“The Republic Is Imperiled”: John L. Lewis Warns of Ignoring Laboring People

Background: John L. Lewis, President of the United Mine Workers of America, was instrumental in the organizing drive that transformed the coal fields in 1933. In February 1933 (before passage of the NRA), Lewis spoke passionately to the Senate Finance Committee about the need for action to protect workers. In his Senate testimony, Lewis called for emergency action, including allowing workers to unionize and replacing corporate autocracy with union democracy. He warned that if action was not forthcoming, the nation might face grave consequences.

The political stability of the republic is imperiled. . . .

We are victims of our own national short-sightedness by failure in the halcyon days of prosperity to intelligently plan for the future. A horde of small-time leaders in industry and finance like the freebooters of old, vied with each other, looted the purse of the population, and diverted the proceeds to their own interests. Now that the day of adversity has come, these same leaders are destitute of competent suggestion to safeguard the present or the future, and they expect the population of this country to remain quiescent while they utter ponderous platitudes about balancing the budget, and the necessity for further wage reductions. . . .

If democracy and corporate participation in industry are to survive in America, labor must have an opportunity to exercise its industrial rights for the protection of itself and our democratic and economic institutions. An emergency now exists which is more critical than would be the case if a fleet of a foreign power were at this moment bombarding the defenses of one of our major ports. The very foundation of democracy and integrity of American institutions is threatened. . .

A board of emergency control should be created. It should be composed of representatives of industry, labor, agriculture and finance. . . .The board should be instructed to reduce the hours of labor, and the number of days in the work week to a point where the industrial machinery of the nation can substantially take up the slack of unemployment and under conditions where labor is accorded the right of collective bargaining through representatives of its own choosing. This board should also be instructed to stabilize the prices of agricultural products and other commodities . . .

Today the enemy is within the boundaries of the nation, and is stalking through every community and every home, and, obviously, this proposal is the most democratic form of internal regulation that can be devised to deal with our economic and industrial collapse.

Source: United Mine Workers Journal, 44 (March 1, 1933): 3–4.