The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1942-04-24
FACING
THE
FACTS
With PHILIP PEARL

| here within America, the nation can
take heart in the realization that Ia
Dor stands united for vigorous and
victorious democracy.
| The best news for America and the
worst news for Hitler in many moon
came out of Pittsburgh on April 7
when William Green and Philip Muir
ray stood together on a public plat
form before a roaring audience of A.
F. of L. and CIO workers and pledged
the organized workers of America to
united action for victory.
No Axis propaganda, no sinister
Fifth Column, can penetrate the united
front of millions of stalwart, loyal
American workers these leaders rep
resent.
In the entire labor movement today
there is but one Fascist shadow and
that is cast by the wings of the lonely
buzzard, John L. Lewis, who is still
lowering around, silent and remote and
vengeful But this bird of ill-omen
this scavenger of the labor movement,
is no longer threat. He is an out
cast, despised by the CIO just as much
as by the A. F. of L.
A New Way of Thought
AS labor faces the heavy tasks and
responsibilities of war, the workers of
America must condition themselves to
new way of thinking.
Attempts have been made and are
still in full swing to rob American
workers of their basic rights on the
plea of the war emergency. These are
doomed to failure. Already, the labor
haters in Congress are in retreat
President Roosevelt can and will put
their campaign to complete rout by
announcing a definite, clear-cut labor
program.
Our government will give its full
protection to the maintenance of free
and untrammeled labor movement.
Our government will not deprive
workers of their fundamental right to
strike, because the workers Of this
country already have yielded the ex-
ercise of that right voluntarily for
the duration of the war.
Our government will maintain the
standard of the 40-hour week which
does not limit war production but calls
for the payment of overtime for work
in excess of forty hours.
At the same time the government
will take drastic moves to control the
cost of living and to curb excess profits.
The question then comes up as to
what is to be done, if anything, about
wages. A strong feeling prevails
throughout the country that everyone
must tighten his belt and be prepared
to suffer hardships until the war is
won. Indiscriminate wage increases
just don't fit into this picture.
The American Way
What is the answer? Certainly it is
not infexible wage-freezing. That
would result only in freezing injustice
1t would make a mockery of collective
bargaining, upon which the American
system of employer -employe relation
ships is based. 1t would, eventually,
destroy the trade union movement 1t
would bring about a form of govern
mental wage-fixing comparable to
Hitler's methods.
No, wage-freezing is not the Amer
lean solution of this problem. Amer
lea must remain the land of oppor-
advancement by wage-freezing would
kill the spirit of the American people.
1t seems to us that compulsion of
any kind with regard to wages is the
wrong approach. We are convinced
that voluntary action offers the best
chances of success.
AS we said before. the workers of
! America must now condition them
selves to a new way of thinking. They
must steel themselves to hardship.
They must expect not to make more,
i
The trade unions can help in this
voluntary program. Instead of encour-
aging industry-wide demands for 81 a
day wage increases, as some have
done, the unions should foster disci-
pline, self lf-restraint and forbearance.
The door must never be closed to
the correction of injustices, to the ad-
justment of wage levels palpably be-
low decent subsistence standards. But
workers who are earning a fair wage
must be made to understand they
don't already realize it-that this is
not the time to ask for more.
Under such voluntary system, if
price and profit controls fail, the rem
edy for workers is still open. But il
prices and profits can be stabilized, the
urgency for higher wages will not
arise