Imperial Valley press., 1943-04-22
WHY ALL THE
YELPING?

When the President issued his broad
wage and price freezing order to hold
the anti-inflation front, we forecast there
would be many and ferV2nt obJectlohS'
That forecast has come true In hurry
Leading in the outcries are labor lead
ers. The secretary of the State Federa-
tion of Labor objects on various grounds
"This freezing order will not help the
war effort" he says. 1T will take away
from workers the feeling that they are
doing their best to help their country OF
their own free will.
II may be pointed out to this worthy
gentleman that any sense OF freedom mas
been missing from business men and en-
ployers for long, long time Ihere was
no outcry in the past as private enter
prise was wrapped tighter ana tighleI III
strings of curtailing redtape. Employ
ers. for the most part, took it on the chin
and went ahead. And so did farmers;
But now that Labor has to take some OF
this medicine Labor needs must ll1t lIS
voice to high heaven and shout lnJus-
tice."
Adding his voice to that of Mr.. Ed
Vandeleur is Ed Rainbow of the metal
trades conference. Says Ed. We've
been doing the Job the government now
takes on itself by mandate.
Well. it's interesting to learn that
labor leader. even though belatedly, real
ICES that government has been running
things by mandate for a mighty long
time. We thought every intelligent per
son knew that rule by dictum and man
date has been the order of the day Tor
about couple of years, at least.
Of course. Labor may have been obllV-
ious of the fact, because Labor hereto
fore has been the only division OF society
which, because of biased political favor
itism, has gone scot free.
Where, Mr. Rainbow mas been busl,
ness freedom in the recent past! Oould
businessmen buy and sell what they
wanted? No. Gould the business house
use old methods of merchandising such
as pricing articles to render profit!
No Could the businessman get the
trucks and cars and tires he needed? NO.
Could he even buy new equipment OF re-
placement parts without hiring lawyers
to interpret departmental regulations,
and new stenographers to fill in all the
records? No Could farmers or anyone
else seek and find the workers needed to
handle situations as circumstances de-
manded? No.
While there was curtailment of enter
prise freedom. Labor did not object. In
fact, Labor was very nappy lnueeu. DuC
now that Labor must pay some penalties
for speeding American production =.
well, that's different.
We know and everyone with grain OF
sense knows that government by man
date isn't pleasant. 1t isn't American In
the peacetime sense of the word. 1t is
against our ingrained habits, it can't be
fair to everyone, it is centralized social
control which is similar to certain isms
which have grown up in Europe during
the past several decades.
But we've got it and we don't know
how to attain our immediate war time
objectives without it, and Labor might
as well go along with the rest of the
country, quit acting like spoiled child or
a rich mans pampered son, and get into
the traces along with the crowd.
Maybe, with wages frozen in theory
or in fact, labor officials won't have any
real excuse for existing. Maybe that will
lead to slow disintegration of unions.
We don't know that this is the reasoning
which REALLY prompts this yelping
from the corner of Mr. Rainbow and Mr..
Vandeleur, but it could be. So maybe the
two gentlemen should pipe down" as
they say in the army, lest they attract
too much attention to themselves.
Let's quit this class and group quib-
bling. Let's try to help the presidential
effort to meet dangerous and threaten