The Daily Worker Newspaper, November 6, 1926, Page 15

Pi ALTRI Sot CREE! si HE resolution on the automobile in- “dustry as Introduced by O’Connell resolved, “that the officers of the American Federation of Labor are hereby authorized and instructed to inaugurate a general organizing cam- paign in the automobile industry at the earliest possible date and that the president of the A. F, of L. call a con- ference of the officers of all national or international organizations for the purpose of working out the details so that questions of jurisdiction may for the time being bea eliminated to the end that all employed in the automo- bile industry may be brought into membership in the A. F, of L.”- The committee permitted the last pert of the resolve to stand. But it changed the first part so as to leave the organization of the automobile workers to the discretion of Green. “Resolved,” it said in its altered form, “that the president of the Amer- ican Federation of Labor call a con- ference of all national and interna- tional organizations interested in the automobile industry for tho purpose of working out details to inaugurate a general organizing campaign among the workers of that industry .. .” No one rose to protest against this clear-cut avoidance of the most con- spicuous of all the tasks of the federa- tion. Surrounded by the automobile plants of the Ford Motor Co., the Gen- eral Motors Corp., the Hudson Motor Car Co., the Packard, the Cadillac, the Fisher Body Corp. and the others, the “official” representatives of the Amer- ican labor movement passed a blind resolution. The propaganda of the American Plan autocrats whom Maj. Berry so eloquently called “hypocrit- feal” was incomparably less hypocrit- feal than this resolve. O’Connell spoke on the resolution and his first sen- tence was almost elight-of-hand, in view of what the committee had done to his proposal. “I rise to support the recommenda- tion of the committee,” he eaid, “and to occupy your time for a few minutes in calling your attention to the impor- tance of the proposition.” Note how the second clause follows fast on the first, as if to color it and disguise it. “Is it the recommenda- tion and the resolve that are impor- tant or does he mean the problem of organizing the automobile industry? “The automobile industry is the third largest industry in the United States,” he continued. He described the industry and its lack of organization. And he con- eluded by saying, “No task confront- ing us in this country in organization is equal to the task I ask you to face in the organization of the automobile industry, and if we get the hearty sup- - port and the untted co-operation of the international officers of the trades in- terested in this work, by the next con- vention we may be able to report to you that this problem has been at least penetrated to the extent of plans being made.and work being done that will bring hope, happiness and pros- perity ‘to the millions of people em- ployed in the industry.” What has become of the first mili- tant suggestion which caused the board of directors of the Boaml of Commerce to souhd the alarm of “an- other Herrin?” Now you see it and now you don’t. Maj. Berry himself in the printed proceedings is listed as absent from the afternoon session of Thursday, Oct. 7, when the committee on resolu- tions reported. T. W. McCullough, delegate of the International Typo- graphical Union, rose to say among other vague things that he agreed with Andrew Furuseth, of the Inter- national Seamen’s Union of America, The resolution as re-written by the committee was passed unanimously. The proposed organization of the au- tomobile workers died thus on first base. It died, in fact, in a visit which about 200 of the delegates paid to the Park plant of the Ford Mo- Co. on the following Saturday af- This was one of the regula- I A True Story of the A. F. of L. Convention Moscow, Kremlin, Headquarters of the Central Executive Committee of the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics. tion visits im which institutionalized, Fordized guides conduct squads of visitors at regular periods through the least depressing departments of the huge flivver mill. Green and Frank Morrison, bureaucratic secretary of the A. F. of L., were among those who went through. But neither Ford nor any of his executive welcomed the distinguished visitors. This was an- other one of those Detroit snubs, to which references were made by the humilated delegates at almost every session of the 10-day convention. This visit to the closed shop of the Ford Motor Co. was the last mark of atten- tion paid to the automobile industry by the American Federation of Labor in its 1926 convention. HE appeal for financial and moral -aid for the textile strikers in the Passaic district gave the convention temporarily a decisive working class character. Rabbi Stephen S. Wise,-of New York, was imported by Thomas F. McMahon, president of the United Textile Workers, to rouse the jaded delegates to a sense of their responsi- bility. In his speech for the strikers Dr. Wise told the convention it was its duty to organize “from top to bottom” the entire textile industry, employing 750,000 men, women and children, of whom the ranks of the Passaic strikers, he said, were a sym- bol, The following day the conven- tion voted immediate aid and took up a collection on the floor. McMahon was not present at the convention on either day, though he was in charge of the U. T. W. delegation. He left the floor work of Sara A. Conboy. When Delegates Max 8, Hayes, of the Typographical Union, Christian M. Madsen of the painters, James C. Shanessy of the barbers and Joseph N. Weber of the musicians spoke in favor of speeding up the relief as an emergency measure, Woll, secretary of the resolutions committee, tried to sidetrack the rush of sympathy and put the convention back to sleep by, insisting the relief question was rou- tine business. ’ “Your committee was acting upon the resolutions and information that came to the committee,” Woll said im- patiently. “The committee was not advised of the statements and of the personal note sent through Delegate Max Hayes. We are acting upon an appeal presented by a duly accredited international union representing these striking textile workers and by no other agency. What the committee recommends is what the international union desires.” The personal note to which Woll referred was given to Hayes by Al- fred Wagenknecht, general secretary of the Passaic Relief Committee, Sit- ting at the same table with Mrs. Con- boy and the other U. T. W, delegates near the rear of the hall that fore- noon was Ellen Dawson, secretary of the relief committee of Passaic, her- self one of the strikers. Mrs. Conboy decided to speak once more, inasmuch as Passaic had become a U. T. W. strike, through acquisition ‘after eight months of struggle. er rete ert tan eeet AAA CHE A RN A annette. tt tt tn Ah stn Daten enn My a ip “At the time the resolution was pre- sented to the committee we had no knowledge of the extreme need that exists in Passaic,” she rose to say: “The financial secretary of that or- ganization is seated at this table, sent here by the Passaic strikers in order to try to secure immediate relief. I have been informed by her that the store keepers have refused further credit and that the money in the treas- ury is exhausted. While I agree with and will support the committee, it is the purpose of the officers of the United Textile Workers to get to- gether some money immediately to re- lieve the distress existing there.” She did not attempt to obtain the privilege of the floor for Miss Dawson. Green called a conference of inter- national officers for that day to lay plans for immediate relief and it was said afterwards that within. three weeks a total of about $25,000 would be in the hands of the relief commit- tee, in the form of donations or loans of varying amounts. By agreement it was decided that the same conference would raise an equal amount for the striking International Ladies’ Gar- ment Workers in New York. In spite of the pledges of relief, a general reluctance was conspicuous except for the responses of a handful of delegates. This was the high point of the convention. NN the same unhappy day on which the convention scuttled the resolu- tion on organizing, the auto workers, Sherwood Eddy, of the national direc- torate of the Y. M. C. A.,’ found his Christian way to the convention plat- form. Green apparently believed that by giving this national “Y” officer the platform he would shame the hard- hearted Hannahs of the local “Y.” by seeming to set an example of free speech. Eddy discussed the findings of a commission of professional and business men and statisticians with whom he recently toured Europe and Russia, Dealing almost entirely with Russia, the body and conclusion of his speech was an impassioned appeal to the convention to go and do likewise. The old guard in the convention ap- parently demanded of Green after the recess that he explain why he surren- dered the platform for such a sacri- legeous purpose as the advocacy of an A. F. of L. mission to the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics. For Green knew that at that very time the com- mittee on resolutions was organizing its annual tirade against the U. S. 8. R., the Workers’ (Communist) Party, the Trade Union Educational League, the Communist International and the Red International of Labor Unions, which was to be screamed forth by the American eagles of the convention when the cloth hat and capmakers’ resolution for the recognition of Rus- sia was reported out, This eagles’ chorus was to be the climax of the convention, with John L. Lewis, of the United Mine Workers, Matthew Woll and James Wilson, vice-president, and President Green taking the leading solo parts. The report of the commit- of L, mission & the U. S. S, R. was unnecessary, unthinkable and un- American, Green extricated himself by making public a statement that Eddy betrayed him in mentioning Rus- sia in his speech. Eddy by that time had left Detroit for New York. His only defense came from an accidental witness, a member of Green’s own union, the United Mine Workers of America, who overheard the verbal agreement between Green and Eddy just prior to the address. The witness said Eddy was asked merely to avoid discussing the recognition of the So- viet government by the United States ‘sovernment, a controversial subject which must be avoided because it was to come formally before the conven- tion in the form of a resolution. later. Stronger and stronger attacks against Eddy were subsequently made by Green and other delegates. He was charged by one delegate with “prosti- tuting the privileges of the floor.” And ultimately even the Eddy episode came to be thought of as one more example of the boorish manners, of open shop Detroit. And on the eight day, as the phrase goes in Genesis, Green deliv- ered himself of the following charge of moral turpitude and backwoods dis- courtesy: “Mr. Eddy came here the other day. Why came he here? Someone inad- vertently said he was invited here. ‘Who invited him here? Why came he here asking for this platform (the oratorical inversions of structure in- dicate the emotional pitch to which Green had roused himself)? And why, when he came, did he abuse the privileges granted him, the privileges of this floor? There seems to be something in the atmosphere of De- troit that causes some people to for- get the rules of common decency and common courtesy.” If this account of an important event appears in places to be some- what satirical, is is nevertheless not more satirical than the facts are bit- terly ironic. But beyond the irony and the ognominy and the bombast of those ten days that did not shake the world is the further fact that such tactics can not prevail much longer. It was an American Plan convention. Before long the rank and file workers with a new class conscious leadership are going to organize the trade union business itself. As for the impolite American Plan employers of the rudely open shop city of Detroit, they were glad to see the delegates depart. And the dele- gates were just as glad to go, Green’s declaration notwithstanding. Their feelings were hurt and they did not know what to do. A Scab’s Tragedy. (By Art Shields, Federated Press) “Biddie” Flanagan used to be one of the most popular fellows in Saga- more—before the strike against the Buffalo & Susquehanna Coal Co, that began a year ago. He was a motor- man in the mines; a member of many fraternal societies—a jolly “cut up” and the life of a party. He had a fund of good stories and humorous ways that won the hearts of every- one, - But “Biddie’ Flanagan left down during the strike and something hap pened to him while he was away that no one can understand. He came back to Sagamore as a scab in the B. & S. mines, Hs popularity turned to a chunk of ice. His old ledge mates and fellow workers turned their backs on him as he passed the picket line. In the fra- ternal societies folks shut up as he approached, His jokes fell flat on a silent audience. “Biddie’s” sun was set, He. took to drink. And then, the other day swallowed a dose of poison and passed out. There were no union pallbearers at his funeral. ee tee, moreover, was to include an in-|- cisive recommendation that an A. ¥ -