The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1943-06-03
An Experiment
In Understanding
By SPENCER MILLER, JR.


,chO in Labor is not his friend -
,ciH be grafifed to kno,o that Rut-
gers University has this year con-
ferred upon him, honOris causa.
the degree of Doctor of Letters.
Mr.. Miller iUas a guest speaker at
our last contention in atlantic City
and his many friends throughout
the Ceramic industry ,oill be in
concord ,oith the citation presented
to DR.. Miller from iUhich quote:
''For years you haze devoted your
energies to clarifying the misun-
derstandings phich breed conflicts
among men. You hare sought
through education to strengthen
the capabilities of the ioOrkers and
so Advance their interests. You hare
stripen to safeguard the basic struc-
ture Of our system Of free enter
prise through promoting an under
standing Of the essential con,mun-
ify of interest of industry and la
Dor. You hare succeeded in helping
make real in the minds and hearts
Of modern men the principles Of
human conduct and human right
eousnses ,pI,ich Were laid dOU for
us long ago and ,uI,ich zoe still fail
to understand or to practice."l
The collaboration of Government,
Management and Labor in the present
crisis is an experiment in understand
ing 1t is proof positive that the will
ing cooperation of a free people is a
mightier force than the coerced labors
of an enslaved people. Already in hun
dreds of plants where this collabora-
ton has been inaugurated the results
have been most promising. Confidence
in the integrity of each side is one OF
the fruits of collaboration and indeed
is one of the conditions of its success.
Group participation has fostered Il
sense of public responsibility on the
part of each for the elimination Of
waste, the improvement of Sliills, and
the increasing of the quantity and
quality of production.
The collaboration of government,
management, and labor is then an eX-
pertinent in understanding. 1t is Il
divergent groups can find common
ground i'm their struggle in Il common
cause.
But this collaboration between gov
ernmeat, management and labor is not
complete i'm itself Industry is not all
of society nor are the industrial work
ers all of the gainfully employed.
Farmers must be brought within the
orbit of any full scale program of com
munity cooperation. SO too must we
find place for other groups in the
distrbutive service in any inclusive
program of COLLABORATION. The virtue
of collaboration between government
management and labor however does
give validity to an ancient Chinese
maxim that individual interests can b,
reconciled in the local community. II
men and groups who must work to-
gether cannot learn to cooperate, it is
Il social disaster But they can ant
will
labor has already been profound. Oh,
prejudiccs have been removed and {:
new mutality of interest has been dis
covered. Theories about irreconciIabl,
class conflicts have been transformed
as groups have discovered Il new ant
deeper unity. In the very fires of ad
verSity men have come to Il rcaliza
tion that the Machine Age can endur,
only if both science and the machine
are completely under the subjection o
the human spirit.
Today in this peoples fight there
are no barriers of race or creed 81
| class. There is no East, no West, nt
North nor South, but like the SymbO
of King Arthur'S Table Round the pro
duction front cncircleS the globe. From
Detroit and Pittsburgh i'm America, t'
Manchester and Birmingham i'm Eng
land, to the vast unknown but mex
hauStibIe production units in the IRA
Mountains of Russia, to Chunglling an,
the countless small plants in China Il
the great industrial centerS of Bonn
bay and Calcutta in India, To the new
factories in Sydney and Melbourne il
Australia, vast populations have takcl
up their burdens and combined thci
SkillS so that the lights should anc'
more be turned on all over the earth.
by the device of group collaboration
we are laying the ghost of racial an,
religious diviSiycneSS in our own land
but the job is not yet finished. Thi
principle of group cooperation Whici
has already been established in on
domestic economy provides ii dynamic
pattern for our international relation
ships in the century of the Common
Man.
JAROR PARTY TO EXPANT