Evening star., 1953-01-12

worked in the GIN shops. Mr..
Wilson called Reuther Walter. ="
Mr.. Reuther was not so friendly.
He referred to his opponent as
"Mr. Wilson" when he referred
to him at all.
Well Informed on Failures.
Mr.. Reuther, who has an agile
mind, was well informed on all
the sins and failures charged to
industry in the defense effort.
He brought up the cartel agree
ment Of Standard Oil Co. of New
Jersey with the I. G. Farben-
industrie that the latter was to
conduct the experiments in syn
thetic rubber production, and the
reluctance of the steel industry
and the Aluminium Co. of Amer
lea to increase capacity by build
ing new plants. When the turn
Of the correspondents came,
those of the radical and CIO
labor press tried to bring up the
question Of racial discrimination
in GINS employment policies.
Mr.. Wilson was the engineer
throughout. He stuck to his
point. The Reuther plan was a
gums and butter" not a con-
version plan. The plan con-
templated production of four
million cars year. That was
business as usual"-the prin-
cipal sin charged against indus
try. He refused to pass the buck
to the armed services for not
having specifications for more
instruments of war ready. If the
future had been known every
one would have acted different
ly. At the end his head was
bloody but unbowed. Mr.. Reu-
ther had been stood up to and
answered.
That debate made Mr.. Wilson
realize what a bad name indus
try had been given. It was not
enough just to make goods, even
good goods. He has been very
public-relations minded since.
One of Mr.. Reuther's most tell
ing points was that industry
wanted new factories to make
each new product for the war ef-
fort. Mr.. Wilson has been ad-
vocating the dual purpose"
plant of late, both for peacetime
and wartime products with the
Government amortizing the ex-
ira space necessary.
One Point Stood Out.
Mr.. Reuther said one thing
that must have made Mr.. Will
son pick up his ears. It was,
"All that labor asks is intelli-
gent planning, a voice in mat
ters of policy and administra-
ton :"
Mr.. Wilson had occasion to
remember that after the war.
The GIN employees had been
working 48 hours a week, the
last eight hours at time and a
half. The emergency was over
and they were to be cut back to
40 hours. They asked the same
take home pay for the 40 hours
which would have been a 80 per
cent increase in the hourly rate.
Mr.. Wilson soon was holding
the fort against an oblique at
tack that had every manufac-
turer in America concerned
about the outcome. It wasn't
the wage demand. Most of them
were up against that. It was
Mr.. Reuther's suggestion that
the corporation open its books to
the union. The manufacturers
had to open their books to the
Government for corporation in
come tax. That was bad enough.
They felt that if they had to
open their books to labor, too,
they sure would be in the mid
die.
There was nothing unreason-
able about his suggestion, Mr..
Reuther said blandly. The work.
ers wanted the same money they
were getting for the shorter
hours if it did not increase the
price of automobiles. The last
thing in the world they wanted
to do was to increase the price
of autos. That would be in
creasing the cost of living. But
how were they going to know
how much they could get with