The union times., 1947-07-19
Gen.. Johnson
 Charges NAM Is Not Sincere
Says Future Of US. Econ. omic System Depends On Examination Of Labor
 Management Conflict

Robert w. Johnson, chair. man of Johnson & Johnson of New Brunswick, N. J., said this week that one of the prin- cipal roots of labor-manage- ment troubles was destruction of human dignity, and de- clared ''the task of restoring dignity to workers rests squarely upon management
 Speaking at a labor relations forum of The Catholic University of America, in Washington, MT. Johnson criticized the philosophy of the National Association of Manufacturers for some of the things 1t leaves unsaid, and de- plored proposals for a statutory minimum wage of 65 cents an hour on grounds that 1t was in adequate to support small fam fly in decency.
 THE TIME HAS COME
 ''The time has come," he said, to accept the truth that those who earn less than a subsistence living are liability to society. Modern society must pay this bill, either through subsidiaries, grants in aid, or social loss through destitution. As business, meaning the national economy, must pay this bill any, way, why not pay it at the source through adequate wage-hour legis- latiOn?
 CATASTROPHE IN CONFLICT
 MT. Johnson, who is "a brigadier general in the Army of the United States and served in Army Ordnance as chairman of the Smaller War Plants Corporation and vice chairman of the War Production Board, said the future of the American economic system was race between elimina- tion of labor management conflict and catastrophe.
 We can sit still until catastrophe comes," he added. We can hasten catastrophe by demanding blind reac- ton. Or we can join sectors of busi- ness such as the American Manage ment Association, the Committee for Economic Development, and the Ma tional Planning Association, which understand the problem and are at tacking 1t.
 ''Five years of constructive work can put us on the road to success full collaboration between labor and management. Five years of muddling may rob us of our last chance."
 DIFFERS WITH NAM BOOK
 MT. Johnson said he differed with the labor management philosophy ex- pressed in "The American Individual Enterprise System" a two-volume work analyzing the American eco- nomac structure, uecently published by the economic principles comnis- sion of the NAM.
 He contended the book "advO- cates a return to the hands-off economics of the Eighties, which would reduce labor to a cOmmod- ity that can be sold, bought, and scrapped like SO much machine cry. ...
 ''True, there are five sentences which say that the boss and his workers must be fair with each other, that mutual goodwill is im- portant, that supervisors should be tolerant, and that the worker should be treated as a person who can give advice and who needs a chance for advancement. There also is statement by Ira Mosher, chairman of the NAM board, that the authors base their whole ap- prOach on the dignity, indeed on the sanctity, of the individual"
 IGNORES KNOW HOW
 There is not one word to tell how airneSS and goodwill can be built, now supervisors can be taught tol- erance, or how workers can be quail led for advancement. Nor is there he slightest hint that dignity has been destroyed by philosophy which too often has put profits above justice and 
 The speaker said this would be gravely disturbing if it came as the mature opinion of American em- plOyers, but he said the NAM group does not represent thousands 1f business men who ''believe that Ve can and must have decent reIa- ionships between labor and man. lgement.
 Until we restore dignity in both he individual worker and his as- OciatiOns or union, we can have neither progress nor industrial 1eace."