Evening star., 1942-01-05

. 6CA1CAoA PdS
licity campaign David Lawrence
to make industry the goat for about
everything adverse from Pearl Har-
Dor to Singapore.
These tactics of blaming somebody
else when things go wrong are not
new in politics or in governmental
feuds but for the C. I. o. to start
talking about the crisis in the Far
East in terms of man-days lost by
the auto industry in failing to
convert machine facilities sooner is
to initiate q new era in public
undertaking with the war as
background.
The C. I. o. says nothing about
the tens of thousands of man-hours
and man-days lost by its strikes in
the face Of pledges repeatedly given
that 1t would cooperate with the
national defense program. Nor is 1t
mentioned why coal strike was
called recently that cost the Nation
valuable supplies Of fuel, or why
major strikes were called in plants
building ships for the Navy.
To go back over last years
lamentable record of work stoppages
Is something which the average
American would prefer not to do.
But the G. I. o. is now opening up
the past record and beginning to
blame industry, and this doubtless
means the c. I. o. is willing to have
its own record examined, especially
the instances in which it deliber-
ately ignored the earnest pleas of
the President of the United States.
Called CommunIstic Scheme.
The main thing the C. I. o.
publicity program has focused on
IS the Reuther plan which it claims
would have prevented the present
era OF unemployment that has
come as a result of curtailment of
auto production. But the truth
about the Reuther plan is that it
Is basically a communistic scheme.
1t aims to bring the C. I. o. into
management very much as is done
by Soviet workers committees in
Russia. Under the Reuther plan,
the O. T. o. asks for a share in
management but it does not any
where ask for a share in the re-
sponsibility Of financing any losses
due to mistakes in management.
1t is the same old story Of wanting
share in the profits without being
willing to share any of the losses.
The C. I. o. has recently been
presenting many plans for indus
trial production committees, almost
all of which tend in the same
direction, namely to introduce into
the American picture the commu-
nistic principle of production man
agement by union workers COM
mittees. Incidentally the c. I. O.
had this idea before the war
emergency began when it intro
duced the "slow down" as a sequel
to the lawless sit-down strike.
Under the showdown, production
output is limited by the union.
The G. I. o. has opened fire on the
o. p. NJ, which, Of course, is man
aged jointly by Mr.. Knudsen and
Mr.. Hillman. The c. I. o. asks why
the Reuther plan was pigeonholed.
Mr.. Hillman is an ardent champion
OF labor union philosophy, but he is
also a practical person and if there
had been any merit to the Reuther
plan he would have espoused it long
ago.
Engineers Against Plan.
The fact is that the Reuther plan
never got beyond the stage Of gen.
eralities. No blueprint was offered
and no details ever given. It's prin-
cipal point was that auto machinery
Of a single purpose nature could be
transformed into general purpose
machine tools. Engineers said this
could not be done. Had the Reuther
plan been adopted, unemployment
last month would have been so ex-
tensive that the step would have
reacted against the C. I. o. unions.
But since it wasn't adopted, it now
makes convenient device for blam-
ing the O. P. M. and the auto in
dustry.
d The c. I. o. is rightly worried
about unemployment in the transi-
ton from peacetipe to wartime
work. But it cannbt justly blame
the employers, on the one hand, for
not seeking contracts and, on the
other hand, for prof1teering in con-
tracts or for wanting to have con-
tracing concentrated In the hands
Of those who know how to deliver the
goods. Congress has had a finger in
the delay. Last summer it cut out
vast appropriations for more tanks
and war weapons. Likewise, a clique
of politicians on Capitol Hill have
been insisting that the work be de-
centralized throughout the country
In small plants while the Army and
Navy has been fighting such a
political method as meaning delays
and incompetence. The auto manu-
facturers are today still asking for
var contracts sufficient to enable
them to use their facilities to the
maximum point. If the G i. o.
wants to know why the auto manu-
facturers aren't able to employ the
Idle labor that IS available, they will
ind the answer not in attacks on
Mr.. Hillman and Mr.. Knudsen but.
In the memoranda Of the War and
Navy Departments and in the White
House, where the ultimate respon-
ability lies for the manner in which
contracts were allocated, and also
Tor the delineation Of an inadequate
program of what America really
needed month by month for arma-
0ent since May 1910.