The daily monitor leader. [volume] (Mount Clemens, Mich.) 1942-19??, 1942-06-23
o BEHIND THE SCENES
IN WASHINGTONs

Steel, it hos worked some-
thing like this;
This componX like monY
others, tries to find bright
youna men and let them grow
up in the industry. College
graduating classes form one OF
the commonest recruiting
grounds, and there young en-
gineers, chemists, and STU
dents Of economics and bust
ness administration are hired
and given q chance TO show
what they've got.
These youngsters come out
Of college full Of ideoIs, So
cioIoeY liberalism and all the
new thought about the rights
Of labor to oreonize, bargain
collectively and assert its
rights. So for SO good, and hor-
boring these ideos apparently
doesn't diSquoIify q young
graduate from being hired,
even by Inland Steel.
The boy goes to work and,
being interested in such mat
tiers, he runs into union proc
tees. First off is the grieV-
once committee procedure. 1t
is admitted by q good many
employers that three-fourths
Of the beIIyoches which come
up in daily, weekly or month
Iy grievance meetings are JUS
titled, particularly in exPon-
sive times like these when
men ore shifted TO new Jobs,
when the pressure is on tor
more and more production,
when toremen and junior su-
pervisory officials are mex
perienced and when oil the tre-
mendous trifIes Of big plant
operation constantly have to
be reodjusted. They're all to
be expected and they're taken.
Thousands Of one man or
one-crew work stoPpoges, Sit
downs or strikes come along,
Lost for two minutes or two
hours, ore adjusted, and no
one thinks anything about
them
Then one doy there comes q
union dues picketing. A Com
mittee" from union heodquor-
ters will stond outside the
plant gate, and as the men file
by, the ones who haven't poid
their dues, haven't joined the
union and can't show q cord
ore stopped, led over to O cor
or down the alley and persu-
oded. Those who don't sign
up are not permitted to go to
work.
MAY MEAN TROUBLE
1t is perhaps natural that
arguments Of this kind lead to
scuffIes, and scuftIes lead TO
strong-orm tactics and strong
arm tactics lead to violence.
Men driving to work have had
their cor windows and head
lights smashed, their tenders
Coved in, their autos oVerturn-
ed and dumped in the ditch. In
the War Labor Boord hearings
in the Inland Steel case, there
ore some pretty sad poges Of
testimony from workers who
have been beaten up in dues
picketing parties and the rec
ords Of The company give evil
dence Of how production has
been stopped by not having
, sufficient crews to operate cer-
, tain units on dues Picketing
dogs.
But to get back to the young
engineers. When these young-
sters with all their theories go
through just one dues picket
ing line, soys Randall, it makes
, them bourbons overnight. And
these are the men who, 10 or
/ 20 years hence, will be the op-
ID Grating brains that run the
company. Not enough has been
told, thinks Randall about this
: dues pjcketing business and its
coroIIory, the ofter-wOrk calls
: which the committee makes at
| the homes Of the employees,
, who are called out on the porch
and persuaded. These ore the
b chapters Of the open shop VS..
= the union shop argument that
don't make pretty reading.
ANOTHER SIDE
There is Of course the other
side Of the story, which Mr..
Randall ond the bourbon boys
t probably wouldn't agree to, but
S which in fairness should be
stated nevertheless. a good
I many workmen like to ride on
, the coottoiIs Of O union, taking