The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1945-02-16
LOOKING
AHEAD
GEORGE S. BEN SON
presidexf--FardiKg college
Searry. ArkaKsas
Serving Labor


San Francisco was the first big
city / ever saw. Young and inter-,
ested in everything, I stopped one
day to look at big piece of plate
glass being installed in a storefront.
1t was the lunch hour and the work
men were not busy. AS they ate
they drank from bottles. When the
bottles were empty, they broke
them. The incident gave me dis
tinct shock, and / never forgot it.
Back in Oklahoma, go miles from
a railroad where I had learned to
walk as well as to pillow, every man.
ufactured thing was deemed to have
value. My mother literally boarded
bottles for many useful purposes. A
milk bottle would have been priced
in her collection. My curiosity won
a battle with bashfulness and /
asked the workmen why they broke
tie bottles, and they told me.
Idea to Make Work.
"You see, buddy" the. foreman
explained, 1--WE work in glass. So
Go the working men who make the
bottles. The more bottles we break
the more work they will have"
Later learned that this was ira
dition of the industry, supposedly
based on fellowship and loyalty to
Labor. At first I was very much
confused-loyalty to Labor seemed
entirely right to me, destructiveness
entirely wrong.
Just recently, Edward T. Cheyfitz,
rNtional chairman of an important
labor union, a member of the Ma
tional Reconversion Committee of
the C.I.O., touched on the subject in
as clear and sound an economic
treatise as I ever read. 1t ap-
pcared in the December issue of
Fortune. He called bottle breaking
a waste of labor and raw material,
typical of an old fashioned and
wrong attitude toward jobs and
wages.
For High Production.
This big labor leader said, II know
of numerous cases in prewar days
where workers deliberately held
down production because they had
been made to feel that this was the
road to wage and employment Sc
curity. We must educate union
membership" he continued, "to :.
practice high productivity. Ger
tainly labor can not increase its own
share of goods by producing less"
To sum up the whole article, Mr..
Cheyftz contends that labor and
management must find a common
ground if our nation, as now con-
stituted, is to survive. He said the
survival of labor unions depends on
the same thing. To find this com
mon ground, the CLIO. man suggests
that labor and management travel
the same road of maximum produc-
ton. Let me add, he is right.
A 40-Year Record.
History backs him up. High pro-
duction has always helped labor. In
1899 the average factory employee
toiled 60 hours a week and earned
only $40 a year because what he
produced would sell for no more
than 81 900. In 1889 the average fac
tory worker put in only SO hours
week, turned out $3,140 worth of
merchandise and earned $1,150 a
year. Good tools make the differ
ence.
With better equipment, the work.
err produces three times as much
and therefore earns three times as
much. The formula is still good.
Greater and more efficient produc-
ton will make many jobs at good
pay in the postwar years. 1t will
require better equipment but this
can be provided wherever employ
ers and employees see eye-to-eye.
Mr.. Cheyftz points to the only hope
in sight for labor or capital either.
~