The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1943-05-13
Labor Revolt Seen
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have been practically destroyed" and
that ''it is now operating within a
straight jacket"
Unless its discretionary and judi
cial powers are restored to it, its use
fulnesS has been practically ended" he
continued "The War Labor Board was
doing well, on the whole, in efforts TO
keep wages and prices stabilized while
meeting the specific needs of groups OF
workers living and working under con
dtions requiring readjuStment, until
the boards powers were taken away.
The charges that the board was giving
unjuStified increases had no foundation
whatever. If the charges had been
true, the thing to have done was to
reOrganize the board instead of putting
it i'm Il straight jacket"
Curbs On WLB Discussed
Charging that the placing of the
War Labor Board in straight jacket
by various Executive DEGREES and by
the setting up of the Office of Eco
nomic StatbiliZatiOn was Il violation of
labor's nO-strike pledge, Mr.. Vol de-
manded that this situation be re-
dressed
"While rising prices cut the workers
real income and mounting profits are
concealed In innocent appearing amor
tiZatiOn and depreciation tables on the
balance sheets of huge corporations,
wages are frozen by the President
hold-the-lne order" Mr. Will said
Initiation cannot be checked by press
ing one side of a balloon. Before it had
been reduced to its present impotence
the War Labor Board and its several
regional boards and StabiliZatiOn
branches and divisions were the sole
government agencies that had put an
effective check on imitation. Under their
administration strikes had reached an
all-time low, wages had been generally
stabilized under tri-partite system
which preserved flexible constitutional
safeguards, while glaring inequalities
were slowly, perhaps too slowly, elm
mated.
Under the Presidents hold-the-line
order, the War Labor Board and all
its branches and divisions have been
emnsculated of their juridical fumc
tions, compelled to adhere strictly to
the Little Steel formula, and converted
into Il rubber stamp which says No.
Wage StabliZation has thereby become
wage freezing. What will be the reac-
ton of millions of workers who will
ingly forsooli the strike weapon and
trliStingly coniided their demands for
redress of economic grievances to the
tedious circumlOcutiOnS of regional
board, referee, panel, wage Stabiiza
ton committee, and finally the Nation
al War Labor Board? Approximately
1900 such cases are now pending.
"'rhe cases We're sent to the Wai
Labor Board and its subdivisions IN
good faitI,-a ajority of them are of
long standing For these thousands OF
workers the rules have been changed
in the middle of the game. This is in
Justice, retroactive injustice. 1t is Il
penalty for patience and good faith
"By contract, 1t Is common GOSSIP
that the Treasury Department, which
acts in requests for salary increases
for those earning $4,000 II year on
more, has been singularly liberal in
its application of the approval stamp
Are we, then, to have two kinds OF
economic justice?
"'rhc AFL members of the War La
bor Board believe In democratic pro
cedure. In numerous cases which have
come before them and in which they
considered that demonstrated inequitic>
and maladiustments merited Il favor
able decision by the board, they ac
ceptcd the ma Iority decision of the
public and industry members, whicl
denied the requests of the workers
That was obedience to the dcmocrati,
rule of the ma jorty.
"But the situation Is now altered
Replacing the democratic process o
judicial consideration there is now sub
stilu,ed the rigid, intieXible doctrine oJ
executive fiat"