The globe-independent. (Hagerstown, Md.) 1943-19??, 1946-05-30

eff they had given me three
hours" Walter Reuther said, 81
might have gotten somewhere. I
can't even get started in thirty
minutes. l always welcome an open
forum"
Labor's daring young man, who
last month climaXed a stormy career
by emerging from the widest union
convention on record as president of
CLOS United Auto Workers, look
ed with rueful amusement at the
rapidly emptying grand ballroom of
the Hotel Alexander. Here as a guest
of the Rotary Club last Wednesday,
Ruether's appearance had crowded
the big room to capacity with Rotar-
ians and their guests.
Everyone had to get back to man
agement," someone suggested.
yeah, they ran out on me-" the
redhead grinned.
Smooth-as-glass Walter Reuther,
who nosed out JAWS plump Presi-
dent R. j. Thomas (heavy favOrite
of the organizations Communists)
by the narrow margin of 4, 444 votes
to 1920, had some things to say.
And he said them well and con-
vincingly.
Variously labelled ambitious"
"bumptious," "cocky," the thirty
eight year old leader, who got to
the top in spite of Phil Murray's en-
dorsement of Thomas at the con-
vention, looked like any we'll
groomed, thoughtful young bust
nessman. Speaking with marked
absence of the bleeding-heart ora
tory of J. c. Petrillo, or the rumb-
ling rhetoric of John L. Lewis,
Reuther stated his case.
According to Reuther we CANCEL
ed out the gains won on the bat
tlefeld of France twenty-five years
ago, by losing the peace in the field
of economics. That we are in fair
way of making the same mistake
again seems entirely probable to
the labor economist, who jumped
the CLIO and brought powerful Gen
eral Motors to a dead stop for 1873
critical days last winter.
after the last war;" said Reuth-
err" we believed that we could drift
into the kind of situation that made
the peace secure. Will we do it
again and reap a bumper crop of
dictators all over the world, or can
we bring about economic relations
between nations to preserve the
peace"
Pointing out that America has po-
litical democracy perfected to a
higher degree than anywhere else
in the world, Reuther urged the
bolstering of economic democracy"
and described freedom as a weapon
to build better world.
''The Four Freedoms and the At
lantic Charter are the banners we
raised to fight the war If they
are framed in gilded frames, hung
up and forgotten, we will have lost
the peace" Reuther said, and then
he added, I'VE have the power to
give them life and substance and
make them live the labor move
ment is attempting to translate the
ideas embodied in the two docu-
ments into actuality.''
Referring again and again to la
boris three-point program for the
future-full production, full employ
ment and full diStribution-Reuth
announced the labor movements adj
dition to the Four Freedoms, a fifth
basic freedom, Freedom from Fear
of Abundance"
Denying that another depression
is inevitable, Reuther diagnosed the
crash of 1929 as "a simple case of
under consumption
He stated that the country came
out of the last war with giant
production machine, but that, in
1929, we had "a Cadillac production
and a Model T consumption"
Continuing, the labor leader said:
eve cannot stand another depress-
ion Free enterprise must meet the
problems of free democracy in a
chronological period. Labor and
management must settle their prob
lens intelligently over the bargain
ing table.
This calls for a new attitude on
the part of labor. Labor cannot con-
tinue to function as an economic
pressure group. Nor can our prob
lens be solved if government con-
tinues to reflect the struggle of pres
sure and counterpressure by rival
groups"
Referring to the General Motors
strike, Reuther said that labor was
not ctYilzi7ocr fo1e 7,oo7,0 ,,oO,,o fo,,