The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-07-13
Liberal Viewpoint
by DIR. HARRY ELNIEE BARNES

THE administration and the steel trust have
Il postponed the steel strike for few days,
weeks or months. This, however, is no solution
at all OF the fundamental issue at stake.
These issues are three-fold: Cd Will industry
have the intelligence and vision to recognize that
capitalism can only be saved by increased pur-
chasing power and concede the principle Of coll
ective bargaining as an indispensable factor IN
increasing the purchasing power OF the coun-
try, or % will it oppose in bull-headed fashion
the very idea Of collective bargaining, or 90 will
the government step in and force industry 10
submit to the principles and practices of sane
and reasonable labor unionism?
Neither the federal government nor Amer
lean industry can for any length Of time run
away from the solution of these basic issues.
1t is not merely the principle of labor union
ism which is at stake, but the larger ana more
vital matter of mass purchasing power.
American industry today is strong enough to
reject labor unionism and collective bargaining,
provided the government does not step in to
support the cause of labor But any such sup
preston only can be purchased at the price Of
ultimately Wrecking the capitalistic system.
Without collective bargaining powers on the
part of the laborer there is no hope Of providing
the mass purchasing power necessary to re-
Mobilization of the capitalstic order And with
out this additional buying power, capitalism is
foredoomed to fold up.
4 AOR past economic history duOIQS dLlple
~ proof OF the fact that we can not trust the
employing class of their own voltion to shell out
sufficiently generously to insure just distri-
button of the social income and to provide
enough mass purchasing power to keep capital
ism in a state of health.
Whatever temporary victories Short-sighed
employers may win in the way of SuppreSSing
labor unionisn, in the long run the only alter
natives are capitalism along with collective bar
gaining or government ownership of industry
with state wages to employees. OF the two GER
tainly the latter is the more menacing to CAPT.
talisticaly- minded industrialiSts.
The resolute determination with which many
American employers oppose such an elementary
principle of any real New Deal as collective bar
gaining and trade unionism affords a striking
proof of how far they actually are from any real
change of heart
Those who still control our economic life are
not yet willing to go as far in the way of re-
adjustment as the major European states went
before the beginning of the twentieth century.
A sincere and thorough espousal Of collective
bargaining is the very least which we can expect
of any paSsably reformed capitalism.
If American capitalists had any power OF
adroit strategy, they would swiftly accept the
principle of labor unoniSm and then, from this
vantage point, demand that organized labor
clean house.
TINE employers have no case when they
they have a real case in fighting the racketeer-
ing, loafng and other abuses which have crept
into the old line American trade unionism.
But capital can never logically or effectively
fight the specific abuses of labor unionism until
it Fundamentally accepts the broad principles
of collective bargaining Once it does the lat
ter, it will be in a position to demand of labor
that it produce unions like the Amalgamated
Clothing Workers, which have something to
offer to capital as we'll to labor.
BY its present policy of benighted conserva-
ton capital is dragging both itself and labor
down to destruction.
If capitalism folds up it will be followed
ultimately by a radical regime in which the
present American employers will have no place,
but one in which labor will at last come into
its own.
Looking at matters in longtime perspective,
the present tactics of American employers are
really playing into the hands of radical labor.
Also President Rooseyelt's prestige and posi-
ton are at stake. The President must stand
or fall with the success of this effort to sustain
capitalism Whatever American employers do
to wreck the latter helps to wreck him as we'll.
When he returned from the south he was
said to have described himself as "a tough guy.
Here is a splendid opportunity for him to give
evidence of such timely and desirable qualities