Evening star., 1940-05-21

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President chose half his cabinet
from the ranks of the Republican
party, 1t would not go to the root
Of the domestic controversies which
have been slowing up production
and making Americas economic
machine lop-sided. For the real
power OF Government nowadays isn't
vested in the cabinet officers at all,
but In the many boards, bureaus
and commissions which have the
authority to regulate and, by means
OF regulation, to impair the efficiency
Of business.
II the President were to announce
q return to the plain intent of Con-
greSs. when it created bipartisan
boards and commissions, and if he
were to give representation to
minority as we'll as majority view
points on economic issues, there
would be a different story to tell.
Already Too Much Politics.
The trouble is that the reported
plan OF the President to put some
Republicans in his cabinet touches
the political but not the economic
issues of the day. There is, un-
fortunately, too much politics in our
National Government. Even in the
midst of what has been portrayed
as a serious crisis in world affairs,
the spokesmen of the administra-
ton are continuing, on the one hand,
their demagogic promises that labor
standards will not be lowered"
while, on the other hand, private
assurances are being given that the
request OF the Army and Navy for
q modification of the Walsh-Healey
Government contracts law and the
demand of manufacturers for more
flexibility in the operation of the
wage-and-hour law will be granted.
Even with national defense at
stake, the political point of view
prevails, and rather than ALLEVIATE
union labor or its leaders who have
a pressure group at hand to prevent
Congress from taking action actually
wanted by the Army and Navy, the
administration is too timid to deal
with the necessities of the situation.
This Is one reason why the spec
tacular plans to form coalition"
cabinets will be regarded only as a
piece Of political camouf1age de-
signed to weaken Republican oppo-
sition during the coming campaign
and not to assist the country to deal
firmly with all obstacles to higher
production.
Government Has Power.
Sooner or later the public will
grow weary Of these political strata
gems and Of the selfishness of pres
sure groups, and will insist that the
Federal Government exercise its
regulatory power, both with respect
to production and the worker Or
ganizations. There is ample power
for the administration to accelerate
production processes by seeing to it
that existing statutes are not abused.
The problem facing the Nation is
well known to the industrial man
ayers. Thus, there is shortage of
skilled labor. Not enough skilled
1aborers are available to run, in
many instances, two or three shifts.
The law, however, requires time and
q half to be paid if any shift is kept
overtime. The taxpayers of Amer
lea are thus asked to pay far more
than in any country in the world for
the forging of the weapons needed
for defense. Taxes in their turn
place such heavy load on industry
already that where a good scale Of
wages prevails, it is difficult to see
why national defense production
cannot be accomplished on straight
time instead of time and a half.
Crippled Frances Defenses.
The French owe their lack of pre-
paredness today to their surrender
to the radical demands for 4O-hour
week. America Is face to face with
o similar crisis, which the adminis-
tration has already begun to side
step. Those who despair of democ-
racy being able to do defense job
equal to that Of autocracy and die
tatorshipS do not want to see labor
exploited or unfairly treated, but do
expect the Nations governmental
leaders to assume a practical atti-
tude where accelerated production
and war emergencies plainly exist.
After the aviation industry's rep
resentatives called on the admins
tration yesterday 1t was announced
that the industry didn't ask for a
lowering of labor standards and that
II the request had been made it
would not have been granted. This
is hardly the way to begin to fight
a war emergency or to instill conf
dence. The present administration
has big job to do to win the conf
dence of management and industrial
executives generally, and it is job
Of fair dealing rather than Of eco
nomic partisanship.
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