Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1955-12-05

AFL-CIO convention:
'Mr. Meany, Mr.. Schnitzler,
members of the executive coun-
Gil, ladies and gentlemen of the
AFL-CIO all over America:
You of organized labor and
those who have gone before you
in the union movement have
helped make a unique contribu-
ton to the general welfare of
the Republic-the development
of the American philosophy of
labor. This philosophy. If
adopted globally, could bring
about a world. prosperous, at
peace, sharing the fruits of the
earth with justice to all men. 1t
would raise to freedom and
prosperity hundreds Of millions
of men and wonderland their
children-who toll in slavery be-
hind the curtain.
Principle of Values
The first principle of this phi
losophy is: The ultimate values
of mankind are spiritual; these
values include liberty, human
dignity. opportunity and equal
rights and justice.
Workers want recognition as
human beings and as individuals
before everything else. They
want a job that gives them a
feeling of satisfaction and self
expression. Good wages. respect
able working conditions. reason
able hours, protection of status
and security; these constitute
the necessary foundations on
which you build to reach your
higher aims.
Moreover, we cannot be salts
fed with welfare in the aggre-
gate; If any group or section of
citizens is denied its fair place
in the common prosperity, all
others among us are thereby en-
dangered.
Principle of Mutual Interest
The second principle of the
American labor philosophy is
this: The economic interest Of
employer and employe is a mu-
tual prosperity.
Their economic future Is in
separable, Together, they must
advance in mutual respect, in
mutual understanding, toward
mutual prosperity. Of course,
there will be contests over the
sharing of the benefits of produc-
ton; and so We have the right
to strike and to argue all night,
when necessary. in collective bar
gaining sessions. But in a deeper
sense, this surface struggle is
subordinate to the overwhelming
common interest in greater pro-
duction and a better life for all
to share.
The American worker strives
for betterment not by destroying
his employer and his employers
business. but by understanding
his employers problems of COM
petition, prices, markets. And
the American employer can never
forget that. since mass produc-
ton assumes a mass market,
good wages and progressive en-
ployment practices for his en-
ploye are good business.
The class struggle doctrine of
Marx was the invention of a
lonely refugee scribbling in a
dark recess of the British Mu-
scum. He abhorred and detested
the great middle class-the mid
die income group-in which most
Americans claim membership.
He did not foresee that, in
America. labor. respected and
prosperous, would constitute
with the farmer and the bust
nessman-his hated middle class.
But our second principle-the
mutual outgrowth of teamwork
for progress. characteristic of
the American economy where
the barriers of class do not exist.
Principle Of Negotiation
The third principle is this
Labor relations will be managed
best when worked out in honest
negotiation between employers
and unions, without Govern
ment's unwarranted interference
This principle assumes an adj
vanced decree Of maturity in the
private handling of labor matters
within a framework of law, for
the protection Of the public in