The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1941-11-27
UNITED PRESS DISTORTS STRIKE FACTS

The following editorial is reprinted from
the weekly newspaper Labor" Washington,
D. c.:
ONE OF THE most glaring examples of news
" paper distortion to injure organized labor was
put out over the wires of the United Press this
week.
The "U P.,' one of the country's two most
powerful news agencies, is controlled by the
interests, headed by Roy Howard
notorious for his anti-labor policies.
Scripps-Howard papers for many months have
been conducting vicious campaign against labor
outdoing other reactionary newspapers in the
viruence of their "smearing" and in the violence
of their demands for Legislative shackles on organ
lied workers.
Scripps- Howard Misrepresentation hit new
low on Saturday, when the United Press carried a
story ascrbed to the Department of Labor in
which it was asserted that in the Is months since
the start Of the defense program there have been
"24 284 ,981 man-days of defense effort lost be-
cause of strikes
Then to make matters worse the "U. p" story
adrOity quoted government officials as saying this
loss would have been enough to build 10000
planes.
Department of Labor officials were shocked
when they saw the story and promptly demanded
a correction. The figure of man-day losses for the
Is months covered all strikes, not those on defense
alone, they pointed out. Many such walkouts in
department stores, hotels, bakeries, candy plants
and hundreds of other establishments had not
even a remote connection with Defense
Obviously, hotel behops or store clerks could
not be constructing planes, and the inference in
the "U. Pr story that disputes involving such
workers affected aircraft production was branded
a barefaced deception.
Of course, newspapers throughout the country
gave big "play' to the story, and some like the
"Herald- Tribune of New York, declared in a
headline: Labor Department Reports 15-Nionth
Loss Sufficient to Build 10000 Planes" The De
partment said nothing of the kind.
To the Departments protest, the United
Press" replied that it was "a mistake,' but any
reading the story could see that it
was not an error, but deliberate yarn cooked W
to dscredit labor and inflame public opinion. Tory
Congressman, who pushing repreSSVe lC2lS-
lation, undoubtedly will make full use Of the "U.
p" report
Viciousness of the story became all the mort
apparent When a few hours after it appeared, the
Office of Production Management, top defense
agency, released a roundup showing that since the
start of the preparedness program losses in sig
nificant defense strikes only 2,349 500 man
days, or less than a tenth of the United Press
figure.
Man-days worked during that period on de
fenSe were we'll over billion, government agen-
ces estimated, and thus the loss cited by the O.
p. M. was much less than one-third of one pei
cent. In other words, only day was lost due to
strikes for every 300 days worked
Anti-labor treatment Of the news by the
Scripps- Howard interests in recent years contrasts
sharply with the way these papers handled labor
news in the days when "Old Man" Scrpps Operat-
ed the chain. Labor developments were then
treated accurately and intelligently.
However, since Roy Howard assumed control
the Scripps-lioWard papers have become about the
most unfair in the nation, and no faIsehood about
labor is too base for them to publish.