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Labor Looks South


ISSUE:  Autumn 1939

Labor is most eager that there shall be established in the South a sound understanding of organized labor, its aims and its aspirations. Labor has much to offer to the South, and those who would have that rich land be a land of happy and secure citizens have an obligation to listen well to labor’s program.

Labor seeks for the South what it seeks for the nation as a whole—that it shall become a land of happy, secure people endowed with the right to work, to live, to be healthy, to educate their children. We want the people to enjoy the riches this great nation has to offer. Organized labor represents, after all, only the sum total of the hopes and aspirations of its members. In seeking the welfare of those who work for wages, it is our belief that labor also promotes the well-being of all other elements in the community.

Labor believes that long-run economic stability in a nation, or any section of a nation, is based upon the power of the people to buy what they can produce. And so we believe that for the South, the fundamental consideration is the establishment of sufficient purchasing power among its people to enable them to enjoy the fruits of what they are able to produce. That would mean real riches, for the South is a land full of great opportunity to produce those things by which man, economically at least, lives.

The South, predominantly agricultural, has been the victim of what might be called a mercantilist policy. It has suffered for many years from the fact that its raw materials must be shipped away from the area, manufactured afar, and returned to be sold in the South for profits that have never stayed there. The result has been a constant drain on the South and its people, so that now this region is held in financial bondage to other sections of the nation. The South has paid too much out of the riches of its soil and the blood of its people for the right to exist.

Now a new factor enters the scene. The poverty of the Southern people is being exploited by large capital, most of which derives from the great Northern industrial centers. This capital seeks to exploit the poverty of the South by calling its poverty-stricken millions to work in factories at sweatshop wages—wages which any decent man ought to be ashamed to pay. The output of these plants, created in the main by underpaid workers, is placed in profitable competition with the output of better organized and better paid workers in the North. The strength and health of Southern workers are sacrificed for this profit, but most of it does not go to the South. It does not stay in the communities where it is created. It moves out to the financial centers, leaving the Southern people drained of the purchasing power which they have earned and which they need.

The country already possesses accurate information, such as that outlined in the “Report on Economic Conditions in the South,” prepared at President Roosevelt’s request by the National Emergency Council, which substantiates this analysis. There is no need to burden this account with detailed statistics.

This must not be taken to mean that labor is opposed to the development of the South’s resources—quite the contrary. Labor simply believes that the price must not be the exploitation of the South. If the South’s resources are to be developed, they must be developed under such conditions that the resultant riches will mean food and clothes and houses and schools for the common people of the South. Labor believes that such conditions can be guaranteed only by the organization of labor and by the cooperation of all progressive forces in the South with labor in a common program dedicated to the welfare of the people.

II

The long struggle of the workers to organize themselves extends all through the history of the capitalist system; it has created in the workers a deeply ingrained conviction that in no other way than by self-organization can the working people hope to collect their fair share of the system’s production. Unless the wage earners are so organized that they can require, as a condition of producing, that they be given a fair share in terms of wages, they will inevitably get too little. And so it is that for many decades, those who work for their living have built their hopes, their security, upon organization.

There are many consequences that can be considered effects of labor organizations. The first is that the economy, the community, or the nation can be progressively stabilized as the general working population becomes able to consume more. And when the people can consume more they work better; they live better; they are happier; they are better citizens.

When the laboring man in industry is organized, then it becomes possible to aid employers to carry on their operations with stable labor costs. In unorganized industries, under modern conditions, competition between employers is too often based upon the race to see who can pay labor the least. This kind of competition always penalizes the good employer and rewards the most vicious employer. It has also introduced into business calculations a serious element of uncertainty as to costs over an extended period of time. When an industry is organized, it is possible to establish standard wage costs, thus enabling manufacturers to compete upon the basis of efficiency and sales capacity. That is the area in which there should be competition. A notable example of how the organization of labor has brought stability to an industry is in the manufacture of clothing. There, until organized labor arose, chaos existed for everyone. Confusion was the keynote and bitter poverty the result. Those days are gone now, because the industry is organized.

Such benefits for industry are what the organization of labor offers to the Southern textile industry, to mention one example. Labor seeks to substitute the law of peace and order for the law of tooth and fang that now rules. When labor seeks to organize itself as it is now doing in the South, it brings with success the train of benefits which I have mentioned. If labor’s efforts to organize are met with understanding and sympathy in the South, we firmly believe that there will be profound benefits to that section of the nation.

To those who mold public opinion in the South, to those who lead its thought from press and platform, the C. I. O. has a challenge to offer. We challenge them to examine with care the C. I. O., its principles, its leadership, and its members. We ask them to seek out the facts and not to be deceived by false propaganda. We ask them to look into the C. I. O.’s history, how it was created and what it has done. We ask them to judge these things in the light of the welfare of the common people of the nation. If they will accept this challenge, we are convinced that they will become ardent supporters of labor. Such support is not partisanship; it is the result of judgment.

III

The C. I. O. believes that our economy can be so operated that poverty and unemployment will disappear. It seems certain, indeed, that if our democracy and our economic system are to continue, we must solve the problems presented by those twin evils of poverty and unemployment.

Labor is firm in the faith that the nation can provide employment and security for all its citizens. We believe that with its resources, its machinery, and its ingenuity, the United States can some day provide an average income of three to five thousand dollars to every productive worker. The workers are available. The land, the resources, and the machines are here. The plants and productive equipment stand ready to achieve such a goal. The difficulties that lie in the way of the realization of such a welcome state are artificial.

Full production in the modern economy is based on effective consuming power. Consuming power must be able at all times to absorb the full production of our economy. Broadly speaking, it is the lack of adjustment between consuming power and productive capacity that finally brings us face to face with the paradox of plenty in a land where many people are ill housed, ill clothed, and ill fed. The growth of production beyond effective consuming power results in an abrupt cut in production and the immediate cessation of the expansion of productive capacity. The contraction of consuming power below production gives the same effect. The final result of both movements is depression and unemployment. What we should strive for is a continually increasing production at full capacity, balanced by a continually increasing consumption.

It is labor’s conviction that in order to balance our economy at the point of full production and to hold it there, certain things need to be done. First, there must be greatly increased economic action by organized workers to raise their wages and reduce their hours. The share of the national income which goes to wages must be much greater than it is now. As wages increase and provide increasing purchasing power, hours must be lowered to increase employment. In order to take this kind of action, workers must be accorded full rights to collective bargaining. That is why legislation such as the National Labor Relations Act is so important, Fitting into this kind of economic action we need legislation that will reduce hours, raise wages, and prevent sweatshop labor.

Second, it is clear that our economy, as it now operates, suffers from the fact that consuming power continually slips behind production. Only government contributions to the general consumer income can guarantee at the present time a continuing movement towards economic balance. Government contributions need to be intelligently planned, because in making such expenditures, the government simply takes on the role of investor. It provides investments at those times and in those places when and where private investment fails. This does not mean that government investment takes the place of private investment; it simply acts as a complement to it.

Third, attention must be given to the increasingly rapid replacement of men by machines. There has just been published a government study that indicates that only a marked decrease in the work week or a great increase in production can assure the continuation of manufacturing employment at the present level or return it to the level of 1929. Not only is technological unemployment increasing in manufacturing, but the process is also going forward rapidly in mining and in agriculture. We must solve this difficulty. Labor believes that this situation can be solved only by guaranteeing that technological changes take place at an even rate— a rate which must be compensated for by reductions in hours of work. Furthermore, there is great need for the stabilization of farm income at a level that will guarantee at least the cost of production to farmers.

In addition to these adjustments, labor believes in the necessity of readjusting the tax structure, regulating excessive debt on the part of large corporations, and stabilizing both producers’ and consumers’ credit.

It is in such terms that labor conceives of a program to create a sound American economy. It is perfectly clear that this kind of program must be based upon the effective organization of labor and upon increasing political activities from those who believe in this kind of program.

In the promotion of this kind of program, labor has of course interested itself in the political and legislative problems of the nation. It has sought to promote and then to protect legislation giving workers the right to bargain collectively. Upon this right depends the success of all the rest of labor’s program, and therefore we must regard sound legislation in this field as the most important. We have encouraged legislation to provide work for the unemployed, for it seems to us that the right to a job is a fundamental American right. We have endorsed and supported increases in unemployment compensation and in old-age pensions, because we believe it is a function of the economic system to provide security for those who lose their jobs and for the aged. We are urging the establishment of systems of public health assistance and insurance. We have supported the Farm Security Administration and other measures intended to give the farmers at least the cost of production for their products. We have urged legislation to equalize educational opportunity. And this is only a partial list.

IV

We believe that the South’s future is tied up integrally with that of the nation as a whole. Therefore, the extension of labor’s program to the nation as a whole means the progress of the South as well as that of other sections of the country.

Labor is aware of certain difficulties peculiar to the South. We realize, for example, that national economic policy has established in the South a condition which has forced the South to buy in a protected market and sell in an unprotected market. We realize, also, that there is much to be said with regard to the difficulty on the part of the South in competing because of the freight rate structure. There is no doubt that inequities of this kind must be wiped out and that to wipe them out is a delicately balanced process, one that must be accomplished with great care. If the competitive inequities are corrected for the South in tariffs and freight rates before they are corrected in wages, workers in other sections of the nation will be faced with wage slashes, for which the excuse of the threat of Southern competition will be used. But we recognize that the other side of the coin is much the same. Certainly labor will be most reasonable in cooperating to establish an all-around equitable situation for the development of Southern industries. However, labor is firmly convinced that unless the development of Southern industries is accompanied by the organization of labor and the resultant establishment of decent wage standards, the whole South will be degraded for many decades.

No fundamental democratic solution of the South’s problems can be reached until the South realizes the necessity for the organization of labor. We believe there is a rapidly growing recognition of this right. The progressive leaders of the South are coming more and more to understand that the future progress of their section is inextricably intertwined with the well-being of its workers, organized into constructive, peaceful unions.

Side by side with the right to organize stands the right to vote. Labor believes that no nation or any part of a nation can fully realize all that must be realized in a democracy without giving all its citizens the right to vote without hindrance. We have faith in the judgment of the people to do what is best for them in the long run. Through their vote they must express their judgment.

In modern civilization the right to vote must be as broad as the right to citizenship. To restrict the right to vote by poll taxes or by property taxes is, in these days, to cut off from democratic expression an important segment of the population. Unless this segment of the population receives the right to express itself by voting in the American democratic way, it will sooner or later find itself forced into expression through undemocratic ways. It is against that contingency that an extension of the right to vote can guard us.

Labor is well aware, too, that the South has a vast reservoir of rural people, multiplying rapidly, but unable to make a living on the land. They press heavily upon the labor market. For them, too, the solution is very difficult. In part it lies in the stabilization of Southern agriculture; in part it lies in the increased development of Southern industry; and in part it lies with all those measures that will give the old a chance to stop work and the young a chance to be educated.

While such measures are being put into effect it is unsound policy from every point of view to allow the existence of such workers pressing upon the market to act as an excuse for paying all Southern workers a wage below the American standard. It will be necessary to pay, under the protection of legislation and labor organization, higher wages than would be accepted in the open market. Certainly that should be recognized, for in such measures lies the only way to establish a higher standard of living and of consumption for the common man in the South.

There is no section of the nation where natural resources and climate and population hold greater promise of a happy civilization than in the thirteen states we usually call the South. The South has great rivers and forests and extensive mines and quarries. It has a vast native-born population whose history is filled with great traditions. Only the most tragic blunder can prevent these great assets from creating in the South a great modern economy.

Labor believes that it has a signal part to play in the establishment of such a society. It wants to cooperate. It wants to join with those leaders of the South who have the same dream, always helping, sometimes, we believe, showing the way. If the South will help labor, labor will help the South.

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