The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1938-06-30
COOPERATION

COOPERATION
The shadow Of serious depression following so
closely the industrial breakdown of 1928, brings
us again to action for relief and to remedy the
cause of economic insecurity. Workers are being
laid off and the unemployed and their families
must turn to relief agencies-and in at least two
large cities relief agencies had nothing to give
the hungry. Hungry men and women will not
patiently watch their children starve-nor should
they. Depressons are not new experience fo1
American industry. The chart of our economic
history shows a succession of peaks and Valleys
prosperity and depression, but never sustained
regular we-being for all.
In the shadow of increasing unemployment
with the horror of widespread privation, the Ex-
ecutive Council of the American Federation of La
Dor made the following offer to managers of in
dustries:
The Executive Council of the American Fed
GRAFTON of Labor regards the present moment as
most opportune and timely for declaration of it's
basic aims and objectves.
Unemployment can only be overcome through
the creation of work opportunities for working
men and women in private industry. This is the
real remedy for unemployment. The time has ar
rived when, through cooperation, understanding
and proper regard for the rights of all employers
and employees, industry and Labor should get to-
gether and seek to find way by which this rea
remedy for ideness can be applied.
The American Federation of Labor is commit
ted to the principle of private ownership, private
initiative and the protection of private property
The right to and manage property must bt
conceded and safe-guarded. Working people must
be accorded the right to organize and bargain col
lectively. The highest wages which industry car
afford should be paid and a fair return upon legit
mate investments to those who own private prop
erty must be freely conceded.
Labor and capital can cooperate, develop eff
cheney and production through labor organizations
developed by the workers and through the organ
zation Of industry, developed by industrial
management. Through the establishment of con
tractua relationships industrial peace can be pro
noted and industrial production stabilized Con
tracts entered into between organized labor anC
Industrial management must be regarded as sacred
Obligations. They must be reigiousy observed
The principle of industrial democracy through
which labor and management NAL solve their com
mon economic problems should be recognized anC
applied in all industrial relationships. Organiza
tions Of labor should be governed by democratic
policies, rules and procedure. This is the Amer
can way. 1t is in conformity with modern require
ments and democratic principles.
Through the development of team work be
tween industry and Labor, many economic wrongs
can be righted, many of industry's legislative bur
dens can be remeded, and the maximum of service
which industry and labor may render can be gve1
the entire Nation.
Labor invites industry to discard the weapons
of industrial warfare directed against Labor by
employers associations both now and in days gon,
by Let us all have a new vision of the changed
attitude between Labor and capital. 1t means tn,
substitution of cooperation and understanding fo
industrial strife. All Of this is easy of accom-
plshment because all that is required is to respec
and recognize the economic, legal and industrial
rights of both Labor and capital.
In this proposal the American Federation o
Labor asks industries to recognize Labors part
nership in the production of goods and service
and to accept this basic relationship as a gudin!
fact in al relations between management an,
workers. Since employees are partners III pro