Evening star., 1951-03-04

n reached, are such that they are
The labor committees professed
evaporation with Mr.. Wilson
tended to obscure one unstated
point, and that is labor's growing
resentment against Mr.. Truman.
The critics of Mr.. Truman in
the ranks of labor assert that
since its failure to defeat some
of its-and Mr.. Truman's-oppo-
nents at the polls last November
the administration has been less
willing to listen to labor than
formerly and has been veering
toward big business.
Mr.. Wilson's supporters have
replies to a number of the charges
in the United Labor Policy Com
mittee statement justifying its
boycott.
Most Serious Charge
They contend that Mr.. Wilson
did not seize control of manpow-
er, as the committee charged, but
that it was assigned to him by Mr..
Truman. Instead of the price
freeze being a "legalized robbery"
it is pointed out that it is STOP
gap measure and Mr.. Disable
speaks convincingly of his plans
to roll back prices and get the
economy on an even keel.
The Wage Sterilization Board
which produced the order relaxing
the wage freeze-and which was
followed by labor walkout
there-was a board on which labor
had equal and ample representa-
ton and there was no stacking the
board against labor in the public
representation.
The most serious charge is the
one that Mr.. Wilson has refused
to give labor representation in the
production picture. 1t might be
stated with more force and less
heat this way: He has the re-
sponsibility for efficiency in pro-
duction and has violated a pre-
cept that every personnel man in
a company knows-that you can
not have efficiency while ignoring
the views of labor.
ODM officials deny this, but in
the background is an undoubted
clash of personalities which got
the relationship between Mr.. Will
son and the labor leaders off to a
bad start. ODM people say that
when the United Labor Committee
paid its first call on Mr.. Wilson it
was to make brusque demands to
which Mr.. Wilson's reaction was a
natural one. The atmosphere de-
veloped into one quite different
than that which had existed be-
fore ODM was set up and the Ma
tional Security Resources Board
with w. Stuart Symington as
chairman was running the show.
Manpower Problem
Practically every step in the de-
fense mobilization has been taken
with World War II experience in
mind. Concentration of control
in the ODM is an effort to avoid
the divided commands Of the last
emergency. While labor wants
labor-management disputes set
tied in the Wage Sterilization
Board. industry fears this will lead
again to policies like those of the
War Labor Board which it feels
penalized industry and was un-
duly favorable to labor.
Labor remembers that President
Roosevelt gave Sidney Hillman,
CIO leader. equal status with
William S. Knudsen in the pro-
duction organization during the
preparatory period for World War
II and that it still had an tnfluen-
tial role in the War Production
Board. 1t wants no less this time.
and contending that generally it
was relegated to an advisory role
then, it asks now for full partici-
patton in policy making and adj
ministration.
Again remembering the last
time. labor organized the United
Labor Policy Committee to avoid
the divided front which had ham
pered it. Before the mobilization
control was shifted from the NSRB
to the ODM, labor asked for a
representative in every bureau of
the security board, and Mr.. Sy-
mington agreed, beside giving la
Dor an equal voice with industry,
agriculture and the public on the
Defense Mobilization Board. Sig
nificantly, the united committee
did not extend its boycott to the
NSRB.
Policy Group Meets
Undoubtedly the handling of
manpower will become one of the
knottiest problems to be faced as
production climbs and la',or
shortages appear, and men are in
Quoted into the armed forces. La.
DOR feSentS CnaG manpOWer con-
trolls were not placed in the hands
of Secretary of Labor Tobin, but
were established in Mr.. Wilson'S
office with DR.. Arthur S. Flemming
to direct them.
There are bound to be many
issues in getting the production
job done that a trained labor man
should be called on to solve. But
there is also the problem of the
division of manpower between
production and the armed services.
What labor regards as even Of
more Importance Is the prospect
Of labor draft as the already
tight labor situation grows more
and more acute. There was a move
for labor draft toward the close
OF the last war. Labor maintains
that Gen. Lucius D. Clay, one Of
Mr.. Wilson'S closest advisers,
favored it then and that wage
earners cannot feel safe so long
aS rnann0wer control iS in the