Show I NEWS ui BEHIN THE lN By by Western Newspaper fr Union PRESENT LABOR TRENDS I SPELL REAL DISASTER OUR TOWN U. U U S. S A. A This A.-This This is Our OurTown OurTown OurTown Town U U. S. S A. A just like many an an- another another other I suspect and a rather as astonishing as as- astonishing place right now for every every- everyone everyone one In it I should not say astonishing be because be- be because because cause no one Is astonished at anything any any- anything anything thing these days Its peculiar condition con con- condition condition is a chief subject of conver conver- conversational concern among its resi resl residents residents dents although not yet recognized In public statements It just seems to be growing into something no one understands There is our plumber for in instance In In- Instance stance as good a plumber as there thero ever will be His Integrity shows In his work When he fixes a pipe you know it Is fixed which Is per perhaps perhaps haps hops an unusual thing in Itself these days In the past year there were only three days out of 01 the cus cus- customary customary tomary In which his entire force of ot help appeared for tor work They are arc making such high rates of pay that they can live comfortably bly to the fullest of 01 the liquor ration ra also by working only salt half the time and nothing can get them to work the other halt half He lit keeps 12 men on the payroll In order to get ret the six she necessary for his business I called the best bricklayer In Our OurTown OurTown Town to do a little job He lie said he had gone out of business His health could not stand the strain of trying to keep his troup of bricklayers to to- together gether as none wished to work reg reg- FORCED OUT OF BUSINESS It was not worth the trouble to try to handle them because you could never get a Job done He H opened Instead an old blacksmith shop which had been closed for 30 80 years Yes sir our leading brick brick- bricklayer bricklayer layer has become a blacksmith a symbol of our progress The rhe hotel manager In Our Town is a superior fellow has had top lop ex ex- experience experience in New York City a pro progressive kind of manager who wants to make his food better his place efficient and superior He broke down trying to do It and after a afew afew afew few weeks in the hospital Is now taking a Q months month's rest His waiters walters made en ugh money to allow them to retire each payday and return either rested or bleary bleary- eyed the following Tuesday or His maids went off to the local war factory where they could make 30 a week and more stand stand- standIng Ing around doing practically noth noth- ing Some days only one employee showed up What Wha t has happened to Our OurTown OurTown OurTown Town No one wants to work No one who can live otherwise wants the responsibilities responsibilities-of of an employer It Is not a manpower question the men are here or oran oran oran an economic question Involved In all those statistics the gov goy government bureaucrats wrangle about It Is a state of mind a condition for which there seems no remedy The elderly couple down the street finally got a man to wash their win win- windows windows dows this fall but he wanted 3 a aday aday aday day for that simple task and they could not afford it The kitchen maids ask 30 a week week more more than twice as much as a soldier fighting at the front front and and sometimes get it But Dut like others they do not want to work as a group and they In Increase In- In Increase increase crease their salaries while cutting their hours of labor and their days off laying off when they accumulate accumulate accumulate late enough money to rest up for a afew afew afew few weeks RUIN OF OP NATIONS Is this a war situation or a local phenomena I think not It is not nota a war question because it started long before the war Indeed it is the same condition to which most authorities ascribe the fall of France and it ruined Communism in Russia When conditions encourage people not to work they natu natu- naturally naturally rally raU will not work and when a nation does docs not work It deteriorates orates and gives ghe Its Us eminence to nations which are producers A nation has no wealth wraith except the product of its Us labors and when hen the production falls faUs off for any reason It U declines But what bothers me is the future The government is pledged to an Inflationary postwar policy of high wages and high prices thus con conn continuing timing the conditions which are causing the unofficial institution of the three-day three week of work avoid avoid- avoidance avoidance ance and employer retirement I know labor leaders who doubt that the union people In our war factories can be kept at their jobs after peace In Europe I hear au authentic authentic j predictions of a breakdown In American n production before Ja Ja- Japan j I pan can be conquered This is Our Town already alrea d Will WillIt WillIt It soon be our country The best possible nonpartisan au au- authority f recently has made a check of ot Inner union campa gin trends and I returned here with th doubts that put PUI even California and Washington In unsure categories Mr Roosevelt is holding a good portion of the CIO CIa |