The Waterbury Democrat., 1937-02-09

simply taking necessary precau- tions to properly protect their in- terests against union marauders. The Courant editor should spend a few hours reading the evidence presented to the LaFollette sena- torial investigating committee and he will have no illusions about the automatic disappearance of strike breakers. They will disappear when the employers of the coun- try no longer engage their Ser vices"
 Number Two
 So everything was lovely in Flint, Michigan, until the union organizers appeared on the scene and destroyed the peacefulness of the city. And with the avOwed intention of stirring up discontent and pulling off a strike? I suppose the organizers were just lying around all over Michigan and Pennsylvania drinking cham pagne, smoking fat cigars, and simply bored to death with the dull mechanical exercise of living when one of them shouted "Heigho! Let's go out and pull oil 8 strike in Flint. Let's stir up some discontent to pass the time away!" The Courant's editor knows precious little about the la bor movement if that is his belief. No responsible union leader ever wants . strike: 1t is the last re- sort; and 1t is never ordered or voted without profound reluc- tance. Of course there are occa- sional instances where crooked business agents resort to the strike as a shake-down. But such in- stances are not common and are always local in origin and of short duration. Also they are not ir- frequently acts of collision be- tween crooked business agents and crooked employers who want to put competitor out of business. But strike of the size of the G. M. sort is not pulled for fun. The Courant's editor is perfectly right when he says that the strike weapon should be resorted to only to right some great wrong. That Is when 1t is resorted to although he may not believe 1t. I know be- cause I have been all through it. I am not writing from hearsay but from bitter personal knowledge. Number Three
 This statement is totally at va riance with the facts. Neither MT. Lewis nor the Committee for h. dustrial Organization called the strike. It was the United Auto mobile Workers of America who are an industrial union and as such affiliated with the c. I. O. The basic causes of the dispute were not only wages, working con- ditions, but almost everything else which is . fundamental of Gen eral Motors industrial policy. If there was no dispute over indus trial conditions there would be no organization of workers to partici- pate in it. There are two axiom in the labor union world:
 Contented slaves cannot be ganized.
 Organization is impossible whc- no grievance exists.
 In Point
 A long time ago I asked the then international president of the Boot and Shoe Workers Union why no attempt had been made to organize the workers in the John son-Endicott plants. have never forgotten his answer.
 We couldn't get anywhere
 because those people give their
 workers more voluntarily than
 we as a union would dare ask
 for"
 The inevitable conclusion to that remark of an experienced, in- telligent, and honest labor lead- CT who had spent lifetime in the movement is-iS employers as a class were of the same type as the men running the Johnson -Endi- colt industry labor unions would not almost automatically disap- pear" They would never have come into existence.
 Number Four
 do not know just how well in- formed the Courant's editor is on the history of labor unions in this country but whatever information he has cannot be very deep or very extensive. Otherwise he would not be guilty of the moth-eaten idea that labor has gained anything by forcible means that 1t could have won through peaceable negotia- tions. I may be reading some thing into that statement which is not there. But 1t seems to im- ply that peaceable negotiation has been at 1abor's disposal, that labor has refused to avail itself of the disposal and has resorted to the strike weapon from sheer will fulness. Nothing could be more distant from the truth. It was the failure to secure peaceable me- gotiation with General Motors or any other kind of negotiation which created the present situa- ton with the sit-down strike, which was called into play to com pei any sort of conference what ever. The real strike makers in American industry are the em- pIOyers who refuse to bargain with their wOrkmen until the use of the deplorable strike weapon forces them to do so.
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