Evening star., 1943-12-01
Productive Forces
Must Cooperate,
Johnston Declares

Management, labor agriculture
and Government must get together
after the war to avoid mass unem-
ployment, Eric Johnston, president
Of the United States Chamber of
Commerce, told the Womens Ma
uonal Press Club last night.
EDeSpite conflicts, these four ele-
rpents in American life have iden-
teal interests that "are thou
sand-fold greater than the things
that divide them," and they must
Try in spirit of cooperation to
map the areas of agreement,
cmong them, Mr.. Johnston de-
clered at a dinner meeting.
To attain that unity, he con-
tinucd, will mean that we are on
tee threshold of Americas greatest
development"
Unions Here to Stay.
Management, in this spirit of
unity" he declared, must under
stand that labor unions are here to
stay: that we must have lower and
lower profit per unit and bigger and
bigger volume of sales; that high
wages are important if based on a
correspondingly high level of pro-
duction; that monopoly is sissy
way of doing business; that the UNI
brella of monopoly is only held up
ever the heads of those who are
frightened by their own inefficiency.
Labor, in this spirit of unity,
must. remove any acts or policies
which restrict or retard production.
Labor organizations must be more
free, more democratic, more socially
minded. Labor must clean it's own
house of those abuses which have
crept into some of their organiza-
tionS.
agriculture must recognize the
necessity for constantly lowered
costs and greater efficiency; that
an economy of scarcity is an
economy of ruin; that prosperous
management and labor are essen
tial to absorb the production of the
farm.
Stimulation Needed.
Government must understand
that you don't increase purchasing
power by taking a dollar from
somebody and handing it to some
BODY else; that the individual should
be stimulated to his greatest pro-
ductlve capacity; that there should
be revision of tax laws to stimulate
the investment of risk capital to
give jobs to men; that we must have
the maximum of private enterprise
ana the minimum amount of Gov
ernment regulation, consistent with
our complicated modern economic
society,""
Ihere are dangerous years ahead
OF US with multitudinous unsolved
problems, divergent interests and al
most insuperable difficulties" Mr..
Johnston declared I'VE shall meet
their challenge only if we grasp at
the outset that all Americans.
whether in management, labor. ag-
rlculture or government, fundamen-
tally desire the same thing. They
all want to preserve our unsullied
democratic institutions, our superior
levels of existence, our free economic
lie Which have made us the greatest
nation in the world.
we must understand that we will
All go up together to higher levels
of we'll being or we will all go down
separately into our respective sorts
OF bankruptcy. What is ahead of
us is either collapse in compart-
ments or a joint unity of purpose
to solve the problems of tomorrow"
he continued. This will be the
foundation of peace at home"
Correspondingly, he declared,
world peace will be maintained only
by China, Russia, Great Britain and
the United States standing up in
the inevitable storms of self-in-
tereSt."