The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1950-05-11
News dnd Views
49,. By ALEXANDER S. LIPSETT, Can ILNS Feature)

Call it coincidence or a meeting
of minds, a statement by Lewis H.
Brown, chairman Of Johns Manville
Corporation, confirms what the
American Federation of Labor has
been saying on the subject of rails
ing unemployment. But here the
similarity ends. The industrial lead
er advanced the theory that chronic
unemployment was the result of
federal price and tax policies-a
view which, however sound and
grounded in the familiar events of
the last 15 years, has yet to meet
with sufficient understanding on
the part of the union leadership.
Adverse conditions in the labor
market, according to ILNS, have
pushed the March total of jobless
throughout the nation to one mill
ion above the unemployment level
of year ago; it is likely to reach
the 5-million mark in the latter
part of 1850. The situation cannot
improve without expansion of in
dustry and a substantial increase
in consumer buying, now curtailed
by artificially high prices and ex
cessive taxation which discourages
the flow of new capital into Indus
try ever-hungry for new outlets,
new facilities and new equipment.
These harmful effects can be trac-
ed to 1.-The ill-advised opportunistic
policies of little men in big gov
ernment jobs" who, Mr.. Brown
well stated, are anxious to bring
about prosperity by going deeper
and deeper into debt.
!. \ =
Last January the AFL Monthly
Survey observed that if free enter
prise is to survive, management
and labor must find a joint solution
to the problem of maintaining full
employment and production, with
out resort to government spend
ing" That is precisely the problem
America is facing; the Washington
planners believe it can be solved
only by sinking untold billions of
the taxpayers money into question
able economic and social ventures.
Whether the specific remedies
proposed by the survey-higher
wages, submission of production
data to the employees, and combin-
ed efforts toward cost reduction
for the purpose of enabling the
workers to share in potential saw
ings-would lessen the pressures
on the labor market is open to
doubt. At any rate, AFL awareness
of the problem proves its deter
mination to seek solution by the
efforts of both industry and the
workers without the Intervention
of government.
!. :. +.
Another Thoughtful analysis of
government policies in the field of
social legislation was furnished by |
Lewis Granger, president of the
National Urban League, who told
the National Conference of Social
Work at Atlantic City to Judge |
pension and welfare plans on their
and not by their attractive
and politically advantageous wrap
pings. These are homely truths,
though it is permissible to question
their effectiveness as long as the
tribe of social workers does not set
It's organizational and theological
house in order.
Yet, to keep the record straight,
Mr.. Granger's reminder that part
If the danger to democracy lies not
so much in lack of social change as
n the directions taken by the pro-
)onents of what is sometimes call
ID liberal reform" deserves to be
So does his question
which answers itself: "Have social
suffered so little from NAL
administration in public welfare ;.
is to be unimpressed by the dang
rs of corrupt politics, entangling
ed tape and inept administra-
ion p"
:: :: :
Some additional facts on union
inances( as reported in the recent
urvey "Labor's partnership in In
lustrial EnterpriseD: The AFL '
-adies Garment Workers Union has
lpped it's assets from $10.6 million
o $l1.5 million; the CIO Amalga-
mated Clothing Workers, from $6.6l
million to $7.5 million; the AFL II
Brotherhood of Railway Clerks, II
rom $6.2 million to SIS million i
he CIO Textile Workers, from $2.9 4
million to $50 million, etc. These
igures apply entirely to the fin-l