In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

enough to accept wages at and “below the level set by government experts as the minimum subsistence standard for families of Wve.” That is what the United States Steel, and “Open Shop” industry, pays to more than one-third of all its productive iron and steel workers. How is this to a¤ect the small trades people and the farmers who sell food and supplies to these millions? And after organized labor has been broken and crushed, what of the organized farmers? They, too, are a political menace to organized capital. Human Wreckage A Plea for Federal Relief William Green, President, American Federation of Labor february 20, 1932 With city relief breaking down, with private charity totally unable to meet the needs of the unemployment, we are now face to face with an unprecedented unemployment crisis. With relief provision totally inadequate for even the winter months, we must look ahead now to the needs of the year. Only thus can we prevent a fearful toll of human wreckage. Already we are hearing from bankrupt cities and towns reports of unprecedented su¤ering they cannot meet. Some are not even paying their school teachers. Community chests, after a valiant e¤ort to collect funds from private sources, report their funds inadequate; the need is four times that of 1928, their funds only 25 percent more. Isolated industrial sections outside the cities—coal Welds, textile-mill villages— have no resources outside their industry to cope with their problem. Even large cities are not meeting their relief needs. Thus the responsibility of caring for those out of work is thrown back on their relatives, friends, and neighbors, who can least a¤ord to give of their own meager incomes. This burden, added to wage cuts and part-time work, reduces our living standards to the point of poverty in millions of homes. Only one agency can meet the relief problem now that all other resources have been proved inadequate—the federal government. By taxation it can distribute the burden of this year where it can be borne with least injury to our citizenship. —William Green was the president of the AFL from 1924 to 1952. 208 part 10 standing up for labor ...

Share