Toledo union journal. [volume] (Toledo, Ohio) 1942-current, 1944-11-17
Whats
New!
By
Duck
Educational
Director,
Local II
LEISURE

word foreign to the vocabu-
larry of the American working
man. But before very long,
indeed, Immediately upon the
cessation of hostilities between
our country and Germany, our
people shall have reason to
know and understand the
meaning of this word.
According to Walter P.
Reuther, UAW-CIO vice presi-
dent, there will be 100000 un-
employed aircraft workers al
most Immediately after Ger
many's surrender. What will
be the effect in the other in
dustries, as we'll? Particularly
are we interested in postwar
and pre-postwar reconversion
in the automobile industry.
That's where the bread and
butter of thousands of To-
ledo's citizens is concerned!
"As auto goes, so goes To-
ledo" is a fitting declaration
with which to describe the
economic status of our city.
In the well-remembered ere
cession" of 1898, when the
"hoity-toity" decided to put
Roosevelt and the working
men in their respective places
in one fell swoop, if l may
quote Shakespeare, two-thirds
of the population of Detroit,
and a comparable ratio of To-
ledoans, had plenty of time
on their hands, so to speak.
There were plenty of places
to go to, and time was not a
restricting factor, but where
can anyone go if he has empty
pockets?
OPPOSITE PICTURE
Today it is exactly the op-
posite picture in which we
find ourselves. The auto work
ers are not rich, what with
the increased cost of living
and inequitable taxation, plus
the fact that many of the
ia mily breadwinners have
signed long term contracts
with Uncle Sam, leaving the
burden of family support on
the shoulders of a distinctly
lesser number of individuals.
But they are not starving,
either, thanks to the wages
they were successful in OBJ
tanning through collective bar
gaining.
Time has become prob
lem, though. The 40-hour
week now seems like it has
been out of fashion for dec
AIDES, although it has only been
since 1912 that most of the
plants switched over to the
longer work week. 1t seems
as if the industrial worker
does nothing else but work,
sleep, and eat, Sunday comes
and passes so quickly that it
is almost gone before it starts,
and thousands upon thousands
of the home-front workers
haven't had a Sunday off in
months.
Soon things will be revers-
ed. We must teach the people
that leisure is not necessarily
sinful, as some may think.
The workers of our entire
country must be taught that
80 hours of gainful employ
ment should be sufficient to
compensate them for their
toll. They must realize that
with the scientific and tech
biological a d V a n m e n s
brought about by the push for
war production 80 hours of
work will actually produce at
least as much in the way of
finished products as 40 hours
did before the war.
True, leisure can be bad
thing. If one were to spend
all his leisure drinking, gam
bling, or carousing, it would
probably bring about an early
death, or at least make him
prematurely gray and not a
little bit dissipated. But who,
other than those millionaire
industrialists who have more
leisure than anyone else, pre-
tends to worry about the
plight of the "uneducated
workingman with too much
leisure?"
GOVERNMENTS JOB
1t is the job of our govern
ment officials to look after
the all-important problem of
recreation for the people of
America, and TO promote edu-
cational activities on a large
scale, which would provide
self-improvement not only for
the returning veterans, but for
the men and women, boys and
girls, who otherwise would
not have found such educa-
ton.
There must be more prac-
tical education for the young
4 ~