Evening star., 1934-09-02

1
ton about the value of company
unions; the sudden interest and hidden
attachment of large corporate man
agement to the so-called vertical
more accurately termed plant" as
distinguished from the industrial
union; the proposals for compulsory
arbitration, and the delegating Of
more authority to the code authorities
are straws in the wind.
Is there any wonder that Com
munism, which is merely inverted
Fascism, should be growing rapidly
in our land? Strikes called by labor
to secure rights guaranteed to them
under the recovery act have been
used by Communists to spread revolu-
tionary propaganda or to insert matters
alien to the controversy The San
Francisco strike is a case in point.
Aside from the blunder in tactics of
| a general strike, the subversive in
fiuences of the Communists are well
known in that and other labor
struggles.
Foreign Policy Cited.
But nowhere has administration
policy more completely reversed itself
in the year than on the matter Of its
foreign trade. A year ago we had
embarked upon program of economic
nationalism; we were determined to
develop the domestic market. Today
we have as definitely set our face
in the other direction. Oficials In
charge of our Department of State
have vociferously and continuously
asserted the necessity of enlarging
the foreign market for the products
of our industries.
incidentally, the needs of our agri-
culturists have found a sympathetic
appeal in this strain. Obviously we
may temporarily increase the products
of our highly mechanical and mass
production industries, in which labor's
share is relatively low; but in return
we must accept the goods produced
by foreign labor at labor cost that
will spell ruination to industries less
favored governmentally under a ma
tional policy of international bar
gaining.
It is equally clear that Americas
workers will suffer not only in the
reduction of the more profitable op-
portunities for employment, but in the
undermining and lowering of Amer
ican standards of work. And strangely
we label these foreign articles and
commodities with all the blessings
OF the N. r. A. and without a single
requirement of the most inferior of
all our codif1ed standards of employ
ment. Here we have an example of
action-but action precipitate and
purpoSelesS. America still remains
her best lnarket-American wage
| earners her best cazzsATaeFsz when,
wages and protection are adequate.
| Nor can labor look out with reas-
surance upon the cumbersome, top
heavy bureaucracy that has been built
UP to administer the new deal. Bu-
reaucracies, like kings, seldom abdi-
cate wnen once they have a firm hold
on the seats of power. Can it be that
the cost withal of this new army of
administrators, plus the high cost of
the new deal, means that we are
merely postponing the evil day? Ger
tainly labor cannot be blinded merely
by the appeal of selfish interest when
it, above all other classes, cannot hope
to evade ultimate consequences.
Haste Lessons Value.
Even the emergency educational
program, desirable as it is to pro-
vide work for idle teachers, has been
thrown together with such haste and
so little forethought that the values
that might emerge are likely to be
lost in the confusion.
These liabilities are not cited in
destructive criticism. but must appear
in labor's balance sheet of the new
deal, along with the assets assigned.
To deny gains in some fields is to be
unfair; to claim unmixed blessings is
sheer nonsense. Facts are stubborn
things. Ten million were idle last
Labor day. Ten million are idle to-
day. So long as this vast army Of
men and women walks the streets of
the land upon this second Labor day
OF the new deal, we cannot proclaim
with one accord that it has been
an unqualified success and that no
room for improvement exists. It has
/ 0CC1l SOAlCII1l1lk AcW. II mas DCen
action. For labor upon this ami
versary there remains the age-old
challenge-to agitate, to organize and
to educate. It's hope is not funda-
mentally in the devices of govern
ment, but in the intelligently planned
cooperative efforts of labor the world
over.
The direct and conscious economic
interests Of Americas organized wage
earners have never permitted of a
confused mentality in economic and
social thinking. Every set of inter-
ests tends to develop its own school
OF economies, but the economics of
Americas workers have had to be
based on facts which could not be
controverted and which would remain
because of their inherent relation to
realities.
American labor thinking has left its
impression upon our social, judicial
and economic hfe, especially in prin-
c1ples and practices which are now
coming to recognition. The first of
these is that collective bargaining
makes for industrial balance and eff
cheney. Collective bargaining has been
on trial for half century in Amer
lea. 1t has won its verdict from the
American people as a whole. This
verdict is not on mere emotional or
theoretical grounds Of justice OF
righteousness or brotherhood. 1t has
proven out as method of handling
industrial relationship problems. II
works For that reason it will re-
main. And it will logically increase ir
application. Collective bargaining Is
accepted by the American public mind
and has become a part of American
law because of the object lessons sci
by organized labor.
Supply and Demand Vital.
Another economic principle now ac.
cepted pretty generally in theory, but
not yet applied as generally as will
be seen to be necessary, is that o.
the essential relationship which exist,
between an economic balance With.
the Nation and the purchasing power
of wages The intimate connection
between the continuing production O
commodities and their effective dis