Evening star., 1941-03-30
Warns Labor Against
Getting Rich Quick
By OUen L. Scott.

cOuntryS LABOR trouble. Inat urge is
being encouraged by high Government
officials at the same time that they urge
industry to avoid price increases and to
prepare for tax increases that will re-
strict profits.
Labor remembers that In the last war
many industries and individuals became
rich. This time workers are starting on
the premise that if anybody is going to
get rich they should be the ones. War
preparation is being viewed as vast
pump printing enterprise that will pro-
duce the riches for workers the New Deal
didn't succeed in doing.
The result is that three situations are
giving trouble.
First. there is a wage demand situation.
Hourly wages Of labor, on the average,
are higher than ever before in history.
An hour of work today will yield an
American worker on an average about
rs per cent more in the way Of goods
than two years ago. There are many
more hours Of work, assuring much big
ger pay envelopes. Yet Sidney Hillman,
a close adviser Of President Roosevelt
and co-director of the O. P. M, is set
ting the pattern for new wage demands
by having the union he still heads de-
mand sharp increase.
Second, there is the situation growing
out of the desire of unions to get rich
quick. The Government is encouraging
labor organizations to take hold in de-
fense industries. Officials, who should
know, say labor unions are collecting in
initiation fees and in dues a total of
$4,000 900 on construction projects alone.
Congressman are being inundated with
letters from individual workmen who
complain of union practices in forcing
them to pay large fees for the right to
work
Third, there is the situation develop
ing as a result of the battle between
unions for the right to cut in on the
defense business. This fight for juris-
diction is the most difficult of all to
compose. 1t comes about when two A.
F. of l.. unions fight each other for the
right to do Job or where an A. F. of L.
and c. I. o. union battle for the right
to organize an industry.
The fact is the New Deal gave to labor
grant of Government power that
should make most strikes unnecessary.
The Wagner Labor Relations Act gives
Government protection to workers while
they are organizing into unions 1t re-
quires that employers bargain with
these unions after they are organized
Here is machinery that should end all
thought of strikes called to organize the
workers in an industry. Yet strikes for
the purpose of organization still are be-
ing called in defense industries.
Collective bargaining, enforced upon
employers by the Government, should
offer the machinery for adjusting wage
disputes without strikes Yet there is a
tendency on the part of unions to strike
first and to bargain afterward on de-
mands for wage increases Some union
leaders now are striving to check this
tendency in the vital industries of steel
and coal
A Government enforced 4o-hour week
removes any need on the part of labor
to strike for shorter working hours. A
Government minimum wage
removes the need or the incentive to
strike because OF sweat shop wage rates.
Yet strikes continue. often encour-
aged by high union leadership and con-
doned by Government officials, even
when the strikes occur before the ma
chinery afforded by government has
been utilized. 1t all adds up to a grow
Ing prospect that the Government which
gave new powers to labor will require
labor organizations to meet definite
standards and submit to some regulation.
AS it is now, labor organizations unlike
industrial corporations, are given privi-
leges but not responsibilities.
Unions organized with Government
protection are required to conform to no
standards. Leadership is self-perpetu-
atlng. There Is no requirement for an
accounting of union funds. Officers of
union, unlike officers of a corporation.
are held to no standard of conduct. The
result is that when there is evidence of
an abuse OF power during national
emergency-as at present-the public is
Increasingly aware of the great power
welded by union leadership and of the
slight responsibility that leadership is
required to carry. Out of this situation
can grow Government regulation of the
unions it has helped to create
Labor demands at this time are based
on the premise that corporations will
get rich out of armament production and
workers should be given a big cut of
these riches
Actually, that premise is wrong.
1t is wrong because corporations are
facing tax bill that will check sharply
any get-rich-quick prospect. Corpora
ton income after taxes is likely to be no
greater in 1941 than in 1940 There was
an important 1910 increase owing largely
to the fact that armament industries
such as steel and mining-started to
make profits after they had been run
ming deficits for many years. These cor
porations are not likely to make profits
that correspond with those made in the
last war
High-income individuals, too, are con-
fronted with taxes that limit their op-
portunity to gain riches.
This time labor is in line to reap
riches. But labor, in reaping riches, can
cause the country great deal of trouble
by setting under way a spiral of price
increases that will become increasingly
difficult to control.
Industry is being asked to avoid a
raising of prices. There has been re-
e$~ t.t To- ~~.-