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Show f WASHINGTON as heard and SMALL Smssd, IBUSINESS psssHip j..... ...t. . . . ... - . J,...,,J .tLJl " i z' I Horns of a Dilemma I The familiar chant of international inter-national communism was, and is "Workers of the world, unite, you have only your chains to lose." Those that heeded this siren call indeed found that they lost their chains, only to come under strict supervision by state police. Thus, it would be one of the weirdest paradoxes of this century cen-tury if the American worker, who through uniting in unions and thus forcing up prices, should be the biggest benefactor benefac-tor of the communist system. As is well known at the present pres-ent time there is a great drive in Washington to open up an even "freer trade" with the communist countries. A well known trade publication publica-tion recently quoted an eastern U.S. clothing manufacturer who has contracted for production pro-duction in Czechoslovakia saying say-ing "It's easier to do business with labor that's both low paid, and well disciplined." The key phrase there is "well disciplined" which is perhaps per-haps a more indirect way of saying that you can get more out of slave labor. From another quarter there are predictions that in two years the United States will be flooded with low-priced but well made clothing from China. Again, this is predicated on not only low paid labor, but well disciplined labor. Now just as long as this communist com-munist labor is low paid, it is going to be disciplined. Equally as obvious, it would seem, is the fact that this low paid disciplined communist labor is not going to be a market mar-ket in which American goods can be sold, and thus the balance bal-ance of trade deficit is going to worsen despite the steady depletion de-pletion of American natural resources in an attempt to offset off-set this deficit. The nation's independent business people, voting through the National Federation of Independent In-dependent Business, have long voted for legislation that would set taxes on imports on the differential between U.S. labor rates and those in the nation of import origin. Organized labor is fighting for higher tariffs, per se. Bat it would be much more productive produc-tive if labor joined with independent inde-pendent business people in a drive to establish the principle of tariffs tied to labor rates. After all, labor has as big a stake as anybody in the ability of people of other nations being able to buy American goods, but that can only be achieved with the communist bosses preferring pre-ferring to pay their workers more than paying high tariffs. If this is not accomplished, American free trade can only be a one way street, and a street leading away from I American well being. National Federation of Independent Business ! |