Suchergebnisse

No appraisal of the present-day labor situation can be complete without a discussion of union security, which is one of the most significant trends in modem labor relations. The concept was formulated before the war, but it owes its rapid development to the need for union protection resulting from present abnormal conditions and its immediate purpose is to preserve union morale. Even when considering post-war economic and social policies, this device is important as a basis for determining the position of unions in that era. If union security is widely employed in post-war labor contracts, the device will give unions a position of prominence never before held by any institution or organized group in American history. Whether the policy will be continued voluntarily after the war will be determined by the harmony of labor-employer relations during this period of governmental supervision. Over two years have passed since union security first received support from government agencies, and perhaps some fairly accurate conclusions can be drawn from a study of the evolution of this device under the war program. It is the purpose of this paper to summarize the policies of the National Defense Mediation Board and the War Labor Board with respect to union security, with emphasis on the practical aspects which may be helpful both in the promulgation of contracts and in furnishing a background for future policy development.

"Addresses . delivered at the Institute of politics at Williamstown . July . August, 1927."--Pref. ; "Peace, security, and trade."--Peace without security.--The recovery of Europe.--British policy in China. The rise of the nationalist movement.--Concession and conciliation in China.--The Russian question. ; Mode of access: Internet.

Speech reflecting on challenges facing the American South ; -4- had to come from migration from the farms for the simple reason that the birth rate in urban territory has not been sufficient even to maintain a stable population. Estimating the cost of rearing and educating a child to the age of 15 on a Southern farm at only 1500 dollars, the 3,800,000 migrants from farms of the Southern states alone represent a contribution during the decade of 1920-30 of about 700,000,000 dollars per year to the cities, mostly in the North, a contribution amounting to more than half the average farm value of the cotton crop. In considering the child population problem, remember that our average income is only about half that of the other states. A comparison of Alabama and New York is enlightening. New York, according to a carefully worked out formula, has six times as much wealth available for school purposes as Alabama, yet Alabama has almost twice as many children per adult as New York, so that it is fairly accurate to say that the Alabama child, in comparison with the New York child, is under a 12 to 1 wealth handicap in school advantages. The question immediately arises, "Does not this comparison merely reflect the condition of the South's negro population?" I think we have been inclined in the past too often to dismiss these disparities with that observation. I have the conviction that the South can never develop a sound economic policy without giving due consideration to problems of race relationship, and we must begin with the basic proposition that we can not possibly strengthen the condition of white children without extending advantages to the colored. I, for one, am prepared to go ahead with a policy that will bring greater security and happiness to our colored neighbors while we are adding to the security and happiness of our own. The vicious circle of low income, poor schools, low productiveness is hard to break. The social cost has been terrific. The other day it was announced in Washington that the Southern states led in crime. The Assistant Attorney General of the United States, Hon.

Speech reflecting on challenges facing the American South ; -6- the fruits of their labor, rather than permitting those who do not produce, but manipulate, to prey upon the productive ones. This does not mean class warfare at all, nor am I distinguishing between those who work with their hands and those who work with their brains. I am insisting merely that there is a very definite alignment, that the non-producers, generally through the involvements of our financial structure, have been manipulating our economic life so as to give us a system that is shot through and through with injustices and inequalities. The Secretary of Agriculture, Henry Wallace, has discovered that the 3600 men at the top of our economic system receive as much as the 11 million families at the bottom. This disparity cannot be explained by difference in ability or usefulness. As long as this condition continues, the demogogue will find a quick response to his impossible theories of wealth distribution. I revert again to the original assertion that what the South needs is a policy. Let us assume, for it can be easily proved, that the process of wealth distribution through taxation has such definite limitations that we must look to other means for the correction of this difficulty. Again borrowing a phrase of Henry Wallace's, we are looking for economic democracy as well as political democracy. The present crop control policy of the United States Government, the benefits of which have been so generously shared with the South, was based primarily upon volurtary action, and it could never have succeeded unless the producers of cotton had recognized that, at least temporarily, they must grow less cotton. We had to take into account that the industrialists had dictated the economic policies of the past, and that overnight we could not change those policies. It involved the tariff, which had ruined our export trade. To adopt a policy that involved reduced production for 6 and a half million farmers presented the most complicated economic problem that has ever engaged the attention of Washington officials.

Speech reflecting on challenges facing the American South ; "AN ECONOMIC POLICY FOR THE SOUTH" By Brooks Hays. Delivered at Anniston, Alabama, September 6, 1935 I am glad to have this opportunity to talk to an Alabama audience about the problems of the South. I come from a state that upholds the same traditions and has very much the same culture and political philosophy. Some of these traditions we are ready to discard. Some we feel should be retained, not because they are traditions, but because they have social value. While I hold a position under the present Administration, and believe that the program in general is good and will be approved by the nation, I am conscious of the fact that labels are often misleading, and I am restrained by the knowledge that there are many who call themselves New Dealers who do not understand the essential spirit which produced the New Deal, or, understanding it, give it only lip service and are prepared to undermine it. Moreover, the New Deal embraces so much about which fixed judgments cannot yet be reached that to undertake a discussion of its objectives would be very foolish. I hope to inject into the talk as little partisanship as possible. The South has a great stake in the present agricultural policy, and I believe it will be possible to preserve its benefits under succeeding Administrations, regardless of party domination. And while I am on the subject of parties, let me say that I am not one of those who believe that the Democratic Party can do no wrong. It will be a great day for the South when we discard that fallacious idea. Personally, I am sick and tired of some party leaders threatening everybody with disfranchisement for failure to vote for every nominee just because he is the nominee. If we don't stop it, the party will someday get the spanking it deserves for trying to thrive on intimidation instead of service. Not many weeks ago I sat with a few friends of the South in a quiet room in the city of Atlanta, and participated in the organization of a movement known as the Southern Policy Committee. Some of us have great hopes for that rather modest group because it will work

Speech reflecting on challenges facing the American South ; -8- world market for cotton must not be lost. No processing tax can compensate the South for the loss of its export trade, and pretty soon we will come to the cross roads where a decision must be made. I said at the outset that we wanted no policy for this section that would cause an injustice to any other section. I have pointed out that that is what we have just had in the last few years, with the South holding the bag. If the North now answers that lower tariffs will unfavorably affect industrial life by adding to unemployment, let us point out that the benefits as a whole will more than offset this disadvantage and that the nation will be in a better position to care for those workers who might be displaced by a change in tariff polices. The same reasons that led the states (following their experience under the Articles of Confederation) to abandon the idea of tariff walls between them will lead the United States and other nations ultimately to abandon high tariff policies. While we are insisting upon this policy which will mean so much to the well being of the people of the entire country, let us make an effort to put our own house in order. If the cotton producers as a whole are to be given a better break, the income that they are to enjoy in the aggregate must be equitably distributed. In other words, if the cotton South is to be treated fairly, those who control the cotton South must treat the cotton producers fairly. This brings us to the problem of tenancy. Farm tenancy cannot be abolished in one generation, but unless its spread is checked, a terrific penalty will be exacted. Let the world understand that those of us who consider ourselves friends of the farm tenants are demanding, not so much the sharing of wealth in terms of a different division of the cash income, as we are demanding a new division of the opportunities that are associated with the land. There is new wealth for all individuals if we will practice principles of brotherhood by vesting some permanent interest in the tenant. Even England does that. No reasonable person wants a new land tenure policy at the expense of injustice to present owners.

Speech reflecting on challenges facing the American South ; -11- cluttered up its political life and corrupted its officials. They were the enemies of social progress. We don't want Cuba's misfortunes to come to our people. But in Arkansas we find the absentee holders of our stocks and bonds, both public and private, dip heavily into our politics, often manipulating affairs without reference to the rights and interests of those of us who live there. I can't honestly represent to you that I know how to stop it, but I do assert that it presents another major problem. It certainly ought to have the attention of all who have the public interest at heart. Now I have but one question left, and that is the relationship of Government to all of these endeavors by which we hope to build a better society. From the standpoint of money giving by the Government, I think the South has shared pretty well in recent years. We have no grievance on that score. Arkansas has had about 30 million dollars for relief alone. We needed every dollar of that money, but we've had some pork-barrel money that we could have done without. The point is, we want an even break in trade and commerce; we demand a national policy that is fair to our section, rather than huge appropriations produced by the log rollers. We haven't been as wise in our asking as we night have been. Loans for new public buildings we need. Grants for many projects we would not otherwise have are fine, but this is a question of priority. Which shall we look after first, a program of fair dealing for the South's agriculture upon which the South's industry can prosper or big appropriations for Post Office buildings? The harbors and rivers appropriations are splendid. We need them for commerce and flood control. But what good will they do if we have no goods to move in river and ocean commerce? An agricultural policy and a foreign policy that stimulate trade and distribute the national income properly will help infinitely more than the pork-barrel plan. "Has democracy failed?" We haven't given democracy a chance. To paraphrase an expression of G. K. Chesterton's, "Democracy has not been tried and found wanting, it has been found difficult and not tried".

Speech reflecting on challenges facing the American South ; -2- toward a policy based on general interest rather than on the interest of special monopolistic groups, and has as its object the establishment of a social order in which a balanced economy will assure to those "who labor in agriculture, industry and trade, an equality of opportunity in the enjoyment of the fruits of their labors. Those of us who have joined in this movement believe that it is not enough to strike out for an improvement in our standard of living without conviction regarding the method by which we can improve our social structure. Politics is so vitally related to the whole problem that we cannot move without decisions in this field. We need deep convictions regarding political action. I think it would be better if we were in error on particular points than to be so indifferent about politics, or to have such a feeling of futility about it that we fail to influence its course. I want to speak without restraint tonight and I shall not feel bad if you disagree with me on some points. In recent years I have been impressed by the necessity for discussion of public questions. Commerce in ideas has a very real value. Incidentally, this is one of the principal tenets of the Southern Committee. It is firmly committed to what is called the educational process and believes that no progress can be made except as the people acquaint themselves with social evils and are in substantial agreement as to remedies. Now our Northern friends will not think we are continuing a sectional feeling in striving to determine upon a policy that protects our regional interests. It is possible to have a sense of regional interest without being provincial. In the effort to improve our condition we should have the help of men of good will in other sections who, in turn, may invite our cooperation in the solution of their own problems. It will not be an affront to the non-Southerners to point out the abuses from which we have suffered. First, let them be reminded that our economic life is rooted in agriculture, and that agriculture was

Speech reflecting on challenges facing the American South ; -5- Justin Miller, says that the way to get satisfactory results in the crime drive is to improve your educational opportunities and your social conditions, so that this vast army of youngsters who are turning to crime will be happily adjusted. Now it is apparent that the South's trouble is poverty, and until we agree on that and resolve to reduce it, ultimately to abolish it, we will be following an inadequate economic policy. Starving children in a flood or famine win sympathy. Dramatic means are resorted to for saving them. Children starve sometimes by degrees. Let's stop that sort of starvation. Remember, the percentage of those who live upon the borderline of poverty may be as high as 80. You and I can find our company in the upper stratum where poverty is not an immediate threat, and the distress of the poor is not always before us. Nevertheless, that condition constitutes a form of insecurity for all of us. Poverty was not always an anomolous thing in society, though it is in ours. Through long ages before man's mastery of his physical surroundings the problem of scarcity was considered beyond his ingenuity. The machine has changed it. To state it accurately, our problem is not poverty, but "poverty in the midst of plenty." There will be no economic salvation for the South unless agriculture prospers and we can think of Southern agriculture strictly in terms of cotton. I am not foolish enough to believe that will always be true. Some pretty wise men are prophecying that the new cotton picking machine may give the Southwest an advantage over Alabama and other Southeastern states, and that your agricultural economy may be modified. If that time comes, that is, if the states west of the river, with superior advantages for use of the cotton picking machine in large scale operations, take the cotton business away from you, it will be found that we are, nevertheless, bound by a common interest. There is more than a commodity involved in the problem of establishing regional and national policies. The real division is not between cotton and non-cotton growing states, nor between agriculture and industry, but in the age-old problem of giving to those who produce

Speech reflecting on challenges facing the American South ; -9- We have a solution to this evil in the principles embodied in the Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenant Bill, which was passed by the United States Senate last June with the sponsorship of Senator John H. Bankhead. Again the point is raised, "Isn't the tenancy evil just another Negro problem?" Now I don't think that is any reason why it should not be tackled. But the fact is that it is not - it has become the white man's problem. With practically two million tenants and croppers in the South, less than 800,000, only 40 percent, are negroes. The tremendous increase in tenancy in the South between 1920 and 1930 was attributable to the gain in the number of white tenants. Actually, the number of negro tenants decreased. The number of white tenants increased 69 percent. In the face of that, how can anybody have the nerve to wave the matter aside with that old worn-out cry, "You're trying to help the nigger". Also, it must be conceded that some forms of tenancy are not particularly objectionable. For example, the owner wants to retire. He lives nearby and rents to a friend, or perhaps a relative. He watches his land and cares for it faithfully. But in my state (I could lead you to the place) there is a tenant with his wife and two boys living in a house he built himself with scraps of tin and lumber because the landlord, who resides a hundred miles away, is unconcerned about his living conditions, but is willing for him to raise cotton on his land. That form of absentee ownership I am against. And the South must get rid of it. It can be legislated out of existence. The Bankhead-Jones Bill will help a lot. Add to that in Southern states a tax policy that will make it necessary for the absentee owner to change to some other form of investment. That seems to be society's only method of attaching to the land such claims as will make a prosperous people. Proponents of the Bankhead-Jones Bill have provided in this plan that lands to be made available for those tenants who are potential owner operators are not to be taken from present owners who do not want to dispose of these lands. In many cases, owners do want to dispose of the land because present

Speech reflecting on challenges facing the American South ; -10- operations are not profitable. Then the question is asked, "If one owner "with 400 fertile acres can not profit, how can ten owners with 40 acres profit?" Simply because you pass from one system of administration that disregards the interest of the worker, and pass to a system of administration that gives him a stake in the land, thus conserving the human values upon which all real wealth depends. No system is sound from a business point of view that is not sound from a social point of view, though it may take years to prove it in particular situations. We've simply got to improve the conditions under "which our children are growing up. If you say, "But the attempts to do that thing are costing too much!" we say, "The cost of not doing it is much more!" We are driving now for a safer and better world for the next generation. I have dwelt upon the tenant situation because it is the South's greatest social problem - a particular problem involving not only the tenants, but our entire social structure. It is necessary in making progress to deal with specific problems. There isn't any single formula to be applied for the reshaping of society. A policy for the South rests finally upon parallel policies for each of our major problems. Only the lazy dreamer who fears the complexities of individual problems seeks escape in the political fundamentalism of Long and Talmadge. We know, of course, that we can not provide opportunities immediately for all tenant farmers, even with the Bankhead-Jones measure. The work of finding new opportunities for 300,000 farmers who have been forced to seek the aid of relief agencies in the last few years is the task of the Resettlement Administration, under Dr. R. G. Tugwell. "While I was speaking of absentee ownership, I should have included some forms of absentee ownership of public utilities, Mr. Howard Hopson's kind, for example. The South's utility interests are generally well managed when ownership and control are vested in those who reside with us and know our needs. Absentee ownership can not provide by remote control what the resident interest supplies. The owners of Cuba's utilities lived in the United States. They were unacquainted with and unsympathetic with the little country's social problems. But they

Speech reflecting on challenges facing the American South ; -12- In times past, men with unusual gifts have attempted to short-circuit democracy and make themselves dictators for "what they proclaim are noble purposes. This is the tragedy of Huey Long. I regret the necessity for referring to him, but the fact remains that he and his political doctrines must be dealt with if we are to give the underprivileged and dispossessed people of our section a stake in life. Huey Long is the greatest enemy that the people without property and means have today. He has raised false hopes. He promises great things, but when the opportunity comes to do something for the downtrodden people of his section, he aligns himself with the opposition. I am not talking from hearsay. I know personally of his vigorous effort made in the United States Senate to defeat the Bankhead-Jones Tenant Bill, a bill that would have brought great and lasting benefits to millions of our dispossessed farmers, and obviously he did it because it would take from him his chance to prey upon those who have a real grievance. I sat in the United States Senate gallery and watched him use every parliamentary device in a successful effort to keep the Senate from passing the Deficiency Bill, upon which the appropriation for the aged, the blind, and the crippled and dependent children of the South depended. In his own state, if he decides he wants a thing he gets it, not by honorable means, but by overriding all the rules of decency and respectability. His constituents are asking, "Does the end justify the means?" Now this involves his motive, and I always hesitate to discuss a man's motive. As a matter of fact, it isn't necessary in Huey's case. It just stands to reason that one who has turned his back upon the people he promised to help is not a fit leader. After all, the methods, as well as the ends in view, are important. When Huey Long takes from the people of Baton Rouge and New Orleans and hundreds of local units their right to determine purely local issues, he is faithless to the principles of democracy. Sooner or later, Huey Long will go on the rocks, and his downfall will prove that no political success can rest upon a corrupt and unethical system.

Speech reflecting on challenges facing the American South ; -13- But I want to say something else about Huey Long, and there is as much truth in what 1 am about to say concerning the conditions which produced him as about the fallacy of his program. I know the country that he grew up in. I know the tragedies of human life that surrounded him, and it is not surprising to me that it produced a career like his. Undernourishment, crime, and illiteracy are not the only products of a system built upon exploitation. The lumber mills of northern Louisiana, like those of my own state, were built by forest wealth that originally belonged to all the people. Those forests were being rapidly denuded in Huey Long's boyhood, with a starvation wage that left the real wealth to absentee owners, basking in the luxury of distant cities. The sharecroppers and tenants, too, were struggling against terrific odd, with political and business leaders going serenely along their way without thought of their plight. The struggle of farm and mill workers for a decent living has not ended. Hunger is a reality with many of them. These conditions upon which Huey thrives must be changed. While we can expect no relief from political opportunists "who infest other states as well as Louisiana, we know, too, that we can not turn to the reactionaries for help. Men in public office who are honestly devoted to the ideals of public service need the support of thinking and courageous citizens. An enlightened public opinion is essnetial [sic] if we are to have a genuine movement and establish a true democracy. The south's best hope of outstanding leadership is not in Louisiana, but in Alabama. With one United States Senator distinguishing himself in the creation of a new agricultural program, and another in exposing corruption of special interests in Washington, and a Governor with the courage to veto a bill which threatened the rights of free speech, you are supplying the sort of driving force that is sorely needed for Southern advancement.

Speech reflecting on challenges facing the American South ; -3- the nation's neglected child for a full decade before the depression. With never less than 25 percent of the country's population, agriculture never received more than 18 percent of its income, generally received only about half this amount, and its share shrunk to 7 percent in 1932. This is the comparison of agriculture to total income and includes wheat as well as cotton. The geographical comparison will be more pertinent. According to the Secretary of Labor, the South, which has a quarter of the area of the United States, a quarter of its population, and a quarter of the gainfully employed, pays about a twelfth of its income tax, and has less than one fourteenth of the total retail sales of the country. These comparisons are not mere depression figures. As we well know, the condition existed during the 20's, "when we were almost insane with prosperity. In my own state, at the height of the boom period, 100,000 families had less than 500 dollars a year income and added absolutely nothing to our economic life. The average in per capita retail sales in ten Southern states during 1929 amounted to 237 dollars, and in ten Northern and Western states for the same period the average was a little more than double this amount, 478 dollars. So that, on the average, for every dollar that the Southerner had to spend at the grocery or dry goods store, his Northern neighbor had two dollars. With these low incomes we have had even greater burdens in public service than other areas with the same total population. I refer, for example, to the school situation. Without burdening you with elaborate statistics, let me cite two or three figures that will prove the point. Recent population studies made by Dr. H. A. Dawson reveal that about 60 percent of the net migration from the farms during 1920-30 was from the farms of the South to the cities of the North and South. It is of further significance that since such a large part of the increase in the urban population occurred in the North and East, a large part of the net migration from rural to urban territory was interstate, and is consequently of national concern. The great increase in urban population has

James W. Wadsworth, jr., chairman. ; Printed for the use of the Committee on military affairs. ; Mode of access: Internet.