The Daily Worker Newspaper, October 2, 1926, Page 13

ee ree eee ee eee A. F. OF L. EXECUTIVE COUNCIL RUBBING SHOULDERS WITH COOLIDGE Wilson Noonan By P. S. AN atmosphere is either light or heavy. It ranges from very light to very heavy in obedience to the law of physics. But there is.also a non- physical variety, known in popular lan- guage as an atmosphere of gloom. This, too, may,vary from very thin to very thick. It is the latter very thick Kind that is enveloping the official leaders of the organized labor move- ment of Detroit on the eve of the American Federation of Labor con- vention-which opens in this city Mon- day, October 4. The reason for the thick gloom is the defeat suffered by the Detroit Fed- -eration all along the political front this early fall. Every one of the can- “didates, on the republican ticket, for the more important offices, including that of governor, endorsed by the fed- eration went down in defeat in the primary elections held on September 14. A jitney ordinance sponsored by it permitting the operation of jitneys on the streets of Detroit also was voted down two to one. Until the year 1923 the Detroit Fed- eration of Labor stood in the forefront of the progressive central labor bod- ies fighting for the modern form of organization, the industrial form, for the organization of the unorganized, and for independent political action by the workers in alliance with the farm- ers. Disheartened by the meager first results and threatened with reorgani- zation by the late Samuel Gompers, the Detroit Federation turned about face even as the other progressive labor bodies have done. Once about face, it kept going in that direction wntil now it is way out of sight of its former position. The most sensitive ear will hear not eyen a whisper with reference to the modernization of the form of organiza- tion, any more. As regards the organi- zation of the unorganized, however, it cannot be said that nothing is being done in this field) Many of the older unions are making some progress and a pumber of new organizations have been established. But the center of gravity of the new activity is along the craft lines if janitors and teamsters can be called craftsmen nowadays, And the worst feature of the recent organization campaigns is the admis- sion into the A. F. of L. of retail dyers and cleaners, ‘small laundry owners and the jitney drivers, who really are rs Green Rickert THE GRAYSON, A. F. of L. Convention Hall in Detroit. little business men and have no place in the labor movement. The automo- bile industry is being sadly neglected in this center of the automobile indus- try, which has some 300,000 workers employed either directly or indirectly. The admission of the 400 or so jit- neymen not only brought about a rift in the federation between the adminis- tration and the street carmen’s union, which has about 4,000 members, but it also culminated in adding to the po- litical defeat of the leadership of the federation when the jitney ordinance mentioned previously was voted down. The sponsoring of this ordinance also terminated the alliance of the federa- Coolidge <n i} tion with Mayor Smith, who opposed the ordinance with all his might. If not for the defeat of the ordinance and the vigilance of the progressives in the streetcar men’s union the old conservatives would have withdrawn from the Detroit Federation, But it is on the field of political of- fice that the federation has sunk to the lowest depths. Since it reverted to the Gempers policy of rewarding friends it has applied the theory both ways. It rewarded republican friends provided the republican friends first rewarded the friends of the federation machine with political jobs, or at least with promises of jobs. This policy Morrison Duffy PRE-CONVENTION ATMOSPHERE—A Letter From Detroit proved quite successful for the ma- ching and its henchmen until now. Almost a dozen infiuential trade union- ists, tf not more, are hoMing office as court clerks, factory inspectors, ete. However, just when the leaderzhip of the Detroit organized laber move- ment was congratulating itself on the rapid progress made in this field of so called practical politics something went wrong. The machine had ad- ministered to it a stinging defeat from which the leadership will not recover 80 soon, In the pursnit of its oppor- tunistic policy the Detroft Federation endorsed those candidates which the leaders thought Rad the best chance to win. In this election they seemed to have guessed all wrong. Not one of the more important candidates won. But the gloomy atmosphere must not be permitted to prevail too long. Something must be found to distract the attention of the movement from the political defeat. And so we have a good deal of the time and energy of the leadership devoted to the gather+ ing of a fund for entertaining the dele- gates to the A. F. of L. convention. Several thousand dollars are being sought for this purpose. Entertain- ment is expensive, and while the taste of the delegates may be deficient in) quality no one can say that & fs de’ ficient in quantity. ‘ A Suggestion. UPPOSE the Detroit labor move ment raised a fund of $10,000 and presented it to the convention @s an initial fund for the organization ef the automobile workers. This faea is alien to the present leadership, and may even have a disastrous effect upon the delegates. But there & 8 group in the labor movement which could conceive of such an idea and which believes in the possibility of suceess in such a campaign. The be- lief in success is strongly reinforced by the remarkable popularity of the Ford Worker, published by the Ford shop nuclei of the Werkers (Commu- nist) Party, which now has reached a circulation of 15,000 copies per month. The time is not very far off when the militant and truly progressive forces in the labor movement will assert themselves more strongly and thus give the American workers a real fighting leadership. Get a copy of tne American Worker Correspondent, it’s only 5 cents, How Southern Farm Tenants ine on the shares fs a sight better con-} influence of Robert Morss Lovett,, Ht- tract,” declares Henry, and they are| erature professor, an editor of the siven a kitchen with a stove and a/ New Republic and friend of Federated cow besides. But the house is damp.| Press—#. L. *(Viking Press, $2.50.) Federated Press Review. “It that-there gal’s any good a@ worken she can have twenty-five cents an hour, and the woman too.” 60 Ellen Chesser is soon walking ahead of the men in the field, dropping a| ° “The Time of Man,”* by Elizabeth Madox Roberts, is a finely written story of a Kentucky mountain migrant farm girl's life. It is simply told, thru the moods of the girl, and réminds- one of Knut Hamsun’s great picture of peasant Nfe in Norway, “Growth of the Sof.” It is one of the best books of native life the United States has produced. It is even more rare in that it depicts the life of common peo- ple, work poople, poor people, with a strong impression cf authenticity, Their hard, unlovely life ts poetically handled. 4 The author is a mative of Kentucky herself, who went thru the University of Chicago. There she came under the