The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1942-10-09
THE
WASHINGTON
SCENE
By VIRGINIA GARDNER

From the barrage of double talk
that came out of congress and the
Washington newspapers the day after
President Roosevelt declared that he
had found the people way ahead of
Washington in war spirit, one might
have supposed that the President was
talking about two other people when
he returned from his recent swing
around the nation.
Obstructionists in congress set up
howl about the secrecy with which
the Presidents trip was cloaked, as
a backfire against the Presidents
blast against them, and newspapers
joined in the cry about the new at
tack upon the freedom of the press
none of which was an answer to the
damning indictment of the President
that the biggest war bottleneck is in
Washington.
Everybody seemed busy around
Washington this week rigging up an
oxygen tent for the little business
man, in belated recognition of labor's
oft-repeated warning that only frag-
ment of the nations $4,000 small
plants are being used in the war eff
fort, and that close to so per cent of
all war orders are going to 10 big
corporations.
Witnesses before the senate COM
mittee on small business, headed by
Sen. James e. Murray of Montana,
h0 - dc TO DO
loans to some small businesses and
to liquidate others. 1t sounded lot
like an undertakers' conference, with
emphasis on how 10 dispose Of the
body, rather than how to revive the
patient.
The navy office of procurement and
material sent out directive to it's
procurement officers advising them to
place future contracts "in areas where
a surplus of labor exists" The di-
receive didn't mention New York City
specifically, but that's what it was
talking about. Gov. Lehman and
Mayor LaGuardia have been camping
on the doorsteps of the armed serv-
ices, demanding war work for the me-
tropolis, where 36S,00O are jobless.
When the anti-inflation bill is in |
effect, and the housewives of workers |
are trying to make stabilized pay
checks fit inflated food prices, all vol /
untary wage raises negotiated by I'M
ions and employers are going to have
to be reviewed by the war labor
board.
This will intensity headache
which is already acute.
The war labor board is swamped
with its present schedule, mainly be-
cause employers have forced every
dispute possible to the war labor
board. The United States concilia-
ton service has been virtually emas-
culated by the cynical refusal of en-
ployers to "be conciliated" The die
hard bosses stand their ground before
a federal conciliator, and force their
case to the WLB as a dilatory tactic.
The WLB set what was generally
supposed to be pattern for union
security in the cases involving big
ob0Ci anu llIllC StGCl. "A ludinlGn-
ance of membership formula was laid
down with the view of freeing unions
from the necessity of tying up their
key officials in endless disputes and
negotiations.
But the big corporations have been
coy about accepting this pattern.
United States Steel, for example, was
not satisfied in the formula devised
for its biggest subsidiary, Carnegie
Illinois. The same question must
now be worked out by the WLB for
its eight other subsidiaries.
An idea of the job ahead for the t
WLB is indicated by the fact that {
there are 900 or more contracts in '
the steel industry, all of which could {
be set in single pattern were it not i