t - International Brotherhood Of Electrical Workers

I6
No. 1 American labor continues to be agitated
Problem by the vexed problem of unemploymient.
Important light is thrown upon this dire
and stubborn phenomenon by the Monthly Survey of
Business of the American Federation of Labor.
"In October, 1929, the Federal Reserve Board adjusted
index of industrial production stood at 118, and
there were 47,000,000 persons at work in the United
States, with only 1,000,000 unemployed; 10 years
later, in October, 1939, the production index stood
at 120, and there were 44,000,000 at work and 9,000,000
unemployed. In these 10 years, machinery and labor
saving devices had replaced 3,000,000 workers. While
these 3,000,000 jobs were eliminated, 5,000,000 new
workers were added to our working population, making
a total 8,000,000 for whom jobs are needed.
These 8,000,000 new job seekers, added to the
1,000,000 unemployed in October, 1929, make up our
present army of 9,000,000 unemployed.
"The 3,000,000 who are now jobless because of
labor saving devices represent only a part of the
'technological' unemployment dclue to the progress of
the machine. Between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000 more
would have been unemployed today, according to our
estimates, had it not been that their jobs were saved by
shortening the workweek. It is a striking fact that by
taking 10 hours from the workweek, reducing it from
average 50 hours in 1929 to average 40 hours in 1939,
we have prevented technological unemployment from
reaching 6,000,000 and have held it to 3,000,000. This
is an oulstanding achievement equalled in no other
country of the world. It has been accomplished very
largely by voluntary action, first through the President's
Reemployment Agreement in 1933, followed
by NRA codes, then through strong trade union action
by collective bargaining. All these were forms of voluntary
agreements, involving employers, workers and
in the first two cases the government also. Standards
set by these agreements have now been established
by legislation. The Fair Labor Standards Act fixes
42 hours as the legal maximum workweek for all
companies in interstate commerce, recognizing this
standard as accepted practice in our country. This is
The Journal of ELECTRICAL WORKERS and Operalors
an iodstanding example of social adjustment in a
JOURnAL OF
dleneracy. Voluntary agreements, later established
through legislation, have changed one quarter of our
ELECTRICAL WUJORHERS unemployment into leisure and saved nearly 3,000,000
OFFICIAL PuI AgrTiOn IflTERHUTWOIAL BROllhUfAODD Or ELECTRICAL WORWER5jobs.
Voulu,,v 2XXJX Washnnluln, D. C., Frbrlry, 1I(O No, 2
"Hope for the remainling 9.000,000 unemployed lies
in increasing industrial production and gradual further
shortening of work hours. We estimate that industrial
production will have to reach a level at least
25 per cent above that of 1929 ill order to give jobs to
all the unemployed. Such an inlrease in production
would mean a higher general living standard for our
population."
Saving the The general staff planning the cam-
United Front paign of the withering United Front
(the C. I. 0., the communists, the liberals
and cerltain government agencies) foresaw
months ago that the communist penetration oC the
C. I. O. would wreck its standing with the American
people. Hurriedly plans were made to offset this disaster.
The general staff foresaw that it would be
impossible to wipe the stain of communism off the
C. I. 0. escutcheon. Shrewdly, therefore, the general
staff declared, we must tar the A. F. of L.
This process has been going on in a forthright
manner. Every effort that could be put forth has been
used to create the belief in the public mind that the
unions of the A. F. of L. are racketeering unions. The
general staff said, following its policy of rule or ruin,
that if the C. I. 0. was to be tagged as communist, the
A. F. of L. shall be tagged as racketeer.
Whether or not Mr. Thurman Arnold, of the U. S.
Department of Justice, was a conscious tool of this
campaign, by his attack upon the building trades
unions by means of the illegal use of the Sherman
Act, he played directly into the hands of the general
staff. Let us look at the record.
The American Federation of Labor has 4,000,000
members. At the minimum this means 12,000,000 citizens
if we rate a family of three as the present unit
of American life. No one is going to believe that these
sincere, respectable, hardworking unionists are racketeers.
Neither is anyone going to make any thinking
citizen believe that the 150,000 local union officers
manning the 36,000 local unions in the American
Federation of Labor are racketeers. This is too raw
a piece of propaganda even for unsuspecting Americans
to swallow.
Mr. Arnold has brought indictments against many
trade unionists. In New Orleans he has quite frankly
said in effect that A. F. of L. unionists are guilty of
restraint of trade because they do not allow C. I. O.
unionists to deliver goods on the job. Mr. Arnold has
moved against the president of the A. F. of L. Seafarers
union but has refused to move against the presi-