Imperial Valley press., 1940-11-25
the STORY OF FRANCE
ALL OVER AGAIN

collapse!
Unless the United States government,
through congress or executive order,
does something about it, American ma
tional defense preparations Will collapse
like a gigantic rubber balloon stuck by
the needle of labor strife
Labor trouble is coming so fast on the
national defense front that it begins to
look like the country is more Interested
in collective bargaining than IN collective
security. Silence about the strikes is so
thick in the administration that you can
barely hear the rattle of Europes bomb
ing through the murk. The situation is
so funny that every dictator In Europe
is laughing his sides sore.
There are only two major differences
between the situation in this country and
the situation in France before the war:
1.-France had the excuse provided by
the false peace then existing, and; q
France did not have the example OF any
other nation to warn her what she was
getting into BY the measure of those
two differences, we're that much less IN
telligent than France was.
We've spent months boastlng about
what great things would be accomplished
in defense preparations once our glgan-
tic industrial machine got to functioning
at full capacity The minute it appears
near the goal, we allow few selfish in
dividuals to toss a monkey-wrench into
the main flywheel. Our capacity for mass
production is not going to do anybody
any good if it is allowed to remain an
unused capacity Right now it is just
that.
Unless the government of the United
States does something about it, you're 60
ing to see more and more strikes IN ma
tional defense industries until we'll have
lohor We af homo O won't have
time to think about the life-and-death
war across the seas. That is what the
dictators want. Every strike in the Unit
ed States Just now is worth thousand
bombs to Adolf Hitler and Benito Mus
solini.
Nobody wants to see the bread taken
out of the mouths of the laboring man,
and nobody wants to see industrialists
growing fat on the profits from wartime
orders. Evidently we cannot go so far
as TO say, however, that nobody wants
this nation to stop turning out defense
machinery. Evidently somebody does
and whoever he is he's having his way.
LET'S KNOCK THEIR
HEADS TOGETHER
1t is going to be too late to put stop
to strikes that paralyze national defense
after the paralysis has already set III.
The time to innoculate our nation against
this worst of all diseases is now. If it
isn't done, we might as we'll throw away
our crutches, because we won't need even
them Well need coffins.
We don't need to deprive labor of any
of its rights to settle this thing. We
don't need to deprive the employers of
any of their rights.
All we've got to do is take them by the
scruffs Of their necks, knock their heads
together, and tell them, "You fellows can
row about wages and dues and union
recognition all you want to- but, by golly,
you've got to do it on your own time.
When you're producing national defense
goods, that's the public's time-and we
want you to keep on producing"
In other words, let 'em settle their dis
putes by arbitration, but don't let 'em
close down their plants while they're do
ing it.
1t is not the employer union is hurt
ing when it strikes in a national defense
industry these days. 1t is the United
States Of America. If the employer gets
his toes stepped on, that's his lookout. If
the safety Of this nation is in danger,
that's a different matter
How about it, congress?