Evening star., 1943-08-30
The Timid Approach

Those anonymous Government of
ficials who are advocating repeal OF
the thirty day strike notice provision
OF the Smith -Connally law blend
nicely into the picture of our weak
and timid approach to any real solu-
ton of this countrys wartime labor
problem.
These officials complain that there
have been 180 strike notices filed and
thirteen strikes voted during the two
months that the law has been in
effect. Actually, however, there have
been no strikes as a result of this
procedure, and if a strike were to
occur the law provides an as yet
untested remedy.
1t may be true, as these officials
suggest, that some unions have been
using the strike notice provision for
ulterior purposes, but instead of urg-
ing that the clause be strengthened
they want it repealed. Then they
would fall back on the mo strike"
pledge, the inadequacy OF which re-
suited in the passage Of the law, and
the new compliance powers OF the
War Labor Board, which that agency
has not yet been willing to use.
The similarity between this atti-
tude and the still unsuccessful effort
OF the War Manpower Commission to
inject little iron into it's voluntary"
labor mobilization program is strik-
ing. Each represents a brand of
thinking which, in the face OF failure.
persists in the search for a painless
way to a hard objective. Let some
one raise the false cry of involuntary
servitude" and the immediate tend
ency is to recoil from doing what OBJ
viously has to be done.
With respect to the manpower
phase of this matter, Grenville Clark,
credited with being the drafter of
the Selective Service Act and the
AUSTIN -Wadsworth national service
Dill, has written a very persuasive
letter to the New York Times. Mr..
Clark quotes Theodore P. Wright,
director Of the Aircraft Resources
Control Office of the War Production
Board, as authority for the statement
that by May, 1914, it will be necessary
to find some 100000 more workers
for the Nations aircraft factories.
With production already falling seri-
ously behind schedule, it is evident
that these workers are not going to
be recruited through the methods
now being used, and the question is
whether we are going to throw of
the inhibitions, largely political in
character, which stand in the wav
OF enactment of national service leg
islation.
Unless this is done, and unless
more determined rather than more
timid remedies are applied to the
strike problem, we must accept the
alternative of longer war and a
greater loss of life among the men
who have been sent to the battle
~NoAAoo w ASllC 4Ol d NdUlOn which Is
not giving them the fullest measure
OF support at home.
Mr.. Clark believes that the remedy
lies in enlisting the relatives and
friends of the 100000 men under
arms in crusade to compel the en-
actment of legislation which will
guarantee that the people at home
give maximum support to the men at
the front. This will not be an easv
thing to do, however, for despite ear
nest appeals for passage of the Aus.
tin-Wadsworth bill from such indi-
viduals as the Secretary of War and
the chairman of the Maritime Com
mission, the bulk of official Washing
ton prefers to 60 along with timid
measures which have failed to secure
the war production that we need. but
which do not offend certain groups
that are deemed to be of political
jpororto