The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1946-02-14
+. 81 = Ms
.]'df''1t(44EsRzKEY

One of the strange things about
the industrial picture of today is the
number of decisions made for the
sake of political expendiency.
Perhaps that is unavoidable, or a
segment of the pattern of things to-
day.
Around the President we find a
group of men, probably each trying to
do his best.
Some are looking out for the poll
tical welfare of the President. Some
are looking out for the political well
fare of the party. They do not always
agree. Some of them disagree most of
the time.
Let us concede that all are honest
men and that each is moved by a
sincere desire to be as nearly right
as possible.
Decisions are, just the same, color
ed by real fancied political expediency.
And that is not the way to run indus
try intelligently, say what you like.
1t all tends to make ''fact finding"
actually middle of the road finding.
Il
The middle of the road never sat
isfied anybody except road hog.
Of course we are in most diff
cult time. To avoid sky-high initiation
it is deemed necessary to retain some
government controls.
AS long as some contrOls-price
fixing for example-are retained, real
ly free collective bargaining is diff
cult, if not impossible. Because, truth
fully or not, industry will point to the
ceiling price and say, in effect, "sorry
but while that roof is there we can't
offer you anything better than so and
SO much"
That may be lot of hokum, but
is about the best alibi for standing pat
that employers ever had. That they
use it stupidity doesn't much matter.
They use it-and how!
AS long as there are political, or
governmental, restraints, government
must help try to guide the boat during
disputes. And just that long we shall
have Old Man Expendiency sitting
right there in the boat at the helm.
Now for the present there isn't
much that can be done about it. The
situation is what it is. 1t is the after
math of war.
1t would be impossible, by any for
mula, to get out of the great upset
caused by war, into a smoothly run
ming pattern for the future. The war
dug into us too deeply.
But what we can do and mighty well
had better do is to understand what
we are in, SO that, as time passes we
can get out with some degree of in
telligence.
1t wouldn't be to difficult for both
labor and industry to get into a fixed
pattern of political control. To get
into such a fixed pattern requires
nothing more than passivity, or lack
of understanding.
To get out requires a real program
for getting out and program for
getting into something else. And it
requires fighting to get there.
And that's for both labor and man.
agement to do.
If labor and management want to
remain within the sphere of political
control, with decisions dictated by po-
litical expediency, that's o. X.
But that wanting to should be based
upon a reasoned understanding of
what it means today and implies for
the future.
The background philosophy of
American labor is don't ask anyone
else to do for you what you can do
for yourself" The war came and
there had to be political controls. Dur
ing the war they worked amazingly
we'll.
Came "the peace" and with it
chaos. How we get out of chaos de-
pends pretty much upon how much
is done by rank and file
who reach their own con-
clusions and who demand that their
spokesmen, political or otherwise, put
those conclusions into effect.
1t is worth considering that any
man, President or not, who gets pulled
from opposite directions too much
and too vigorously, will in the end
rush to one horn of the dilemma, or
come apart somewhere near the mid
die.
That, my children, wouldn't be nice.
I at'c ne do some thinking abOut where
we'd really like to go from here.-
CMW.