Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1949-01-20

which he was riding having Er0lsefl
a tusk, or an axle or something
and all the poor man wanted was
to borrow an extra tusk. But since
the Cro-Magnon was unable to COM
municate his perfectly peaceful de-
sire, and before he could present.
his drivers license or his member
ship card in the loyal order Of
moose. for identity. the Neander@
thaler, after showing his wife In the
corner and calling his dogs. would
step out and welcome the unfoftur-'
ate visitor with a hearty wallop ON
the Uranium.
The result was probably \
war between the Neandefthaiers
and the Cro-Magnons in which
the NeanderthaIer had fifty
fifty chance Of eating Gro.
Even II the Innocent visitor had
been able to grunt without :nis-pro-
nouncing his consorants and laeera-
ting his labidls, and even II his In
hospitable host had listened to him,
that host probably could not have
digested his hlea-as easily. at least
as he later digcsted him.
We have words to work with, and
thus are able 10 fashion the tools Of
communication. But unless the
speech teachers tand all teachers)
furnish the ;kills for the use Of
those words. the effort Is IN vain.
Unless the idea behind what
we believe IN can be e0nnsDnics-
ted, land II can't be, unless we
agree ON the meaning Of words)
1t withers on the vine.
Thus, the speech teacher must
teach his pupils not only the medium
Of communication. but the means Of
using it, and convince them 1t has
concrete value.
an the field Of labor relations AZ
home, or international understand
ing abroad, we never can hope to
achieve real bulwark for demo-
cracy unless a mental contact can
be made, communications estab-
lished-words and ideas joined SO
that they have universal meaning
and the message they convey can
be digested. A
As Eric Peterson. general secre-
tary-treasurcr of the International
Association OF Machinists, put til
1.-THE need 'sor better lines OF COM
munication between labor and man
agement. and between the concilia-
tor and disputing parties is a dis
tinct challenge. For basically, the
failure Of these two groups to iron
out their disputes without ill-will Or
violence Is part and parcel Of the
broader problem Of discord which
plaques the world today in its quest
for peace"
Peterson went ON to say that
q starting point for speech tea
cheers might be TO pay less at
tentlpn to Demosthenes who be-
came a great orator by practic-
ing shouting until he could be
heard above the roaring Of the
waves, and q little more to de-
veIoping men whose voices may
not be loud, but whose skiIfuIl
percussion can be heard above
the misunderstanding hi mems
hearts. a'h
Speaking for management at the
conference, Robert Chester Smith,
director Of Industrial and person
mel relations for the Pullman Stans
dard Car Manufacturing company
Of Chicago, expressed his belief that
each of the three members Of the
industrial triImvirate--the inves-
tor, the manager and the laborinR
man-''has been and continues to be
too shortsishted Each has been
looking at the problem through its
own specially. conditioned glasses,
and has been unable 10 see either
upward, downward or sidewise. and
unfortunately not very Gar ahead"
John @. Jennings. head of Indus.
trial Relations for the Singer Manu-
featuring company, told an inter-
esting story about how New Yorks
great tugboai dispute last winter
had been settled. The negotiations
had dragged Oh for hours until well
after midnight. MANAGEMENT and
union men had basicaIly agreed on
the point at issue. but whenever
they tried to phrase the agreement
on paper, T. " got entansled 4
maze Of complicated terninoioey.
Shortly after a. M. one Of the
negotiators happened 10 say in
simple language what everyone else
was trying 10 say In technical Ian.
guage. Somebody had a brilliant
idea:
why NOT put II just that way
In the contract" They did-a
two-sentenc= paragraph In or
binary ranx and file English was
inserted--a departure Jennings
described az something brand
new In union contracts.