The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1944-01-25
BY WEsTBROOK PEGLER

NEW YORK. - Secretary Stimscn's state
ment to the Senate Military Affairs Com.
mittee in favor of CONSUMPTION of civilian
labor for war work was one of the aravest
warnings ever delivered to the American peo-
pie. LII effect, he admitted that the fathers.
plotnerS, mothers, sisters of the American
ilshllhg men lack an individual sense of
responsibility to stay at their war Jobs and
work hard at them. He might be right he.
cause, after all, when mass of workers
equivalent to the population of fair-sized
Town Will walk off the job in dispute over
lew cents an hour for few flat-surface
painters and tie up construction of ships
needed to put troops ashore in the enemv,s
country 1t is the sentiment of these workers
themselves that makes the strike Again.
When o0O0 Americans most of them with re-
latlVes IN the fighting services, will slow down
W ofag and threaten to strike because the
company refuses to fire two men convicted
o. working too fast, that must be the will
OF the workers. themselves
In God name what is wrong anvWavo
Some of these strikes have occurred in
defiance of the executives of the unions and
OF every public authority established to ad-
JuS' olIerences Some of them have been
caused by grievances childish or mean
that any person of adult intelligence, to ignore
- 1NN"tA0ii VI pau SIlOulQ De aSnam-
ed to make issues of them. 1t is true. also.
that much of this loss of working time has
been caused by evil men such as the con-
temptlble creature who told the Army and
Navy to go to hell and said he would let
soldiers die for lack of fighting planes if the
interests of his union could thus be served.
But, Mr.. Stimson's statement suggested
if the people involved in such walkouts were
of determined mind to stay on the jobs and
produce at top speed, there would be no
strikes. If the individual had a personal
feeling that his own work might save the
life of some American fighter, his or her
own boy, or that gangling, mischievous
kid next door who vanished from the neigh
borhood year or six months ago, he would
not walk out for anybody, to redress
any grievance. And if pickets tried to keep
him away, he and thousand others of the
same mind would grab ball-bats and stakes
and beat their way into the plant Grievances
can be settled by the government and usually
are settled in the workers favor, often re-
troactively Losses of production, however,
cannot be recovered. And as Mr.. Stimson
said, losses of production are losses of time
and prolong the war. They might even lose
the war.
What is wrong, then?
y Many things, but, originally, dishonesty
and politics in the labor policy of the ma
The unions were given great, irresponsible
power and were allowed to run things to suit
the Whims of their bosses. Then the workers,
| themselves, got out of control in many unions
and refused to comply with decisions of those
who had been selected or forced upon them
as their spokesman and bargaining agents.
Then, the government, having created this
situation repeatedly went before the country
and lied about the strike losses to cover up.
not the unions labor but its own failure
the result of which Mr.. Stirnson now describes
in such dark and ominous terms Dishonest
statistics were flung out, minimizing the ac
tual losses of time and work-power and con-
cealing the ramifying effects of a stoppaga
in one operation which soon forced into idle
ness many times the number actually on
strike. Known scoundrels were permitted to
stop work where honest men would have
| preferred to keep going and were not even
removed from their union position, much less
prosecuted.
| Now to correct this condition, to offset the
cynicism of the worker, himself, Mr.. Slim
son, who certainly is no new. dealer or fas-
] cist, comes to the sonber decision that il