Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1942-08-27
WLB Put
On Spot by
lis en- Panel
Must Override Raise
or Drop Yardstick
BY PAUL MALL0N

bodTu nave DCcn Tearing OUT
what little hair they have left.
After laying down the UNI
Strctchable yardstick Of the cost
of living index for labor wage
increases, the board now finds
the first violation of its own
principle coming from its own
panel board in the General Mo-
tors wage case.
1t is enough to make board
man tear something when you
consider that they went TO all
the. trouble in the Little Steel
case TO tell labor that increases
would be granted only to the
extent that previous increases
have failed TO make up for a ID
per cent swelling in the cost Of
living since January, 194l.
That policy had been strictly
followed by the board until its
GM panel came in the other day
with a new formula.
Tl1E panel recommended an
L increase based, not on the
cost of living, but on what
Henry Ford's workers were
making across the street.
But the panel recommended
an increase of 5 cents an hour,
simply because Ford'S rates are
higher.
That set the board 10 other
ing. Ii faced the alternatives Of
slapping down its own panel or
its own policy.
If il was the first 10 violate
its yardstick. there was strong
prospect il might lose the conf
dence of the country in the mud
ding way its predecessors have
done. If it overruled its panel,
il would have TO face croSSfire
from the CIO. What to do?
Frankly. most of the board
men would like first to get Paul
McNutt's right hand man, Fow-
Ter Harper, who was chairman of
the panel, alone on a dark night.
II was Harper who cast the de-
Gliding vote TO give the board its
perplexity.
MOT only for this but for other
~ reasons, McNutt and his
men around town have lately
been taking some strong sideline
cussing from some very high adj
ministration officials.
The general assumption is that
McNutt is running for the
presidency in 1914 and that he
might have chance, if his man
power commission and various
other enterprises would stop
making a decision every now
and then which can be justified
only on the ground of political
eXpediency.
For long time he was looked
on mainly as a handsome fellow,
and he ran for the Democratic
presidential nomination last time
largely on that ground, Now,
after working with him awhile,
the administration groups are
willing 10 concede he is smart,
but just a little too smart on the
politics side.
Perhaps they also mean
he is too smart for his own
good, as any 1914 nominee is
likely TO need White House APP
prevail, and getting the labor
board into an ineXtricable en-
barrassment is not going to help
him that way.
FINANCE Chairman G. eorge
Il gets angry when any one says
his tax bill will not get through
before the November elections,
but that seems TO be about the
case for sure now, even though
George will not agree.
The bill will probably pass
the Senate in October, but will
be sent TO conference, where it
will be buried quietly in obscur-
ity, while the ballots are
countCd, then to be resurrected
and the final draft written after
everybody is reelected.
Dropped faster. but for the
same reason, is the proposal to
draft Is and 19-year-oldS. In
fact, it was dropped before be-
ing taken up.
MO BILL has been proposed
~ for such a draft. Clearly
the army wants one. but may be
conscious of what is supposed
10 be the delicate political Situa-
tion involved.
II is evident the military au-
/ thorities want much larger
army than the 100000 mer
Mr.. Roosevelt says we have
now. In the last war, tho
height Of our army strength, al
! the armistice, was 1854, 900, o.
whom less than 100000 were
in France.
Wholly unofficial talk has
speculated that six, eight ol
10 millions might be needed
this time, or possibly twice as
many as are in the army now
Specific plans naturally are oi
a military nature, but the spec
ulation suggests this war NAV
require an army twice as large
\ as last time.
I Therefore. the Is and 10
ycar-oldS must be called, anC
tho only question seems to b.