Rise of a Labor Leader Rise of a Labor Leader
Sidney Hillman, Statesman of American Labor by Matthew Josephson Matthew Josephson's book about Sidney Hillman is probably as complete in its coverage of the details of Hillman's life as any biogaphy could be. Certainly a most interesting life was led by this Lithuanian-born boy who utilized hs great native intelligence, his basically sound education, and his practical mind to become an important labor leader in the United States and in his later pears played a part in some of the political crises which accompanied the great depression of the '30's and the Second World War. Mr. Josephson's book is very thorough; large parts of it appear to be based on notes kept either by a) Hillman or b) those close to him during his years of political activity and hi5 struggle for trade-union leadership. It gives detailed information on how the problems must have appeared to Hillman and those working with him atthe time. In reading this book many will find themselves wishing that Hillman could have lived to write his own memoirs from a detached post-activity point of view; his long-term evaluation of the situation would then have emerged. For the reader concerned with the rise of the new type of labor union in the United States this book is invaluable. The account of Hillman's first years and of the beginnings of the new clothing workers' unions is realistic and well documented and offers a convincing picture of the attitude of the general public, of industry, and of the working people themselves toward the union movement in the early 1900's. Perhaps the most appealing section of the book is that headed Boyhood and Youth, a period which most of Hillman's later acquaintances knew nothing about. The picture of the Jewish community in Lithuania and Russia, of the struggles of some young idealists to escape from oppression, gives the reader an understanding of basic drives which were to carry not only Hillman but others into the larger labor movement of the United States. One realizes from the beginning that Hillman's life in the labor movement was one of constant warfare. The abortive labor movement in Russia, Hillman's flight under the assault of reactionaries, the early conflicts in Chicago, when his efforts to found a union outside the domination of the old A. F. of L. garment workers' unions led to the death or injury of several participants -- all were marked by violence and intrigue. The author uses the phrase "contained excitement" in several places to describe whatothers also recognized as an element in Hillman's courageous energy. Although the warfare of the early days appeared to subside as the new unions gained strength and public recognition of their usefulness, Hillman was constantly involved in struggle, first with the Reds or extreme radicals within the union and later with racketeers who crept into the union and made alliances with gangs on the outside. This was real warfare with guns and street fighting, shocking to the general public and only now described from the point of view of the Amalgamated unions and Hillman himself. Basically, the fight was to prevent the non-union shops from infringing on the jurisdiction of the Amalgamated and its contracts with employers. The affiliation of some union members with racketeers was perhaps the hardest blow ever dealt Hillman. The whole era in which Hillman worked to get public support and understanding for the labor unions is one of great interest. His almost intuitive understanding of publicity and of the way to obtain the attention and cooperation of elements of society not connected with industrial problems is well described here. Hillman won the approval of intellectual groups throughout the country by his development of services for union members which proved to be a binding force for union loyalty as well as a method of improving their standard of living. The setting up of banks in New York and other centers of the garment industry -- not just saving accounts but real banks which took commercial accounts and lent money on good security -- the entrance of unions into the field of buildmg and operating housing projects for their members, the development of educational and other welfare programs with union funds, all these brought benefits to the Amalgamated unions. The author credits Hillman with the introduction of these ideas. The action of the union in lending money to a depressed employer so that he might stay in business and give employment to union members was, of course, one of the brilliant uses of the union's banking facilities. The author stresses the fact that the Amalgamated banks did not go under in the great depression and that they paid every cent to their depositors in the bank holiday. The second half of the book, dealing with Hillman in his Washington or Political period, will arouse more controversy among trade unionists who did not agree with Hillman. The abortive effort to affiliate the Amalgamated with the A. F. of L., the formation of the C. I. O , the conflicts that developed in the C.I.O. and the battle between the C. I. 0. and the A. I. of L. are sketched but not so completely developed as Hillman's earlier life and union activities. Hillman's entrance into the federal government and involvement in administrative matters explain the meager documentation of this section. Undoubtedly he had no time for the notes and analytical comments which made the first half of the book so illuminating. Mr. Josephson has discharged his task well and the book will be widely read. It will be of great value to students of the labor movement and will be interesting to persons who are concerned only with an understanding of history. One could wish there had been more material available on the very last phase of Hillman's life and his reasons for taking part in the formation of the World Federation of Trade Unions. Hillman's ideas with regard to this and the degree of his understanding of the great hazards of association with Russian "trade unionists," with Sailllant of the French Confederation of Labor, which was thought to be even then under Communist domination, and with other more or less unknown European leaders have never been fully analyzed. One hopes that this final activity will some day be made clear to Hillman's interested colleagues.
Jan 31, 1953 / Frances Perkins
American Christmas, 1952 American Christmas, 1952
At the height of the Cold War, the famed writer took Christmas as the occasion to deliver an invective against the "faces of the American Century, full of such an immense irrespons...
Dec 27, 1952 / Nelson Algren
American Christmas, 1952 American Christmas, 1952
At the height of the Cold War, the famed writer took Christmas as the occasion to deliver an invective against the "faces of the American Century, full of such an immense irre...
Dec 27, 1952 / Nelson Algren
Postscript to Collier’s World War III Postscript to Collier’s World War III
Walter P. Reuther points out the shortcomings of Collier's World War III.
Dec 8, 1951 / Walter P. Reuther
Euthanasia—Pro and Con Euthanasia—Pro and Con
To kill or not to kill: Two experts debate the morality of euthanasia.
Jan 28, 1950 / Editorial / Various Contributors
The Berlin Airlift The Berlin Airlift
While goods and supplies pour into Berlin from the air, the real question hovering over the city is whether there will be a war between the West and Russia.
Mar 5, 1949 / Feature / Julio Álvarez del Vayo
Americans and Their Myths Americans and Their Myths
EVERYTHING has been said about the United States.
Oct 18, 1947 / Feature / Jean-Paul Sartre
Marshall Plan: Prosperity Is Indivisible Marshall Plan: Prosperity Is Indivisible
Socialist eastern Europe stands to be left out in the cold under the Marshall Plan.
Oct 11, 1947 / Feature / Julio Álvarez del Vayo
Maxim Gorki as Artist Maxim Gorki as Artist
This article originally appeared in the April 12, 1947, issue of The Nation. In Gorki’s masterwork, “The Lower Depths,” his greatest gifts shine most clearly: his immense—but not quite profound—perception, his concern for the wretchedness of people, his almost romantic preoccupation with nature. And here, above all, is a carefully controlled rage at the lot of men and an insistence on their noble destiny. In so far as one can tell from this translation, however—which, by the way, seems most uneven—he is far from a careful writer and by no means a great one. He is almost always painfully verbose and frequently threatens to degenerate into simple propaganda.. But though this wordiness persists in every story in the book, in such pieces as Creatures That Once Were Men, In Cain and Artyom; and in such pieces as Red, Twenty-Six Men and a Girl, and Chums, the power of Gorki’s sympathy almost succeeds in reducing his flaws to unimportance. There is ironic penetration and great tenderness here which none of the contemporary realists whom Gorki helped to father have yet managed to match. But having said that he is tender, ironic and observant, and that most of his descendants are not, it must also be admitted that he is also quite frequently sentimental—as are his offspring—and that, regardless of how well they succeed as outraged citizens, they are incomplete as artists. Gorki’s range is narrow and in intention and effect alike he can scarcely be called subtle. He reiterates: men can be gods and they live like beasts; this he relates, quite legitimately, indeed necessarily, to a particular and oppressive society. (“And the men, too, the first source of all that uproar, were ludicrous and pitiable: their little figures dusty, tattered, nimble, bent under the weight of goods t hat lay on their backs, under the weight of cares that drove them hither and thither…were so trivial and small in comparison with the colossal iron monsters…and all that they had created. Their own creation had enslaved them and taken away their individuality.) This is a disquieting and honest report. Its only limitation, and it is a profound one, is that it remains a report. Gorki does not seem capable of the definitive insight, the shock of identification. Again and again we recognize a type with this human attributes sensitively felt and well reported but never realized. For this reason Gorki’s sympathy is often mawkish, his denouements a brutal and self-consciously sardonic trick. He is concerned, not with the human as such, but with the human being as a symbol; and this attitude is basically sentimental, pitying, rather than clear, and therefore—in spite of the boast of realism—quite thoroughly unreal. There can be no catharsis in Gorki, in spite of the wealth of action and his considerable powers of observation; his people inspire pity and sometimes rage but never love or terror. Finally we are divorced from them; we see them in relation to oppression but not in relation to ourselves. In the short story, The Hermit, the lack of psychological acuteness he brings to a story intended to show the power of virtue (Love) and the roads taken to attain it make for a devastating and characteristic failure. And yet Gorki was possessed by a rare sympathy for people. Such work as Cain and Artyom and even the rather superficial Red and the delightful Going Home would be impossible if this were not so. But his sympathy did not lead him to that peculiar position of being at once identified with and detached from the humans that he studied. He is never criminal, judge and hangman simultaneously—and yet indubitably Gorki. His failure was that he did not speak as a criminal but spoke for them; and operated, consciously or not, not as an artist and a prophet but as a reporter and a judge. It seems to me that in Gorki’s failure can be found the key to the even more dismal failure of present-day realistic novelists. For as a school they do not even have that sympathy which activated Gorki. They do not ever indicate what Gorki sometimes succeeded in projecting—the unpredictability and the occasional and amazing splendor of the human being. It is a concept which today, and this is understandable, if alarming, is dismissed as mystic or unreal. Without the insight into the mainsprings of human needs, desperations and desires, the concern with squalor remains merely squalid and acts to brutalize the reader rather than to purge him. If literature is not to drop completely to the intellectual and moral level of the daily papers we must recognize the need for further and honest exploration of those provinces, the human heart and mind, which have operated, historically and now, as the no man’s land between us and our salvation.
Apr 12, 1947 / James Baldwin
How to Elect a Progressive Congress How to Elect a Progressive Congress
It is highly important to elect Congressmen and Senators who sincerely believe that continuous full employment and full production should be our national objective.
Aug 31, 1946 / Henry A. Wallace