Evening star., 1941-03-19


parts are not available are manu-
factured in very few plants. Is 1t
a coincidence that at these strategic
bottlenecks labor trouble has devel-
oped? The House Judiciary Com
mittee has been told by Merrill
Meigs, the director of aircraft pro-
duction of the Office for Production
MANAGEMENT, that the Harvill Co.
at Los Angeles, which furnishes
castings to practically all of the big
airplane companies on the Paclnc
Coast, has been closed. 1t employees
only 425 men and hence numerically
may seem inconseQuential. but those
AS men can tie up the airplane
industry.
Donald Douglas, maker Of big war
planes for Britain and America, ad-
vised the House committee through
Mr.. Meigs that there were only two
sources of supply for these impor-
tant castings and that it was i'm
possible to make up the production
already lost.
Mr.. Meigs also told the House
committee that current strikes at
Wright Field, Dayton, and at the
Universal Cyclops Steel Corp. at
Bridgeville, Pa, were holding up de-
fense orders. The same is true OF
the strikes on raw materials badly
needed for the aid to Britain pro-
gram.
SAYS Communists Caused Strike.
Several weeks ago the Attorney
General announced that he was sat
isfied that Communists had caused
the strike at the Vultee aircraft
plant on the Pacific Coast. Nothing
was done afterward to expose that
situation and nothing is being done
now to ferret out the persons behind
the scenes who see to it that strikes
are called in defiance of the advice
and instructions Of national labor
union executives.
1t is amazing that for several
months the labor situation has been
allowed to develop to the point
where actual interference with pro-
duction has been consummated.
Messrs. Hillman and Knudsen and
Secretary Perkins have repeatedly
minimized the situation and pointed
to the statistics about the small
number Of strikes.
Either the officials in charge OF
the Governments labor problem are
the most gulnble and easily de-
ceived persons in America or else
the facts now revealed by Mr.. Meigs
have never been properly appraised
In terms Of q plot to interrupt pro-
duction just because evidence was
not Immediately available.
For the F. B. I. to uncover sabo-
tage it must be apparent that actual
violence or interference in unlawful
ways is being perpetrated. The right
to strike for any cause and at any
time and under any conditions Is
protected by Federal law so the De-
partment of Justice cannot make
arrests. But it has the power OF
exposure and it can tell the public
about the evidence it has gathered.
Mediation Called Little Help.
President Roosevelt is setting up a
mediation agency, but this will
hardly eliminate the operations of
those agents of foreign governments
who use front men to approach loyal
American citizens and prey upon
them by the use of collective bar
gaining machinery or customary
labor maneuvers.
It Is precisely because the right TO
strike Is so unqualified and can be
exercised in such unlimited manner
that agents Of foreign governments
would naturally seek to provoke
trouble. They can do this by con-
verting a handful of persons to their
cause or by appealing to the emo
tions of labor leaders without letting
the latter know what the motivating
influence happens to be.
-Wingers Silent.
One of the principal difficulties in
dealing with the question is that
left-wingers and their spokesmen
are strangely silent and will not de-
nounce the strikes in defense plants.
Virtually all the criticism is coming
from the conservative side, which
makes labor leaders throughout the
country less vigilant to suspect the
tactics being insidiously employed
among their members.
President Roosevelt has influence
enough to create a public opinion
which will not tolerate strikes on
defense projects. But as long as he
makes only vague comments and
does not get to the root of the
trouble, the whole controversy will
be regarded by local leaders as
merely a part of the effort to re-
strict labor's right to strike.
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