The CIO news. (Cumberland, Md.) 1942-????, 1943-12-06
Looking Ahead
By Len De Caux

by Len OS NduX
TEAR ED: I'm sorry missed seeing you during
- my visit to Fort Knox with bunch of CLIO
officials. But you were away in battle training"
was told. So I'm writing some of the things I'd
like to have said to you.
We saw other fellows going through some of the
training you've been through. It's plenty tough, and
imagine civilian life must look pretty soft and
safe to you by now.
After what saw at Fort Knox, can appreciate
much better some Of the army reactions to strikes
and John L. Lewis, which seem to be the first
things that pop into lot of the fellows heads when
you talk about labor.
For instance, we saw pretty realistic demon
sration of reinforced armored battalion in attack,
with live ammunition used, and with tanks, artil-
lery airplanes, infantry and engineers all used to
capture single objective.
Every individual had special task, and II he
lay down on the job or was inaccurate inefficient,
he endangered not only his own life but the lives
of his buddies as well. Everything depended on
teamwork, timing and closest coordination.
Then we went through the Armored School and
saw young fellows studying the functioning and
repair of tank engines, radios, guns etc. / never
saw such concentration-they hardly looked up
when we passed. even though there was good
looking girl in the party.
was just going to say they studied If their
lives depended upon it. But that of course is exactly
the point. The lives of all the men In tank crew
do depend on every member knowing and doing
his particular job thoroughly.
It made one realize too how all of you fellows
depend for your lives on the repair men and on
the workers at home supplying the best possible
tanks and parts and guns exactly when and as
needed
+ X \
So don't blame you for having pretty strong
personal feelings these days about anything that
interrupts production.
know you realize the CLIO has nothing to do
with Lewis and his coal strikes. But wish every
one else in the army realized we've been the chief
opposition to his type of tactics.
AS a matter of fact, the CLIO is the strongest
and most effective force there is working against
wartime strikes.
If you want to get really sore at production
hodups, you join with us in getting after some
of the profiteering bosses who do more damage,
more quietly than dozen strikes.
When one of these profteers rides his workers
too hard for his own advantage, and they see him
sabotaging the by inefficiency and selfish prac-
tces it's only natural there should be trouble.
But it's the unions that stop these grievances
from leading to strikes, that get the men back to
work II they walk off spontaneously, and that do
most of all to maintain uninterrupted production to
back you up.
X X X
When you put on Uncle Sans uniform, Ed, you
didn't separate yourself from the CIO. You're one
of million and quarter CLIO members in the
fighting forces, not to mention millions more sons
and brothers of CIO unionists.
The CLIO is plugging for you all as hard as it
can. It's members in war industries have broken
world records in war production and CLIO is the
largest single contributor to the USO and other
rol;a Of