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The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, January 17, 1946, Image 11

Image and text provided by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Library, Chapel Hill, NC

Persistent link: https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn78002169/1946-01-17/ed-1/seq-11/

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IpUP GETS JOB OF LOST HERO 'DUKE'
HAPPY in his ASSIGNMENT to replace * hero, thl3 pedigreed 4-months-old
Shepherd pup stops pawing Benny Goldberg, 10, to pose for a picture
with his loving new master. Gift of a friend and as yet unnamed, the pup
t had f0I his predecessor the illustrious “Duke” who died in action while
saving Benny’s family from a New York fire. j_ (International)
Today and Tomorrow
by WALTER LIPPMANN
STRIKES: ONE CLEAR THING
TO DO
The board in the General Motors
strike has, it seems to me, made
one thing quite clear. It is that
fact-finding can be done effectively
without the trimmings which unions
and management have objected to
in the President's proposal of Dec.
3. Mr. Lloyd K. Garrison and his
associates found the facts that
needed to be found without ex
amining the company's books and
without imposing a cooling off
period on labor.
These trimmings raise issues
which have nothing to do with fact
finding as such—for labor the
right to strike, for management
the right of privacy in a system of
private competetive enterprise,
They could and they should be sep
arated out and considered - sepa
i rately. For the purpose of fact
finding is to induce labor and
management to agree; the purpose
of the trimmings is to coerce them
into agreement.
There is no certain reason for
thinking that indirect coercion of
the kind the President proposed
would be successful even if it is
des'rable. But there is no doubt
whatever that the fact-finding, as
Mr. Garrison and his associates
have practiced it, is aesirame ana
necessary. The trimnr'ngs call for
a thorough debate whereas Con
gress could without hesitation and
delay give legislative approval to
fact-finding as such—since that
would mean only that it was giving
its moral support to something
which the President has the power
to do anyway.
Those who po'nt out that Mr.
C. E. Wilson has rejected the
board's recommendations and that
the strike continues should ask
themselves what reason they have
for knowing that Mr. Wilson would
have given in if his books had been
opened or that Mr. Reuther could
have kept the men cool if there
had been a compulsory cooing off
period. There is, in other words, no
certainty that the trimmings would
accomplish by indirection what no
one would, in an industry like the
automobile, think of doing directly
—namely to forbid strikes and to
subst'tute compulsory arbitration
and the fixing of wages by law.
Industries where interruption of
service is intolerable to the com
munity mav require this—for ex
ample. utilises and communica
tions. They should not be lumped
together, as the President did, with
“steel, automobiles, aviation, and
mining,” where stoppages, though
inconvenient andcostly, do not af
fect immed'ately the health and
security of the community. What
would be sound public policy for
the vital industr'es should not be
confused with what would be sound
Ior industries that are merely big
and important.
The railway labor act has work
ed—on the railways, which are gov
ernment regulated monoplies; it
does not follow at all that it would
work for automobiles and steel,
which are privately managed and
in considerable degree competitive.
If is for these unresimented in
dustries that fact-finding as such
is the first necessary measurp to
Promote industrial peace. Whai
does. fact-finding do, as Messrs,
garrison, Milton Eisenhower, and
Stacy have practiced it? It does
not unearth new and lr'dden facts
« does not “find” facts. It takes
■ne facts, as they are alleged to be
hy management and by the unions
i tnen compares these partisan al
legations, analyzes them, screens
them, refines them, deflates them
®nd, if I may say so delcuses them
hen :t measures them by estab
'shed standards of public policy
and makes a public report whicl
Says what these men, chosen he
cause they are disinterested anc
rstional, think would he the rea
sonable settlement if all the ex
aSgerat on and the propaganda
ere squeezed out of the argument
do not see how any one wh<
wishes to be rational, who means
to be fair, who prefers information
to dope, and proof to demogoguery,
cannot want fact-finding of this
kind.
It is indeed a necessity where
collective bargaining involves great
numbers of working men, stock
holders, and customers. Mr. Wil
son and Mr. Reuther might as well
admit it, they are supposed to be
bargaining. But let no one think
that bargaining as they do it is
like bargaining in a horse trade or
over the sale of a piece of real
estate. In ordinary commercial bar
gaining the seller and the buyer
make bids and offers one to the
other, They do not buy newspaper
advertising space, run high power
propaganda machines, to convince
Tom, Dick, and Harry that the
horse is a thoroughbred and not a
spavined nag, or that the seller is
a hold-up man and the buyer a
greedy monster.
But in large scale collective bar
gaining this is just what happens.
Mr. Wilson and Mr. Reuther do
not bargain only with each other; .
they spend large sums of money
and no end of ingenuity, talking
to Tom, Dick, and Harry about the
proposed deal. Why? Because they
know perfectly well that their bar
gaining power depends upon Tom,
Dick, and Harry. Neither believes
what so many ideologists and doc
trinares pretend to believe; that
without public support the own
ers can in fact, though theoretical
1 it 4 Vi o sVlIlt HTh
shop, or that the employees can
strike indefinately. Both Mr. Wil
son and Mr. Keuther hav* large
constituencies, and their power to
refuse to agree is, as they know
perfectly well, dependent on how
long and how enthusiastically they
can keep their constituencies in
line. That is why they do not mere
ly bargain across the table but use
the printing press and the micro
phone to address the public.
That being the case, It would be
foolish for the public, including
editors, broadcasters, and com
mentators, to submit meekly to be
ing deluged by unverified informa
tion and prejudiced argument.
They must have some protection
aga'nst the fine art of bamboozle
ment, and some way—since they
have other things to do besides
reading about General Motors—
of not wasting their time trying to
decide which public relations ex
pert is pulling their leg.
That is what fact-finding of the
Garrison type can do. It is consider
able. No doubt it is not everything
that needs to be done before there
is industrial peace and all men are
brothers. But it is one thing that
can be done at once which will at
least introduce the element of rea
son into industrial disputes, and en
able men to act, if not as lov ng
brothers, at least as rational hu
man beings.
rm _ •__ i •_. ...1. n4- ffroafoT
XO I1U Ironing n - O
wisdom we nrght not hope to a
chieve once we decide that to be
gin act ng rationally was the way
to go about it.
(Copyright, 1946, New York
Tribune.)
_ r
Controller General
Will Address Chamber
ASHEVILLE, Jan. 16—IB— An
address by Lindsay C. Warren,
Washington, D. C., native who Is
the nation’s controller general,
will be the feature of thq annual
Asheville Chamber of Commerce
banquet tomorrow night.
Several other speakers promin
ent in North Carolina will be heard
on the program which wm he pre
sided over by J. Fuller Brown new
president of the Chamber of Com
merce.
The stamping °f Resigns and
patterns upon textile# was com
mon in India and China even be
fore available records place defi
i nite dates on such arts and craft*
. •
HIGHER “TAKE HOME" PAY
• /
THAN WARTIME AVERAGE
' •
... but the world's largest
Hr .
electrical plant has no workers
_ .. '* _ » . .
HALF-FINISHED washing machines*
i ' *-• 'r
HALF-FINISHED toasters*
HALF-FINISHED heaters*
HALF-FINISHED roasters* |
The UERMWA (CIO') has taken General Electric workers
out on strike.
Washing machines, refrigerators, heaters, a hundred
things were on their way to you. But the strike stopped that.
It was expected to hire twice as many workers as before
the war. But the strike stopped that.
; ' Six new government plants were bought. Seven other
new plants were being built. And land bought for three
more. Increased production was planned in every existing
works city.
We are sorry they decided a strike was the answer. The
strike will pinch the public with shortages. And take a
million dollars a day out of the pockets of General
Electric workers.
G.E.’s PAY OFFER
Many of our workers, from what they tell us and write
us, do not know that we offered the union an increase of
I __
10$£ an hour for all those making less than $1.00 an houri
and 10% increase for those who make more.**
With the offered increase and the overtime that will be
necessary to meet consumer demand this year, the average
employee would have had more “take home” pay than
during the war. j
THE STRIKE IS PUZZLING
Since 1935, average hourly earnings for men climbed
over 51%. Over half of this was in the last five years.
There has been no real labor trouble at G. E. in 24 years.
We believe in collective bargaining. G. E. was one of
the first large industrial companies to enter voluntarily
into a company-wide contract with a national union.
A million-dollars-a-day pay loss will strike every G-E
community. And the real tragedy is that employees can
gain nothing that they could not have gained while still
at work.
*Pictures taken between shifts be
fore the strike represent the con
dition of our factories today.
**Those making $2,000 to $3,000 in salary would receive
10% increases, and those receiving between $3,000 and
$5,000 annually would receive increases of $300. i
GENERAL % ELECTRIC
/ . * -
y
\
)

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