The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, April 28, 1919, Page 4

Workers of Illinois Organize New Party | Labor Tires of Asking Big Business Politicians for Its Dues—Thanks Nonpartisan League Leaders for Aid and Interest ABOR, as the farmers of North Dakota already have done, is awakening to the realization that it can expect nothing from the professional politi- cians. The policy which labor men have long pursued, that of standing respectfully outside the council chambers, hat in N\ / A\ '- hand, to ask that they be given their proper due, i they have learned is ¢ as efficacious as try- . cream puffs at the . engine. i ers of the results ob- {"workers everywhere . have announced that ! they favor govern- ' ing what workers ex- :; enough. It is now peel- ¢ ing-off its coat, as ing to stop an express train by throwing Labor has sent a boy to mill and has come to the conclusion that it doesn’t pay. The organization of the Labor party in Il- linois is the first re- sult of the study by the Illinois labor lead- tained in North Da- kota by the Nonpar- tisan league. Work- ers of that state are going to send their own men to the legis- lature, to congress, in- stead of depending upon the fragile prom- ises of the politician. In addition to that, have made themselves heard. American rail- way employes have expressed their views as to the return of the railroads to pri- vate management. Coal mine workers ment ownership of mines. Prominent European labor lead- ers have made a statement before the peace council, outlin- pect from the peace agreement. Labor has had its hat off long the farmer did in North Dakota, and is pulling up a chair at the ' table where its destiny is being"decided. The new Labor party in Illinois, however, is the { most interesting development of the new viewpoint of the worker. has no part in it. It is not socialistic. Bolshevism | THANKS FOR AID OF LEAGUE ORDERED SENT A note of thanks was ordered forwarded to the farmers’ Nonpartisan league and trade unions in | North Dakota for their interest in the movement. The establishment of the state party is the result of the formation earlier of the Chicago Labor party, which nominated a candidate for the mayoralty : race and, though it lost, won thousands of sup- : porters from outside the ranks of or- : i ganized labor. ¢ first convention at Springfield. The TR RTTTA S A platform was adopted by t}le Illinois Labor party, which had its platform declared for municipal own- ership and woman’s suffrage. pa The platform is as follows: “Labor is the primary and just basis of political responsibility and . power. It is not merely the right, but the duty, of the workers by hand or brain to become a political party. “The Labor party is destined to usher in the new day of freedom in the United States—freedom from the o constitutional amendments. grind of poverty, freedom from the ownership of ~ governthent by big business, freedom from the slave-driving of workers by the profiteers, and free- dom of men and women who buy clothing and pay rent from exploitation at the hands of the money kings of ‘kingless’ America. : “Organized workers are members of it. Un- organized workers are members of it. Clerks, housewives, newspaper men, farmers, school teachers, storekeepers belong to it. There is I TEXAS COMMITTEE REORGANIZES ‘ I Prospects of the League in Texas.are greatly improved, it was reported after a meeting of the state exec- utive committee which met at Waco recently.” In the above picture are shown J. B. Milam, new state manager of the League, T.-S. Pinkerton, J. M. Pittillo, Rudolph Loewe, C. G. Herring, Peter Shook and D. G. Farmer, members, of the state ’committee, and Miss Kate Milam. no place in the party for those who are not workers. R “The Labor party was organized to assemble into a new majority the. men and women who work, but who have been scattered as helpless minerities in the old parties under the leader- ship of the confidence men of big business. “The confidence men, by exploitation, rob the workers of the, product of their activities and use the huge profits thus gained to finance the old political parties by which they gain and keep con- trol of the government. They withhold money from the worker and use it to make him pay for his own defeat. “Labor is awarg, of this and throughout the world the workers have reached the determination Read the aims of the Illinois Labor party, and then consider the recent North Dakota legislation and the recently adopted Many of those things which the party declares as part of its ultimate program already are in force in North Daketa. What they ask for Illinois already has - | been granted to the people of North Dakota. It establishes a new link between the man on the farm, producing food, and the man in the shops, producing tools and manufactured neces- gities. Readers of the Leader will be given other articles from time to time, recording movements of other producers to bring about industrial and economic reforms. — PAGE FOUR b Kl coc e N to reverse this condition and take control of their own lives and their own government. : “In this country this can and must be achieved peacefully by the workers uniting and marching in unbrokea phalanx to the ballot boxes. It is the mission of the Labor party to bring this to pass. “The day has passed when forward-looking citi- zens can hope for progress, aid or sincerity at the hands of the Republican or Democratic party office- holders. The time has come for the workers of Illinois to force a clear line of cleavage and disengage themselves definitely and perma- nently from old party ties. “The first conven- tion of the new state Labor ' party enunci- ates the following program as issues to which it pledges it- its candidates: SEEK DEMOCRACY IN INDUSTRY “l—Democratic con- trol of industry and commerce for the gen- eral good of those who work with hand and -brain, and the elimination of auto- matic domination of the forces of produc- tion and distribution either by selfish pri- vate interests or bu- reaucratic agents of the government. “2—The unqualified right of workers to organize and to deal ployers. “3—The freedom from economic hazard which comes with a minimum wage based on the cost of living and the right of the " worker to maintain without the labor of mother and children, himself and his fam- ily in health and com- fort, with ample pro- vision for recreation and good citizenship. “4—Leisure in which to improve the mind and body by the insti- tution of a maximum working day of eight hours. 45—Abolition of unemployment by reducing the hours of work as necessary to permit all who are able to work to find occupation, and full pay for those, who for a time, are unemployed because of iliness, accident. or temporary loss of work. “6—Equality of men and women in government and industry, with complete enfranchisement of women and equal pay for men and women. “T—Reduction of the cost of living to a just level, immediately and as a permanent policy, by the development of co-operation and the elimina- tion.of w.asteful methods, middlemen and all profi- teering in the creation and distribution of the products of industry and agriculture. “8—Complete revision of the state constitution to reclaim it for the peo- ple, so that instead of it being, as at present, the fortress of reactionaries and the backbone of big business or- ganizations that grip the state, it will become the bulwark of the workers, »- built upon.the theory of guaranteeing - human rights instead of exalting property rights. measures are unconstitutional. It must be rewritten so that the pro- posals of crooked business will be unconstitutional. It must be made easy of amendment. It must give the state a new and just revenue sys- self, its members and’ collectively with em- Now the " workers’- . <2 " ]‘I« 4 -] ~ i 4