Toledo union journal. [volume] (Toledo, Ohio) 1942-current, 1946-09-27

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and a lot of other things like
that.
But what worries the bosses
more than anything else is the
fact that labor is getting so in
terested in prices. Not only in
the prices that other bosse
charge and that we have to pay,
but also in what our own bosses
charge the people who buy what
we make. That, say the people
who hire US, is none of our bust
ness. With exclamation marks
Maybe il does seem strange to
an employer to find his union
arguing with him about the
prices he charges. We haven't
done that before. But worse
than being strange, If he's a mo-
hopoly capitalist as well as an
employer, it's dangerous as well.
II threatens the whole basis on
which he does business. For, If
unions really get involved in ar
zuments about prices, anything
might happen. For instance,
prosperity. And then what hap
pens to monopoly capitalism?
Let's see how it works now.
Customers Make Jobs
Over a year ago, the president
of General Motors made a speech
in which he said that jobs are
not made by industry. Jobs, he
said, are made by customers.
Now, a man may be custo-
mer for one of GINS cars if he
has q job, and earns pretty good
pay at II. But a job and pretty
good pay won't be enough un-
less the cars are priced low
enough 50 that working men
can buy them. Without work
ing men buying cars, there can't
be m any customers. without
enough customers, there can't
De enough JODs'
Car prices, to use them as an
example, have been going up.
II you don't think that that is
cutting down on the market for
cars, take q look at the report of
the Federal Reserve Board on
the subject.
The Board asked lot of peo-
pie what they expected to do
with the savings they had when
the war ended. Most of them
said they expected to hang on
to what they had saved. Only
8 per cent of them said that they
expected to buy cars with that
money. And the average pro-
spective car buyer planned to
pay 81, 100 for a car.
Now, IL you've been car buy
ing, or reading the papers, you
know that it's pretty hard to
find q new car priced as low as
S1,100. In my experience, even
the white market price on most
cars runs about 500 and $3.50
more than that. AS the price
goes up, few more of those
who felt that they could afford
cars drop out of the market. A
few more OF the people who
make Jobs the customers-dis-
appear. And so do the jobs.
Nothing To Say
OF course, I'm using cars only
as an example. The same thing
is true about everything we do
or make in the course of earning
a living. But, say the manufac-
turers, this IL none of our bust
ness. Prices are their business
only. Stay over in your own
field, Mr.. Worker. This is some
thing about which you have
nothing to say
Nothing 10 say about how
many people can buy what you
make, Mr.. Worker Nothing to
say about how many customers
there shall be for what you
make. Nothing to say about how
many of you shall have jobs
making 1t, and how many of
you shall Just wish you had
them. That's what the bosses
are saying now.
II wouldn't be so bad If you
could depend on them to look
after the matter for you. But
their record for the past is bad;
and their plans for the future
are no different than they've
been in the past.
Look AZ the record for the
years Of our own time. II shows
that, since 1000, there has been
a depression or a recession about
every seven years. The depres-
sions have continued TO come
even though economists have
said for years that they could be
stopped Il industry would keep
prices and wages In line with |
each other.
All during the war and since
the war enued labor and other
liberal economists have insisted |
that prices we're rocketing us
into a new depression. There is
still some argument about when