Evening star., 1947-01-12
Speakers al Institute
Criticize MonopoIies
By Business or Labor

By Business or Labor
Labor and business nonopolies
were criticized yesterday by speak
ers at an economic institute at the
United States Chamber of Com
merce. Three hundred representa-
tives of labor, management, Govern
ment and citizens groups attended
the meeting at which Senator Ball,
Republican, of Minnesota presided.
DR.. Fritz Machlup, professor of
economics at the University of Buff
falo, advocated outlawing industry
wide collective bargaining and cor
porate combinations in his speech to
the institute. He opposed Govern
.nent regulation of wages, as well as
unpopular restrictive labor legisla-
ton.
In industries dominated by few
giant firms, labor unions comprising
only the workers of single firms will
have the power to monopolize and
to paralyze," said DR.. Machlup. 'The
size of a union of workers OF
giant firm is still too large for a
society which does not tolerate con-
centration of power; Hence, the
size of the firms must be cut down
with the same determination.
Wide Restrictions Urged.
1--WE should outlaw industry wide
collective barga, ming, but at the same
time outlaw the corporate combina-
ton of establishments which could
be operated independently without
exorbitant loss of chronological eff
accomplish this. 1t is not easy, but
it can be done. And it must be done
If we are serious and sincere about
the disadvantages and dangers of
monopoly and if we want to con-
tinue to live in a free society,"
e. Wight Bake, director of the
Labor and Management Center at
Yale University. spoke on the rela-
tion of labor and business.
Il think that we would be closing
our eyes to one of the most, if not
the most, significant developments
of our time" he said, "if we did not
recognize that there is going on in
American industrial and political
life a basic change in the relative
degree of power exercised by lead
ers of business on the one hand and
the leaders of labor on the other,
and that this basic change is full
fillment of one of the major objec-
tives of unionism. Every manager
and every union leader is conscious
when he is negotiating new wage
agreement that the results are going
to affect the degree to which this
shift in power takes place"
Union Actions Analyzed.
unions, as regulatory agencies,
are in the same boat with agencies
of the Government engaged in lay
ing down the standards of economic
conduct said DR.: Leo Wolman, Co.
lumbia University professor. Their
impulse is to extend and intensity
the regulations which they are
charged with making. They have not
pondered the question of where to
stop. Nor has it been clear to them
how much it matters whether fegu-
lation is extensive or limited, severe
or light. Being occupied in large part
with questions which lie on the bor-
derline between economics and
morals, they have tended to subordi-
nate the economic issues and in the
process they have made serious
blunders in economic policy. Or to
put it in the terms current here to-
day, they have made it appear ex-.
traordinarily difficult, If not impoS-
sible, to reconcile collective bargain
ing with the competitive-market
economy"
Dr.. Wolman informed the insti-
tute that union membership in the
United States is less than IS million,
"a long distance from the 80 millions
or more claimed by the unions of
Russia"
"Once union is strong enough to
do so. it eliminates the regional wage
differential," he said, las the United
Mine Workers did recently in the
soft coal industry and as the rail-
road brotherhoods did many years
before when the railroad industry
moved from regional to national
collective bargaining"
DR.. John T. Dunlop, Harvard Uni
versity economist, told the Institute
that in the last 125 years, wages
have risen steadily, but the price
level has been relatively constant.
mo question is more fundamental
to the economy of the next genera
tion than whether the historical re-
lation of wages and prices is to
be continued under conditions of
strong unions. Will collective bar
gaining in the next generation pro-
duce a more sharply rising wage
level with consequent rising price
level? Or will wage increases be
kept within the limits of average in
creases in productivity"
DR.. Dunlop declared that "cities
are not reproducing themselves and
only the rural farm population, par
ticularly in the South, is making
net contribution increase" He said
this means I'VE are rearing our pop
ulation in the lowest income areas
with the poorest facilities for health
and education and then moving
them to the cities
Felix Morley, editor of Human
Events, and DR.. Jacob Viner, Prince
ton economics professor, spoke
against monopolies - governmental.
business and labor. The sessions
were held at the United States