Detroit evening times., 1946-01-14
BEHIND
The NEWS
BY Paul
MalIon

WASHINGTON, Jan. li-An
W editorial surveyor has re-
ported 72 per cent of the news
papers approved Mr.. Truman's
fact-finding solution for labor
claims at frst, but suddenly
turned around and in one week
during December (22 TO 29l,
IS per cent attacked the plan.
This he considered a strange
and ineXplicable turnover of
public opinion, or press opinion,
and he criticized it. He said
the change came about when
the Truman fact-fnding board
for General Motors was con-
fronted with the union PROPOSE
tion of going into company
profits 10 set future wages on
this basis.
Ny analyst frisnd has
been confused, as have most
readers of the current labor
neWs, by the emotion of OPP
posing factions. The truth
behind the matter is evident.
Mr.. Truman advocated the
fact-fnding solution out Of the
experience of the railroad union
brotherhoods, who have enjoyed
its operation for more than Is
years. The idea of establishing
a public concept of the facts,
with 30 days cooling down be-
fore strikes, in the case of the
-brutherhoods, never entered The
question of how much the rail-
roads were making.
THE idea of going into COM
Il pany profits of the past for
wage scale for the future was
developed by the union in the
General Motors case, merely be-
cause the company had war
profits and the union wanted
bigger wages. In the every-way
similar steel ease, the same Gf0
unions have taken an opposite
stand because there were no
steel profits.
Mr. Truman is now moving TO
increase the price of steel
through Mr.. Bowles in order to
create money by which the
steel cOmDanieS can raise the
union wages.
The simple truth is thus
shoWn TO be that the unions
Wdnt WuRe ineredse-for
WhoteUer reasons they can
concoet. for the reason OF
profits in the General Motors
case, for the opposite reason
necessitoting price increase
in the steel case.
The union would be entirely
logical if it demanded a distri-
button Of profits 10 the workers.
That would make sense, but it
is entirely illogical in contend
ing that past profits should
measure the future wage scale,
because the same profit is not
guaranteed for the future.
INDEED, the profits of Gen.
Il eral Motors henceforth will
be measured by entirely differ
ent considerations volume
of production. the future cost of
materials. the extent Of sales,
the effects of advertising, eff
cheney. and a thousand other
factors. Past profits on war
business have absolutely MOTH
ing TO do with the case.
Indeed, the unions them
selves concede the falsity of
the profits basis OF establish
ing future wages by repudiat-
ing their own motors doctrine
in the case of steel.
A straightforward. just ap-
plication of fact-fnding would
have followed the principle of
the brotherhoodS example in
the case of motors. steel. cleo
trical workers and all others,
computing the increase in living
costs, measuring what increases
in wages had been granted, SUBJ
tracing these, and proclaiming
a just, sound wage increase.
The trouble With the union
case and the sympathetic od-
r,inistration handling of IL is
that no principle has been
established. In one case the
unions make one economic
claim; in the other they make
the opposite; and the admins
trotion tries TO do their bid
ding in both instances. HoW
then. could there possibly be
anything else but confusion
and strife2
What the situation requires is
the establishment of a just prin-
ciple. common yardstick based
on simple truths. The war ad-
ministration had one in the
little steel formula.
The trouble then was a
politically minded government,
boldly sympathetic to any union
cause, whatever it might be.
corrupted the formula by Sc
cretly allowing wage increases
in the guise Of regra d ing,
portal-to-portal. vacations-with-
pay, and similar devices 10 de-
feat its own formula.
Frankly / think the comic
strips and sport pages are more
interesting these days. Do you
think the new football league
will he better than the old one?
Distributed BY Kins Features synd.. Inc.
Reproduction In whole or in part