Evening star., 1941-04-08

strike, Mr.. Davis told the committee
that both sides are about as much
at fault as people could be-"
A demand for a blanket wage in
crease was made by the union in
the Allis- Chalmers strike prior to
the work stoppage, Mr.. Davis testi-
fed, saying this was only minor
element" in the dispute. The "nub"
of the matter, he said. was an issue
commonly referred to as union
security"
The C. I. Q. union, he explained,
contended that the company was at
tempting to aid union which had
lost an N. L. r. B. election by
refusing to act against workers
seeking to break down" the C. I. o.
union.
Sound Relations Vital.
Mr.. Davis, New York patent at
torney and former head of the New
York State Mediation Board, opened
the hearings by telling the COM
mittee that it was vital to national
defense" that there be established
and maintained sound, effective
relations between labor and man
agement in the country"
Explaining the operations of the
Defense Mediation Board, Mr.. Davis
remarked that when a case is
certified to us, everybody else is
through"
I'VE don't want to take a case
part way" he said I'VE start fresh
and adopt a procedure according to
our best judgment"
Earlier, committee members in
dicated the investigation would
plunge quickly into the causes un-
derlying defense strikes.
Representative Thomas, Repub-
lican, displaying a big stack of
documents, declared that he had
plenty of questions" about strikes
to ask Sidney Hillman, associate
director of the Office Of Production
Management who was scheduled to
testify today. Representative Thomas
said many of the questions would be
based on data gathered by the Dies
Committee files.
Committee Chairman May also
told newsmen that he considered a
statement made yesterday by Secre-
tary of Labor Perkins to be "a nice
eulogy of the Labor Department
but remember she's just started"
Miss Perkins to Return.
Miss Perkins. who opened the in
vestigation with a brief statement,
was told to return to the committee
for questioning tomorrow. In her
statement she said the current strike
situation was not as bad as the con-
ditions which existed in the World
War period of 1917-18.
Representative May asserted that
he also wished to interrogate sew
eral other Government officials who
deal with labor regarding reports
that 100000 man-hours of labor
were lost by defense industry strikes
during January, February and
March.
John D. Biggers, o. P. M. official
who testified yesterday, suggested
"unselflsh" cooperation of industry
labor and the American public in
general as the alternative to steps
that might take away the current
rights of some groups.
Mr.. Biggers said that the next
100 days were precious" because
during that period the United States
should achieve mass production OF
q number of essential war items.
Vital Days Ahead.
Every industrial manager, every
worker, every citizen of the United
States" he said, should realize
that the safety of this Nation and
the future of all the things that
are so precious to Americans may
depend on what we all do in these
next LOO day."
To many questions of strike
conscious committeeman regarding
recent stoppages of defense pro-
duction, Mr.. Biggers urged full ex-
ploitation of the powers of per-
suasion before any resort to force
Il don't believe, in a democracy, in
forcing anybody to do anything un-
til we have exhausted all means OF
persuasion" he said in reply to an
inquiry by Representative Shafer
Republican, of Michigan as to the