The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1941-01-02
Ndtional Unity Urged
BY A. F. L. Representative

New York, N. Y.-The first labor
representative to be featured at an
annual AAA Regional farm confer
ence, Mrs. Julia O'Connor Parker of
the American Federation of Labor,
former President of the AFL Tele-
phone Operators Union, addressed
more than 400 farm leaders at the
Northeast Regional meeting of the
Agricultural Adjustment Administra-
ton.
employment is the crux of the
whole industrial problem, the cruX of
the consumption problem, the cruX of
the unity problem" Mrs. Parker de-
clared. Expressing regret that in
creased production and employment
could not have been achieved earlier
by increased distribution and use of
consumer goods, Mrs. Parker pointed
out that the nation has now "a splen-
did spiritual unity" adding: 81 think
we will be able to avoid some of our
frightful mistakes Of the past in pre-
serving that unity. 1t seems to me
that business and industry in this
country are in a mood to accept, not
all that labor may be asking at the
moment, but the fact of labor organ
i~zations in themselves. 1t seems to me
that the old rugged A~mericanism that
was bound to stamp out all trace Of
labor organization, or any gesture OF
workers towards organization, is al
most wholly gone and has been re-
| placed by reasonable and businesslike,
and generous, acceptance Of labor
rights"
| points out that the Holidays with Pay
movement has made great Roadway
in this country; the Government takes
4 benevolent interest in it.
He thinks it should be possible to
arrange quite easily for w~ork-people
to forego their annual paid Holidays
for a couple Of years in order to Gre
ate sufficient times and means to fit
them to travel within the Dominions.
If that were done, he says, many hun
dreds of thousands of our people, by
slight self-denial for two or three
years, could accumulate holiday time
and money enough to enable them to
accomplish the dream Of their lives
to see their relatives in overseas
Dominions and to realize for them
selves the greatness, the variety and
the beauty Of the British Common
wealth.
Industrial Scholarships
In his radio talk Brother Gibson
tells me he wants also to put for
ward his idea of a system Of indus
trial scholarships which would enable
British and Dominion workers to
Interchange places for six months or
a year-on lines similar to those
which have been so successful in the
interchange of teachers. Such schol-
arships he would like to see available
to bus-drivers, engineers, textile OPP
orators and every other category Of
workers. There would surely be no
difficulty in finding in the Domin-
ions an opposite number ready and
eager for a temporary exchange OF
jobs, Of experience, atmosphere and
opportunity, which such a plan of in
dustrial scholarships would provide.
Here are two examples Of the pro-
found and subtle changes the war is
producing in the thought and action
of trade unionists-the association of
the Trade Unions with the work Of
the Y. NJ. C. A. among the service
men, and the active interest Of the
Unions in closer nter-Dominion re-
lationship. The wal has brought
many grim tragedies, much injury
and loss, to the working people Of
this country; but there is a soul Of
goodness ever in evil, which finds
preston in such ways as these.