Evening star., 1941-09-26

"voluntary" re- David Lawrence.
straints imposed upon itself by labor
is to attribute to labor leaders a
willingness to abolish one of the
principal reasons for their Office
holding in trade unions-to get
wage increases whenever possible.
II the sponsors of the voluntary"
idea mean that Government officials
will be able to freeze wages and
prevent increases through the Gov
ernment's unofficial powers of per-
suasion, then the plan becomes
even less plausible. For the Gov
ernment itself-meaning thereby the
President and his New Deal advisers
is responsible for the wage spiral
which has given momentum to the
inflationary price levels we have been
experiencing in the last few months.
Key Unions Raised.
1t will be recalled that last spring
there was a wage conference be-
tween the auto workers unions and
General Motors. A strike was
threatened. Fearful of displeasing
the unions, the administration
passed the word to the National
Defense Mediation Board that 1t
was all right to increase wages by 10
cents an hour. No thought was given
to the fact that the auto industry
was key business and that acces-
sorry manufacturers and employers
in the entire Middle West would be
compelled to give a 10-cent-an-hour
increase, too. Indeed, the union lead
ers went around the Middle West
quoting the Mediation Board mem
bers as favoring the reopening of
contracts that had not expired in
order to provide for wage increases.
The whole record of what the ad-
ministration has done on wage
increases in the year 1941 will not
stand up under impartial examina-
ton, for it reveals the National Gov
eminent as having blundered so
badly that it is doubtful whether
anything now can be done to stop
the wage spiral and the price in
flation that has begun.
1t was known then that the ad-
ninistration was planning to collect
by excess profits rates more taxes
than ever before. 1t was known also
that the cost to the taxpayers of the
financial burden on defense con-
tracts would be increased by high
labor costs. But the administration
sailed along nonchalantly into the
seas of imitation. And now as the
storm threatens, the administration
presents the feeble argument that
everything else in the way of prices
can be regulated by law but wages
These costs, it is insisted, can be
handled by the voluntary" plan.
If the voluntary" idea is good for
labor then it is good for manage
ment. Leon Henderson, price ad-
ministrator, has persuaded manage
ment to hold down prices where in
creased costs were not factor. He
can accomplish as much without a
law as with a law if respect is given
to facts and figures and there is
a recognition of how much labor
costs enter into the picture.
Debacle in Prospect.
The plan of B. M. Baruch to put
q ceiling on prices contemplates a
ceiling on wages and farm prices,
too, for it is doubtful whether any
one who really believes in the
proft-and-loss system of American
enterprise thinks there can be ma
tional unity or price stabilization
unless everybody is treated the same
or at least unless the principles of
fair play are applied to all. The
Treasury Department now is pro-
posing limit on profits to 6 per
cent on invested capital. Does this
mean that if labor wants increased
wages and company cannot make
per cent, that the Government
will say to labor that its strikes are
,lnlustified? The administration is
leaping from the frying pan into the
fire. On the one hand it is choking
initiative and incentive by a limit
on profits and on the other hand
1t is saying to labor that its wages
will not be subjected to any legisla-
tive restraint The net result must