New Pittsburgh Courier from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • Page 6

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SATURDAY, AUGUST 1, 1943 LABOR AT THE CROSSROADS The half million organized colored workers undoubtedly read with alarm the warning given by Wayne Lyman Morse, so called public member of the War Labor Board, at its meeting last week, that the laws against treason will be applied to anyone in a labor organization who tries to bring about work stoppage over Jurisdictional disputes. Nor were they reassured when three days later Roger D. Lapham and Cyrus Ching, industry members or tne WLB, called upon Labor to live up to its no strike vow and appoint an arbiter a specific jurisdictional dispute on pain of government intervention. These are straws in the wind and they indicate in which 'direction the wind is blowing. i Labor today seems to be at the crossroads, faced with the momentous problem or deciding wnetner or not it wiu accept government dictation and control.

There is a war in progress with the earth as the stake, and Labor wants to win that war in order to preserve its nation, its independence of action and its very identity. On the other hand, Labor is reluctant to surrender its independence of action for fear it may never get it back, being frankly skeptical of the self sacrificing patriotism and good intentions oi many ot tne ersiwnne iuuusiia, financiers, merchants and corporation lawyers who are heading the managerial revolution in Washington. Labor realizes that it is only a short step from a jurisdictional strike treasonable to considering ANY strike treasonable; the reasons ior outlawing tne one being as cogent as the reasons for outlawing the other, so far as the central authority is concerned. It is chiefly a matter of opinion, and things being as they are, Labor has a good idea what and whose opinion will prevail. There is a widespread feeling in the ranks of organized labor that once the rieht to strike is surrendered, it will eventually lose all the advantages and privileges gained by a century of This Is not, of course, a racial problem specifically, but It nevertheless concerns a half million colored workers, three fifths of whom have entered the ranks of organized Labor since 1937 and profited by increased wages, shorter hours and vacations with pay.

Undoubtedly Labor would be more willing to relinquish its prerogatives if the vast war production effort were be it is the scrap that will REALLY beat the i mi Axis" by unifying tne diverse popuiauon uiee 1 1 llll United States. JUJL Tf no crathor if nil im wherever it mav be. con vert it into hard striking power and send it abroad to beat the DICTATORSHIPS that are threatening our democracy. A few months ago we were asked to contribute our scrap ALUMINUM to be converted into bombers to blast the Axis factories out of existence. We have been asked to collect all of our scrap IRON to be converted into ships and tanks to bring Germany, Japan and Italy to their knees in quick order.

We have been urged to save all our TIN cans and tubes and turn them over to be used in necessary war production. At the present time we are being asked to locate all the scrap RUBBER we can and turn it over to the authorities so that it may be converted into tires for use on peeps, jeeps, trucks and command cars. We are glad to COLLECT all this scrap and anything else we can find which will be useful in the WAR EFFORT, and deliver it for use in the war effort. We realize that our whole FUTURE is involved in the current struggle for world power in which the future course of events will be shaped for a thousand years td come. We know that if we lose this war we shall lose EVERYTHING that we cherish to ruthless forces bent on world domination.

But there is ONE kind of scrap which is not being collected rapidly enough nor thoroughly enough. Unless we clean up all THAT kind of scrap the other scrap collection will be of no avail. Abraham Lincoln said that a nation DIVIDED against itself cannot survive, and this is as true today as it was ing more largely directed by its elected officials with indus tnalists and managers subordinated to them rather than the other way around. The slowly gathering drive for a ceiling on wages, ostensibly to halt inflation, does nothing to weaken Labor's apprehension. HE1L RANKIN! Soldiers and sailors of the United States are risking their lives on a dozen battlefronts across the face of the earth, but Representative Rankin of Mississippi struggled hard last week to prevent them from voting in the Novem ber elections.

He and his poll tax compatriots from the lower South fought all day on the floor of Congress against what Rankin called "the beginning of an attempt to destroy the election laws of the States." The fear of the Rankinazis was that through the pro posed law, the black men risking their lives on land and sea might be privileged to cast ballots for candidates In the forthcoming election with possible dire results for the in cumbents who now misrepresent them In Congress. Rankin harmd that the orovisions of the DrODOsed law violated the rights of sovereign States, and his associated Rankinazis echoed him at every turn, to the disgust oi representatives from democratic areas who naturally fav ored the bill. Nevertheless, the tactics of the Rankinazis succeeded, for while the House passed the bill, It protected the poll tax in eight States against wartime suspension by a to vote. So black soldier who has faced hell in New Guinea, Egypt, England or Australia, and a black sailor who has withstood showers of bombs, will not be able to vote In the next election In the poll tax States unless they remembered to pay the tax out of low wages or no wages before being drafted or enlisting to fight for democracy. The unreconstructed South has won another victory.

Hell Ranklnt i 7J "zrzzr 34 VvCr it'll lVl Main Office 2628 Centre Avenue at Francis Street Telephone: Mayflower 1401 Pittsburgh. Pa. Published at Pittsburgh, Pa every Saturday by THE PITTSBURGH COURIER PUBLISHING COMPANY, Ino. ROBERT L. VANN, EDITOR (ME MORI A IN AETERNA) RATES: ti 00 Per Year in Advance; St JO Per Sim Months in Advance; Single Copy, lOo when Lincoln said it.

Lincoln also said that a nation cannot exist half slave and half free, and that is ALSO as true today as when he said it. Our country's effort today is HANDICAPPED by the existence of a whole lot of scrap which divides the people of this nation. Because of the existence of this scrap material, PART of our nation is enslaved and the other part is only half free and tied to the enslaved portion. Division spells DEFEAT. This scrap material lies EVERYWHERE, getting in our way, impeding our progress, holding up the war ef fort, making real national unity impossible.

The American people are DIVIDED today by a fal lacious theory of race, by laws which DISCRIMINATE against millions of citizens, bv educational inequalities based on color, by political DISFRANCHISEMENT based on so called race, by housing discrimination against citi zens classed as Negroes, by job inequalities and social ostracism based on a vicious BLOOD THEORY. This is the scrap which covers this country and makes ultimate VICTORY impossible. The President has urged the collection of all OTHER kmds of scrap to beat the Axis. nese. Let us collect this OTHER scrap which endangers our existence and convert it into materials which will DEFEAT our enemies.

This PREJUDICE and hate now directed against one tenth of the American population can better serve our cause by being directed against Nazis, Fascists and Japa Let U3 save America by gathering it all up, ridding our nation of its damaging effects and preventing it from ever accumulatmg agam. A DEMOCRATIC, EFFICIENT UNION In the very near future workmen in the Tennessee Coal, Iron Railroad Company will have an opportunity to vote for a collective bargaining agency, at a National Labor i i i rri 1 subsidiaries. It is to those workmen which we direct this EDITORIAL rJTCrCfm WEEKLY "Any man who is good enough offer his life in defense of his country is entitled to a square deal from that country. No man should ask for more. No man should receive less, mouvw Illustrated By HOLLOWAY By GEORGE S.

SCHUYLER TJi column represents the personal opinion nr and in no way reflects the 'editorial cpii. The Pittsburgh Courier, The Editor: fifvn Along with Horace Cayton and Marjorie K. cerned about the future of hte NAACP. thr Mai. movement, and the general leadership of the current crisis.

Mr. Cayton reports that the ier. r. was Just another talkfest ending with the usual can well believe It, knowing the whole routine fiom However I do not share the Cayton view that the ington movement is any threat to the NAACP. m.

It seems to me to be time for som whole matter of leadership, and I am glad that it more careful Analysis. The March On Washington movement is A. Philip Randolph knows how to appeal to the emotlnn.i rf to get a great following together, but there his cause he has nowhere to lead them and would not Every person has his or her limitations, and of com his. He has the Messianic complex, considerable am; some understanding of the plight of the masses, hvt capacity and executive ability required for the hu. ij simply not there.

The original March On Washin. admitted to have been failure else the current i be necessary. Moreover there is no organizational set administrative ability to keep the M. O. W.

movem.n: tloning. Organization is not merely a matter of baKy! It is a science, and one that is largely a closed book Mass leadership in times like these also requires a than any of the Negro leaders possess. I know of r. Nehru and Gandhi, to go to Jail. The March On Washington' movement is no tht at but that Js not saying so much for the NAACP.

i about how many Negroes Garvey organized, the fn. the NAACP has organized more Negroes for any movement in American Negro history. Howe; i 1 i V' i after 30 years it can muster no more than 13,000,000 people is a sad reflection on its program :i.i i. j. It could have had and should have a million morula bornly persists in pursuing a course that fails to imagination or the support of the wide masses of ture which was basically bad in 1909 when it wan been changed.

It is still doing something FOR WITH them. It has been against all those things Aframerlran Is against, but it has construed dvan' t.r rowiy. ji nas oecome Known as a protest organiza'ion. a.n on the defensive, waiting for something to happen. W'l.

i'. irv tTr.M it has launched have been none tod impressive. ine jmaai surrers tne ir.itJaj nandicap as a of being run by a self perpcluatlng oligarchy which r.rr. have no means of swerving or influencing. Consri'ji r.

responsive to the wishes of its members as It would i cratic. Effective opposition to any administrative polin. Impossible. Tne Association is swathed heavily in the n.ant:. t.

and is still run as if we were back in the dear, I a i after World War I. It the great opportunity it I a sent the Negro workers of the country within the Lafx It "slept" the great opportunity to foster and dir' rt a v. consumer co operative education and organization airnz Nr It failed, until recent years, to have any sort of youth r.r now that it has one it has no program. Its eduratinn! j': i been scarcely visible and extremely inefficient. AIthy.ih Negroea are in agriculture, it has never had any pr.viam save to protest the broiling of some hapless oaf.

It Htr.pt educational equality has been a real bright spot, v. It is positive and touches masses of people V.h tuns Negroes In domestic service, however, it has machinery for them. and efficient unions in America," As a group we have been advancing two steps n. three. Segregation Is more nationwide than ever he Thf theory" is more ramcant than vr.

Social nf racism the the day almost everywhere and racial pollution lv s't: statutes. So far we have discovered no techniaue ec and plead, but now that we have been told that an end and equality is "out." war or no war, what a. 1J Most prominent Negroes have embraced Jim crow th although the masses seeth with unrest. Will either th Washington or the NAACP leaders now come forwar.1 us ah manhood citizenship rizhts and nrivileces we to co operate?" Many embittered, bewildered black some such statement from Negro leadership. They h.v.' or at least they feel that way.

If "they lose hope i what then? The workmen in the Tennessee Companv arc quainted with Mr. Noel Beddow, director of th 1 '5f workers' in the South, and his staff. Their in ie ir.e' nciiiuuzjs oudru ciccuun. xuia tuctuuu is uiie a aeries i at the properties of the United States Steel CorporaUon. "1 sucn election neia to aate nas gone overwneimmgiy VC in favor of the United Steelworkers of America, an affiliate eF wrmen the TCI, we of the CIO, which is headed by Philip Murray, one of the ffarsv i OWT1 g0d' JL Nation: Vote in favor of tho TTmter? st vA ii America! Thousands of Negroes are employed in the Tennessee Company; more thousands are employed other U.S.

Steel A GLOOMY REPORT message. Th "Vnticnoi tvj, vari The United Steelworkers of America, formerly the oinHnn enmntof ri.itr AM Steel Workers' Organizing Committee, is the only union Lf. eIn ever to unionize the gigantic steei maustry. mere are nearly 1.000 steel companies under contract, which employ in aeiense employment and the organs nearly 600.000 workmen. Wages of steel workers have been I'alr EmpIojTnent Practice Committee.

raised to the point where the common labor rate is the same While the Urban League report shows thai I Iirr as the average rate of six years ago! And the Union has been an in of i rr 1 m. IIT lil.l Ill trill, mnii. just won anouier ov2ni wBo uuie crimln tlon hnh i Steel which it wall extend to United States Steel companies. rruA TTirt a fnofino Ttror cr, ther, growing number of Negroes employed by tli seniority, in winning vacations, in establishing machinery ulIier ueparanents, it also shows inadequate '1 to settle grievances peacefully is equally impxjessive. ueicnse training facilities In the South ami im The publishers of this paper in Pittsburgh are well greater degree of unemployment of Necroos in acquainted with Mr.

Murray and many other leaders of this urban areas. Union. We know that they are out to improve the welfare Thin wnnrt. hii eow.tni, nthuM vS of AL.L. the workers in steel 're erardless of race on creed.

fh 'ILT vou nil I i mem i wn ww wm sm vnnii sss" rw aawa vill It is noteworthy to recall what the National War Labor and In view of Its findings there Is no womW thai Board said about' the United Steelworkers of America, in MarchOn Washlngton group is talking about anl'r tn iicuiuuiK rv ia uie li vviih cr ammv wm uu uvl3 ua unnpinfr innur ina muiiitq unir i i This is worth remembering: 'The Union asking for security In this case Is worthy of the freedom and responsibility of a voluntary and binding maintenance of union membership and check off. The United Steelworkers of America, on the record, is one of the most democratic, responsible a year ago when the fint murrh frat'iwil i on. Of ennna 14 1. At At I 'rll'l I'S wma Bva iL mm 1 1 1 I. i iin iniHiii iiiri in iiir to issue a report to, comfort pessimist, but it the facts, and nnf nlatnt nlthoull n'1 t..