The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1938-08-18

~" SUCH d CDIulIIOil u INSECURITY
Whether this artificial function can be
dispensed with will depend upon
whether some other and more direct
democratic discipline of industry and
can accomplish an adequate
and wholesome distribution Of the
necessities and comforts Of a twentieth
century civilization. If the fair re-
qurements Of women and children, of
the aged and disabled, are not recog
nized and provided for by the freer
processes of individual initiative and
private control Of industry, it is not
to be expected that a free people will
forego the use Of their power to do
indirectly these things which have be-
come essential to a modern civilized
society.
In that event the problem is one Of
dealing fairly and eqritably with all
factors concerned and free from par
tisan political bias, preferment or OBJ
jective. Labor is keenly aware of the
fact that taxes provide the greatest
single contribution to the cost Of liv-
ing today. 1t is equally alert to the
fact that power to tax may be used
TO destructive as well as constructive
ends, to penalize as well as to reward.
'It's interest in this subject is constant
ly becoming more keen and alert.
Then, too, organized labor views
with apprehension the spreading struc-
ture Of boards, commissions, and COM
mittees; of rules, regulations, re-
strictions and limitations, placed upon
the necessary and proper activities Of
/ the economic community. Undue in
tervention in the economic process by
government, through political action,
introduces motives and elements of
control, which result in strangulation.
The result is the placing Of the dead
hand Of precedent and red tape in
Strengthening effect upon the vital
processes Of the national life.
But neither can the workers accept
with equanimity the economic and So
cial evils for the correction Of which
all these boards, commissions, and
committees have been invested and set
up. If the rule Of reason cannot be
voluntary, if the general welfare must
be implemented by political forms, the
workers will resort to their basic rem
edy Of democratic political action. But
that will be, has always been, their
last resort. Here then We find another
profitable field for cooperation and
joint action between associated en-
ployers and organized labor.
For these problems Of unemploy-
ment, taxation, and governmental in
tervention we propose the disciplines
Of democratic practice in industry
And this We hope to see developed di-
rectly, within industry itself; knowing
full we'll that unless this is accomp-
lished we shall have further develop
ment of the application of democratic
disciplines through the indirect, round
about and therefore wasteful channel.
of governmental action.
We therefore call upon industry tc
turn to the basic conceptions of the
American Way. We plead for the
democratic methods Of neighbors hav
ing common interest, getting together
in peaceful counsel for the solution
Of problems and the correction of dis
orders which effect all. This is the
opposite Of dictatorship. 1t is gooc
American common sense in action.
We repeat our language of year:
ago, that industry has a manifes
duty, duty to have faith in the prin
ciples and practices of democracy; t.
put those principles into practica
action; to come to the conference
table and to make unnecessary the
imposition Of the mighty power Of tht
state. Self-imposed restraint, self
imposed obligations, seif-imposed re
sponsibilities and self-impOsed policie!
can make new and finer American
free in fact, in action, and in truth.
| We are not belittling the things tha
have been done through legislative
administrative, and judicial action dur
ing the past decade and for the cor
rection Of acknowledged and terrible
evils. These enactments. judicial find
ings. and administrative policies wer
the inevitable response TO the lrreSpOn
sible use Of a power of social control
a power which expressed its purpose
and its policies repeatedly in guns, il
gas, in fraud and deliberate starya
tion of millions of citizens. Thes,
citizens reacted in a perfectly logica
fashion. And they would do the SAM
again under similar conditions.
But it is in the hope that this emer
4 gency use Of the reserved power O
the people, together with the terribl
conditions which called it forth, ha
demonstrated the unworkable char
acter Of the previous industrial poll
cies Of management and finance, tha
we come now again with our invitation
to the counsel table. We are more thai
willing to return to the freer life o
voluntary and mutual action, unde
the guarantees Of democratic proce
dure.
We greatly fear, that unless we shall
find the democratic road out of tht
impasse into which we are drifting
we shall find our people buried unde
a burden Of debt and bureaucracy.
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