UTMOST SUPPORT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 November 1941, Page 5

UTMOST SUPPORT

TO BRITAIN, CHINA AND RUSSIA

Pledged by President Roosevelt

ADDRESS TO INTERNATIONAL LABOUR , CONFERENCE

NO REAL FREEDOM WITHOUT'ENLIGHTENED SOCIAL POLICIES

WASHINGTON, November 6. ' Air. Roosevelt has authorised 300,000,000 dollars lease-lend aid for Russia. The loan does not carry interest, and repayment will not begin till live years after the conclusion of the tvar. Repayment, spread over a decade, will partly consist of raw materials and commodities. In an address to delegates at the International Labour Conference today, Air. Roosevelt pledged the utmost support to Britain, China and Russia. He also emphasised that the American people had made unlimited commitments to ensure that there should be a. free world. There could be no real freedom, said. Air. Roosevelt, without enlightened social policies. They were the stakes for which the democracies were fighting. The people of the United States had two choices —to make the fullest sacrifices now and produce to the limit, or to postpone the day of real sacrifices. The first was the choice, of realism, the second that of the blind and deluded. Air. Roosevelt repeated the words of the Atlantic Charter — to bring about the fullest collaboration between all nations in the economic field with' the object of siecuring for all an improved labour standard, economic advancement and social security.

EARLY DAY RECALLED “Taking part in a conference of 1.L.0. is not a new- experience to me,” said. Mr Roosevelt addressing the delegates. ■ “It was exactly at this time of the year in 1919 that the 1.L.0. had its first conference in Washington. Apparently someone had fallen down on the job of making the necessary physical arrangements. Finally someone picked on the Assistant Secretary of the Navy (the position then held by Mr Roosevelt) to help. “In those days the 1.L.0. was still a dream. T’o many it was a wild dream. Who had ever heard of Governments getting together to raise standards of labour on an international plane? Wilder still was the idea that the people themselves who were directly affected—workers and employers of various countries—should have a hand with the Government in determining these labour standards. “Now 22 years have passed. The 1.L.0. has been tried and tested. Through those extravagant years of the twenties it kept doggedly at its task of shortening the hours of labour, protecting women and children in agriculture and industry, making life more bearable for merchant seamen, keeping the factories and the mines of the world safe and fit places for human being to work in. Then through the long years of depression, it sought to bring about a measure of security to all workers by the establishment of unemployment and old age insurance systems, and again to set the wheels of industry in action through the establishment of international public works, rational policies of migration of workers and the opening of the channels of Wbrld trade.

“Mow for more than two years you have weathered the vicissitudes of a world at war. Though Hitler’s juggernaut has crowded your permanent staff cut of its home at Geneva, here in the New World, thanks in a large part to the efforts of our friend John Winant, you have been carrying on, and when this world struggle is over you will be prepared to play your own part in formulating those social policies upon which tho permanence of peace will so much depend.

UNITING ALL NATIONS

"Today,” said Mr Roosevelt, “you, the representatives of 33 nations, meet here in the White House for the final session of your conference. It is appropriate that I recall to you. who are in the full sense a parliament for man’s justice, some words written in this House by a President who gave his life in the cause of justice. Nearly 80 years ago Abraham Lincoln said:

'The strongest bond of human sympathy outside of the family relation should be one uniting all working people of all nations and tongues and kindreds.’

"The essence of our struggle is that men shall be free. There can be no real freedom for the common man without enlightened social policies. In the last analysis they are the stakes for which the democracies are today fighting. “Your concern is the concern of all democratic peoples. To many of your member States adherence to the 1.L.0. has meant a great sacrifice. There is no greater evidence of the vitality of the 1.L.0. than the loyal presence here today of the representatives of nations which suffer under the lash of a dictator. I welcome those representatives specially. I extend the hand of courage to delegates of those Labour organisations who leaders are today languishing in concentration camps for having dared to stand up for ideals without which no civilisation can live.

“Through you delegates from these despoiled lands the United States sends your people this message: ‘You have not been forgotten. You will not be forgotten.’ AMERICA’S PART "We in the United States have so far been called upon for extremely limited sacrifices, but even in this country we are beginning to feel the pinch of war. Names may be unfamiliar to you, but the workers of Manitowac and Wisconsin, who used to make aluminium utensils, have had to sacrifice their jobs that we may send planes to Britain, Russia and China. Rubber workers in a hundred scattered plants have had to sacrifice their opportunities of immediate employment that there may be ships to carry planes and tanks to Liverpool and Archangel. Tens of thousands of automobile workers will have to be shifted to other jobs in order that copper which might have been used-in automobiles may carry its deadly message from the mills of Connecticut Valley to Hitler.

“But with all this we haven't yet made any substantial sacrifices in the United States. We haven't, like the heroic people of Britain, had to withstand a deluge of death from the skies, nor can we even grasp the full extent of the sacrifices the people of China are making in their struggle for freedom from aggression. We have in amazement witnessed the Russians oppose the Nazi war machine for four long months at the price of uncounted dead and a scorched earth.

TO BRITAIN, CHINA & RUSSIA

Most heroic of all. however has been the struggle of the common men and women of Europe from Norway to Greece against brutal force which, however powerful, will be for ever inadequate to crush the fight for freedom. As far as we in the United States are concerned, that struggle shall not !be in vain. The epic stand of Britain, China and Russia will receive the full support of the free peoples of the Americas.

‘■The people of this country insit upon their right to join in the common defence. To be sure there are still some misguided among us, thank God they are but few, both industrialists and leaders of labour, who place personal advantage above the welfare of their nation. There are still a few who place their little victories over one another above a triumph over Hitler. There are still some who place the profits they may make from civilian orders above their obligation to the national defence.

“There are still seme who deliberately delay the defence output by using their economic power to force the acceptance of their demands rather than use the established machinery for mediation in industrial disputes. Fortunately they are but few. They don’t represent the great mass of American workers and employers. DEFENCE OF DEMOCRACY “The American people have made an unlimited commitment that there shall be a free world. Against that commitment no individual or group shall prevail. The American workman doesn’t have to be convinced that the defence of the democracies is his defence. “Some of you from the conquered countries of Europe and from China have told this conference with the eloquence of anguish how all that you have struggled for—the social progress that you and your fellow men have achieved —is being obliterated by barbarians.

“I needn't tell, you that one of the first acts, of the Fascist and Nazi dictators at home and in conquered countries was to abolish free trade unions and take away from the common people the right of association. Labour alone didn’t suffer. Free associations of employers were also abolished. Collective bargaining has no place in their system, neither has the collaboration of labour, industry and government. Nor need I tell you that the Nazi labour front isn’t a labour union but an instrument to keep labour in a state of permanent subjection. Labour under the Nazi system has become the slave of a military state. To replace Nazi workers shipped to the frontiers and to meet the gigantic needs of the total war effort, Nazi Germany has imported about 2,000,000 foreign civilian labourers. They have changed the occupied countries into great slave areas for Nazi rulers. Berlin is the principal slave market of the world.” ‘•The American worker has no illusions about the fate that awaits him and his free labour organisations if Hitler should win. He knows that his own liberty and the very safety of the people of the United States cannot be assured in a world which is threefourths slave and one-fourth free. He knows we must furnish arms to Britain. Russia, and China and we must do it now, today.

REALISM & DELUSIONS

“Cur place—the place of the whole western, hemisphere —in the Nazi scheme for world domination has been marked oh the Nazi timetable. The choice wo have to make is this: Shall we make our full sacrifices now, produce to the limit and deliver our products today and every day to the battlefronts of the entire world. Or shall we remain satisfied with our present rate of armament output, postponing the day of real sacrifice as did the French till it is too late? “The first is the choice of realism, realism in terms of three shifts a day. the fullest use of every vital machine every minute of every day, the fullest use of every minute of every night. Realism in terms of staying on the job and getting things made and entrusting industrial grievances to the established machinery of collective bargaining, the machinery set up by free people “The second choice is the approach of the blind and deluded who think perhaps we could do business with Hitler. For them there is still plenty of time. To be sure many of these misled inndividuals honestly believe that, if we should later find that we cannot do business with Hitler, w'c will roll up our sleeves later, later and later, and their tombstones would bear the legend, ‘Too late.’ In the process of working and fighting for victory, however, we must never permit ourselves to forget the goal which is beyond victory—the defeat of Hitlerism which is necessary so that there may be freedom. “Eut this war, like the last war, will produce nothing but destruction unless we prepare for the future now, unless we plan now for the better world we hope to build. If that world is to be one in which peace is to prevail there must be more abundant life for the masses of the people of all countlies. PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE

“In the words of the Atlantic Charter, we desire to bring about the fullest collaboration between all nations in the economic field with the object of securing for all improved labour standards. economic advancement, and social security.. There are so many millions of people in this world who have never been adequately fed, clothed and housed. By undertaking to provide a decent standard of living for these millions, the free, peoples of the world can furnish employment to every man and woman who seeks a job. “There must be ho place in the postwar world for special privileges for either individuals dr nations. Again, in the words Of the Atlantic Charter, all States, great or small, victor or vanquished, must have access on equal terms to the trade and raw materials of the world needed for their economic prosperity. In planning such international. action, the 1.L.0., with its representation of labour and management, its technical knowledge and experience, will be an invaluable instrument for peace. Your organisation will have an essential part to play in building up a stable international system of social justice for all 1 peoples everywhere. As part of you, the people cf the United States are determined to respond fully to the opportunity and challenge of this historic responsibility sd well exemplified at this historic meeting in this historic home of an ancient democracy.”