Workers of the World, Work

This was a strange May Day. For the first time since May 1886, when a bomb, a strike and the demands for an eight-hour day set off the Chicago Haymarket killings, the Socialist-minded people of the Americas and Europe neither paraded their numbers nor proclaimed their hopes. May Day had always been dedicated to the proposition that men should work less; this time its theme all over the world was that men should work more.

> In Moscow, Joseph Stalin said: "This year, workers of our country, workers working under war conditions, you have refused a holiday so as to spend this day in concentrated work . . . to give sufficient arms to the men at the front."

> Britain celebrated May Day to the throb of machinery. A manifesto from the National Council of Labor called upon the Government to "redeem its promises by organizing, without regard to vested interests, the full resources of the State . . and deal vigorously with existent social evils. . . ."

> An auto accident, in which he received minor bruises, prevented Brazil's President Getulio Vargas from personally delivering a May Day speech. Its keynote (as read for him): "To preserve America . . . we must make it independent, raising a wall of economic resistance. Hard work will do that."

> In Vichyfrance, Marshal Petain substituted for May Day a festival "honoring toil."

> Free French in London released a smuggled message from French workmen. Its plea: "We do not ask your pity, but we do ask that you maintain confidence in us."

> In Belgium an explosion destroyed the huge German-controlled Tessenderloo gas and explosives works. London believed the "White Brigade" was celebrating May Day in its own unquiet way.

> Adolf Hitler wired to Labor-Front Leader Robert Ley: "If in former days our national holiday was the occasion for a mighty demonstration of peace and social progress, it has today become the occasion for introspection at home and also for the resolve to work unceasingly until the freedom and social future of our people have been made secure."

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