The Wilmington morning star., 1946-01-26
sPOuING FOR A FIGHT

"A remarkable thing about the
steel strike is how feebly, how
unconvinced and undetermined
were the efforts to prevent it.
No doubt the President did his
best. But his actions were those
of man who felt NO strong
| public demand for a settlement,
who doubted whittier he would
have the support of Congress and
the general public if he insisted
on a settlement.
He was dealing with a situation
where the public, though it would
like to have steel products, is in
no immediate desperate need of
them. The civilians have done
without new automobiles, houses
and other durable goods for some
years, and could do without them
little longer. So they have not
reacted as they would to a strike
in industries and public utilities
where stoppage hits. them inn
mediately and severely. The evil
consequences of this strike are not
generally apparent at once. Pub.
lie opinion had therefore to be
aroused and led. But neither the
employers nor the union, and
those who are their partisans,
have evinced real desire to settle
without strike. This is proved
by the narrow difference between
them. The weight of opinion,
which normally expresses the pub.
lie interest, has in fact been in
favor Of what is called show
down. The strike has come be
cause of kind Of tacit conviction
that the issue is not money but
power, and that this issue requires
test Of power.
So instead Of a rational COM
promise, We are sucked into con.
flict to see who gets hurt the most,
who can endure the most, who
will first do some violent or foolish
thing to discredit himself. At the
end, when every one is poorer,
angrier, and more weary, when the
country which should be leading
the world back to work and to
peace has been Inundated, when
free enterprise and free unions
have had black eye in the pres.
ence of a world moving toward
Socialism, we shall get settle.
ment which cannot differ radically
from the one which would have
been reached if management and
labor had not been spelling for a
fight.
Not all of management and not
all Of labor has been spelling for
a fight. But in both camps the
most moderate have been pushed
aside by the less moderate, and
they by the irreconcilables.
In the General Motors dispute
the unions started with the "a
tional principle Of asking for a
wage increase which would not re.
quire a rise in prices. When they
got to the steel dispute they had
been driven from that principle,
and were asking an increase OF
wages which called for a small in
crease of prices. They are pushed
from behind by the impending
coal dispute where Mr.. John L.
Lewis will undoubtedly take the
position, as he always has, that
prices would go up with wages to
the level of what the traffic will
bear.
On the side Of management, the |
pressure for g showdown has
come from those who hope in the
midst of an industrial crisis to see
Congress revise radically the legal
status of labor unions. They have
been so interested in this that
they have actually opposed the
simple procedure of fact finding,
the one rational contribution
which Congress could make
promptly and with fair unanim.
ity to industrial peace. They would
never have dreamed of doing that
if what they wanted was peace
rather than what they fondly
imagine will be victory with I'm
conditional surrender.
Neither they nor the unions car !
win a real victory in this conflict. |
The unions will not bring the EN-
ployers to their knees and be able
thereafter, to dictate a wage Level
which will in fact be higher than
the level of productivity. They
can raise money wages in some
industries, but only at the ex-
pense of the real wages of work
ers in other. industries. There are
some labor leaders who under
stand this. But they. are not the
old-line leaders.
Employers and managers will not
De able to dictate radical altera.
ton Of the legal status of labor
Many of the reforms which they
advocate, such as Incorporation,
accountability, are desirable, and
will come. But they cannot be i'm
posed successfully as emergency
measures in a crisis. They require
discussion, debate, persuasion, and
they must be proposed by friends
of organized labor, not by its
enemies as measures of punish.
ment and coercion. The irrecon.
cilables, whose Intervention these
days is so patent, are doing much