawings it is not neces­
sary that winners be present to 
win. Only, that stubs must be 
presented to claim prizes.

During the early evening 
while many may be dancing, 
outdoor movies will be given for 
the children.

PRIZES
(Continued From Page 1)

Those queens’ in conformity 
with the above will be judged 
in an elimination contest at the 
dance Labor Day except that 
the basis of votes shall be 5c 
per vote and the finances from 
this collection will be the prop­
erty of the Lansing CIO Coun­
cil.

The Entertainment Commit­
tee is meeting to decide the a- 
ward for the winning queen.

A $25 cash award will be 
given the Local Union or Unit 
thereof of having the best 
band or bands.

A $25 cash award will be

Here Unique 
Prediction of 
Big Prosperity

WASHINGTON (LPA) — 
The “United States News”, 
published by ultra-conservative 
David Lawrence, recently car­
ried a prediction that had gov­
ernment and labor economists 
laughing out loud.

“At $120 billion of national 
income,” said the paper, 
“there will not be 60,000,000 
jobs. There will be several 
million unemployed. Yet, for 
all but the unemployed, there 
will be prosperity . . . ”

The logic is fascinating, said 
one economist. . “There’ll be 
jobs except for the jobless, food 
except for the hungry, homes 
except for the homeless, clothes 
except for the naked. The idea 
that there will be prosperity for 
everyone save several million 
unemployed should put to rest 
any doubts about whether we’ll 
have a healthy economy. Every­
one knows that apples are nu­
tritious and with millions of 
unemployed selling apples on 
the street corners, how can we 
help but become a healthy na­
tion?”

RECONVERSION

(Continued from Page 1)
can be much brighter than the 
dismal outlook of the present.

You who maintain jobs dur­
ing the bad periods should dis­
pel the thought that your res­
ponsibility to those out of work 
has ended. Your voices must be 
heard just as emphatically as 
theirs that “jobs should be pro­
vided for all.”

Let’s be realists rather 
than individualists and bring 
the realization of the four 
freedoms to all workers in 
the nation.

Give a helping hand and voice 
to the pleas of your leaders and 
unfortunate co-workers. Work­
ers can help every day and in 
many ways to bring jobs to all 
who wish to work.

This country of ours can be 
the provider of wealth for a 
few or prosperity and health 
for all. Which it shall be will 
in no small manner be deter­
mined by the actual voice and 
action of those working and 
those who are unfortunate en­
ough no to wonder, “after this, 
what?”

  
May the Common Suffering of War 
Be Forever Banished From the Earth

The the people of the world, the war brought grimness and un­
forgettable horror. A bleeding Chinese baby cries beside a bombed 
railroad. An aged French woman searches hopelessly through the 
ruins of her home. The dead are piled high in a German concen- , 
tration camp. An American soldier, weary to death, rests and gives 
thanks that he is alive. (Federated pictures, with soldier photo 
from Yank).

The Bilbonic Plague in Congress

—Federated Pictures

What kind of a Congress do we have that takes a vacation 
amidst unfinished labor economy bills and leaves the country on 
the verge of peacetime unemployment and wage-cut chaos? Well, 
here is what one member, Senator Theodore Bilbo (D, Miss.) is 
like — and we hope there aren’t more like him.

Josphine Piccolo, Brooklyn, N. Y.- Italian-American girl, is 
shown above reading an insulting letter from Senator Bilbo ad­
dressing her as “My Dear Dago”, for protesting his filibuster against 
FEPC. On her desk is a picture of her three brothers in uniform. 
One was killed in action. Along with other indignant workers, 
Miss Piccolo is demanding impeachment of the poll-taxer.

An American soldier, former member of the National Mari­
time Union, CIO, wrote Senator Bilbo a criticism of his reply to 
Miss Piccolo when he read about it. Below is shown a facsimile of 
the answer the Senator sent the soldier.

of “peace in our time.” But the 
peace exploded in his face just 
a year later when Hitler’s pan­
zer forces drove deep into Po­
land.

Jap Surrender Ends 14-Year Bloody March of Fascism
Started With 
Joseph Grew 
Invasion of 
Saved Hirohito
China in 1931
WASHINGTON (FP)—Em­
peror Hirohito, when he says 
his prayers these days, should 
ask a special blessing for Jo­
seph C. Grew. For it was Grew, 
as under-secretary of state, 
who did more than any other 
individual to save the Mikado 
from going the way of Musso­
lini and, perhaps, of Hitler.

DETROIT (FP)—Labor day 
plans of the Greater Detroit & 
Wayne County CIO Council in­
clude the customery afternoon 
parade down Woodward and a 
mass meetin gin Cadillac sq., 
with awards to the local unions 
making the best showing for at­
tendance, appearance and 
floats, Council Education Di­
rector Sam Sweet announces.

The guns are silenced at last 
in a world at peace for the first 
time in more than a decade.

Detroit Labor Day 
Celebration Planned

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Grew has resigned because of 
old age ’. . and there are some 
reports that this is a sign of an 
impending shakeup in the U. S. 
State Department. It may be 
. . . but Joe Grew’s job has been 
completed because he did what 
he set out to do. He saved the 
emperor of Japan.

It was Grew who forced our 
OWI broadcasts to avoid even 
the most casual unfavorable 
mention of Hirohito in our psy­
chological warfare. OWI could 
damn To jo, the war-lords and

the industrialists, but Hirohito 
was a word that was strictly 
banned by OWI — on State De­
partment orders.

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World War II began official­
ly on Sept. 1, 1939. There was 
an interlude of eight months or 
so — the phony war — while 
Great Britain and France sat 
and wondered if Hitler might 
still perhaps change his mind 
and fight the Soviet Union in­
stead of them. They woke up 
out of that cosy little dream in 
May 1940 into the nightmare of 
the fall of France and Dun- 
querque.

America Dooms
Axis Fascists

Entry of Russia and the U. 
S. into the war struck the open­
ing chords in the swan song of 
world fascism. The United Na­
tions were born and groped 
their way through many mis­
understandings and sharp con­
flicts to the high point of the 
signing of the charter at San 
Francisco. The rotten facade of 
German and Italian fascism 
crumbled before the might of 
the Allied armies. A few months 
later the last stronghold of 
fascism, Japan, followed her 
Axis partners down to defeat.

The shameful episodes of 
Spain and Munich have been 
vindicated but the end of the 
war has washed away only ;the 
topsoil of fascism. The world is 
full of hungry, uprooted people. 
They now look to the United 
Nations to carry over into the 
peace the hard lessons they 
learned in war.

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Fascism has met its bloody 
end in the tiny islands of Japan, 
from which just 14 years ago 
Japanese war lords sent troops 
plundering into Manchuria as 
the first experimental move in 
fascism’s plan for world con­
quest.

In the era between those two 
fateful dates fascism encircled 
the globe and swept humanity 
into the most terrible war in 
history. The cost of the war in 
lives and suffering and destruc­
tion is perhaps too great for the 
human mind to grasp, but one 
simple point has now been 
pounded home with all the 
force of an atomic bomb.

Fascism anywhere in the 
world is a menace to all the 
world. It can only be wiped out 
through the joint action of all 
peace-loving nations, united in 
bedrock friendship.

Fascism A Joke— 
And Good Business

This simple point sounds like 
a platitude today, but it was a 
great joke just a few years back 
to the bored diplomats in the 
League of Nations who listened 
indifferently to the cries for 
help from the victims of ag­
gression.

Japan invaded China — with 
the help of American business­
men who eagerly sold her scrap 
iron and supplies. In Germany 
the Nazis came into power — 
with the boast Tomorrow the 
World! on their lips — but the 
leaders of other nations heard 
only their cunning promise to 
fight the real enemy, bolshe­
vism. Ethiopia fell to Musso­
lini’s booted blackshirts and 
then the Axis was ready for its 
first important rehearsal of 
World War II — Spain.

Democracy Loses 
Fight in Spain

And here a strange phrase 
was coined. Premature anti­
fascists. They were the exiles 
from Germany and Italy who 
came to fight fascism into a 
foreign land, they were the 
American boys in the Abraham 
Lincoln brigade, they were the 
aviators and technicians and 
tank experts from the Soviet 
Union, they were most of all 
the brave Spanish people who 
starved and bled and fought 
their way through a war against 
all the might of the new stream­
lined Axis machine.

Maxim Litvinoff of the So­
viet Union warned in the 
League of Nations that there 
was still time to Halt the Nazis 
through collective security but 
the appeasers were too busy 
working out the details of a 
game they called non-interven­
tion to listen. Hitler marched 
into Austria and now suddenly 
the appeasers who had been 
assuring the people of the world 
that the Nazis needn’t worry 
them at all changed their tune 
and said the Nazis were,so pow­
erful that nothing could be 
done to stop them. 
“Peace In Our Time” 
Explodes

Czechoslovakia was sold out 
next in a meeting at Munich. A 
cheap price, the appeasers 
thought, when Hitler assured 
them that his ambitions lay 
only in the east, in the direction 
of Russia. Neville Chamberlain 
flew back to England and spoke

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