Proletarec. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1906-19??, 1946-05-01
Remember ReUther's Objective

Although the big automobile strike has passed into history, it has
left thinking people with a new philosophy.
At the beginning of the strike Walter Reuther, since elected presi-
dent of the United Auto Workers Union, let it be known that, 50 FAR
IS he is concerned, he did not want wages increases that required the
Ievying of higher prices against the general public. Wage increases
according to the Reuther proposal, should come out of the profits Of
corporations and not out of the pockets of consumers.
The Reuther proposition sets up a train of thought that does not
end with strikes and wage increases. If wages, profits and the pubicE
ability to pay should all be linked together IS a single problem when
there is a strike for m increase in pay, why should not those three
factors be properly meshed all the time?
Suppose a corporation is making 81 much money that it can and
does pay its workers twice as much as the general wage rate. Suppose
employer. Might it not be in order, under the reasoning of MI. Reuther
to examine the circumstances with a view of reducing prices and profits
and bringing wages in line with the general level? To us such action
seems to follow.
Nor are we theorzng. During the war there was the firm of Jack
& Heintz, to offer one example, which paid workers far above The
general wage rate. Big bonuses, amounting in some cases to thousands
of dollars were handed out. Rest periods were taken at the pleasure
and whim of the workers themselves. 1t was a happy situation-for the
Jack & Hentz firm and for their workers who were called "associates'
Where did those abnormally high wages come from? The answer
is that they came out of the pockets of the general public. They came
from you and from me. They were paid with the dollars that other
people invested in government bonds. They were a burden on the gen
eral public, not upon the firm. They now m part of the public debt
which is saddled upon this and future generations.
Under such conditions it is possible that a group Of workers is
getting too damned much. That is the logic of MI. Reuther's declaration
that he did not want more money for auto workers if the extra dollars
had to come out of the pockets of the average consumer.
Why do we draw this picture? The answer is that we believe it
shows the need for al overall authority with power to coordinate the
services and rewards of workers. 1t is because we do not believe that
willingness to share its booty with its employees should justify a
private profit corporation that loots the general public.
How, then, can this business of adjusting wages to the general
welfare be accomplished? We have the anSWe to that too It can be
done by making the industries of the people the property of the people,
by ending the profit motive and inauguraing the service motive, by
eliminating competition and group interest and inSttutng cooperation
an social interest.
That is a big job. But it is a necessary job if the wealth that labor
produces sis to be properly apportoned among the people and if workers
are to have a common interest, one with the other, rather than become
partners of profteers who prey upon society as a whole. - Reading
Labor Advocate.