Evening star., 1937-11-08

S9o5fSca9S
back from Europe n,u,s I
recently he spoke
pleasantly about the Dukes proposed
trip to America and said it would be
all right if the Duke didn't get mixed
up in politics. But how could an ex-
king study housing" or Stunning"
or labor conditions" without provid-
ing a national, if not international
controversy, on how America and
England compare in their handling
of social legislation?
Maybe an exposure of the compare
tive factors would have been an ex-
cellent piece of public service but the
question naturally arises whether this
is the function of an ex-king of Eng
land in a country where the people
are not In the habit of being told they
should address an American-born
woman as her highness."
Old Time Methods Best.
If the Duke really had planned his
visit In American style, he would have
hired one of those press agents of
yesteryearS whose first duty would
have been to proclaim through the
newspapers by cable before he left
Europe that when he visited America
with his wife, it would be as plain
"Mr. and Mrs. Windsor" The next
step should have been an announce
ment tina he would not accept any
invitations tn society affairs in Amer
lea but would spend most of his time
finding out about the 'underpriv-
ileged."
OF course, there's no knowing what
the Duke has been told about reform
legislation il the United States. Some
Britishers but mostly Americans trav-
cling abroad have been repeating the
mistaken statement that the British
are really 80 years ahead of u.s. in
social reforms. One often hears it
said that if you want to know what
America will be doing 25 years hence,
look at England today.
But is this true? The Duke would
have found on close investigation of
the problem that here in America we
regulate our stock exchanges by law,
Willie GLllSldllu dllOWS SCil-l uldbAOil-
In America, we have antitrust laws
and other economic strait Jackets for
bidding combinations of capital, where
as in England they permit big COM
bines and pools of capital.
England Forbids Strikes.
In America, we do not forbid the
general strike or the sympathetic
strike, but in England they do. Is
1t progressive or is it reactionary to
interfere with the right to strike?
In America we do not prevent labor
unions from contributing to political
parties, but in England they prohibit
1t by law.
In America we have the highest
standard of living in the world, and
our minimum wage and hours of
work are far better than in England.
But maybe the purpose of the Dukes
inquiry was to learn all this and
60 back some day and tell the British
people how far ahead of them the
United States really are. (The British
always refer to us in the plural)
Maybe the British labor would have
heard about the national labor rela-
tions law and how it permits the en-
ployes to coerce and intimidate one
another and subjects to legal penalty
an employer who expresses in writing
his views on labor organizations or
distributes to his employees pamphlets
containing his views. Maybe if imi-
tation is the sincerest form of f1attery,
the British labor unions will be copy
ing our National LabSS Relations Act.
Certainly there isn't hard-headed
exchange it gladly for the British
trade disputes act. Certainly there
isn't an economic royalist in Wall
Street who wouldn't tomorrow swap
the whole Securities and Exchange
Act on our statute books for the
British corporate securities act. which
forbids the fraudulent issuance of in
vestments, but leaves stock exchange
trading severely alone.
Could Run for Prime Minister.
1t is regrettable that the Duke has
postponed his trip because after COM
ing here he could have gone back to
England and run for prime minister
on platform of American laws and
regulations-they are SO much more
progressive" than anything the Brit
ish have and they interfere so much
more penetratingly in the earning of
q fair return on capital that they ought
to make real appeal to the radicals
abroad.
There is one thing, however, in
which the British are way ahead of
any other country in the world, and
that's in their housing program. In
stead of the son of a British monarch
planning to come to America to study
housing, we should be sending Jimmy
Roosevelt or one of the other sons of
our President to England to study the
British housing system.
The Duke could better specialize on
American labor problems. But, it is
whispered, the Duke has Fascist SYM
pathies. If he has, then the New
Deal should have been of particular
value to him as study in social re-
@OhA el1Ou6Il W NC SURE, III ID Oily III
an evolutionary stage and government
RECOMMENDATION in industry, and agri-
culture and labor has not yet reached
IN America the proportions of the
German system.
American labor, of course, is at the
moment strong in its support of the
New Deal and bitterly opposed to
Fascism, but the Duke could have told
the Baltimore Federation of Labor, for
example, that all efficiently" regu-
lated governments abroad nowadays
find it necessary to control and regu-
late labor as well as capital, and that
this is the trend in Europe. The open
hostility expressed by American labor
leaders concerning the Dukes special
representative is really not SO much
directed at Charles Bedaux, but is
doubtless roundabout form of pro-
test against the publicly displayed af-
lection on the part of the Duke and