The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1941-05-08
Facing The Foc+s
With PHILIP PEARL

With PHILIP PEARL
Congress has taken "cooling off"
period itself instead of imposing one
on labor and the results have been
highly beneficial to all concerned.
While Congress loafed in Easter re-
cess, the new National Defense Media
ton Board got down to work and dem
onstrated to the entire country that
it can effectively end work stoppages
in the national defense industries.
At the same time, high Govern
ment officials, appearing before the
House Military Affairs Committee,
were unanimous in opposing any new
labor legislation at this time.
Perhaps the most effective of these
Government witnesses was William
H. Davis, vice chairman of the Natl
onal Defense Mediation Board and for
mer chairman of the New York State
Mediation Board. During his first few
weeks in his new job, Mr.. Davis has
demonstrated a positive genius for
mediation which has earned him natl
onal acclaim.
The story that Mr.. Davis told to
the Congressional committee there
fore was doubly significant. He said,
as the American Federation of Labor
has consistently maintained, that it
is silly to try to force American work.
ers to do what they want to do any,
how-that is, to stick on the job. He
insisted anti-labor legislation would
intensity production problems instead
of solving them.
No Strike Emergency
SO Congress took it easy and did
nothing and, as we started out by
saying, the results have been magnifi-
cent There is no longer nation
wide strike emergency. In fact, there
never was one.
1t is peculiar truth that the less
people talk about strikes, the fewer
strikes occur. The same thing goes
for murder, suicide and all the other
"waves" that make juicy newspaper
headlines.
Just think back a bit and see il
this isn't so. Let one spectacular crime
happen and the first thing you know
every ordinary holdup that takes
place in the next few days assumes
special igniicance-at least in the
newspapers-and the country is con
fronted with a "crime wave"
Let one vicious kidnapping happen
and within a day or two children are
being abducted all over the place. Lee
one Jack-the- Ripper scare develop
and for the next forty-eight hour:
/. police stations will be bombarded will
v telephone calls from molested women
You can call it publicity, you cal
call it psychology, you can call j
n what you will. That's the way thing
y go.
i SO if Congress is wise, it will i'm
y pose further cooling off" period o.
/ those of it's members who reach tn
s boiling point ana must explode ever
y time they see an opportunity Of get
q ting their names into the papers b
e denouncing labor. If Congress is wise
is will stop ranting about strikes. |
NoIlSi iCSo ChClSISCo ICoIl dlllI anu uu
l. deliberation, it will have nothing t
p deliberate about so far as labor
l. concerned.
e Communist Methods Must End
n We make these assertions on tn
s. premise that the'CIO will show som
= self discipline for change and pre-
- vent its Communistic element frol
p fomenting unnecessary strikes. Notl
: ing is calculated to destroy the CT
le and jure all American workers MOI
= than continued eXcesses by CIO unior
'r in defiance Of the national defens
d. emergency.
y The country will not stand fC
e. strikes which are deliberately starte
y by Communist agents for the purpos
Of sabotaging the defense progra
TO and promoting revolution.
l. And even more subtle menace
,e the minority strike, the new CT
RS technique which has succeeded the di
credited sit-down strike. The Fol
strike was Of this character. So W;
the International Harvester strike
Chicago.
In each Of these cases, small CT
- minority suddenly called a strike, ba
O. ricaded entrances to the plant al
Y. with the aid of pickets recruited fro
re other ClO organizations prevented Il
in majority of employees from going
n work by violence and the threat
an violence.
w Such strikes amount to nothr
to more than a lockout of the MAORI
Id Of the workers by small, belligere
e. minority. They are a device to secu
o. by force what cannot be accomplish
Ill by democratic, American method
ID. They have a distinctly Moscow flavc
n No good results can be obtain'
at from such minority strikes. The CT
ly learned this bitter lesson in the Fo
as strike. 1t cost the workers almost
We million dollars day in wages f
tn more than a week and succeeded on
as in arousing the resentment of the m
jority of the workers. This resentme
IT, became manifest when during the fir