OCR Text |
Show (Keleased by Western Newspaper Union.) INDUSTRIAL SABOTAGE AND THE AMERICAN SYSTEM WE AMERICANS, the people of the cities, towns and farms, have a vital interest in the labor turmoil throughout the nation. As taxpayers, we are interested in the terrific increase in cost of the preparedness program these strikes involve and which we must pay. As consumers, we are interested in the increased costs of the things we must buy. But our greatest interest is in the effect it may have on our system of government, on our way of life, on our future as a nation. A part, a small part, of the turmoil tur-moil is occasioned by an honest effort ef-fort on the part of labor leaders to better conditions of the working classes, to increase their standard of living. With that small part the vast majority of American people will have no objection, will offer no protest. Another part, and a large part, is occasioned by gangsters, not working work-ing men, who have seized control of labor organizations and who are seeking personal profit from the agitation agi-tation they create. All too many of the labor organizations are today controlled by such gangsters, who are collecting vast sums from the working classes and reporting to no one but themselves. Another part, also a large part, and one in which we Americans are especially concerned, is occasioned by fifth columnists who would, through created labor difficulties, change our form of government, our way of life. Representative Dies, after long and careful investigation, tells us the Communist party is attempting, through the creation of industrial strife, to socialize American industry indus-try and remodel it on the Russian plan. Former Ambassador Bullitt tells us that because of these industrial conflicts, we are headed for the fate i that befell France. ( It is the part of the industrial turmoil tur-moil engendered by these alien isms that is our greatest concern. We object ob-ject to the sabotaging of that sys- -tem, that way of life which has made us the most prosperous people, with the highest standard of living of any nation on earth. America cannot countenance such alien methods. Our political leaders of all parties should realize the vast majority of all of us laboring men, farmers, manufacturers, merchants, I all are strenuously opposed to a continuance of the activities of the adherents of any European ism in their efforts to destroy us; that we demand legislation to stop the calling call-ing of unjustified strikes, the underlying under-lying purpose of which is to undermine under-mine the American system of government gov-ernment The fifth columnist and the gangster gang-ster will go to all lengths to gain their ends. There is no place in American labor organizations for either of these. ... OH FOR THE FOOD OF THE 1941 SOLDIER IT IS A LONG JUMP from "canned willie," salt pork, boiled spuds, boiled beans, hardtack and cheap coffee to roast duck, turkey, ribs of beef and Yorkshire pudding, asparagus tips, au gratin potatoes, ladyflngers, lemon meringue pie, cream puffs, and all the other delicacies deli-cacies which can be found on a Waldorf-Astoria menu. That represents the difference between be-tween soldiering in 1898 and soldiering soldier-ing in 1941. I was soldiering in 1898 and as I see the difference, am sorry sor-ry I am past the draft age in 1941. Well do I remember how, as a cavalry troop officer, I confiscated a box of cake, cookies and other sweets which a fond mother sent to her son, because the doctors told me no soldier could eat such food and survive the rigors of a soldier's life and work. As I see the luxurious barracks constructed for our soldiers of today, to-day, I recall how I was threatened with a court-martial because I had taken the dividend my troop received re-ceived from the regimental canteen to buy lumber for floors In our troop tents so the men might get out of the mud and stay out of the hospitals. hos-pitals. That Is another difference between soldiering in 1S98 and soldiering sol-diering in 1941. In 1898 the "top kick" assigned the dumbest men of the troop the men who could not do "fours right" and "fours left" to the kitchen as cooks. Now they give company cooks a special schooling, teach them all about calorics and vitamins, vita-mins, before they permit them to cook, and for cooking they pay them extra money. What a jump from 1898 to 1941. Even as late as 1918, rations were not tops, but they had Improved as compared to 1898. I stopped one day for a meal with a Texas out tit In France just before the close of the first World war, and It consisted of a beef stew the host beef stew I ever nte. and better than anything one could get in Kngland at the time. I thought It was the best soldier food ever heard of, but it did not compare with tho things our soldier boys are being served today. Who would not want to be a aol-dler? |