British Agents Among Imported Agitators

Catholic Counter Move
STRIKE MANIA HAS TAKEN FIRM ROOT IN AMERICA DURING THE LAST FEW MONTHS, AND THERE IS AMPLE EVIDENCE THAT IT HAS BEEN BROUGHT ABOUT BY AN INVASION OF COMMUNIST AGITATORS INTO LABOUR, MANY OF THEM HAVING BEEN IMPORTED FROM EUROPEAN COUNTRIES, INCLUDING GREAT BRITAIN.
Gangsters arc lending active assistance. Routed in recent years by the Government's special corps of " G-Men," they have found a new and remunerative field heavily backed by Communist funds.
Seven powerful trades unions, keen to settle the labour problem without becoming the tool of Soviet Russia have founded a Catholic Association of Trades Union which will follow a policy based on the famous Papal teachings on labour.
Special articles dealing with America's workers' problems are appearing in Catholic journals which are being distributed free to thousands of workers as a counterblast to Communist propaganda.
THE CATHOLIC ANSWER TO AMERICA'S LABOUR PROBLEMS
By JOHN BROWN Representatives of seven great American trade unions met recently at St. Joseph's House, New York, to found the Catholic Association of Trade Unions, which is based on the labour encyclicals of Leo XIII and Pius XI. Martin Wcrsing, President of the Utility Workers' Union, and C. Court, a well-known Catholic journalist, are the leaders of the new organisation, and they intend to steer a middle course between the oki reactionary forces in the labour movement and the new Communist and semi-Communist elements. They deny any ideas of promoting mere anti-Red activities, which would be purely negative, and there can be no doubt of their sincerity and energy in striving to point out a constructive and Christian policy to the U.S. workers.
Members are already coming in from the clothing trade unions, formerly considered hopelessly " Left," and there has been an excellent response from the seamen, newspapermen, brushmakers, milk trade workers, electricians and carpenters.
Imported Communist Agitators How necessary this move is was proved by the extraordinary activity of the Communist union organisers and agitators in New York and on the west coast.
Several of the men leading the recent maritime strike, which cost hundreds of millions of dollars, were imported agents of the Communist International, whom I had met in South Shields and Newcastle-onTyne in 1931, when they were trying to undermine the British Seamen's Union.
Paul Scharrenberg, legal adviser to the American seamen's union, gave me convincing proof of Red subsidies and purely destructive agitation when I saw him in Washington. The Communists are also very active in Michigan and Illinois, and the epidemic of strikes has provided them with their best opportunity for years.
The Part of the Clergy
Many Catholics have been blacklisted by union locals now under Communist control, and in plants which have working agreements with the unions. Catholics are finding that their beliefs may jeopardise their employment. It is to meet such difficulties that the new Catholic Association has been founded. Michael Williams, editor of Commonweal, told me that he favoured this new move of the Catholic workers, and he welcomed the present concentration of American Catholics on economic and social problems.
The Church is also awakening to the need for guiding the workers menaced by "union racketeers and irresponsible agitators, and there have been several recent cases of successful intervention in labour disputes.
At the Hatch Forge and Tool plant at Buffalo there was a serious conflict which threatened to end in a general "sit-down" strike. The Rev. John P. Boland, who is chairman of the local Labour Relations Board, called employers and workers together as soon as he heard of the trouble, and within half a day he had secured an amicable settlement. Workers were granted a ten per cent. increase in pay, the strike was called off, and collective bargaining accepted by both sides!
In Michigan, where the first General Motors strike, which affected 135,000 men, was only called off through the intervention of Governor Murphy, a prominent Catholic worker, there are still grave risks of conflict, and a squad of agitators was organised to launch new attacks on the Ford plants, hitherto immune.
Many Catholic priests are using their influence to avert further catastrophes, and their advocacy of collective bargaining has brought on them the censure of some corporations.
On unimpeachable authority I can say that several priests have been followed by spies of strike-breaking agencies, while their sermons are copied down by expert stenographers.
Threats of " reports to church authorities have been sent to priests who express sympathy with the workers, or urge the introduction of collective agreements. The La Follette Civil Liberties Commission of the Senate revealed that some corporations were paying as much as $70,000 per annum jar this k.ind of spying, which also embracex trade union officials and workers who make complaints.
Union Racketeers The " union racketeers " are usually exgangsters who used their gains from prohibition-flouting to secure election as officials of respectable unions and labour associations, Most of them create trouble so that employers can be given the alternative of "sit-down " or " shakedown " (a " shakedown " being a heavy bribe for the union leaders).
Others operating " trade associations" levy blackmail on cafeteria and restaurant proprietors and tradesmen. The amazing revelations at the recent " cafe racket " trials in New York showed that labour leaders, gangsters and police officials were implicated in extorting " protection payments" from respectable business men. Those who refused to pay found that their cafes were raided by " thugs" and " hoodlums " armed with stink-bombs and rubber truncheons, while there were dozens of cases of personal violence.
Irving Epstein and Abraham Borson, elected officials of the Cafeteria Workers' Union, were threatened by racketeers claiming to be labour sympathisers, and an investigation showed that the racketeers were former members of the Dutch Scludtz gang, which terrorised the city of New York a few years ago!
Jack Dempsey's Evidence
Jack Dempsey. former heavy-weight champion of the world, who now runs a Broadway restaurant, told me that racketeers were still at work in his trade, despite the trials and investigation, and he added that he was prevented from hiring men he wanted by the tight grip of employment agencies, many of which are run by aliens.
From Dr. Arthur Falls, d leading Chicago Catholic worker, I learned that threats of trouble in the local steel industry are being countered by extensive propaganda in favour of collective bargaining and the free issue of thousands of copies of Catholic journals featuring articles on the present situation.
These activities are being duplicated elsewhere, and there can be no doubt that such measures will do valuable service in turning the minds of the employees towards Christian conceptions of economic order.
Strikes in the West
The Communist agents are very active on the west coast, where recent successes in organising strikes and demonstrations have encouraged them to open permanent headquarters and publish daily and weekly newspapers.
Their leaders are obviously well supplied with funds, and two I saw had just become owners of expeosive limousines, which they said were necessary for " effective propaganda work "!
For the effective fighting of Communism, all the resources of modern propaganda science are necessary, and in every big town in America groups of Catholic workers are putting their dimes and nickels together so that their comrades will be able to read duplicated or printed copies of the Catholic answer to industrial problems. This work is already bearing fruit, and one of its most valuable results is the demonstration to the public that the Church is not " sitting on the fence."