The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1943-10-22
FACING
The
FACTS
With PHILIP PEARL

is III. v. Kaltenborn. He poses as a
purveyor of news and facts through
his radio broadcasts. He pretends to
be an impartial reporter on the
American scene We have long had
reason to suspect that his broadcasts
were violently slanted against labor.
Now we have the proof. We wish to
present it to you, straightforwardly
and chronologically. Here is the story:
On Aug. 9, in sponsored news"
broadcast over the National Broad
casting Company's nationwide net
work, Kaltenborn made the statement
chat on every basis of comparison
the non-union plants always seem to
come out ahead of the union plants. J"
He was talking about production eff
cheney in aircraft plants.
This statement was Immediately
challenged by Jack Cadden, editor of
Rochester And Vicinity Labor, who
happened to hear it. He was prevented
from seeing or talking to Kaltenborn
by an adamantly protective secretary.
Likewise, he failed to get any salts
faction from representatives of NBC
to whom he spoke. They said they
couldn't consider complaints "from
just one little labor paper" So Cad
den took up the matter with the writer
and asked for help.
The First Alibi
We sent protest to William Burke
Miller, of NBC, who passed it on to
Kaltenborn himself. Kaltenborn then
wrote us letter. We can't print the
whole thing here. He said that it was
his understanding that "actual COM
parison records issued by the War
Production Board" confirmed his
statement that non-union aircraft
plants had higher production efficiency
records than union plants. He added
eff you can present me with con-
vincing evidence that by and large
unionized aircraft plans are making
better production record than non
union plants, | will be very glad to
present that evidence to my radio au-
dience."
That seemed fair enough to us. Our
next move was to request an official
report from the War Production
Board which would give the facts one
way or another. This took little time.
But finally we received the report
which was prepared and signed by Irv-
ing j, Brown, Assistant to the Vice
Chairman of the War Production
Board, Office of Labor Production.
And what did the report say? Un-
fortunately, we lack space to print the
text. 1t covered a study of forty-four
types of planes, thirty-three of which
were produced under union conditions
and eleven under non-union. All types
were included. The report stated fatty
that union plants had the highest eff
cheney records in heavy bombers, two
engine bombers, one-engine bombers
and Naval reconnaissance and two and
one-engine transports. The one cate
CORY where non-union plant had a
top rating was in fighter planes.
Kaltenborn Evades
However, the report found that on
the whole "the average efficiency of
the thirty-three union plants, as
against the eleven non-union, is
equal"
Frankly, this report was somewhat
disappointing to us. We expected aver
age superiority of union plants, in
addition to individual supremacy.
Nevertheless, the official facts COM
pletely refuted Kaltenborn's original
statement. So we sent it to him, de-
manding retraction which "you owe
to organized labor, to the National
Broadcasting Company, to your spon-
sors and yourself"
His answer has just been received.
In it Kaltenborn has the audacity to
assert that he has personal knowl-
edge of the performance of non-union
plants" which was acquired in conf
dence" which he trusts more than the
official report. He disparages Mr..
Browns conclusions as mere "inter-
pretations" of statistics and states:
UNLESS, therefore, we can obtain
the basic information from which Mr..
Brown drew his conclusions, we can
not resolve the issue between u.s."
The joker in this clever refusal to
retract is that Kaltenborn knows and
admits the Government cannot release
the "basic information" and figures
because of security reasons. It might
endanger our war effort to let such
secret information out.
The foregoing is just summary of
the events leading up to the big doings
in this case. The fun is just beginning.
Labor will not let this issue drop.
President Green, informed of the
facts, has announced that he will send