﻿Nothing Is More Convincing Than A Healthy Strike 
By T-BONE SLIM 
 
I see where they are piling college graduates into bullet-proof jobs. I approve of this thing, although I must realize that there is no such a thing as a bullet-proof job. (Convenient enemies are dropping high explosives light into the blueprints and surface plates.) 
However, otherwise the job is good for a couple of years and that is better than being idle all your life. 
Save your money for the slump in ‘43— it will come in handy to buy country sausage wrapped in cabbage leaves brought to a soft boil. 
Invest in nothing. 

Women are not yet letter perfect as politicians. They seem to prefer gossiping about whit a dirty stinker the neighbor lady is—relationship doesn’t save the target. It is hoped, however, that in the course of evolution they will become us good ward-heelers as men. 
Some states already permit them to practice at the bar—both as lawyers and cocktail fanciers, they have my blessing and hearty approval. 

Some workers prefer to work for low wages unorganized rather than for the higher stipend as organized workers. Unorganized men will work for 25 to 30 cents an hour or 20 cents and cakes rather than organize and get 5 to 14 dollars a day. 
Unorganized women prefer to work for 15-20 cents an hour and one meal (housework) rather than organize and get a standard union low of 45-50 cents an hour and a plate of comebacks. 
And then, in addition to being proud of their martyrdom, they praise the exploiters of mankind far into the night and the first thing in the morning. They feel that if they were not permtted to do 15 cents worth of work for 15 cents they would starve and the employer here presents himself as a superman hero that took the worst edge from their hunger and preserved their appetite in excellent working order. (A dog feels the same way, when tossed a bone; even if it be a pigeon’s pelvis bone.) 
Those workers will find themselves behind the eight ball, and only slightly removed from the tramp. 
But what the hell. I, too, am on the bum. (The reason doesn’t click in this spot.) 
Only difference is: I am battling the boss tooth and nail and they are praising him heart and soul. 
Salami and Caviar Costing What It Does! 
Senator Truman (R., Mo.) wants to be shown—and asks defense spending probe. (“Digum deep, paleface, puppy on the bottom.”) 
Republican Truman is inspired as follows: Contracts “should not be let on the basis of friendship or political affiliation.” It was his opinion that “violations of ethics and common sense procedure had occurred.” 
As to that, I wouldn’t know, but I feel convinced that no pro-British concern has suffered. 
Collections are taken up to buy beloved Britain a plane, but not one cent to buy Uncle Sam one. 
I do not heat of any of these firms donating a plane either to Britain or the United States, despite the gorgeous contracts they have wangled. 
Rt. Rev. Mgr. John Ryan (anent Vultee strike): “. . . until the general level of wages is raised, until the income of labor is sufficiently increased to enable the masses to buy more goods, neither machines nor labor can obtain full employment.” 
(Before the strike, Vultee workers received 50 cents an hour, 20 dollars a week, $1,000 dollars a year. After the strike they received 62½ cents an hour, 25 dollars a week, $1,250 dollars a year.) 
“. . . worker has a natural right to a wage that will support him in reasonable and frugal comfort.”—Pope Leo. 
“. . . worker is entitled to a wage that will provide him with ample sufficiency for himself and his family.”—Pope Pius XI. 
(Not only that, but the full value of his production and $1,200, isn’t it?—Pope T-Bone Slim.) 

Clarification of Emancipation 
“Man doesn’t die; he kills himself.”—Seneca. 
Unions do not perish; they murder themselves. Nations do not fall; they trip themselves. 
This isn’t all piffle. Be true to yourself. Be true to your industrial union —other true men will guide the destiny of their industrial union. The sum and substance of that loyalty is the solidarity of the Industrial Workers of the World, and that, in turn, spells emancipation of the working class. 
And—it happens here; not there. Specialize on that one thing alone, on “me and mine,” not on “them and theirs.” Sec to it that you and yours are numbered among the blessed. If possible, get there first. 
If you help yourself you will help others; as you are strong, they are strong; as you are weak, they are in wheel-chairs or on crutches. 
We should not worry about the 75 per cent of conscripts rejected by the army. 

Find Toothless Female Hermit in Galapagos Isle “Paradise”—Headline. Definitely not one of the army culls. 
Anti-trust division is worrying the AFL with “consent decrees.” Consent decrees violated lay unions open to contempt of court charges, and that is absolute. 
Harrassmcnt through court trials is sufficient grief even with benefit of a sympathetic jury. Unions should establish a general defense fund “greater than ever” and use it for a strike benefit. 
There is nothing that clarifies a legal tangle as quickly and thoroughly as a good, healthy strike. The will of the people is self-evident and the people are the law.