The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1950-01-26
News dnd Views
-. By ALEXANDER S. LIPsETT Gan ILNs Feature)

tax accounting, has become gooc
business" is the view advanced by
Chief Federal Mediator Cyrus
Ching in the current issue Of "Na-
tion's Business" publication of the
U. S. Chamber of Commerce. "Em.
ployers who have accepted theil
unions, have found that the conf
dence created by such an attitude
pays big dividends in industrial
peace"
This is an intelligent size up Of
present-day management-labor re-
lations, assuredly one Of the knot
tiest and most expensive problems
of modern society. Unfortunately
Mr. Ching weankens his fatherly
exhortation to business by bearing
down exclusively on its shortcom-
ings. He lists "the eight most COM
mon mistakes of management" as
follows:
l. Unwillingness or reluctance
to bargain collectively;
2. Haphazard selection of law
yers as negotiators;
3. Lack of experience;
4. Use of minor officials;
5. Lack of leadership;
6. Lack of confidence in the
!. union and lack of under
standing of its problems;
z. Lack of vital information;
s. Too much emotionalism.
Il 4 =
Let's be frank, management is
not the only sinner on that score.
Much as unionists like the occas-
ional lambasting of economically
and socially retarded businessmen,
the bill of fare presented by Cyrus
Ching applies also to organized
labor. Who among thinking union
members doubts that charges Of
"haphazard selection of lawyers,
lack of experience and leadership,
and too much emotionalism" can
be leveled with equal force against
both labor and business p
There is to my mind nothing
strange in the grudging attitude of
toward union demands
and its inclination to stick to the
status quo as long as possible. To
quote again Ching: 1T is not un-
usual for a management negotia-
tor to start off with the statement:
We can't afford to grant new bene-
fits and then give ground slowly.
This wolf-wolf attitude is a mis-
take. 1t makes union representa-
tives unduly cynical"
X !. :.
/ hope friends as welr-as critics
will not think me unduly cynical
when | say that union negotiators
do not behave one bit different
from management negotiators
across the table. What we see at
work here is democratic give-and-
AXE, together with a typical dis
play of human characteristics ap-
Dlicable alike to business and union
executives and merely proving that
both are brothers, and Americans
20 boot, under the skin.
On one point not previously men
Toned | find myself in enthusias-
ic agreement with the author. Ex-
'erience, Cyrus Ching writes, "has
shown that an employers attacks
IN left-wing leadership of a union
Usually serve to rally the rank and
lie around these officers. Desir-
lble as it is to rid unions of COM
nunist leadership, it is more like
Y to be accomplished if employers
cave it to the unions" That is ex-
client advice. Management, in its
wn as well as the public interest,
hould continuously bear it in mind.
s. ! !.
This columnist, for one, is glad
0 note the emphasis placed by the
'ruman administration on indus :,
rial investment needs. Business
lvestment is one of the most i'm
ortant dynamic forces within the 4
economy" the President
,ated in his economic message to
ongress. "The large and imagina-
We programs of expansion and
determination of plant facilities
ndertaken since the war repre-
mt a signal achievement by pri-
ate enterprise. The trend of in
estment, however, has recently
zen downward, and its continued
ecline would be a cause of real
'ncern."
Organized labor, it seems to me,
Is every reason to concern itself
lth investment problems that
tally affect the competitive posi-
)n of their employers as well as
e conditions under which men
ork. A study Of union finances,
on to be made public, shows that
tie effort has been made so far
place union money in industrial
terprise. Wage increases, as
lion leaders and economists are 7