Toledo union journal. [volume] (Toledo, Ohio) 1942-current, 1945-10-19
Washington
LaborReport
BY Bradford V. Carter
LPA COIumniSt
LPA CoIumnist
GOVERNMENT
"FOOLISHNESS"

"FOOLISHNESS"
1t is hard to believe that
President Truman was serious
when he referred to the cur
rent strike situation as fool
ishness." Whether serious or
not, labor people here feel that
it is not an attitude conducive
to the intelligent settlement of
the issues from which the
strikes stem.
l think the Administrations
basic difficulty is its failure
to recognize that the wave of
strikes is as much a protest
aaginst the cavalier handling
of workers interests, as it is
demand for a 800 increase.
The sitdown strike of Con-
gress on the SIS a week un-
employment compensation bill
must be a CALLING sight when
stacked up against the alac-
rity with VIII i C h Congress
rushed through the taW reduc-
ton bill.
SMALL is SMALL
j. d. Small, the administra-
tor of the Civilian Production
Administration, receiver in
bankruptcy for the WPB, is
not helping matters any either.
Mr.. Small allowed as how
business needed some incen-
tive price increases. This
should have surprised nobody
who knew Mr.. SmallS record
in the WPB as Krug's hatchet
man for natural resiliency"
and off with the controls. But
it is nevertheless demoraliz-
ing influence to have a re-
sponsible government officer
advocate incentive price in
creases for war swollen profi-
teers at the same time that
workers are on picket lines
the country over, fighting to
maintain decent standard of
living.
1t is not only by virtue of
hindsight that it is possible to
say that the strike situation
in large part can be traced
back directly to the conscious
absence of postwar Govern
ment policy on wages. This
column, reflecting the attitude
of many people here in Wash
ington,h h as talked almost in
cessantly about the hazards of
assuming that the natural re-
siliency of the o n o m y"
would take care of everything.
The present strike situation is
proof enough that it hasn't.
There are some shreds of
evidence as this column is
written that the Administra-
ton is beginning to. recognize
that the mystical formula of
natural resiliency" is not the
answer to our postwar eco
nomic problems. The first
straw in the wind is the ap-
parent revival of the Office of
Economic Sterilization, which
had been consigned to the
warehouse when Will Davis
was practically fired from the
job because he had an idea.
Appointed to the position,
however, is an obscure Judge
whose only stated qualifica-
tion for what could be one of
the most crucial positions in
the nation, is that he has a
judicial temperament.
GOVERNMENT
SPONSORSHIP
Also being discussed in
Washington, is a proposal for
a government sponsored pol
icy designed to raise wages.
To paraphrase Jerry Colona,
that's what labor kept telling
them down at the office.
Arthur Krock, the New
York Times chief Washington
correspondent is not known
for his passionate advocacy of
labor's interest. Was Krock
perhaps on the right track
when he noted the other day
that Natl. Democratic Com
mittee Chairman Robert Han
negan's counsels of presumed
political expediency consti-
tuted a much more important
criterion of economic reality
than the realities of jobs and
production? Practically with
out charge, we will furnish the
advice that the picket lines
are much sounder indication
of what is required by way of
government action than Han
negan's shenanigans.
Let's put the problem this
way. Currently, "Tm from
Missouri" is an open sesame
for a government job. It used
to suggest an attitude of skep-
tical inquiry. "I'm from Mis-
souri," should have its original
meaning restored.
the new editors sentiments,