Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1949-01-28

of Neanderthaler cave in the year
%, 900 B. C.-the mastodon on which
he was riding having broken tusk
or an axle or something-and all
the poor man wanted was to borrow
| an extra tusk. But since the Gro
| Magnon was unable to commune
cate his perfectly peaceful desire,
and before he could present his
drivers license or his membership
card in the loyal order of moose, for
identity, the Neanderthaler, after
showing his wife in the corner and
calling his dogs, would step out and
welcome the unfortunate visitor
with hearty wallop on the Gran.
ium.
The result was probably a war
between the Neanderthalers
and the CrO-Magnons in which
the Neanderthaler had a fifty
fifty chance of eating Gro.
Even if the innocent visitor had
been able to grunt without mis-
pronouncing his consonants and
decorating his labials, and even if
his inhospitable host had listened
to him, that host probably could not
have digested his idea-as easily,
at least as he later digested him.
We have words to work with, and
thus are able to fashion the tools of
communication. But unless IN e
speech teachers (and all teachers)
furnish the skills for the use of those
words, the effort is in vain.
Unless the idea behind what
we believe in can be eommnni-
Gated, land it can't be, unless
we agree on the meaning of the
wOrds) it withers on the vine.
Thus, the speech teacher must
teach his pupils not only the medi-
UNI of communication, but the
means of using it-and convince
them it has concrete value.
In the field of labor relations at
home, or International understand
ing abroad, we never can hope to
achieve a real bulwark for demo-
cracy unless mental contact can
be made, communications estab-
lished-Words and ideas joined so
that they have a universal meaning
and the message they convey can
be digested
AS Eric Peterson, general secre-
tary-treasurer of the International
Association of Machinists, put it:
'"The need for better lines of COM
munication between labor and man.
agement, and between the concilia-
tor and disputing parties is
distinct 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
starting point for speech teach
ers might be to pay less atten-
ton to Demosthenes who be-
came great orator by practic-
ing shouting until he could be
heard above the roaring of the
waves, and a little more to de-
velOping men whose voices may
not be loud, but whose skilfull
persuasion can be heard above
the misunderstanding in mems
hearts.
Speaking for management at the
conference, Robert Chester Smith,
director of industrial and personnel
relations for the Pullman Standard
Car Manufacturing company of
Chicago, expressed his belief that.
each of the three members of the
industrial triumvirate - the inves-
tor, the manager and the laboring
man-"has been and continues to
be too short-sighted. Each has been
looking at the problem through its
own specially-conditioned glasses,
and has been unable to see either
upward, downward or sidewise, and
unfortunately not very far ahead"
John @. Jennings, head of indus
trial Relations for the Singer Manu-
featuring company, told an inter-
esting story about how New York's
great tugboat dispute last winter
had been settled. The negotiations
had dragged on for hours until well
after midnight. Management and
union men had basically agreed on
the point at issue, but whenever
they tried to phrase the agreement
on paper, they got entangled in
maze of complicated Technology.
Shortly after l am, one of the
negotiators happened to say in SIM
pie language what everyone else
was trying to say in technical lam
guage. Somebody had a brilliant
idea: