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Show Labor Disputants Must I feed Public's Interests By BAUKHAGE Now Analyst and Commentator, expected to initiate labor legislation, legisla-tion, are considered too wise politically polit-ically to overstep the bounds of what really amounts to common sense on this question. Neither of them would be likely to do anything they could avoid to prevent the workers or anyone else from voting Republican. Another thing which the optimistic opti-mistic middle-of-the-roaders feel sure will happen Is that there will be a careful study by congress of any measure which is proposed unless, of course, some crisis develops de-velops which demands speed. In emergencies emotions run high and it is necessary to shift the ballast so rapidly merely to avoid capsizing, capsiz-ing, that legislators may swamp the boat trying to reach an even keel. Labor suffers most in an unstable economy. Therefore, it must have a "multiple objective," as Thur-man Thur-man Arnold and Walter Hamilton, contributing their "Thoughts on Labor La-bor Day" to the New Republic, last September, pointed out in these words: "It must work for a stable economy econ-omy with permanent high prosperity; prosper-ity; it must hold and advance wage rates for the sake of that permanent prosperity; it must stand firm and even take the offensive nirninet limltntinn of nrnrlnrtion nnrf WNV Service, 1616 Kye Street. N.W., Washington, D. C. WASHINGTON. Regardless of J-ie bitterness engendered by the :oal strike many real friends of abor in Washington watched the preliminaries to the opening of congress con-gress with far less apprehension Jian might have been supposed. But that wasn't true of some of the labor leaders. There were several reasons for 'he fears of the latter. In the first place, it was no secret that a great nany union members were getting iecidedly fed up with the autocratic methods of some of the top dogs. Part of this may have been the general feeling that it was time for i change, which the voters registered regis-tered so emphatically. Many of these voters were, of course, union men. Without labor's support the Republicans would not have made uch great gains in many of the Cities. I talked to one union man who expressed this skeptical attitude toward to-ward the top leadership. He said there was discontent because of "too many strikes." He didn't mean strikes in his own group, necessarily. neces-sarily. He was referring to the fact that when other unions walked out It affected him too. He didn't like the idleness that he had exieri the degradation of the dollar." Therefore, to succeed, "the labor movement must be a consumer's movement as well." The consumer's con-sumer's vested interest in labor legislation will not be overlooked by thoughtful members of congress. It was very plain that the will of the voter in the last election was expressed ex-pressed in the voice of the consumer. con-sumer. Must Consider Consumer In Any Negotiations One of the most searching surveys sur-veys of the whole question of collective col-lective bargaining which undoubtedly undoubted-ly has impressed our more studious legislators is a report, m;ide two years ago by a special committee of the 20th Century fund. This report re-port stressed the need of recognition recogni-tion by both labor and management manage-ment of this "third party, the consumer. con-sumer. " In that connection the committee com-mittee recommended strongly "the Ufa of economists, engineers, impartial im-partial fact-finding techniques." They also suggested that "managements "manage-ments and unions together explore the possibilities of market-wide collective col-lective bargaining." This is a subject of which you will hear more before long, I imagine. The 20th Century fund study also sounded a warning which might Wall have shown a foreknowledge of some of the big strikes which followed, fol-lowed, including the coal strike It concluded with the admonition: "Unless spokesmen for Big Ownership, Own-ership, Big Unionism and Big Gov- enced. He resented the raising of his dues. He felt the pressure from the higher cost of living, which he did not blame entirely on big profits. He was not immune to the argument that lack of production due to strikes for which he was not responsible was also partly to blame. His inability to control the strikes In other unions was not the only cause of his resentment. He felt that his vote in itself had very little lit-tle effect; that "policy was hammered ham-mered out by the big fellows." Then, too, the stories of the fine homes and the big cars of some of the high officers didn't help. I found his attitude reflected in similar re ports from other sources. Most of these conditions to which my informant objected, of course stood out at the very beginning of j the coal strike with its powerful ' one-man-domination and its crippling crip-pling effect on other industries Another feeling registered by , many workers was fear of a depression. de-pression. They know that that would weaken the unions because many men would do as my friend said he would have to do forget the union and take any job he could get if work grew scarce. Predict Curbs on Autocratic Leaders Since many of the men who followed fol-lowed this line of reasoning helped make the Republican victory possible, pos-sible, astute political leaders, with their eyes on 1948, are preparing to atop the smash-the-union" talk and substitute for it the slogan "smash the autocratic leaders and keep them from smashing the union." The "friends of labor" that I mentioned men-tioned realize this. They are freely predicting that this congress will not produce "destructive labor legislation." They feel that such radical moves as compulsory arbitration or rigid government control will not succeed. suc-ceed. They do admit they expect many of the advantages labor has enjoyed under the Waener act will be pared down. When the President said at a White House press and radio conference con-ference that he intended to write as strong a message as possible to the congress, it was not interpreted as meaning that any anti-labor shackles would rise. Harry Truman's Tru-man's whole record in congress is distinctly conservative but not reactionary. re-actionary. On the other hand, he doesn't intend to approach the subject sub-ject from the New Deal point of view. As 1 pointed out previously In this column, he considers himself him-self a "free man," bound by no previous obligations, acting under no restraint. He could not escape the tenor of the vote in November nor could he ignore the gauntlet which John Lewis threw down. Looking around in the senate, the friends of labor feel they see evidence evi-dence of enough wisdom and discretion dis-cretion to prevent any labor-baiting orgy even if some of the members mem-bers of the house may lean to extremes. ex-tremes. After all, most legislation is written in conference. Although there was considerable concern expressed by their respective respec-tive opponents, both Senators Taft and Ball, who naturally would be ernment acquire a sharper awareness aware-ness of their separate and 1oint obligations to society all three will become like the dinosaurs which grew too big and stupid to survive The representatives of each, sitting around the collective bargaining table, ta-ble, must become more consciously conscious-ly than ever before trustees of other people's money, skills and aspirations. It is the committee's earnest belief that this change in moral and psychological climate ol collective bargaining is vital, necessary nec-essary and long overdue." That admonition, which went unheeded, un-heeded, was responsible in part for the temper of the people last November. Nn labor legislation offered of-fered by the present congress will stand long if it "includes the consumer con-sumer out." And if the consumer is protected protect-ed both management and labor are safe. NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS OF A COLl'M MST-COMM BNTATOB I will try to write and talk as i much like a human being as possible. I won't use any words on paper pa-per or on the air I don't use on the street car and I will be sure I know what the words I do use i mean. I will not talk or write down to my audience or up te my news sources. I will swallow my snorts and coughs and wheezes until I can signal the engineer to cut off the mike. I will read all my mail and answer it in person if a stamp is enclosed, or on the air or, if there is no other way, in spirit. |