﻿Collect Your Overtime for Wading Ashore 
By T-BONE SLIM 
 
Inasmuch as even a modicum of support could not be organized for exploitation of man by man, a new name had to be invented for the operation and they called it fascism. 
Full many a man, no more capitalistic than you or I is now supporting that mysterious outfit. 

They tell me that in the northern part of this state (New York) they are registering the Indians. I most heartily approve of this effort to guard against any foreign influence masquerading as the noble red man. 
I think myself, the capitalists have picked poor leadership for the working class. And the workers are saps for standing for it. 

If the seamen do not everlastingly beef, the ships will degenerate into seafaring slums. 
A seaman opines this morning, “The workingman is licked.” 
That, may be true but isn’t it also true that he licked himself? He has tried everything, including jai alai and ping pong. He has even tried the right thing— but he has not tried it as a body. So he has been separated into dozens of organizations, “all good and true,” and he has taken one on the chin from time to time and job conditions have grown bad. 

Take the seaman: It’s as much as his life is worth to ship on those “masters’ connivances” and then, if he isn’t blown up, he will die peacefully of carbondioxide or be poisoned with fermented vitimins. The miner is in the same fix. 
Workers should specialize in union matters. Their union should be One Big Union and One Big Defense, free of politics, banking and life insurance; in other words, it should specialize completely in the improvement of the workers’ lot, and that only. 
We’ll never get anywhere divided into fractions. One Big Union of seamen alone will not improve the conditions of the sailor sufficiently; because the wild and wolly economics of the master, class cause him to lose his footing (livlihood). It must be a One Big Union of every industry in the true sense of the word and that means the Industrial Workers of the World—as it means in the marine industry, Marine Transport Workers Industrial Union No. 150. 
Once such a union is organized I doubt if One Big Strike will be necessary . . . 
However, as is, the workers in dozens of unions of every complexion leaves them in an unenviable light, right or wrong—as: “Did you have the right of way?”—”Yes, but he had a heavier truck.” 

Income of Gloria (Laura) Vanderbilt, 17, was $137,356 in 1940. However, Surrogate Foley allows her only $26,000 a year folding money. Have not heard if the lissome Gloria ever earned any of that money. 
Nice piece of jack, that $137,356. No wonder some of us sailors feel the pinch of adversity. 
Her father earned that money by chiseling, did you say? 
Shame on you. Her income is free of chiseling as far as she is concerned. It just keeps on piling up like the sins of our fathers, be they Finns, Jews or Hottentots. It’s the capitalist system—source of all parasitism. 

But let us worry about Uncle Sam handing our shirt to the British. The shirt has seen all its best days and we ain’t going no place, no how. 
After 16 months: 
It seems that England is short of serum for diphtheria etc. after a few months of war, unless it be that someone is having a premature baby in this country. If so, she can load those goodwill bombers in Canada with the finest of serums and fly them to England. Possibly, too, if the matter were brought to the attention of Adolf, he would fly serum from Germany and parachute it down to the anguished earth in Great Britain. 

Risks? 
It is not good reasoning to say Standard Oil is taking chances in transportation of fuel oils and other oils to Africa or Europe—it wouldn’t be good business. None of the Rockefeller clan are aboard those ships. Rockefeller doesn’t lose a cent if those ships sink and there have been nine of them so far. 
The ones that stand to lose are the seamen and those that have to make good the loss. Lloyds or the nation interested. Rockefeller’s profits are guaranteed, plus a handsome bonus—for riskless risk. 
Therefore, if the seamen are a bit bashful in demanding risk-money, they are related to a donkey, for their risk is real. 
The most promising prospect of the war is mine-fields broadcast all over the world—a world blockade. As you know, a mine cannot distinguish between a Jugo Slavian and Panamanian. The only ones that are jeopardized are the seamen. 
I see you think I have horrors? 
All right. Let’s see some more: 
Adolf Hitler is down in the Balkans sizing up the acres with a view to raising corn for his prancer troops and to see to it that none is bootlegged to strangers . . . All other grief to remain as is. How’s that for a prophet? 
Don’t forget the risk-money, and overtime for wading ashore. 

The best way to have peace is by having war— yeah-uh-hu—and the best way to keep dry is by jumping into the lake. (Nobody is kidding.) Just stay sober by getting drunk. Keep warm by ditching your clothes and quit eating to grow fat. 
Darn those nutsies anyhow!