Evening star., 1941-04-06

II the new National Defense MedlatlOn
Board simply grabs a club and marches
into the labor strife, whacking employer
and employe with equal impartiality.
judging each case on its merits, it will
have the full support of both the White
House and the public.
That is the seasoned opinion of most
of the men around Washington who lived
at the center of the old War Labor Board
during the hectic days of its career in
1918 and most of 1919. And they base
that opinion on what they saw happen.
And that is the first word of advice
these graying old timers would pass along
to the new board that has been created
to perform the same kind of task they
we're wrapped up in during those World
War days. Coupled to this do they
would attach one don't 1t is:
Don't let yourselves get tied up in red
tape and legalistics."
They call the new board a good, strong
agency with plenty of tough-mlnded men
on it. fully capable of dealing with the
situation if it simply wades in. But they
note several differences between the setup
of the present agency and that OF It's
World War predecessor.
w. Jett Lauck, private economist who
ss secretary of the old board sat at the
very center of the goings on, puts his
finger on the most important difference
between the two agencies.
No Basis for Opinions.
"The new board has no code OF prin-
ciples to guide its decisions" says Mr..
Lauck. 1T is like having Supreme
Court without a constitution or any set
of basic, fundamental laws on which to
ground its opinions.
In advance of the creation of the old
board, a conference was held at which
code was agreed upon which was to be
mandatory upon the board.
These principles we're the foundation
upon which the board built its every de-
cision. However I don't think either
labor or industry had much idea of the
Importance of the principles they had
agreed upon until the board began to fit
those principles to real cases.
Every one agreed, for instance, upon
the theory of a living wage. But when
the fact crept out that this meant lifting
the wages of vast groups of workers from
Is cents to as high as So cents an hour,
quite a few individual industrialists felt
differently about it."
A war labor conference board, with
five labor and five employer members
and two representatives of the public,
the latter to act as joint chairmen was
convened in 1918 in advance OF the ap-
pointment of the National War Labor
Board to work out the principles and
policies that would govern relations
between the workers and employers dur
ing the war, principles which in the
main have been written into law since
1918. Ir every case the members OF
the conference board were named to the
second board after these were agreed
upon.
In effect. the board simply changed
Its name and functions 1t had been
a conference board 1t became labor
board. 1t had planned policies and
operations. 1t turned into an agency to
enforce those policies Even the two
Joint chairmen, the former President
William Howard Taft and the able
lawyer. Frank P. Walsh, continued in
their post as heads of the new agency.
Few of Broad Principles.
A few of the broad principles they
agreed upon were:
There should be no strikes or lockoutS
during the war.
Employers and employees, alike, have
the right to organize into unions and
associations to bargain collectively, each
without hindrance from the other.
Women shall be given equal pay for
equal work when they do the jobs
ordinarily assigned to men in munitions
industries.
And, 'the right of all workers, in
Guiding common laborerS to living
wage is hereby declared. In fixing wages,
minimum rates of pay shall be estab-
lished which will insure the subsistence
of the worker and his family in health
and reasonable comfort
Upon this set of principles the board
erected 6 series of decisions that were
drastic and revolutionary for that day.