Evening star. [volume], March 31, 1937, Page A-7, Image 7

About Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972

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Rayon Workers “Firm but
Friendly” on Stay-In,
Mays Declares.
Br the Associated Press.
COVINGTON, Va.. March 31.—A
sit-down strike which a union head
*aid was “friendly” though the strik
ers stood “firm” continued today to
keep the Industrial Rayon Corp. plant
here idle.
"There are no hard feelings," Lloyd
Mays, president of Local 2214 of the
Synthetic Yam Federation, said,
"just a friendly strike.”
Charles Dasher, plant manager, de
clined to comment, saying any state
ment would have to come from offi
cials at Cleveland, Ohio, headquarters
of the company.
William Craighead, member of a
union committee that recently dead
locked in negotiations w'ith the com
pany, said the immediate cause of
the strike was "discrimination” against
union members in promotions in the
twisting department.
to prosecute Demands.
He said, however, that ’the striking
workers would prosecute their de
mands for acceptance of a 12-point
program discussed during the previous
negotiations.
John Peel and William F. Kelly, rep
resentatives of the Committee for In
dustrial Organization, and Robert
Gaffney, union organizer, were expect
ed to come here, strike leaders said, to
“direct” the strike.
State Labor Commissioner John
Hopkins Hall. jr„ said in Richmond
yesterday that S. A. Minter, depart
ment inspector, advised him from Cov
ington that the strikers were quiet and
the company was pursuing a policy of
“non-resistance."
Estimate 1,000 Striking.
Strike leaders estimated 400 workers
w-ere in the plant, while corporation
spokesmen set the figure at 250. Hall
said Minter reported there were 250
workers on company property.
Mays declared there were “about
1.000 striking in all." The plant has
1.300 employes.
Mays said appointment of three
girls as inspectors in the twisting de
partment instigated the stay-in.
“We are not sure whether they are
members of the union or not," he
said, “but they had been heard to re
mark before they went to work in their
new capacity they were going to ‘run’
union people.
“We felt in this the company was
trying to break the morale of the
union.
“We would not have struck at this
time had it not been for this. We
have our demands made and a strike
vote had been taken. We were going
to stay in at least to the end of the
Week."
VIRGINIA CALLS 1,500
TO CRIME CONFERENCE
Members of Educational, Medical
and Religious Organizations to
Attend April 9.
Er the Associated Press.
RICHMOND. Va . March 31.—More
than 1,500 invitations were issued to
day to members of educational, medical
and religious organizations throughout
the State to attend the Old Dominion’s
first conference on crime, to be held
here April 9. The conference is spon- |
aored by the Virginia Welfare Council. !
William H. Schwarzschild, chairman I
of the Welfare Council, said that the I
purpose of the conference is to bring
before Virginians the seriousness of
the crime situation in the State, and
to discuss ways and means to control it.
Gov. Peery will welcome the dele
gates and ask their support in any
program that might be worked out for
a reduction of crime in the State.
General Motors Denies Claims
That It Surrendered to Union
Refusal to Yield on Exclusive Recog
nition Issue Is Cited to Disprove
Assertions by V, A. W.
IV.
This is the fourth of a series of articles on the sit-down strike.
BY THOMAS R. HENRY.
Staff Correspondent of The Star.
DETROIT, March 31.—The United Automobile Workers in its press hand
outs boast of having brought “haughty General Motors to its knees.”
That Goliath of American industry, however, denies most emphatically
that it spoiled the crease in its well-pressed trousers by any prolonged
kneeling.
“What about the concessions made to the union?” I asked one of the
officials.
"I don’t like that word,” he replied “No concessions were made. When
a oho situation is cauea 10 our atten
tion we try to remedy it. This union
called our attention to a few things
which we could and did remedy. We
would have done the same for any
organized group of employes. It didn't
require a strike.”
The fact remains that General
Motors did not yield on perhaps the
most vital point at issue—the recogni
tion of the U. A. W. A. as the sole
bargaining agency of its workers. It
maintained its position of meeting any
representative group of its workers—
craft union, vertical union, or any
other kind of union.
The difficulty here is that a corpora
tion can organize a union of its own
to present the sort of demands it
wants to make. Such a union may not
actually be representative of anybody
except the company itself.
Accepts Murphy’s Rulings.
To meet this criticism General
Motors agreed that for the next six
months it would except the ruling of
the Governor of Michigan on the va
lidity as a representative body of any
group of employes with which, it
entered into negotiations.
It is perhaps futile at this stage to
enter into a discussion of who won
what, for claims are conflicting and
confusing. But this particular Gen
eral Motors official happens to be a
quite liberal-minded man who is
honestly trying to think through the
capital-labor problem to his own satis
faction. For one thing he has a quite
high opinion of some of the U. A. W. A.
leaders, although, naturally, he be
lieves they are misguided.
“Don't let anybody tell you this is
a Communist movement,” he says.
“There are very few Communists in
this group. I think they have used
Communist methods. It's the kind of
thing they teach at Brookwood and
Commonwealth. But using Communist
methods and being Communist are two
altogether different things.”
The names of these two labor col
leges, by the way, come up time and
time again in any discussion with
either side. Brookwood in New York
and Commonwealth in Arkansas are
the West Point and Annapolis of the
new labor movement. From their clas
sic halls come the new leaders, trained
in all the techniques, motivated by
evangelical fervor, able to take the
crude, spontaneous sit-down strike of
two or three years ago ~nd forge it
into the keen weapon of industrial
warfare it has become.
ispeed-up uiscusseo.
Then the General Motors official,
frankly admitting that it was a prob
lem, went on to discuss the one thing
that a union man becomes most elo
quent over—the speed-up. It so hap
pens that most operations in an auto
mobile plant are “on the line.” That
is, parts pass from one workman to
another, each required to do a certain
job on them, at a regular rate per
hour. Such an operation is depend
ent on the teamwork of everybody
engaged on it. A man has to work at
a certain steady pace. If he doesn't he
probably throws the whole operation
out of kilter and there's the devil to
pay
Now almost any of these operations
can be speeded up to the capacity of
the human beings engaged in it. At
certain times of the year its must be
speeded up, says the General Motors
official—particularly when a new
model is being placed on the market.
At other times it slows down.
The workers claim it is speeded up
beyond the endurance of the human
nervous system, that It is a vicious
thing that breaks beyond repair the
minds and bodies of men and women.
The U. A. W. A. has put out a boot on
it. Naturally enough, the General
Motors official denied that it was as
bad as all that. Increased production,
he maintained, has been attended by
progressively less physical labor on the
part of the men "on the line."
But, as occasionally happens, an
automobile worker sometimes drinks
too much whisky of an evening and
comes to work with the well known
“big head.” There’s no question but
that such a man goes through hell
on earth the next day. That is an
obvious case. It doesn't have to be
too much whisky, the General Motors
official says. He may have had a
row with his wife. He may have been
up all night with a sick baby. He
may have a bad cold. On an indi
vidual job, however skilled or impor
tant, it wouldn't make so much dif
ference. He could “stall.” If the
foreman was a decent fellow he would
make allowances. But “on the line”
there can be no allowances. The man
is a part of the machine.
Subject for Psychology.
Moreover, there are rhythms, as yet
not understood by psychologists, in a
man's capacity. There are days when
a fellow just isn't up to scratch and
days when, he can set the world on
Are without half trying. A lot of
honest experimentation must be done
before the speed-up is fitted to human
capacities. The point of the execu
tive is that the problem must be
solved in the psychological labora
tory—not by the sit-down strike. The
strikers seek relief by slowing up the
process. Industry seeks to solve it
by determining exactly what is the
trouble.
“We will not be placed in the posi
tion of coercing anybody to join any
particular union," says the General
Motors executive. “In almost any
plant you will find about 20 per cent
of the men who are enthusiastic
unionists. Another 20 per cent will
be just as strongly opposed to any
union. It’s not that they have any
more loyalty to the employer, or any
thing like that. Why should they
have? It's up to them to get as much
as they can for their labor and they
think they can get more by being out
of the union than in it. Then you
will find about 60 per cent who aren't
particularly enthusiastic either way.
They are ready to jump whichever
way they think is most profitable to
them. Now we are asked deliberately
to coerce this 60 per cent to join
one union. We haven’t consented to
it—all misrepresentations to the con
trary. We never will consent to it.
We don't care what organization our
employes belong to."
Beyond this, of course, is the clash
of fundamental philosophies—about as
hopeless to argue over as whether
the chicken or the egg comes first. Is
wealth created by labor? Is labor
created by wealth and the personal
profit motive?
It is the question of the Sphinx.
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I
Communists’ Activities in
Strikes May Force Liberty
Equality Swap.
This is the fourth of a series of
articles by Mr. White on the
changing industrial scene in the
United States. The writer has talk
ed with many leaders of labor and
industry in gathering material for
this series, subsequent articles of
which will appear in The Evening
Star.
BY WILLIAM ALLEN WHITE.
Developments in the last few days
prove that a radical element, more
radical than John L. Lewis, is trying
to control and direct the labor unrest
in this country.
Any labor unrest is the meat and
drink of the Communist. The Com
munist ordinarily is negligible in
American politics and in American
life. But communism is like cholera
or bubonic plague; it is a symptom of
malnutrition and is a louse disease.
Nevertheless, sometimes it is danger
ous. And it is dangerous, not because
of communism, but because of the
social and economic maladjustment
upon which communism feeds.
Ten or a dozen Communists to the
thousand can make a lot of trouble
in a strike. Possibly a few Commu
nists are stirring up outlaw strikes
today. It may be this 1 per cent
of communism in this C. I. O. that
has been moving this sit-down strike
faster and more radically than Lewis
would lead it left to his own resources.
In the end, the radical leadership will
defeat Lewis unless he can check it.
The general strike, with the rabble
and the rabble rouser in the vicinity
of a labor dispute, frequently, indeed
nearly always, arouses middle-class
fear, turns sentiment from the strikers
and makes medicine for the boss.
Middle Class Is Arbiter.
In this country, as in England and
in the Scandinavian countries, there
is a distribution of this world's goods
sufficiently equitable to make the mid
dle class the final arbiter of every
dispute, economic, industrial and po
litical. The middle class pretty gen
erally turned to Roosevelt in the
campaign, driven to him by a fear
that Landon's supporters leaned too
heavily toward a plutocracy. But,
as the heat of this dispute rises, it
becomes more and more evident that
labor, under Lewis’ leadership, is
taking short cuts to its objective. If
his own strike is getting out of hand,
and the mobs assemble and court
orders are ignored, and if Governors
hesitate while the President is silent,
it takes no keen political observer to
realize that the middle class may be
on the march.
It could leave the President over
night. It would go if he permitted,
without protest, the strikers to organ
ize and militantly oppose th_- forces
of law and order. Let a few Commu
nists—if any—1 per cent in a thou
sand, begin yelling in a mob, let
them lead the mob toward the police
or the militia, threatening an actual
breach of the peace, and the Ameri
can middle class would quickly forget
its fear of a plutocracy.
In that hour the President would
Copper
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be unable to rally the middle class
so long as his alliance with Lewis
was even implicit by his silence.
Two Currents in United States.
Yet it is not all quite so simple as
that. From the beginning, we have
had two currents in American life,
which sometimes run counter to each
other: The desire for liberty and the
desire for equality. Equality has
meant many things in this country.
Before and immediately after the
American Revolution, equality meant
more or less social equality. “One man
is as good as another!” "All men are
born equal!” The constitutional pro
hibition of titles revealed that phase
of equality.
One hundred years ago, equality j
MODERN AUTOMOBILES
WITH HIGH COMPRESSION
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meant political equality somewhat,
and the demand lor racial equality
before the law gave the abolitionists
their Issue. Since the Civil War, the
desire for equality in the American
heart has turned upon the desire to
remove the deeply fundamental eco
nomic contrasts, the very rich and
the very poor, from our Industrial
order.
The phrase, “the equitable distri
bution of wealth," which has been
common and fairly respectable In
American politics since Bryan's day,
40 years ago, is the basis of the
present-day desire for equality. In
the last campaign we called It security
—social security. In the first Roose
velt campaign, it was known as
‘‘social and industrial justice,” but
the aspiration for equality, as it has
clashed with the ancient urge for lib
erty in this country, means today
some sort of economic security.
Equality Was Issue.
Last year’s campaign turned largely
upon the issue of equality. Both par
ties demanded old age pensions and
Job Insurance. Both parties clamored
for regulation of wages for women
and children in Industry. Both par
ties agreed that agriculture must be
in some way subsidized or equalized
in the contest with industry for rising
prices. Indeed last Fall, in practically
every phase of American political ex
pression when the campaign touched
economic problems equality was the
hinge upon which discussion swung,
and equality in last year's campaign
meant an extension of the privileges
and Immunities common to the middle
class to the stratum industrially and
economically Just below the middle
class.
It may be taken as axiomatic that
Lewis’ group, and to an extent those
who follow Mr. Green and the A. F.
of L., would be willing, if they were
sure of not being cheated, to trade
a considerable portion of their liber
ties for a small package of equality,
sight unseen. A hundred years ago
De Toqueville, a wise old Frenchman
who toured this country and wrote
about us, detected, for all our brave
hurrah for liberty, that we had a
sneaking partiality in our American
hearts for equality when it was op
posed by liberty. He predicted that
the time might come in America when
the clash between liberty and equality
might turn this land to the support
of a tyrant.
Time for Trade May Come.
Unless we can check the tendencies
of the time, unless we can straighten
out the economic injustices which
make the crowds gather and listen
to the rabble-rousers on the streets
of the great cities, the time to negoti
ate that trade of liberty for equality
may be approaching. It is dangerous
to see a dozen Communists in a thou
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sand giving direction to a movement
that had no Communist Inception and
little real Communist aim. But the
maladjustment of the times furnishes
nourishment for the louse In the social
cholera and in Industrial bubonic
plague and In our economic typhus.
They are spread by the louse only
when the economic body Is not strong
and healthy.
In the meantime the gTeat masses
of Americans are still on solid ground.
The dominant middle class is keeping
the wheels of Industry going. Seven
tenths of the people are well fed,
well clad and well housed. They are
functioning mentally, morally, politi
cally, and, for the most part, eco
nomically as they have been for a
generation.
Danger Signal Winks.
The department stores are filled.
The movies are crowded. Radios and
electric refrigerators are moving Into
10.000 homes a day. We have 26,
000.000 motor cars and the appliances
and appurtenances thereunto apper
taining, Including money to pay for
good roads. Stream-lined trains hurry
across the land, crowded to the upper
berth. In the smallest grocery store
In the country town 100 pounds of
exotic foods, shipped from 500 to
1.000 miles, tempt wayfarers in the
store windows. Some one eats those
foods, some one wears the fine clothes
flashed in the newspaper advertise
ments, some one whose name is legion
buys all the gadgets and curlicues that
indicate a commercially well-placed
population.
And yet, in Michigan, in California,
in Ohio, in every great industrial State
the danger signal is winking. Hun
dreds of thousands of men are restless,
temporarily jobless strikers, partly
from their own choice, seeking to
better their Jobs. And fate, the old
auctioneer who has equality to trade
for liberty, is ballyhooing his wares
to the restless millions who are think
ing about their bid.
(Copyright, 1937, by the North American
Newspaper Alliance Inc.)
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C. II. VICE RECTOR
Right Rev. Patrick McCor
mick Sees Some Teaching
Obstacle to Religion.
By the Associated Press.
LOUISVILLE. Ky.. March 31—As
serting that university teaching "often
offers obstacles to the spread of re
ligion,” the Right Rev. Patrick 3.
McCormack, vice rector of Catholic
University, Washington, expressed In
a sermon today the opinion that “our
country needs the leavening influence
of Catholic education more than ever
before."
He preached to a large congregation.
Including high church dignitaries, at
the pontiflcial mass opening the
thirty-fourth annual convention of
the National Catholic Education Asso
ciation. Bishop Francis W. Howard,
Covington, Ky., celebrated the mass.
"How different is the status of the
American university today whose pro
fessors often proclaim that they pro
fess no religious belief unless it be the
creed of materialism, agnosticism or
atheism,” Msgr. McCormick declared.
Instead of being a help to the church,
only too often university teaching
offers the most serious obstacles to the
spread of religion and the promotion
of morality.
“We are not,” he continued, "un
American in promoting our religious
schools, but rather the perpetuators of
the best American tradition that re
garded the school as a necessity ad
junct of the church in the dissemina
tion of Christian truth.”
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