The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1938-07-28
Big Business Sturts
Drive To Sell New
System To People
New Version Of "Americdn
System" Ready to Pull a
White Rabbit From Hat

Washington QLNS).-Big industry
is launching another Of it's "drives"
to sell the American people on the
American system of business" The
last "drive" of this nature was con-
Quoted by the National Association of
Manufacturers and ended abruptly in
an investigation by the Senate Civil
Liberties Committee.
The new "drive," it is explained, is
felt to be necessary because "politi-
clans" have been selling some other
system to the American people, and
"slowly washing away the solid found
ations of the American system"
Announcement Of the "drive" comes
at moment when the Senate Civil
Liberties Committee is again delving
into the dark places of big industry;
this time, the affairs and activities of
the Republic Steel Company in fight
ing collective bargaining by it's en-
ployes and engaging in good old time
civil warfare in it's steel making COM
munities.
Details Are Withheld
No one in the national capital seems
to know exactly what the "American
SYSTEM" that is to be sold to the peo-
pie consists of; if the evidence brought
out before the Civil Liberties Commit
tee is a criterion, it consists of about
everything that labor unions from the
first day of their start have denounced
and fought.
Certain "high spots" in the pro-
posed "drive" are made manifest, how
ever. For one thing there is "too
much government supervision" over
the way and manner of doing business
to please the magnates at the top.
There's the Wagner Labor Relations
Act, for instance, which all of Big
Business believes should be repealed
without delay, with return possibly
to the laws of the jungle in industrial
relations.
There is opposition also to certain
features Of the new system which have
been brought in lately through new
Federal legislation. 1t is no longer so
easy for big industry to unite in trade
combinations, associations, cartels and
similar set-ups to fix prices and limit
competition. Another discarded gad-
get is the device to generate vast
combines of capital and plant equip
ment through the use Of certain cor
porate and financial devices, including
holding companies.
Company Police on Skids
Another condition not so prevalent
in industrial communities, or at least
on the way out, is that of the armed
company guard and private police
which in former days ruthlessly waged
civil war in factory communities when
workers engaged in strike or asked for
the rights of collective bargaining and
improved working conditions.
In the good old days, it is pointed
out, big business did not exert much
effort to inform the American people
of what it's system consisted of, except
such as was made manifest through
practices that have lately come under
the direct ban of new Federal laws.
The popular conception of the system
ran to the outlines of rugged in
dividualism, ruthless suppression of
unions, low wages, long hours and
child labor.
Some people saw striking resem-
blance between that system and the
system prevailing in Japan today.
1t may be that big industry is get
ting ready to pull white rabbit in
the form of new system out Of the
hat. That's what people in Washing
ton are wondering about. 1t may be
that the men at the top are getting
ready to try to out-do the New Deal
in altruism toward workers, consumers
and the public. But as yet there is no
real sign of such intent.
i "Sick Chicken" Case
Several times lately it has been
pointed out that all of those things
which were provided for in Section Ia
of the National Recovery Act, and
were believed to be lost when that act
was knocked out by a decision Of the
Supreme Court in suit brought by
high priced corporation lawyers in the
name of the little Schechters, have
since been rewritten into the Federal
statute books, and more too. There's
the Wagner labor relations act, the
Walsh -Healy act, and other provisions
that nail down the tenets of Section
Ia more firmly than would ever have
been possible under the loose terms
of the National Recovery Act.
However, big industry as yet gives
no intimation that it's prospective
"drive" of selling is aimed to try to
undermine the new laws that cover the
intents of Section Ia.
Maybe the men at the top are 60
ing to fall in line with the new laws
and their aims and go the law.
makers and the New Deal one better
That's what everybody is interested
in and waiting to see.
That Investigation last winter into