Evening star., 1938-06-26
Pioneer in Labor Relationships
McGrady Is Setting Mark for Others to Shoot AT.

FALL For the next five years he was either
just finishing settling strike or just start
ing out to settle one.
From the West Coast to Toledo, to Gin
cinnati, to the soft coal fields, to the docks
Of New Orleans and back to the West
Coast he went to the rubber workers In
Akron. to the building tie-up in New York,
to Boston and the garment workers; to
Pennsylvania hard coal mines, to Toledo,
to Philadelphia and back again to the
West Coast.
In one Of his rare moments in his own
ONCE, some one telephoned to say a mailers'
strike has just been called in the circulation
papers. He walked out at once and less
than 20 minutes after the strike started
was in the midst Of negotiations. The strike
ended In less than three hours.
One Important Failure.
Success was typical OF the man. In all
his history as trouble shooter" he had
but one important failure: The little steel"
strike In which he served on q mediation
board OF three.
Mediation and arbitration were his two
devices. He appealed to the common sense
Of both sides OF the disputes In which he
intervened, using his knowledge of labor
problems to show the expense Of quarrels
to each side.
He believed firmly in the idea that labor
problems grow out Of community problems,
and he set up what he believed to be the
ideal machinery for handling the situation
in his Toledo plan" This plan calls for
neutral board Of community leaders to
negotiate between differing groups before
either = strike or lockout occurs.
In his Job with r. c. A., he is approach
ing the same problem in . more intimate
way. He Is giving industry an example Of
how he believes industry can best do its
share to improve. labor relations and
through that reshape social patterns. He
Is, in fact. . pioneer in what he is con-
vinced must some day be = profession OF its
ovn-labor relations counselor.
At an age when most men are at least
beginning to relax (he is IS, despite his
under 50" look) he Is hewing out the path
Of that profession. He is throwing tradi-
ton out the window and enjoying it.
He rushed through his first contract with
his firms employees within q month of his
arrival on the Job. It was with the c. l.
O.'s United Electrical and Radio Workers.
and covers 10000 men. Since then agree
ments have followed with the American
Radio Telegraphists' Association, the Am
| erican Federation Of Musicians Union, the
American Communications Association and
the sound effects men. Negotiations are
still under way with the actors, singers and
| broadcasters.
Works Day and Night.
| Each Of the contracts has benefited the
workers in better wages and shorter hours
But McGrady is not content with that. He
sees the labor representatives whenever
they have q problem to discuss; usually at
touch with labor's attitude by telephone and
| personal contact with union leaders. HI
has friends on both sides of labor's civil
war, and respects the sincerity Of their
opinions although he thinks the warfare 1t.
self detrimental to the labor cause.
He has fought sweatshops all his life, but
his own working hours are almost as long
as the day. His office is open day and
night, Sundays included. and much out-of.
ONCE time is spent on social problems like
housing (he has never forgotten the way
people died of tuberculosis in his home
neighborhood in the sluns).
Under his gruff, well dressed exterior Il
the man-slimpsed only in the glow Of hi
dark eyes, in the two photographs which
hang closely side by side on his ONCE wal
(those Of Abraham Lincoln and Franklin
D. Roosevelt. and in . silver-letteret
plaque on his desk which says:
Il shall pass through this world but once
Any good therefore that can do or an!
kindness that can show to any human
being, let me do 1t now. Let ne not dete
or neglect it, for shall not pass this va.
again"