Evening star., 1941-02-01

al oii4Co1 Va A 1
patriotic Ameri- ~"
can. companies David Lawrence. .
on the ground that they allegedly !
submitted to Nazi influence in con-
nection with patent pools.
First is the case of the Ford Mo-
tor Car Co. Congress refused to |
write into the law any requirement.
that defense contracts must contain
a stipulation concerning compliance |
with labor laws The Defense Com |
mission refused to define ."comph-
ance" as meaning that contracts
cannot be awarded and must be |
Cancelled, though already awarded,
If the contractor got into diff
culties with the Government on |
labor matters.
The position taken by William S.
Knudsen has been that the laws
provide their own penalties for nom
compliance. His associate, Sidney |
Hillman, takes the opposite view.
Contracts have been awarded to the |
Ford company by the War Depart
ment heretofore on the theory that |
there was no obligation to force an
advance pledge Of blanket nature.
War Department Yields.
Henry Ford happens to be a man
Of courage and conviction and he
doesn't submit to browbeating. So !
his attorneys accompanied their bid
for motor trucks with statement
that they did not care to sign any
straight jacket requirement about
labor compliance which was not |
required by existing law. For a
while, the War Department had the
courage to fight off the labor par
tisans, but finally the pressure got
too hot and the chief of staff of
the United States Army, who isn't
supposed to yield to political pres
sure at all, allowed his name to be
used in a piece of labor strategy en-
gineered by unions which are out
to punish the Ford company.
If the labor groups have enough
strength to get Congress to pass a
law barring from contracts any one
who doesn't accept compulsory
unionization and the closed shop,
the industrial managers will find it
necessary to comply with such a
law. But when the War Depart
ment connives with the labor strate-
gists to put clauses into contracts
not required by law, confidence in
the military leaders of the country
tends to vanish. The broadly phrased
paragraphs in the lease-lend bill
then become open to- suspicion as
being intended not so much, to aid
Britain but to hide deliberate
attempt of so many radicals here
to institute the Russian system of
production control by labor COM
mittees.
Mr.. Ford's bid was the lowest.
The taxpayers were given low bid
because Mr.. Ford says he is willing
to forego profits in the interest of
defense. What the situation amounts
to Is that the money of the tax
payers is being expended as a sub
sidy to contractors who comply with
forced unionization. This is not
the way to encourage industry or to
get maximum production in a ma
tional crisis.
Two Companies "Smeared."
The second case concerned the
manufacturers of magnesium. The
Justice Department allowed an ex
parte statement in the newspapers
to be used to smear two patriotic
American corporations-the Dow
Chemical Co. and the Aluminium
Corp. Both are active in filling de-
fense needs and are cooperating
100 per cent with the Government
departments. But the publicity CIV
en- to a technical controversy about
a patent pool leads the average
reader to believe that two big COM
panies actually have cared, more
about Nazi influence than American
defense needs.
What are the facts? United
States laws protect German patents.
American companies wanted access
to them. They formed a pool sew
eral years ago with the Germans to
. obtain patents needed here. In ex-
change it was necessary to give
American patents. The American
companies felt that what was given
to the Germans was not important
but what was gained by America
was more important and valuable
due to the fact that: American eX-
perimentation with magnesium had
been relatively small Actually
America had had an adequate sup
ply of aluminium for her own needs
and the companies of the United
States had taken care of all the
magnesium demand there happened
to be. Germany uses magnesium
instead of aluminium in aircraft and
. has made substantial progress in
that diresction largely because she
did not have other materials in as
plentiful supply as does America.
Claims Prices Affected.
The Justice Department claims
the patent pool affected the main
tenance of magnesium prices during
the last several years. This is
something to be argued about in
court, but to imply that certain
American companies are not CO.
operating in defense and are al
legedly dominated by Nazi affilia-
tions is to use a smear campaign
wholly unwarranted in litigation.
If the lease-lend bill is to contain
ambiguous clauses which can release
funds for the expression of radical
ism's pet peeves against industry,
then opposition will grow and more
restrictions to the measure in the
Senate will be demanded. For the
truth is, the administrations left
wingers still are active and assert
i've, Notwithstanding the call of the
President for national unity
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