The Ypsilanti daily press. (Ypsilanti, Mich.) 1928-1962, 1945-12-06

ershlp TO the means OF production
and distribution. Waiter Reuther
would reduce management to les
ser foreman while ne, as the LABOR
leader. would assume thu role Oh
management IN ali phases except
the prov lslon OF capital anu tOois.
IL is interesting ana importan.
that the assembled labor leaders at
the labOrmanagement conference
were unwilling TO chart where the
authority OF the labor leader ended
and that OF management began. II
the labor leader is to determine
wages, hours, working conditions,
time-studies, quotas OF production,
prices and profits, precisely what.
apart from financing the enterprise,
is the function OF management?
A member OF the labor-manage.
ment conference told me that he
watched the influences that seemed
to move the labor leaders. He said
that some seemed to favor having
the state assume all responsibility,
even as in Russia and Germany;
some of them seemed TO think that
the law of the tooth and claw"
should rule the world. In a word,
some of them have been captured
by the authoritarian state, while
others believe in the MARKHAM class
struggle. But actually what is hap
pening is that in the struggle for
the control of the manpower OF the
nation, labor is risking incompet,
ent production, industrial ineliici.
ency, at time when the very exist
ence OF the nation depends upon
such efllciencies as we have never
known before. In the competition
between free labor and slave labor,
the favorable results must be on
the side of free labor. American
production must not fail II slave
labor is to fail.
II is not question OF so per
cent increase in wages or a 300
per cent increase. 1t is a question
OF the quality OF production and
the competence of management.
The issu then is as much moral
as political or economic, for an
honest days production for an
agreed wage rate is an Industrial
axiom. The weekly America"
states the problem thus:
a.. Bloated with working capital
and blinded by the flash market
created by wartime savings, Ameri.
can business. by and large. has
elected to fight (the Murray-Pat.
MANI bill to the finish. It has
chosen to scorn the only con rete
plan so far offered for the coopera-
ton of government with industry.
even though IL knows very we'll that
without the assistance which only
the Government can give. private
enterprise cannot avoid another
catastrophe depression. That is
sheer stupidity.
But this paragraph is sheer stu.
pidity" because Il does not go into
the problem deeply enough. II dis.
regards totally the dangers TO the
moral life OF the American people
in a totalitarian political and eco
monte state which the Murray.Pat-
man Bill would establish. In
word. how far can we move In
the direction OF a Hitlerian ecoro.
my or Stallnist economy without
prod icing a world such as they pro-
duced? One step leads to another.
Had the nanagement.'abor con-
ference succeeded in defining the
role OF management the role of the
labor leader. the role OF the gov.
eminent official in production. Il
would indeed have succeeded In
establishing an improved basis ror
an efficient capitalistic moral So
clety in the United States.
Copyright, 1915, fc- Daily Press)