Toledo union journal. [volume] (Toledo, Ohio) 1942-current, 1946-08-23
Roll Back Prices


In its meeting held last week in Wash
ington, CIO stated its position on wages
and prices in such manner that it is OBJ
vious that any policy laid down on wages
at this time cannot be maintained unless
there is a general rolling back of the price
level to that which existed prior to June
80.
Without going into a detailed exam
ination of the factors which have brought
about the current price-wage instability
il is evident that the wages which the
workers receive is out of all proportion
to the prices they must pay.
The lack of balance between wages
and prices cannot possibly be justified
on any grounds except that of profits for
the manufacturers based upon monopoly
control, artificial scarcity created by de-
liberately holding down production and
the wish of the industrialists to secure
refunds under the terms of the tax law
which guarantees their profits based upon
their former production.
All these factors have another and
more important function in the eyes OF
a large group of industrialists, namely,
to put economic pressure on labor organ
iZatiOns.
Monopoly control which is able to fix
both production and prices has more than
one objective. 1t makes it possible for in
dustry to make greater profits without
too great an investment in materials and
labor, brings about unemployment and
unreasonably low wages in relationship
to the prices charged for the commodities
manufactured and places the burden of
meeting this situation upon the work
ers and their organizations.
Anyone with even the slightest knowl-
edge of the productive potential of in
dustry even before the war brought
about greater chronological advances,
knows that industry is staging its own
sitdown strike and doing for itself what
the New Deal attempted to do for agri-
culture when it subsidized plowing un-
der cotton and destroying hogs.
And once again we find that the work
ers and plain people through their gov
ernment, by the provisions of the carry
back carry forward tax law are subSidiz-
ing the manufacturers in their scheme
to insure high profits through rigid pro-
duction controls and planned scarcity.
During the early days of the New
Deal when destroying hogs and plOwing
under cotton shocked the entire country,
it was the manufacturers and their as
sociations who professed to be shocked
by the uneconomc practice of destroy
ing food because the American people did
not have enough to eat. But today, they
have shown that they subscribe to the
same theory and all their pleading for
increased production is nothing but a
sham and hypocrisy.
Knowing these things, and CIO does
know them, il would be ridiculous to say
that CLOS affiliated unions will hold still
under the present wage-price structure
and wait until industry is ready to move
INTO the more highly productive program
which is capable to accomplishing.
CLOS willingness TO wait 30 days for
price rOllbacks should not be miscOn-
'trued Ii is not retreat, but warning
to industry and the country that the
workers organizations will make new
wage demands unless economic sanity
shows signs of reviving. This fight, if it
must be fight, will surely be made.