Coulee City dispatch. [volume] (Coulee City, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1937-08-19
SEEN and HEARL
around the
NATIONAL CAPITAL
BY Carter Field :

AeoAbA1AA VI
Not Surprising
Which might not be surprising,
Alabama being regarded mostly as
a very conservative state, econom-
ically and socially, except that SEN
ator Black has been the nemesis of
the princes of privilege right from
the day the Roosevelt administra-
ton came into power in 1888. 1t
was Black who fought so vigorously
for the death sentence in the public
utility holding company bill, and
who obtained rather a reputation
as snooper during the seizure Of
private kilograms episode.
Mr.. Rankin has held firmly in an
anti-privately owned utility position
several laps ahead of Senator
George w. Norris of Nebraska and
a few more ahead of President
Roosevelt all the way through the
New Deal administration so far.
Both have had some very disturb
ing communications from back
home. They have found that many
of their influential supporters were
far from enthusiastic about the
New Deal. They have discovered
that attacking the Morgans and the
big northern utilities was one thing,
but that forcing little manufacturers
down in their home states to pay
higher wages and grant shorter
hours was something else again.
Senator Ellison D. Smith Cotton
ED of South Carolina voiced the
opinion of great many southern
ers when he intimated that the
administration, in regulating wages
and hours, was attempting to de-
prive the South of the natural adj
vantages that God had given it,
and that the mental attitude of
the New Deal would seem to re-
quire them to hold God to strict
accountability for such unfairness!
The South figures that it has GER
tain economic advantage in cheap
err living costs, and it proposes to
hold on to them
Puzzles Labor Men
Just why President Roosevelt re-
ferred newspaper men the other
day to the British trades unions act
as something worthy of study is
puzzling some of his labor advis-
ers no end. Most of the clearest
thinkers among them want no part
of it. Some phases of it they regard
as unnecessary in this country. 9th
er phases they think would be ut
terly unacceptable to employers.
The Scandinavian plan appeals
much more to the particular group
in question, including Edward F.
McGrady. The assistant secretary
of labor is fond of pointing out to
friends that you don't hear anything
about strikes in Norway and
Sweden.
So far as the British plan is con-
cerned, in practical working condi-
tions the industry against which a
strike is leveled shuts down until
the strike is settled. No attempt is
made by employers to put scabs
to work, or for that matter to OPP
crate at all Just the reverse, of
course, of what has to happen when
there is a general strike, and what
did happen in England when gen.
eral strike was tried
The present British law forbids a
general strike, but, as the young
labor experts here point out, that
sort of prohibition is unnecessary
here for the simple reason that
there is no possibility of a general
strike. No labor leader of impor-
lance favors the idea. Practically
every one of them would refuse to
cooperate.
The feature of the Scandinavian
labor policy that appeals most to
some of these young labor experts
is that it provides for collective bar
gaining by industries, and on coun-
try-wide basis. Applied to the re-
cent motor strikes, it would have
worked in this way. The motor en-
ployees would have served notice
on the manufacturers that they
wanted this, or that. They would
have insisted on dealing with all
the manufacturers at once, and con-
Guiding one bargain for pay, hours
and working conditions for all.
Thus there would have been no
differentials out of which some think
one motor company has slight
advantage over others in it's labor
costs and general efficiency.
Expect 1t to Help
Just how those advocating this
plan would have handled Henry
Ford in the recent situation is an
unanswered question.
Labor leaders think that the wages
and hours bill, especially after it has
been modified few times, which
they confidently expect, is going to
prove a great help with a certain
type of employer in labor toubles.
The kind of thing that makes
the labor leaders very low in mind
indeed is what happened, to cite a
recent case, on the Fall River line,
where the steamship line simply
suspended operation after the walk
out and stayed suspended.
Of course this is an unusual case.
Far more usual is the case of an
employer who closes down where
he has been operating, and then
10 Ill,