Evening star., 1938-12-20
mo. 2 of O. Series. J

employers and union l1bOr lead
erS on proposed amendments to
the Wagner Labor Relations Act,
in the merit Congress.
BY BLAIR MOODY.
Americas hope for prosperous
peace in industry, moderates believe,
is being blocked by bitterness and
excesses which have colored with
prejudice and politics. all efforts to
work out sane, stable, middle-road
labor system, in Congress or else
where.
Such a system is no Utopian
dream. England has one. So has
Sweden. In both these countries
reasonableness between labor and
capital has developed mutual conf
dence.
But in the United States middle
readers point out, collective stupidity
and the misuse of power by "saber-
rattlers and name-callers' on both
sides have driven the natural part
ners of industry-the fellow who
buys the tools and the fellow who
uses them-into two armed camps
The difference is almost entirely
one of psychology and attitude. Over
there, every one sits down around a
table to solve a common problem
without a brick thrown or a head
cracked. Here, the leaders of both
sides, with few notable exceptions,
treat the Nations basic economic
problem as fight to the DEATH
Forget Sustenance.
Yet both industrialists and labor
leaders in this country-again with
notable Xceptions-point the finger
of blame at the other fellow and set
their jaws for battle They appar-
emily forget that, whoever is to
blame for fight, wages and profits
vanish together when production
stops.
When one digs beneath the surface
for the why" of such a senseless
state of affairs, it is not hard to
f1nd-each side deeply distrusts the
other!
Labor leaders say their lack of
confidence sprang from the fact that
y
was plunging spectacularly forward,
its captains thought much about how
to handle production and finance,
little about the men who carried out
their orders.
To most capitalists, they charge,
labor was strictly commodity. In
most companies, the man who put
IN his money was king. Sometimes
he was wise and benevolent, some
= times cruel and grasping, but almost
never was his authority challenged.
1t was easy, then, for capital to
keep control. The country was ex-
pandlng. immigration bars were
down. Newcomers from abroad usu-
ally were happy to work for almost
any wage and the more enterprising,
who did not like it, could "go West"
There were plenty of jobs, almost
no unemployment Skilled labor,
the working aristocrats," was able
to organize and boost prices" Mass
labor was cheap.
Picture Changes After War.
But after the World War, the pic
ture changed. The flood of immi-
grants stopped. Machines became
more efficient. The "undeveloped
West was already exploited.
Many industries preferred the
safe policy of wide profit margins
and, when necessary, reduced pro-
ductlon instead of reducing prices,
which would stimulate buying and
jobs. So did craft unions. When
the demand for goods decreased,
men were tossed out on the streets
to become hungry or Communists
or both or, eventually, w. P. A.
workers.
So the new era" of the 192Os fell
fiat because the well-to-do could not
possibly buy enough to keep the fac
tories going. When the plants shut
down they, too, lost much of what
they had.
During all this period, court de-
clslons were almost always anti
labor. Men who sought to join
unions were ruthlessly threatened
and discharged. Organizers were
beaten up. Hundreds of thousands
of dollars were spent by employers
on detectives and tear gas for the
single purpose of killing off unions.
In the view of labor leaders and
New Dealers, all this was funda-
mentally wrong. Is it any wonder,
they demand, that labor distrusts
capital?
But there is another side to the
story. What did labor do with the
i,,
Suddenly Given Power.
When business collapsed, Govern
ment stepped into the picture-and
politics. President Roosevelt seized
the reins of the liberal bandwagon,
which was already rolling downhill
He induced Congress to write into
law broad and, as it developed, dras-
tic powers which suddenly catapulted
the under dog labor, into a posi-
ton where it could snap at the throat
of capital.
There followed the stormiest
period of modern labor history.
Granted liberty by the Wagner Act,
many labor leaders took license.
They seized private property on the
grounds the end justified the means.
Accustomed to having the courts
stacked against us" they defed Or
ganized society even whe- sz.e pre-
ponderance of law whs gn their side.
They fo9rru employers to sign
labor contracts, and then broke them
with scores of "quickie sit-downs."
They beat up workers who did not
want to join unions, and threatened