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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1945

CITY OF NEW YORK
OFFICE OF THE MAYOR

TEXT OF MAYOR F. H. LA GUARDIA'S SUNDAY BROADCAST TO THE PEOPLE OF NEW YORK FROM HIS OFFICE IN CITY HALL, SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1945, BROADCAST OVER WNYC AT 1:00 P.M. FOLLOWS:

Peace and work!


SIGNING OF JAPANESE SURRENDER INSTRUMENT

Well, it is over. I am sure that you all feel as I do. Oh, what a relief: Signed, sealed and delivered and General MacArthur in command of the Japanese Government and all its territory. Wasn't that a dramatic moment las night when we were waiting on the air and we hear the voice of MacArthur? I am sure that millions of people all over the world must have been impressed. General MacArthur did not mince any words, did he? I got a great kick when he said "I now invite the representatives of the Emperor of Japan and the Japanese Government and the Japanese Imperial Headquarters to sign the instrument of surrender at the places indicated". And they did. And then we heard the president of the United States officially informing the people of our country that the war was finally, completely and victoriously terminated. I am sure that it must have occurred to you, as it did to me, the wonderful age in which we are living. Remember MacArthur referring to Admiral Perry. Well, at that time it would have taken at least ninety days before the American people would have known that Perry had entered the Bay of Tokyo. And just think, the minute that General MacArthur invited the representatives of the Japanese Government to sign, we heard it and we could almost hear the scratching of the pen on the document. Then we heard our President after the flash which came from three-quarters of the distance around the world. Don't you see how close we are to each other? Everything has changed. Everything is changing. Courageous men of war have completed their task. It now takes courageous men to lead in the tasks of peace. This is no time for compromising, for the timid, for the uncertain. Great changes are coming and we will require great leadership.



LABOR'S NEW RESPONSIBILITY

Tomorrow is Labor Day. This broadcast is dedicated to American Labor dedicated to the skill and patriotism of the working men and women of our country, to the growth and development of American Labor and its contribution to the welfare, prosperity and might of our country. What growth! What development! Labor has reached new heights in the last decade, the respect of the entire world and the recognition of its dignity. Today, Labor Day now is not only a day for a few struggling, protesting groups, as it was years ago. Labor Day is really a day for all Americans for do we not all work, or at least should work. Is it not the duty of every American to create, to produce, to be useful? Indeed, we have reached a time when not to be useful is no longer the symbol of the nobility. We have learned that there is nobility in honest toil.

How fitting it is that the day of Victory and a period of complete peace coincide and commence with Labor Day. For without the great contribution of the American man and woman, the unconquerable forces of our country would not have had the weapons, transportation, supplies, materials and food, to wage the most difficult, costly, and painful war of history. So today, we hail Labor, express our gratitude for having done its part so well in making this a day of rejoicing.

Labor, like industry, finance, yes, government, commences a new era. Labor has its responsibilities in Peace as it had its responsibilities in War. It measured up to the latter. I know it will measure up to the new responsibilities. It is not going to be easy. Many changes are necessary just as many fundamental changes will be necessary in every activity of human endeavor. Now that the rights of labor, individual and collective, have been recognized, the techniques of organized Labor must necessarily change. In the old days, when trade unions in many states and in many places were out-lawed, when a trade union had no recognition in the law, when a protest taking the form of a strike was considered a disorderly act, when collective bargaining was considered mob rule, indeed the leaders and friends of labor had to resort to ingenuity, strategy and techniques that today are no longer required and should be abandoned. The law has not and will not take from any man his right to protest and to express that protest in any lawful manner, including the right to stop work along with his fellow workers, if no other means of a just settlement or agreement are possible.

It is not so long ago -after many, many years of patient struggle, that the great Senator George Norris of Nebraska was able to get consideration finally, passage and approval of the Norris Anti-Injunction Law, that milestone of the turning point of organized labor.

Much progress has been made since that time, so much progress that one, unfamiliar with the history of labor, can hardly understand its meaning and the reason for its passage of that act. Definite recognition, specific right, positive protection for all have been written into the law of our country, there to stay.

I say that Labor has great responsibility in this present post-war period and in the immediate peace-time future. Decent wages necessary for a proper, happy standard of living is conceded as necessary by American Industry and American Business. High wages no longer frighten American Industry, but wages must be compatible with production. Unless there is production, high wages just cannot be maintained. That is one problem now facing Labor. It should not be difficult to meet. Some bad habits have been formed during the last few years. Hard cases were met with easy expedients. Fast rules were circumvented by creating fictional remedies. In other words, rather than disrupt an established fixed percentage increase, in many cases, increases were actually granted by payments for non-productive time or non-productive work. Wages will, necessarily, in the future, have to be definitely determined on the basis of a full day's pay for a full day's work. Then, again, we must all realize that there must be work for all.

The shorter day and the shorter week are intended for that purpose. The shorter week and shorter day have been distorted and abused to create overtime for the one who has a job without providing a job for the fellow who is out of work. The necessary spread to employ all must be established by determining the work week or day periodically, in accordance with the production necessary and the labor available during a given time.

Peace must be established permanently within the ranks of labor. Strife within the ranks is not conducive to better production, to better wages or steady employment. Many times such internal disputes are used by the enemy of organized labor to the disadvantage of the willing worker. Many times the innocent worker is punished and must suffer hardship, loss of wages because of difficulties within his own ranks over which he has no control, or often he or his organization any voice.

Though this question of jurisdiction is of long standing, unless it is courageously faced, it is likely to increase because of so many changes in the art of manufacturing and construction and of so many new materials and new methods, all of which should be utilized to create more work and better conditions instead of interruption of work, disputes, controversies, stoppages, loss of wages and reduced production. This, too, requires the finest kind of leadership.

Integrity, as well as intelligence is required in the labor movement of today as it is required in Government and in business today. The day of the political grafter is past - people will not tolerate it any longer. The day of the labor racketeer is going and must go forever.

For 75 or more years labor has sought to establish the right to collective bargaining and definite agreement with employers. That has now been achieved. Now that light must be utilized for the full benefit of labor and for the mutual, best interest of all concerned. Given a definite agreement, providing the machinery for adjustments of differences, there can be no justification for the violation of that agreement on the part of either the employer or employee. [AVAILABLE AUDIO ENDS HERE] No employer should be permitted to avoid or escape the terns of a binding agreement. No employee or group of employees should be permitted to avoid or escape the terms of a binding agreement. No employer should be permitted to chisel on the terms or impose additional burdens and by so doing, defeat the terms of a definite agreement. On the other hand, labor should not be permitted by any new technique such as mass sickness, slowdown, or other devices, to defeat the terms of an agreement. But either or both should invoke the machinery for settlements of differences provided In the agreement itself.

The definite proof that such methods are not good, sound labor practices is that when such methods are employed, intelligent labor leaders disavow and disapprove such tactics. But here, too, leaders have the responsibility just as officials in government have a responsibility to enforce the law. It is their responsibility to carry out the terms of an agreement just as it is the responsibility of the officers of a corporation, the other party to the agreement, to comply and fulfill all requirements.

All of these conditions are but a part of the transition between the period of exploitation, want of legal recognition, and a disadvantageous position in our economy, and the present day of equal rights, full determined legal standing and an equal standing in the economy of the country.

Then too, as I have said before, the greater responsibility has come with this greater power. The leadership, the management, the administration of great organizations, must be of the best and with the highest degree of honesty. Labor organizations must be democratic in its form, just as is our own government. Officials should be elected at stated intervals and should be responsible to the membership for their acts.

Proprietary unions, unions which are practically owned by one or two individuals who seldom have bona fide elections and rarely meet in convention of duly elected delegates, who determine terms and conditions, who make settlements and agreements without the voice or consent of the membership, must go. Such organizations have no place in the midst of an enlightened people which make up the rank and file of American labor.

The families of workers should not be subjected to hardship by unnecessary stoppage or the employer to extortion caused by "bovefaying." Labor itself should be the first, not only to put the finger of scorn, but to expose and eliminate from its ranks any semblance of such leadership. The bovefay is the means of taking from the pockets of the worker money that they are entitled to or else adding unnecessary cost on the part of the employer in the form of extortions which adds to the cost of production. There has been less and less of bovefaying in each year but even one case is one too many.

There are many unpleasant things that must be said and difficult tasks that must be performed now and in the immediate future. But is that not true of government, of industry, of banking - yes, - even of our international relations with other countries? Big changes are necessary. Big things are to be done.

Now, at the risk of incurring the displeasure of some, but having in mind only the best interests of the American working man and woman to whom I have devoted my entire life, I am compelled to say on this auspicious day, that labor should not be divided in this country. One great national trade union organization would result to the greater happiness and best interests of the entire country. Reviewing the history which brought about this split, is not helpful now. It is not a question of the AF of L or the CIO. But it is the question of what is best for organized labor. It is not a question which one of the two should survive. It is the necessity of getting into one big, strong, happy family. During the war there has been very fine cooperation between the two national organizations. That was because of a patriotic impulse and splendid leadership of the national organizations and the ability of all to get work locally. That is over now. It requires the very best minds, very best cooperation, the very best planning to bring about the changes necessary to create the spread of employment and to establish that new system of work for all and decent living for all.

Instead of having an American Federation of Labor and a Congress of Industrial Organization, why not get together and establish one big powerful all-embracing national organization? Let us call it the ACL-the American Congress of Labor. I know all of the difficulties, many real, others not so real. The same is true when we have a merger in government. I remember when we abolished the five county governments in New York. Everything was fine until it came the time that many jobs had to go with it. Then there was real resistance. In fact it was the only argument raised against the county reform law which eventually was passed. I concede that there will be less local officials in the local unions as well as less officials if there will be mergers of various closely related crafts. But my friends, it is necessary. Jobs for all is the objective and not artificially maintained jobs for a few local officials.

Some of the older men who have given their lives to the labor organizations might well be pensioned. Others will have to return to the shops or factories. It may not be possible today or tomorrow but I can tell you now that it will have to be brought about very soon. Then please bear in mind that there are other groups in the offing that may organize, creating more difficulties, the danger of more controversies resulting in less production and hence less employment.

I now come to what I have been advocating for years and years "" that of steady employment. The employer wants stability, the worker wants security "" that can be brought about with great advantage to both sides -to be frank, I advocate employment on an annual basis. I have heard all the arguments. I have heard all the answers. I still maintain that it is possible, in fact, I say it is easy. I am going to submit a plan to some 20 or 24 outstanding economists and experts on labor. I want to get their reaction. I will tell you about it when I do. I hope to have it ready by the latter part of this month when I finish with other matters I now have on my desk. I think it is going to be simple. I think it is possible. Whether by mine or any other plan, steady employment on an annual basis is necessary.

So you see there is a big job to be done. Here is a call to all Americans interested in the prosperity of our country. Here is a call to all friends of labor as well as to Labor's own leadership. This is a good day to talk about it. Labor Day of 1945.

WORLD PEACE DAY.

Our country mightier, greater than ever before. Our country now not only is the mightiest, but the recognized leader for a better world, for a happier world, for a NEW WORLD.


"THE TRUE GLORY"

Last Sunday, before I closed, I told you that I was going to see a picture "The True Glory". This picture is made under the direct control and supervision of the United States Government and the Government of Great Britain, by our Armed Forces and the Armed Forces of Great Britain. Well, I saw that picture. It is a great picture. You should gee it too. It opens on the seventh at the Victoria Theatre on Broadway. Personally, I do not think that the theatre is big enough. It only holds about five or six hundred people. I do not particularly like the agency of distribution, but the government has selected it so we all want to help. That picture should be, and I hope it will be, exhibited in every moving picture house in the City of New York. I want all New Yorkers to see it, all Americans to see it. I think that the families of every boy in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Merchant Marine should be able to see that picture. I am going to ask all movie houses to give one showing one day free - free to the families of all members of the Aimed Forces. Won't that be nice? I am sure if I asked Harry Brandt, he would bring his chain of theatres in, and I hope that the others will, too. I think that that would be a great thing to do. I wanted to show it at Madison Square Garden, but I guess it was too big for the agency which had the distribution. The agency which has the distribution is doing so without charge, which, of course, is laudable, but this is a real big thing.

There is no mystery in this picture. There is no plot. Yes, there is a great love motive - love for one's country; love for humanity, love for freedom, and men die for their love. The picture starts with the appearance of General Eisenhower. He comes right before you as if he were there. You will hear that fine voice, his perfect diction, and his very clear thinking, and he tells you about the story. As he says, it is not the story of the Brass Hats, it is the story of the GI. As the picture unfolds itself, starting with the first invasion right down to the final surrender, you hear the voices, not professional narrators or commentators, but the voices of the boys themselves. Boys from the campus of Oxford and the plains of Oklahoma; the voice of the cockney and that of the Carolinian; voices from the offices of London and the plantations of Louisiana; from the docks of Cardiff and the yards of Chicago; from the ruins of Bristol and the tenements of Brooklyn. They tell the story and you see action, you see what these boys went through. No, they are not actors. You see, acting is a presentation of the real thing. This is the real thing. [AVAILABLE AUDIO BEGINS AGAIN HERE] Then you see scenes of the living dead and of a great bin where these refugees were murdered. The living dead - yes - dead, because they are the constant reminder to all the world forever of the cruelty, the brutality and the oppression of a now-gone philosophy of government. And then there is the dead living - those who survived in these camps. They are living but they are dead. They cannot smile, they cannot laugh. They are just living. You see that. You see the tense faces of these boys about to jump from a plane, beyond the enemy lines as though acting, but it is the real thing.

So see the picture, "The True Glory", the epic of the known soldier.


Patience and fortitude.