Evening star., 1941-12-10

Its responsibility,
is still awaiting -
word from the David Lawrence.
executive branch Of the Government
before it determines how to dis
charge its duties.
A case in point is the waN the
President is handling labor leglsla-
ton. He is already lukewarm about
restricting strikes, although every
body here knows that millions Of
man-hours have been lost because
of strikes. The idea now voiced by
the President is to try voluntary
cooperation once more. 1t has
been tried and 1t has failed.
The sad truth which the country
has not been told by the admins
tration is that neither the A. F. l..
nor the c. I. o. can maintain dis
cipline over their locals and that
they have conceded they have only
q sort of moral influence over their
constituent locals. With the lease
lend program in effect and upwards
of 100 lives lost on the Reuben
James. the coal strike and the
insurrection in the commercial coal
mines took place.
Faces News Of Idleness.
The United States faces q serious
debacle in It's defense program. The
country is in for some unpleasant
news when it learns how the whole
program has been delayed through
strikes. red tape. ineffciency and
the politics of class warfare
When Bernard M. Baruch came
back from Europe in the autumn of
1888 after the Munich conference
he tried to warn the President Of the
needs of the Army and Navy and
air force. He said Chamberlin ca
pitulated because England was un-
prepared. Whatever the mistakes
and delays prior to the outbreak of
war in September, 1899, there GER
tainly is scant, excuse for the daw-
ding way the defense program has
been handled since that date.
1t has taken the serious defeat in
the Pacific to wake up the country to
the truth about the way things have
been going, In democracy 1t Is
often through political evasion that
the. truth is concealed. But the facts
about production are easy to obtain.
The whole industrial mechanism has
not been functioning properly.
Lewis Rewarded.
In the midst of this class friction
and with an international war in the
ofing, the President resorted to a
scheme to put over the compulsory
unionization Of the coal mines,
which does not look well in the rec
ord, John L. Lewis ignored the
Presidents requests twice and yet
today he has been rewarded by a
presidential appointee. who has
granted him all he asks for.
The leaders Of labor say they are
behind the Government and the
defense program. They have said
this dozens of times in the last two
years, but the strikes and Interrupt
tions happen, nevertheless.
Word that longer hours must be
worked and that seven-day week
will be requested has come at last
from the President. william S.
Knudsen, co-ordinator of the o. p.
M, begged for this in a public speech
just a year ago, but his advice was
ignored. AS one looks back over
the record of failures in administer
Ing the defense program, one Won
ders what will happen when the
public gets the true facts about how
the administration preferred to put
Its own political reforms above pre-
paredness and allowed Interruptions
OF a serious nature to delay the
production of weapons for defense.
Pressure Groups Coddled.
America is unprepared today be-
cause the Administration has pre-
ferred to talk of social gains" and
squelch legislation that would have
helped production. 1t has coddled
pressure groups even since May
1910. AS for the production mechan-
Ism of the country, it has been i'm
paired by Government harassment
OF every kind. The Justice Depart
ment is still trying to put in Jail
dozens OF key executives because
OF antitrust law technicalities. The
work week has been shortened In
the name of liberalism" but waste
has followed and costs have been
forced upS'ards by the time-and-
half basis so that longer work shifts
cannot be economically operated
Businessmen have been blamed by
New Dealers, who have sniped away
without presidential reprimand. The
most important material in making
uAA aa pioAlC- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
be made by large company against
which a New Deal clique has done
everything for the last year to de-
moralize operations and break down
its efficiency.
Some day what has happened in
the last two years will be seen in
true perspective and the American
people will find out that in a war
In which production and mechan-
tzation counts so much, the leader.
OF industry have been brow-beaten
threatened and forced to one side
while group Of reformers, with NO
experience in organization or in
oustry. have sat at the key posts in
the Cabinet and in the executive
agencies. And there is no sign as
yet OF change, no sign of true coali-
tion government, no sign Of action
and collaboration but, instead, the