Evening star., 1938-01-14
An Imaginary Interview
Sloan Weird1er and John LIewelyn Legreen Make
President Proposition.
Proposition.

The President--Well. they shouldn't
be. Some day the race will evolve
into men whose egos are sunk in So
cial consciousness, whose greed Is dis
ciplined by afiectionate solidarity.
Mr.. Weirdler-I hope you're right,
Mr.. President, but we can't wait for
that.
Mr.. Legreen-Weirdler's right.
Mr.. Weirdler-And meantime all of
US have one common aim-all Of us.
good and bad, wise and foolish-you
and I and Mr.. Legreen here
The President-What's that?
Mr.. Weirdler-You tell him, Le-
green.
Mr.. Legreen-we want to survive.
shipwreck.
Mr.. Weirdler-So, we have founded
an Employers Survivors Association.
We've begun by admitting to ourselves
that proflt-taking is just one part OF
modern industry. We've got three
duties. those Of us who are managers.
One is to our stockholders. who ought
risk than they get from municipal
bonds. One Is to the Nation, for
whom we run the industry: and one Is
to labor, who together with US, makes
the wheels 60 around. So we have
founded this new Survivors Asso-
citation with these three ideas in mind.
We are going to set some profess
sional standards. sort OF like the
American College of Physicians
We're going to agree that all the
members pay a certain minimum
wage-we'l work that out with liv-
ing cost indexes for different locali-
ties-and set maximum hours, and
we'll work that out with you. Mr..
Legreen, only be reasonable about 1t,
because you know what men really
want Is income not leisure: and no.
body can get into this society who
employs anybody under the age OF l6.
Also no one can join who's opposed
to independent trade unions. It's 60
ing to be an honor to join this Or
ganization.
The President-Why, that's the old
Blue Eagle stuff that I thought you
didn't like
Mr.. Weirdler-The difference is 1t
isn't complicated and its voluntary.
And we're not going to set up any
self-perpetuating mechanism to con-
tinue it. We're going to try it for
year and then at the end Of the year
see where We stand and whether it's
gotten us anywhere.
Mr.. Leegreen-Well, now that's very
interesting. Because all OF us trade
unionists have gotten together and
decided to form an All-American Fed
Grafton of Trade Union Survivors. We
decided that If We wanted to survive
we'd better have the good will Of the
public, 50 we're going to pass . rule
that you can't call any strike without
having a majority vote from every
worker affected, and you can't call
sympathetic strike without two
thirds vote. We've decided to expel
from our membership any group or
union that unilaterally breaks a con-
tract honorably entered into, and We
want you. Mr.. President, to make the
National Labor Relations Board into
a judiciary body. labor court with
the rules a great deal clearer than
they are at present. We're also 60
ing to make it a trade union offense
willfully to sabotage an industry or to
intimidate any worker into joining.
The President-Don't you boys want
anything from me?
Mr.. Weirdler-My organization,
which already represents most inn
portant industries in the United
States. wants to make you a PROPOSE
ton. We're willing to take a chance
If you are. And that proposition is
that We will guarantee to employ with
in the next three months 5000, 900
extra workers. Well find work for
them. Well make work for them.
We think We can do 1t better than
Harry Hopkins can. Maybe the stock
holders will have to suffer a little bit
for a while Maybe some Of our SAL
aries will have to come down a lit
tie Maybe we'll have to fire q few