Toledo union journal. [volume] (Toledo, Ohio) 1942-current, 1945-08-17
Peace And The Future


American workers, and the sons and
daugIHers of American workers, have
made our victory over Naziism, Fascism
and Japism possible.
Peace for which the peoples of all ma
tions have lOnged can and will be secured
if the principles for which this war was
fought and won are not lost to sight in the
grasping after postwar opportunities by
those in a position to place their own SELF
interest ahead of the welfare of the ma
jority of the people.
Despite the victory, none is so con-
fused that they believe the forces against
which we have directed our all-out en-
ergies for the past months OF war are elm
mated forever. Again and again we must
remind ourselves that our future peace,
happiness and security require our eternal
vigilance if we would avert the blood and
waste of armed warfare.
Today, the majority of the people of
this country face the realities of peace
time world. We are aware of the needs of
our own people and those of other coun-
tries We know that we must all put our
shoulder to the wheel and cooperate in the
enterprise of peace as we applied our
energies to the tasks of war.
It is unavoidable that in making the
transition from war to peace that tempo
rary large scale unemployment will result,
but it is also true that the recOnversiOn to
a peacetime economy can be greatly short
ened if industry and our government will
cooperate with labor.
We recognize, of course, that not every
employer will give the recOnversiOn ef-
fort sincere cooperation. Some will at
tempt to use it to their own advantage,
while others will make the occasion one
for seeking to maintain the checks which
labor placed upon itself during the war
years.
What occurs in the recOnversiOn period
and after full scale production is resumed
is going to be conditioned to a consider
able extent upon how wisely management
acts in carrying out its part of the pro-
gram and, of course, upon the amount of
control exercised by government.
That the results of this war must be
totally different from those which fol-
lowed World War | requires but little ex-
PLANTATION. Organized labor with growing
political consciousness and an appeal to
the vast majority of the people that can
not be denied, will not stand hitched If
government and management stall and
bungle the job of reconversion which lies
Immediately before them
Nor will the servicemen long remain
silent if they return to their homes,
100000 strong, in the next IL months, to
discover that something has slipped and
the promises made to them were but
empty pledges of an alarmed government
and profit starved industrial overlords.
This is the occasion, fully as serious
and important to the people of America as
the day when the war was thrust upon
us, when we must rise in unison to meet
and beat the problems which now confront
us. We must face the situation with the
same boldness and courage with which we
rolled up our sleeves and went to work to
defeat the enemies of our country who now
lie in abject defeat before the irresistible
counter attack of free people.
This is not an occasion for fear, but one
for satisfaction and decisive action. 1t is
a time when we must resolve to forever
eliminate the paradox which gives full
employment in time of war, and want in
the midst of plenty in time of peace. This
is the peace which still remains TO be won.