Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1942-02-10
Do You Favor
U.S.Con+roI
Of Workers.?
Capital and Labor Trea(
Them lmpersonaIIy
By WESTBROOK PEGLER


sand head, remarked that a
smaller company had appealed
TO him for help.
The little company needed
machinists and without them
could not deliver on time the
mechanism which was its allot-
ted task in the whole armament
scheme.
"They begged me-" he said,
"to lend them 500 Of my men,
A half hour later. the per-
sonnet mans boss, discussing
another phase of production, re-
marked with note OF reproach,
that the big unions claim men
for their own as though the men
were property.
The more men they control
through their closed shop and
Check-off agree ments, the
greater the power of the boss
unioneers over both the men
and industry. Y
If they call them out on strike
they can be imperSonal toward
the privations Of families be-
cause the individuals are not
men 10 them in the human
sense but Just so many critters,
with no voice in the matter
The success organizing
strike, a common device, called
for the purpose Of driving into
the union x-thousand more men
employed at an unorganized.
plant, who desperately don't
want 10 join. increases the
power Of the union boss and thu
strikers go hungry with their
families and obey orders with
little complaint.
WHEN the boss had explored
w this thought / said tho
personnel mans talk OF lending
the machinists had revealed q
similar impersonality and sense
of property in men. although not
the same brutality.
believe We all agreed that
the industry did think OF work.
ers by the drove or herd. sub
JcCt 10 loan.
The boss Of the great corpora
ton. an old-time shopworker.
himself, then said the down.
righteSt feudalism in this coun-
Try existed in the baseball buSi-
ness where the man is. frankly.
just property on the hOof.
He did not say but l often
did when was doing sport.
that this Serfdom was the very
foundation Of the amusement
which for more than 40 years
has been regarded as the ma
tlonal game OF the freest coupr
try on earth.
Twenty years ago the stand
ard baseball contract was at
tackled in court but il must have
been upheld because II is still
the standard form.
Briefly. once a player signs.
he becomes property and may be
sold and must work for his next
owner az the owners terms but,
growing old or being hurt, may
be fired on 10 days notice.
He is scheduled as property
Of certain value in his owners
assets and tax reports.
The owner can claim depre-
citation on the player as his
talent and Sinews decline but
the player, being. for his own
TAX purposes, a man. can claim !
no such depreciation.
The player can't solicit a bet
ter lob and the owners have q
written conspiracy. with penal.
ties provided, whereby no owner
may approach another owners
player with an offer OF better
job.
|. 4 FEW years ago cases were
"a reported from the low
minors IN which one player was
taken in trade for a bird dog
and another for a Satchel OF new
and used baseballs.
Some employers using masses
Of men prefer 10 do business with
the unioneers.
They agree on wages, hours
and conditions and the union
very efficiently delivers the labor
al the gates on time, of A fair
average skill and reasonably
sound of wind and limb.
Dave Beck. the Seattle team
Sters' unioneer, startled me once
by exClaiming angrily Of the
brewery drivers:
Those men belong 10 me-"
He meant that his union
claimed jurisdiction. but he said.
Those men belong 10 me" and
he meant that. too.
Last Saturday. the Chicago
Daily News. which belongs to
Col. Frank Knox, discussed ma
tional Conscription Of civilian,
for work and soothingly re-
marked that Gallup poll
Shows that a majority Of our
citizens are willing, in the war
emergency. 10 let the govern
ment tell tho worker what lob.
whore and how much"
What do you think of that,
Copyrighted by United Features synd Ina