The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1945-02-15
NEWS AND
VIEWS
BY ALEXANDER $. LIPSETT
Can ILNS Feature)

SO much has been said and written
on the subject of national labor
draft that any further proof of what
our Cherry Tree colleague CMW calls
"muddled thinking about manpower
in general may seem superfiuous.
Yet here comes the National Asso-
citation of Manufacturers and proves
on the basis of a survey covering 22
critical war production areas of the
country that critical manpower short
ages can be met not by labor draft
but through cooperation of local la
Dor, management and government
officials in each community.
Wherever the community system
was applied production schedules rose
rapidly, the reports state unanimous
ly. 20 per cent gains in tire and truck
production, $50 per cent in aircraft
and 200 per cent in rocket production
have been reported. Care was taken
to conserve vital local manpower and
to shift additional labor from less inn
portant work to high priority war
production. No less effective has been
the community approach to new re-
cruitments and reduction of absentee
ism.
By the way, it might be good idea
if those favoring dependence of
workers job upon government orders
and approval of some bureaucrat
would take time out to read the Thir
teenth Amendment to the Constitu
ton. 1t specifically states: 'Neither
slavery nor involuntary servitude, ex-
cept as a punishment for a crime
whereof the party shall have been
duly convicted, shall exist within the
United States or any place subject to
their jurisdiction"
The need for medical services for
workers and their families has long
occupied the attention of public and
civic bodies. Recently a group of
medical societies in the East launched
a doctors plan" to provide for sur
gical operations, accidents and pre-
and post-natal care. The cost ranges
from So cents a month for individual
subscribers with incomes up to 81 800
to $500 month for families with
incomes up to $2,500
Unfortunately the plan has nothing
to say about ordinary sickness and
the workers need to tide him over
when he is confined at home.
What this nation needs is an eff
cient plan that furnishes low-price
medical service for virtually all dis
ability to families with incomes OF
5000 and less. Here is fertile field
for planners and those whose solici-
tude for the workers lasts only as
long as it suits their political pur
poses.
This column had recently some
thing to say about compulsory labor
relations in Argentine and the clamp
imposed upon the workers by the
regime of President Farrell and his
labor henchmen and secretary of la |
Dor, Col. Juan d. Peron.
The progressive and labor forces of
that country are not taking it meek
ly, as shown by the Socialist paper
Vanguardia. The courageous paper,
taking as it's clue the violation of |
freedom of the press in Argentine,
remarks that "press freedom is not a
decoration of the government but one
of the countrys vital necessities"
And commenting on governmental
warning that the paper watch its
step, it states caustically Gone cannot
tell the world that there is freedom of
the press and at the same time order
a clean organ of public opinion to
silence its complaints and opinions
Vanguardia and its editors deserve
to be congratulated for their courage
and willingness to testify to the truth
as they and millions of workers in
Argentine and elsewhere see it. The
time will soon come when govern
mental gagging and wrath will prove
helpless in the face of public de-
termination to replace the present
totalitarian system with properly
elected democratic government of, by
and for the Argentine people.