Milford chronicle., 1935-02-15
Washington Snapshots

I
The Senate OF the United states
is famous for its ihQuisitions, but
when it attempted to find out what
President Roosevelt intended to do
with the $4,O0O,OO0,O00 relief funds
] he asked. it stood defeated, After
days Of questioning Of Relief Adj
ministratOr Hopkins, Admiral PeO-
pies, of the Treasury, and other OIL
cials, the Senate committee didn't
even know who had written the bill
much less what its intent was. And
the redOubtable warrior, Carter
Glass, of Virginia, was on the COM
mittee.
Organized labor, through William
Green, president of the Federation
of Labor, and John L. Lewis, pres
ident of the mine union, have final
ly forced a situation which was in
evitable and has been on the hori-
zon for months. AS Arthur Brisbane,
the writer, expressed it, ''the Ad-
ministratiOn begins to suspect that
what union labor wants is not CO.
operation but ebedienee."s
aaa&
The break came over the automO-
bile code. This industry, paying the
highest wages in the country, sought
renewal of its code with the only
sharp change a provision to pay
time and one half for overtime. Or
ganized labor opposed renewal
without striking out a clause which
permitted the employer to hire, dis
charge or promote on a basis of
merit.
Mr.. Brisbane commented that;
1.-The automobile industry, greatest
in the country, pays the best wages
of any industry in the United States,
or in the world. And organized la
Dor had nothing to do with its pro-
gress or high standard of its
wages" He added: .
There is no sound reason for
turning over an industry so highly I
developed. well paid, prominently
to a body of labor union /
managers that have had nothing to
10 with it, deserve no credit for its
To allow leaders. however 9
sincere and upright, to force their I
way into that industry and COL
AECT DUES from a gigantic indus :
rial organization, would be like !
operation on the rack
teer order. Desire of leaders to col I
ect annual dues and show their s
Dowef, is not a sound reason for l
eopardizing the country's greatest
Industry. by a labor war, In this q
oppression. * {
"If threats to close down the I
teel and textile industries accom-
any criticism of the automobile
ode. these are threats against re-
oVery. against employment, against
he Government itself. for there
annOt be two governments in one n
ountry." ~ U
@ss&
Referring TO the renewal of the u
utomObile code, Carlisle BargerOn i'
aid in the Washington Post: Even o
ow, Mr.. William Green, of the Am ?
rican Federation of Labor, is try D
lg to kick up a row in the indus u
~. His attitude is inexplicable,
lst as Il has been at many other :.
tages of the recovery movement. y
Te has a negligible membership in. Q
he automobile industry and a bal =
IT Just conducted under the aus
ices of an impartial board reveals
ute clearly that no material NUM- :
er of the automobile employees
ant to affiliate with him. i. Of
purse, there are signs of unrest
lis year, leading to the conviction :
lat some of the labor leaders at =
asst, are more concerned in get
ng members for their Organiza-
0ns than in the return of men to
OTk."
Some of the left-wing Brain
rusteFs appear to be headed into
depression of Their own. Jerome q
rank, counsel for AAA, had his
b jerked out from under him,
hile Frederic c. Howe, consumers
unset, was pushed around toward
lesser job and maybe headed out.
ie by one, two by two. or what
or the occasion calls for, the
ass of New Dealers described by
natOr Carter Glass as "sub-prO- u
ssors" and impatient academi-
ms" is being reduced. q