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Speeches; John L. Lewis Endorsement of Wendell Willkie
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Speeches; John L. Lewis Endorsement of Wendell Willkie
-
box: 539
folder: 13
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1940
-
Reuther.
Executive
Address of Walter P.
Member International
Board
and Director, General Motors Department
United Automobile Workers, CIO.
Delivered Wednesday Evenin : October 30, over
Detroit, and Michigan Network$ and Stations WBEN
Indianapolis; WISN Milwaukee; KSD St. Louis.
WXYZ
WFBM
_-—o
a bitter
candidacy
men and
me
te
working
Last
many
Friday
reply
Wendell
to their
Many
thousands
Mr.
I have
came
8 Be
and women:
Delano
Mr.
from
the
lips
Roosevelt,
Lewis
You
appealed
of
Mr.
heard
John
him
particularly
L.
Lewis
commend
to
the
the
laboring
friends.
of
automobile
They
with
labored
to the
years
have
Mr.
realization
the
workers
encountered
best
workers
asked
me
Lewis.
International
segment
of the
of
for
in the
then
officer
freely
have
spoken
they
have
and
to
others
voice
I am glad
the
to
in the
CIO
have
asked
reasons
why
they
differ,
accept
the
of
democratic
opportunity
to
convention
The
textile
workers;
shipbuilders,
Industrial
resolutions
and
United
of many
of
Automobile
mills
Some
and progressive
the
of
problems
our
nation.
years
labor
ago
I
movement
I and my fellow
to
be
an
Workers
speak
as
active
member
and
the
second
of America,
a qualified
leader
of
an
largest
a large
:
not
tonight
of
speak
to
for
the millions
lend
and
their
of the
myself...
in the
through
voices
United
their all
Steel
to
My views
CIO.
their
and
give
against
Mr.
organized
90,000
are
These
elected
their
also
men
and
the
women
officers.
energies
And
for
the
--
they
leader,
the
President
Organizing
Mr.
Workers
have
voted
to
office,
Committee
through
Philip
Murray,
workers;
an
glass
workers;
have
in
their
spoken
for
Willkie.
men's
rubber
wood-workers
Automobile
return
Workers
distinguished
hundreds
other
responsible
I also ‘may
in the
300,000
the
Company.
Motor
been my privilege
give
their
the
Ford
the
organizations
Organizations
Yes,
has
members
to
and
at
steel
Roosevelt,
350,000
Roosevelt
and
shops,
a man,
400,000
and through
President
their
automobile
solution
views
President
The
lodges
I do
to
The
the
in the
orderly,
labor,
through
re-election
and
an
Thus,
chosen
chosen,
Steel
of the
However,
deliberate
it
CIO.
American
worked
that
hopes
Since
affiliate
I have
at Wheeling
offered
of
fe
Buffalo;
a reply.
For
the
ee
men
Franklin
Lewis.
completely,
ee
of you heard
Willkie.
and
to
and
night
on President
of Mr.
women
sharply
make
Fellow Americans,
attack
release in papers of
THURSDAY, OCT. 31, '40
clothing
workers;
and
lumbermen,
have
of thousands
the
spoken
of
open manifestations,
all
for
equal
affiliated
Presidmt
coal
miners,
they
too,
through
have
said
number
the
store
with
the
of
clerks,
Congress
Roosevelt,
local
that
union
the
hope
amd
2- Walter
del. Oct.
of
future
of
re-election
in the
lies
labor
American
one exception,
all the national leaders of the CIO have taken the
Philip
Sidney
Murray,
they, like
Labor
and
the
is as
by their
certainty.
swerved
rank
and
will
tell
you
Thomas,
also
they
why
Interma tional
his
crisis.
takes
Rieve,
James
Carey,
Sherman
of
leaders
great
these
same stand,
H.
and
CIO
the
"Roosevelt."
in the
make
Labor is convinced by the
Roosevelt that he stands for peace and
many bitter social evils which afflict
of
answer,
Roosevelt
labor
Emil
roll
the
happened
has
of votes
millions
J.
Call
for President
strongly
me
file
that
Nothing
Let
from it.
R.
Kennedy.
J.
Philip
Dalrymple,
Hillman,
only
With
President.
great
our
P. Reuther
30, 1940-radio
last
today
week
as it was
re-election
this
changed
has
for
position
in 1932
a third
their
and in 1936;
term
it will
)
and why
position.
a
be
not
record and by the program of President
that he stands for the dlimination of the
I shall speak first of the
our people.
Labor believes with President Roosevelt that the collapse of France,
of Belgium, Denmark, Finland and Greece today carries a warning that cannot be
That warning tells us that — that there are mad dictators loose in the
ignored.
world;
dictators who have inflamed their poor populace with visions of conquest.
These dictators have swarmed over the continent of Europe and today they menace
They edge insidiously close to our own hemisphere, bringing us the threat
England.
of internal division and of attacks on the freedom and the institutions we hold
sacred,
To meet this threat and so that our nation may be powerful enough to
hold the dictators at bey without resort to war, President Roosevelt has prevailed
upon Congress and the nation to construct a mighty defense system.
That system is
now rising and its swift completion will be the protection of all of us.
While building up our air force, our Army and our Navy, President
Roosevelt has taken the position that the greater the assistance we can give
Great Britain, the greater will be the assurance that we can keep the threat of
from our shores and from our people.
war
Americen labor takes its
Americen labor approves of that position,
American lebor
position against Hitler, against Mussolini and against Stalin.
hopes and prays that their comrades in the factories and fields of England will be
able to withstand and hurl back the invader.
And American labor counts as one of the greetest contributions of
President Roosevelt the fact that he has opened for British labor and the British
people the avenues for obtaining the mterials of defensive war.
American labor, in the CIO, in the AFl and unorganized, does not believe
There was e time when John L, Lewis also did not permit
believe in appeasement,
That very speech of President
the impression that he believed in appeasement.
Roosevelt which Mr. Lewis criticised last Friday night -- that courageous plea to
made by President Roosevelt in Chicago -- that speech
"quarantine the aggressors"
wes part and parcel of CIO national policy before Mr. Lewis decided to turn on
President Roosevelt,
The United Automovile Workers, in convention assembled a few months
ago, reiterated its stand against aggressor nations.
The auto workers and all
other CIO workers do not believe in appeasement.
Mr. Lewis now declares that President Roosevelt is an irresponsible
"meddiler"
in international affairs and an "ill-equipped amateur" in government.
But at the 1939 convention of the CIO in San Francisco he urged that America place
its faith in the President on these vital matters.
He did not then consider
Presidént
Roosevelt
a
"meddler."'
He
said
then,
and
I quote,
"No
other
citizen
has knowledge which equals the President's knowledge on the facts which concern
issue of peace, war or neutrality."'
I believe Mr. Lewis was right in 1939, and
that he is wrong today.
I have stated that American labor is convinced that President
record and program will advance in the fight ageinst the social evils, the
insecurity,.
andpove
unemploy
rty
ment.
Ne
President
in the
history
of
our
nation
has
struck
such
the
Roosevelt’
evils of
hammer
blows
3-— Walter
del. Oct.
P. Reuther
30, 1940 —radio
for social justice.
In this process he hae stepped on the toes and rapped the
knuckles of the coupon clippers and speculators.
Worse than that, he has said
that those best able to afford it must pay a proportionate share of the cost of the
crusade against human misery,
If is from this source that there originated the
mythical charge, the scarecrow of "dictatorship,"
and "lust for power."
Labor can easily understand why Wall Street should accuse the President
of shearing them of some of their power.
The President has clipped the wings of
the stock gamblers and filed dovm the claws of the utilizing manipulators;
he has
scourged the exploiters of children and he has tamed the bitter foes of lebor and
unionism,
industry,
America,
little man
He has driven the professional strikebreaker and the labor spy from
Yes, all these have lost some power during the last seven years in
They have lost some rights -- the right to cheat the consumer and the
-— the right to brow-beat labor.
I see
nothing
to
fear
in that.
But what of the mass of the people under President Roosevelt's administration?
Have they felt the loss of liberty?
Have they felt th lash of a
dictater's whip?
The automobile, rubber workers and millions of other workers have
a law which has driven the spy end the strikebreaker from their plants;
they now
heve labor unions for the first time in our history; their wages have risen from
2) cents to an average of 95 cents an hour.
What rights have they lost under the
New Deal?
The steel workers, for half a century serfs of arrogant and violent
antji~labor corporations ~ have they lost any rights under President Roosevelt?
The steel towns of Pennsylvania where once laboring men walked in terror of private
ermies of the corporations, now have large flourishing industrial unions which
brought them great wage gains and better jobs.
For the first time today they are
free men.
What freedom has President Roosevelt usurped from them?
gun—thugs,
towns.
they
are
Yes, the members
the robbery of the
These
free
things
have
Americans,
of the United Mine
company stores and
vanished
since
1933.
Workers also knew the terror of the
the slavery of the closed company
Like
the
auto
and
steel
workers,
The charge of dictatorship is a false cry raised to concenl the wails
of the exploiters of the people.
The wrkingmen and women of America do not know
dictatorship - except in isolated spots where the Fords, the Weirs and the Girdlers,
friends of Mr. Wendell Willkie, still prevail in their defiance of lew and decency.
President
Roosevelt
is taxed with failure
to end unemployment,
We
must admit that the unemployment problem, one of our gravest, is far from solution,
Mr. Lewis, like most well*informed labor leaders, knows the reason for that.
We
have for years urged that the technical improvement of machinery calls for a shorter
work week, and for increasing the consuming power of the people.
The stumbling
block in achieving these things was not the Roosevelt administration.
The barrier
was the substantial men of finance end big business, the friends of Mr. Willkie.
These men who now charge for political reasons, that President Roosevelt has failed
to solve the unemployment problem, are th: same ones who have raised loud weils of
dictatorship when he proposed legislation to reduce hours of work and to put a floor
under wages,
It would be foolish for us to turn for a solution of unemployment to
the very men whose greed has brought us that problem,
While steadily breaking down the opposition thet has blocked many of
his attempts at vital reform, President Roosevelt has decreed for the first time in
our country that no man or woman or child shall starve because business does not have
the capacity to organize industry on a steady, productive basis that will provide
jobs for all of our people.
President Roosevelt has seen to it that relief, where
needed, was forthcoming.
He has put the unemployed to work on great government
projects, all intended to ease the burdens thet rest on the ill-housed, the
ill-clothed and the ill-fed.
Beyond that, the President , as petitioned by the CIO,
has pledged to call a conference of industry, labor and government to see whether
something basic cannot be done to end the evil of unemployment,
I come now to Mr, Willkie.
Mr. Lewis
would make a constructive executive of our nation.
many promises at face value,
If labor by any chance
says
We
he is a gallant man, one who
are asked to take Mr. Willkids
considered casting its vote for Mr. Willkie,
labor would hove to vote on that besis because promises are all tmt Mr. Willkie has
to offer.
He has no record of public service,
Where is his performance on social
insurance?
on housing?
on public education?
end on labor welfare?
If he has any
public record on these things, his diligent press agents have certainly not
discovered them,
4 ~ Walter P, Reuther
del,
There
are
a
few
in
items
Mr.
Willkie's
clue on how much his pre-election promises are
friend of labor and that he sincerely believes
business
career
which
Mr. Willkie says
worth.
in collective bargaining.
~radio
1940
30,
Oct.
give
he
is
a
a
But several of his utility firms hired informers, spies, private
Mr. Willkie's Consumers
mercenaries, to work agdinst the interests of labor.
Power Company of Michigan helped finance a fake labor sheet, which demanded repeal
Mr. Willkie's Ohio Edison Company repudiated promises of old
of the Wagner Act.
Mr. Willkie was a
age pensions which had been made its employees for 20 years.
member of the board of directors which voted to welch the promise and to turn aged
workers out without their pensions,
But he has
Mr. Willkie says he believes in collective bargaining.
none other that
praised as "a man who made America" and as a "hero of America,"
It was at
Mr. Tom M, Girdler, the most blatant foe of labor of our generation.
Mr. Girdler's Republic Steel Company in Chicago, on Memorial day, 1937, that eleven
CIO workers were shot and clubbed to death.
The time is past when labor's votes can be
Labor knows these facts.
millionaire
won by a political trapeze artist, a synthetic liberal dreamed up by
advertising man Bruce Barton and financed by the Weirs, the Girdlers and the Fords.
spite
is
at
or the
stake.
votes
Nor will American Lebor's
hatred of one man,
There
are
issues
compelling
this
in the
year
land.
be
influenced
All
that
labor
While dictators threaten our world from afar, home-grown
But American
despots long for the special privileges of yesteryear.
The issue is wholly and simply:
not turn back.
Roosevelt
American
or
reaction!
labor
will
take
Roosevelt!
ft # tf
by the
has
personal
gained
would-be
labor wll
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