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Show | CO THE SEARCHLIGHT The Wolves Fight Nobody puts on mourning when the wolves fight among themselves. We can sit on the sidelines and cheer indiscriminately. In that spirit last week we attended a bull fight between the smelters and the gas company, refereed by the Public Service Commission. It seems that a few years ago Mountain Fuel Supply Company wanted to crowd the coal industry out of the smelters. It established a very low rate. The smelter lads pointed significantly to sub-normal prices for coal. In fact you couldn’t give coal away at that time. Brother Jules Roberts, gas company manager, saw the light. He lowered the rate and cabbaged onto the business. His net operating profit, before taxes, increased 18% a year. But as time went on the subtle Brother Jules saw another light—a light with pleasing radiations. He heard that the smelter boys were junking their coal equipment. His face beamed with soulful monopolistic satisfaction. He dreamed of a new cash register symphony in which the smelters, appropriately enough, were to supply the metallic notes. Jules may get $200,000 a year more from the smelters. After verifying the report of the coal equipment being dismantled, he notified the smelters that schedule 7—the ule—was to be.withdrawn. low-rate The coal now almost unobtainable cried out in anguish. Jules sched- smelters, with at any price, had_ stepped ruthlessly on their pocket nerve. They appealed to the Public Service Commission. However, that 18% increase in net operating profits per year looks like now is the appropriate time to move in with that long deferred gas tax the coal miners have been asking for. An Agricultural McCarthy The crafty tactics .of the Industrial Relations Council and its allies in keeping out of sight while it uses the Farm Bureau and the Deseret News, to malign the labor unions, should not pass unnoticed. The formal statement of political aims, issued by the Bureau ~afew days ago, hit at the status of Labor and suggested repressive legislation. That statement was only a bullet made by the Council and affiliated interests to be fired by the Farm Bureau. The Deseret concerns, backers The same of of News course, the crew and are the Industrial used to allied predatory organizers Relations operate and Council. through the late unlamented Associated Industries and the Tax Dodgers Association. Whatever plausible front they employ, their purpose is always the same—the destruction of collective bargaining. The Farm Bureau in Utah long ago became the mouthpiece and prey of designing politicians whose agricultural interest was limited largely to farming the farmers. They use the organization as a ladder with which to climb into public office, and to edge themselves into the inner circle of grasping corporations, in- dustrialists, and bankers. Clyde Edmonds, the gentleman who was handled so tenderly by the Tax Commission in a matter of traffic violations, has been a guiding spirit in organizing the Charlie McCarthy role for the Bureau. Tracy Welling, chair- man of the State Department of Agriculture, is also reported to have had his fingers in the pie. Tracy is a crony of Governor Maw, whose labor record has set a new high in wily runarounds. Selvoy Boyer is merely a me-to lad who is feeling his oats. There should never be any clash between real farmers and union workers. They should he united against the common exploiter. There ean be no possible benefit to the farmers if Labor is hamstrung and oppressed. But undoubtedly there would be fitting rewards for the farm-the-farmer guys. If the farmers are smart they will push up a little actual dirt farmer leadership to the surface, ignore farm and daily newspapers owned and operated by predatory interests, and unite with of the Labor for the better protection legitimate interests of both groups. |
