Evening star., 1934-06-10
BY WILLIAM HARD.

tIuPlOyCo III IliC OlllOCu
States are clearly at fresh
i stage Of crisis and development.
There are three main factors
in the situation. The interplay be-
tween them will determine the future.
They are worth attentive study, both
singly and in combination.
The first Is the tendency toward
public legislative or administrative
fixations of hours and wages and
other working conditions. This was
Illustrated long ago-during the pres
idency of Woodrow Wilson-by the
Adamson law. fixing the length of the
basic work day on railroads. 1t is
now illustrated copiously in the labor
provisions of the N. r. A. codes fixing
minimum wages and maximum hours.
1T raises its head to quite extreme
height in the proposed Connery law
for a maximum 30-hour week in all
American industry.
This tendency is suspected and
feared, even by some of labor's most
devoted legislative champions. 1t lays
down rules which can become exces-
sively rigid and inflexible. 1t actually
can diminish employment.
May Be Economically Impossible.
An employer may be able, for in
stance. to employ a man at $40 a
week. He may not be able to afford
to employ him at the sl3 or SIS or
$50 that may be the minimum fixed
by the N. R. A. code under which
he is operating. He thereupon de-
clines to employ the man, or dis
charges him, and the man goes on
relief" and is maintained by Mr..
Harry Hopkins at public expense.
Many other illustrations could be
given of the difficulties and dangers
inherent in fixed governmental regu-
lation of local working conditions.
Those conditions are so variable and
so involved in special personal cir
cumstances that a general national
rule may often produce grave incon-
veniences and hardships. A certain
amount of public governmental super
vision Of such matters is doubtless
with us permanently-or, at any rate,
for a long time. 1t is obvious how
ever, that a more flexible method of
procedure would be desirable if any
such method can be found and used.
1t is at this point that the second
tendency in the present relations be-
tween employers and employees calls
for attention. 1t is the tendency to-
ward 'unioniZation" and toward col
lectiye bargaining with national
labor organizations" Some of the ad-
vocates of this tendency see in it an
escape from further rigidities of gov
ernmental control.
Wagner Sees Two Paths Open.
Senator Wagner of New York OBJ
served to this writer the other day:
Our American employers now have
their choice between two things. On
the one hand, they can deal with the
unions. On the other hand, they can
expose themselves to more and more
governmental control in the working
conditions of their plants. I should
think they would prefer. if they are
wise, to deal with the unions. They
can make union contracts that cover
local problems in a manner consistent
with local customs and local needs.
They can make union contracts that
can be much more readily changed
than will ever be the case with ma
tional legislative or administrative
edicts. This is one Of the principal
thoughts I have had in mind in
formulating the so-called Wagner bill
for the protection and promotion of
collective bargaining throughout the
country. 1 believe systems of collec-
tive bargaining are preferable to a
system of complete governmental DOM
ination of the terms of human work
I nevertheless believe also that COM
plete governmental domination will
come unless employers embrace col
lective bargaining and operate it sin
cerely and honestly. We have long
had political democracy. Collective
bargaining is the sequel to it. Collec-
tive bargaining is nothing but political
democracy projected into the economic
field. Our employers, to my mind.
must choose between liberty and force.
They must choose between the liberty
of democratic dealings with their en-
ployes and the force which otherwise
will descend upon them from the Ma
tional Government and compel them
to put their hours and wages under
bureaucratic dictation. I hope they
will avoid that dictation and I am
sure the only way in which they can
avoid it is the way of collective bar
gaining"
Don't Disagee Entirely.
Such are the Senator's views and
Trey come from man who is as much
distinguished for his balanced fair
ness as for his warmth of heart Nor
can it be said that our anti-national
trade union employers entirely disagree
with him. They are now in many in
stances pursuing policies which con-
stitute the third main factor in our
present American labor situation.
The third factor is the formation of
plant unions" which are really some
thing more than mere company
unions" There is not a doubt in the
world that in times past the national
trade unions" have Deen virtually the
only free unions" and almost all the
local plant union" have been en-
tirely 'company-dom They
have represented not the free choice
of the employees. but a scheme of
things imposed upon the employees by
the company'S orders and serving only
as a smoke-screen against criticism
from without. They have not repre-
sented genuine collective bargaining
or any degree of genuine industrial
democracy.
Now there seems to be true effort
in many industrial plants to devise
"employe representation plans"-or
plant unions which are actually the
product of the free will of the en-
ployes and which actually command
their free loyalty. In such plants II
now begins occasionally TO happen that
the majority Of the employees definitely
prefer the plant union" and definitely
reject participation In the national
trade unions" of the American Fed