Evening star., 1946-01-19

SCrlkeS are not Lowell MeHett
foreign importation; that it is silly to
talk of our present labor troubles
originating in Moscow-where they
don't have strikes. The fact is that
our free enterprise system is just nat
urally calculated to produce strikes.
1t is part of our philosophy that all
citizens should be free to better
their condition in any way possible
SO long as theys don't trespass on
the rights of others. That's how we
come by the highest standard of liv-
ing in the world. We never could
make that proud claim if free en-
terprise were denied to the workers
and made an exclusive privilege of
employers.
Our enterprising workers, like the
rest OF US, are engaged everlastingly
in struggle upward and sometimes
their struggles cause everybody a
lot of inconvenience and even actual
hardship. The effect in the long
run, however, is to give us a
healthier, wealthier America.
Bloody Battles Forgotten.
We are upset by the present in
dustrial strife and disposed to con-
slider conditions worse than they
ever were before That's because
we have forgotten the Homestead
strike, the Pullman strike, the
Colorado Fuel g. Iron strike, the
Ludlow massacre" We've for
gotten the bloody battles that re-
suited when labor had to strike to
prove or preserve its very right to
strike
Among the other alterations
that have developed in connection
with our present labor troubles is
the notion that it is somehow revo-
lutionary to bring up the question
OF capacity to pay" Workers are
solemnly warned that if they in
sist on good pay when profits are
good they must expect bad wages
when profits are bad. When was it
ever otherwise? No halfway intelli-
gent labor organization ever has
insisted on wages that would put an
employer out of business and throw
the workers out of jobs An intelli-
gent labor organization usually
knows the facts concerning the en-
ployer's business; the UAW at least
was convinced it had the facts or
1t never would have made its brash
proposal to settle for no increase
whatever If GIN couldn't raise wages
without raising prices.
To say that such proposal
means taking over management
is simply absurd. There is much
more to management than that.
1t is frequently asserted that the
workers are out to get what they
can regardless of the employers
interests or the public's. And some
times that has been true They
should not be condemned. then, for
refusing to force a price increase
against the best interest of the en-
ployer and the public.
Not Un-American.
II capacity to pay is not a sound
basis for wage negotiations, what
Is? Cost of living? Who is to de-
termine that? What two families
have exactly the same cost of living?
One worker may have a more eco
nomical or efficient wife than an
other. One may have greater essen
tial expenses. One may have six
children and another none. One
may have parents to support and
another nobody but himself. One
may have doctors bills and another
never a sick day. One may be pay
ing exorbitant rent and another no
rent at all.
There is such thing as an aver
age cost of decent living-much
higher, incidentally, than average
income in this country, if we can
believe Government statisticians-
but the individual worker isn't in
terested in averages; he is only in
tereSted in his own cost of living.
But how can the employer take
into account the personal problems
of each individual empIoye? The