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But more than that, I believe, trade union delegations seeking an end to layoffs in the shipyards can be persuaded to change their pleas for more "defense" contracts into a demand for a vast building program which will put the skills and talents of the metals trades and other construction workers to work at building ships which will ply the trade routes the world over with food and clothing instead of the guns and other weapons of war now making up so much of our ships' cargo.

Congressmen faced with this type of delegation would be a little more encouraged to favor housing and school construction bills over our $46 billion military budget.

Candidates for office in the coming primaries and conventions would be put to the test were this type of trade union and voter delegation to ask of them assurances that they would legislate and act for jobs and not for war, cold or otherwise.

And out of such constructive pre-election voter activity there may develop candidates and other political leaders from the ranks of labor. It may appear to be starry-eyed and visionary to state that unless we do help develop these legislative and political "movements in depth," election campaigns will continue to offer the voters only "lesser evil" choices.

CON-EDISON STRANGLEHOLD ON NEW YORK CITY SHOULD BE ELECTION ISSUE

If ever there were a municipal issue on which candidates for public office should be called upon to take a stand, it is the stranglehold which Con-Ed is tightening around the necks of 8 million New Yorkers.

If ever there were a municipal issue around which an anti-monopoly coalition can and must be built, it is the need to loosen the grip which this powerful public utilities monopoly has placed upon our city.
  
There are many counts in the indictment against Con-Edison:

* It has the unmitigated gall again this year, after years of fantastic profit and the terrible breakdown of power in Midtown Manhattan this autumn, to request rate increases and tax rebates.

* It has absorbed 19 other companies in the past dozen years to strengthen its electric power monopoly.

* It is presently negotiating a merger with Brooklyn Union Gas Company thus placing Brooklyn residents completely at the mercy of this giant utilities company. 

* It holds such power over public officials, whether in City Hall, the State Capital or Washington, D.C. that nothing is done to use local, state, or federal anti-trust laws to restrain its greed for higher rates and acquisition of more control. Witness the giveaway of the three power plants this year by the city.

This indictment of Con-Edison by the people of New York should be the subject of Communist Party leaflets for a good while to come. When Party Clubs and County Committees see nothing far-fetched in putting Con-Ed in their meeting agendas and keeping it there, we'll get much closer to the day when we will be paying other than lip service to the phrase "anti-monopoly coalition" appearing in so many of our Party resolutions. Letters in the metropolitan newspapers this September by indignant readers highlighted the people's increasing alarm over Con-Ed's control over their lives.

No Party Club Executive can say Con-Ed is not an issue in their community. Unless some of their neighbors have private power plants in their backyards, every family depends upon Con-Ed for heat and light. Letters to the editors of the community newspapers and to City Hall condemning the whitewash by city officials of the Con-Ed power breakdown this last fall may evoke some thinking upon the part of voters and politicians alike.

In the last session of the State Legislature there was a bill introduced to curb somewhat the exorbitant electric rates. With the opening of the 1960 Legislature less than six weeks away, Party Clubs would do well to discuss their legislative program which should have Con-Ed at the tope of the list of "things to do."