Evening star., 1941-11-26

situations OF deadlock Wnere lace
saving for the union officials
seems to demand a strike.
Strike votes are taken vive
voce, and union officials have
many ways of compelling work.
ers to support their policies.
All strike votes and all elec-
tions should be taken by secret
ballot and in supervised cleo
tionS, and after cooling pc
rioG, in which the issues can
really be discussed by the rank
and file. And all workers should
be protected against intimidation
of any kind. Tribunals should be
established in every industry, in
Guiding representatives of the
public, before which workers can
seek protection against undue
pressure, whether exerted by en-
ployers or union officials. And
any officials guilty of using ter
ror should be dismissed.
Should Check Monopoly.
No person should be allowed to
be a union official who is not a
citizen of the United States, or
who has ever been sentenced for
a crime.
Nor should trade unions be al
lowed to establish monopolies by
the excluding of qualified work.
erS from their ranks, or by charg-
ing eXorbitant fees or dues, and
regular accounting Of their funds
should be compulsory.
All sabotage by members of one
union of the work of competing
union should be prohibited. Nor
should unions be permitted to
compel irrational practices result
ing in decreased production or
to deprive workers of the exer-
else Of their skills, by prohibiting
them, for instance, from doing
more than one kind of work. Nor
should unions be permitted to
burden production with unneces-
sary workers, or to compel pay
for work that is not required or
even done, as the stage hands
and musicians unions regularly
do. II trade unions are to have
great power. they must be firmly
saddled with responsibility for
the efficiency Of work, and
charged to protect production
against lazy. shiftless. undisci-
plined, and ca'canny workers.
In the long run. II any class
acquires disproportionate power
by means Of organized pressure.
and uses that power against the
public veal. then all the other
classes will gang up against it.
as the experience of Italy, Ger
many ard France have shown.
Competent May Revolt.
And there is one thing that is
a rule of social reactions: II the
incompetent attempt to paralyze
the competent, the competent
will revolt. No group can extort
from society more than its con-
tribution justifles. Wealth Is
neither the creation Of the pro-
letariat nor the financiers. 1t
is the creation Of a complex pro-
ductive system in which capital.
science, technology, rational man.
agement, labor and public re-
lations all play a due part, and
this is as true under socialism
as under capitalism.
Trade union policy, therefore,
should seek to educate the worker
to the greatest possible efficiency
and responsibility in order that
he should not lose his relative
status In the scheme of things.
1t is certainly the duty Of gov
ernment to protect society from
the irrational or exorbitant prac-
tices of labor chieftains. But It
should try to frame legislation
which is not directed to the
peculiar defense crisis. but is
established on principle and is
therefore valid in war or peace.
in normal or abnormal times.
(Released by The Bell Syndicate. 1ncD