The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-02-07
Employer, Employe Asked
To Remember COrregidOr
Fate of American, Filipino Troops Should Make
Every Red-Blooded American Determined
to Win-21 SOC, 900 Man-Days Lost
in Two Years by Strike Re-
ports American Metal
Market

The following editorial appeared
in recent issue of The American
Metal Market, one of Americas
best known trade papers:
BE THERE MEN WITH SOULS
so DEAD
Notwithstanding the no strike
pledge made by labor leaders to the
President on December %, 1941,
and despite the N. w. L. BIS, direc
tives ordering maintenance Of
union, checkof Of union dues and
compulsory arbitration Of employees
grievances, labor'S record in the
two years ending December 81,
1913 was 5,438 strikes, 21,500 600
man-days of idleness and 1891 500
striking workers. During one week
Of the present month alone %
strikes occurred causing a loss OF
1875, 900 man-dayS in the output OF
vital war material.
But behold, william Green and
the executive council Of the Amer
lean Federation of Labor have sud-
denly been awakened to the dire
need for increased production of
war equipment through information
transmitted to them by Joseph D.
Keenan,, vice chairman of the War
Production Board. Have labor lead
ers really been oolivious to the
urgency for all-out production or
have the revelations to the public
of labor's strike record plus the
pleas Of Secretary of War Stimson
and Under Secretary Paterson for
a National Service Act fastened A.
F. of LIS latest no-strike pledge,
which has ben emphasized by the
statement I'VE have arrived
at a period in the history
of the war where the need and de-
mand for uninterrupted production
has reached the highest point and
have decided that no matter what
the character of the grievance, no
matter how feelings have been STIR
red, nor what the aggravations are,
there can be no justification for
strikes or local stoppages."
Will this declaration, as in the
case of the original pledge, prove to
be one of sounding brass and a
tinkling cymbal? Or will exhausted
public patience and the possibility
of National Service Act force la
Dor and its leaders to go all out in
performance instead of in idle
words. Within the past few days
the public had its attention drawn
to the discharge by he United Au-
tornobile Workers of two employees
of Ford Motor Companys assembly
plant at Edgewater, N. j., on the
grounds that these ambitious fell
lows by working too fast to suit
some of the other union men, Gre
ated discord. One wonders how ex-
tensive such coercive practices have
prevailed in organized labor
spheres.
DR.. Nicholas Murray Butler, pres
ident of Columbia University, des-
cribes present conditions in indus
try as "a second civil war" and a
strike as IAN act of war against the
the people of the United States
and this learned gentleman is con-
WINGED that We need another Abra-
ham Lincoln who, by his personal
ity, character, and power to edu-
cate public opinion, will bring this
industrial civil war to an end before
its destruction becomes too tre-
mendous. One wonders how even
Honest Abe" would fare against
the political and financial power OF
organized labor of our day.
Many leaders believe that indus
trial problems should be settled by
conference, discussion or by arbitraI
action. A successful example of thi;
confer and reason" policy Is fur
nished in the city Of Yonker, N. Y.
where not single hour Of produc-
ton has been lost by strike or slow