The Durant news. (Durant, Miss.) 1882-1985, 1942-06-25
A HOUSE DIVIDED
BY GEORGE PECK


"A house divided against itself
must fall" The same is true Of ma
tons. We have had considerable to
say about the minorities in the
ranks of industry, labor and poll
tics who are using the war for their
own selfish benefits.
As we get deeper into the war,
Government is buying an ever-in-
creasing proportion of our industrial
output The American people are
footing the bill for this. 1t is ak
iomatic that the higher the profits
made and the higher the wages paid
on this war production, the greater
that bill is going to be.
Now, inasmuch as we are paying
the profits and the wages, surely our
interest lies in holding both down.
Profits, so far. with few exceptions
have been fairly well restricted by
taxation but should be much more so.
The great majority of business ex-
ecutives agrees that this is a sound
economic policy.
We believe that with profits fur
Their restricted and stabilized, the
rank and file of labor, both union
and non-union. would be satisfied
to have a ceiling put on wages. 1t
Is too much to expect that the rack
cheering element in labor's leader
ship will onc in this. But then,
who cares about that?
These greedy labor leaders tell of
the great profits industry is making.
They pick out the isolated cases. The
industrialists are not simon pure for
they recite the faults Of labor, too,
picking out the isolated cases. Add
ing fuel to the fire, certain politi-
clans who are nor concerned about
votes than patriotism and truth,
drive q further wedge between CAPT
tai and labor. It is q vicious circle,
certainly not conducive to the unity
SO essential to winning the war and
the peace to follow.
In 1941, profits Of stockholders Of
General Electric Corporation in
creased but 2 per cent while wages
advanced IL per cent. The exper-
fence of General Electric parallels
that Of most of our large corpora.
tions. In not more than 5 per cent
of all cases do excessive profits and
excessively high wages obtain, but
the people of this country are get
ting the impression that all business
men and all workers are greedy and
selfish.
Labor is being told by its leaders
that business is exploiting it, using
the war as q smoke screen. A great
hatred is being unjustly engendered
in the minds of the workers against
all businessmen. 1ndustrialists smart
ing under this false accusation are
just as unreasonable in their criti-
cism Of workers.
Class hatred is un-American. It
is the stuff that breeds civil war.
We don't want class hatred in this
country; that is most Of us don't
unfortunately there are . few who
do. The fundamental interests of
business and labor are identical. II
we are to win the ' ar; if we r to
have peace in this country after the
war; IL we are to rebuild and re-
habilitate, we must have a united
people. We will mt achieve these
things if industry is It daggers drawn
with labor and vice versa.
Hitler got his start by stirring up
the hatred of his aople against a
minority. We must disabuse our
minds of the idea that all
businessmen, workers and politicians
are selfish and unpatriotic. We must
keep our heads. The great bulk OF
the laboring people and the great
bulk of the men engaged in big or
little business merit our respect
Stabilizing the profits of industry
will restore confidence on the part
Of labor in the integrity of indus
trialists. BY the anne token, stabiliz-
ing wages will restore confidence on
the part of industrialists in the in
tegrity of the workers. Both these
things can not happen too soon.