Evening star., 1945-09-15
Wars Within Nation
Seen Just Starting
Reason Brushed Aside Between
Economic Groups, Says Writer
By Dapid Laurence


Economic Groups, Says Writer
By Dapid Laurence
The wars abroad may be over but they
are just starting inside the United
States.
Although the entire country pre-
sumably placed its whole hearted sup
port behind the principle of reason and
peaceful negotiation as a means Of
settling disputes between nations, this
apparently has been brushed aside as
between economic groups.
Large unions and powerful employers
are engaged in economic strife and they
apparently Can fight each other now
with all the weapons they wish, from
boycott to physical coercion, ard the
public interest which demands produce
ton cannot be served.
Here is a nation anxious to recon-
struct its whole employment arrange
ment due to the ending of the war
economy but, instead of witnessing an
orderly and peaceful process, the coun-
try has become the victim of strikes and
lockouts.
Public Must Suffer
The right to strike has long been con-
doned as the right of anybody at any
time. Even in wartime there was no
law passed-as there has been since 1877
in England-outlawing illegal strikes.
Anybody who gets control of union,
whether its membership is small or
large. and anybody who gets control Of
a large company with thousands of
stockholders can decide in America to
go to war and there is no restraint upon
such impulses. The innocent bystanders
the public-must suffer and the en-
ployeS and owners must as a rule suffer
severe economic damage before there Is
a settlement.
During the war, management and
labor in this country pledged themselves
to no-strike and no-lockouJ procedure
and in the main accepted the National
War Labor Board as tribunal of con-.
ciliation and arbitration. But with the
ending of the japanese war, President
Truman announced in effect that the
War Labor Boards orders or requests
need not be needed. This was a signal
to all elements in the labor picture to
do about as they pleased.
1t is true that Mr. Truman has called
conference between management and
labor for next month to draw up a set
of principles, out meanwhile it looks as
If state of economic anarchy is about
to develop in America. The large auto
mobile industry with hundreds OF
thousands of employees is faced with
demand for a 80 per cent increase in
wages. And the Government is insisting
that wage increases cannot be passed on
to the public in the form of increased
prices but must come out of the manu-
facturer's income.
Theoretically the War Labor Board
can still receive such disputes for study,
because they might affect prices, but
since the administration has notified
labor and management that 1t need
not obey the War Labor Board the
practical result Is to invite a fight be-
tween such groups as the auto manu-
we'll postpone the opportunity Of the
public to get new automobiles.
Many Cars Are Menace.
With the return of full tanks at tbs
filling stations, there are more cars on
the road than ever before. Many of
them should be condemned by local
authorities and kept of the highways
as menasc to safety. The prospect
that automobiles will be seriously de-
layed in production means that many
citizens who need new cars will be un-
able to get them for long time to
come.
Since transportation is vital and the
congestion of the railways is such that
communication in all parts of the coun-
try by automobile should be encouraged
at this time to relieve other methods,
then any serious tieup of automobile
production is not in the public interest.
1t may we'll be that the administra-
tion thought it better to give labor and
management a free hand in the tram
sition period, believing that Congress
would be compelled soon to legislate
some form of restraint against sud-
denly called strikes. The need for a
oU-Ody CoOilllS -Ou pcilOO vi Soulc IlO-
tice in advance of strikes to- called,
so as to encourage peaceful negotiation,
was never more explicitly demonstrated
than in the events of the era of ire
sponsibility which has ensued since w
day.
Congress might well Begin to do
something about the right OF large
groups of managers or employees to en-
gage in economic war when 1t is plainly
detriment to the public welfare.
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