Show war labor board faed faced with rising pressure long buffeted agency may be swept aside by flood of new cases after collapse of nazis by BAUKHAGE news analyst and commentator service union trust building washington D C the lid ild Is boffl four days before election the ticker jammed with campaign speeches paused long enough to announce the strike ol of the M mechanics chan educational society in 20 detroit plan plants Is there been much r strike news for or some time and this item stuck out like a sore thumb the reason there had not been much strike news was not because th there ere were not plenty of strikes th three ree wee weeks ks before election they were w ere bobbing up at the rate of a month 10 a day were being re ported to conciliatory conciliators concilia concIlla tors in the labor department and that include I 1 the he strikes against the decisions of the he national war labor board itself the th e reason why this bulge in the w walkout walk alk ou out t record in front of the reading publics nose was because both parties were taking particular care not to say anything that m might look as it it were criticism of a kind that would alienate the labor vote now as I 1 remarked the lid Is off but this is only a sample of f what go Is going to happen when germany ermany collapses washington expects when that otherwise happy day comes it win will have to face the job of damming a veritable flood of labor problems and that flood many of the insiders believe will inundate the iho labor board and probably have the effect of sweeping it into the discard two things badly threaten the boards future one was the private walkout ival kout of the members who simply announced they would not sit in on any decisions on wage wag e raises until the board had handed down a decision de islon on the little steel wage a formula c that was one blow any decision on little steel itself itsel f will be another the board knows it is facing a dilemma on that subject although decision in favor of little steel that is breaking the wage ceiling and giving the steel workers an increase to meet what the unions declare Is a rise in the standard of living would satisfy the steel workers it would start stait a whole teries series of demands for increases in other fields if on the other hand the board refused to adjust the little steel formula upward it would have to face a strike in the great steel industry that dilemma Is gruesome enough but not too far away is another problem which will arise when germany collapses and the government rn ent war contracts are sharply cut back when this happens there are a cumber of companies which are tailed ity fly by night by some labor officials because their only reason tor for income is from war orders and their chief reason for existence Is the part they play in the war effort a part which will not have to be played when germany quits in any case it is freely predicted that there will be strikes in these plants encouraged aided and abetted by the employers in the hope that their factories will be seized by the government ern ment they may have no further excuse for functioning but there is a possibility that it if the government takes them over they can collect something Bom ething through damage suits thereafter this creates a very difficult problem As you know when the war labor board hands down a decision dec sion its function ends there is n no 0 legal means of enforcing this decision and if it is not complied with the only recourse of the board is to pass the buck to the white house if an appeal from that source proves futile the government has to take over the plant now already the caution has been sounded to the board to be very circumspect cum curn hereafter in passing the buck to the white house in such cases this is the reason if the white house accepts all of these employer encouraged strikes and the government takes them over it may find itself owning hoards of useless businesses and f facing cing years of litigation if on the other hand the white house refuses to act the board milk and its products comprise over 25 per cent of the 1700 pounds pound of food consumed annually by the average american figures show the british radio says that germany is now two million tons short of grain and nd that the imminent v loss of Hu hungarian imports will r make ake a further cut in the bread ration un a avoidable addable j loses its prestige and since it has no legal right of enforcement it loses its influence all of which caused many old timers to predict months ago that no matter who was elected in november the sands ot of the war labor board were rapidly running out suggest postwar control of enemy what shall we do with germany and japan who Is we I 1 have looked over a sheaf ot of books and pamphlets listened to radio broadcasts including one by the number one ger manhalter man hater and several apologies ol of the who think all we need to do Is to kiss and make up if I 1 am part of that we I 1 must say that part of ua us is pretty confused there have been many negative arguments offered to propositions proposed there have been many bold and conflicting affirmative statements I 1 know you have to have a negative and an affirmative argument to make a good debate and that is why I 1 am glad to see two men sit down and produce a document r tripped stripped of all emotion based on hard cold facts put tog together ether scientifically til which knocks down and builds up too one of the authors is a scholar a man who has devoted most of his life to long cold analytical studies the other la is a man who has an engineering education as a foundation and a successful industrial career as a background the booklet comprises only pages succinctly summarized written in simple straightforward straight forward language like the title which is the control of germany and japan the authors are harold G moulton a trained economist head of the brookings institution a non parti san scientific research organization and louis maglio a french french businessman who has constructed half a dozen industrial plants in europe served on committees of the league of nations this is a book which everyone ought to read briefly the plan it offers is military control not complete or permanent occupation with supplemental economic devices this would involve disarmament of enemy countries with maintenance of substantial allied armed forces at key points only as a last resort otherwise withdrawal of military forces as soon as possible and the use of a system of detection to learn of violations of conditions and punitive measures if necessary the united states say the authors is faced wi with th two plain objectives either to loin join with a group of nations in a collective program tor for preventing german and japanese rearmament and in general developing a universal collective security system or to rely on an independent defense system adequate to preserve its freedom and they conclude that only by the first means can this country hope to maintain its national independence pen dence or to preserve Its system of free enterprise since everybody even the gansit ts who represent the extreme english supporters of a punitive peace against germany agree that the peace must be such that it will work best tor for the whole world the moulton karllo which holds stron strongly g to this tenet Is interesting I 1 have had many requests concerning the return of war prisoners when germany collapses so has the red cross this is what it says the military authorities of course are looking forward to the protection of the men as soon coon as they can be reached in germany but the red cross will assist the military authorities in every way possible for this purpose a special representative of the american red cross has been assigned to work with the militar y authorities in europe and with other red cross organizations there which are n no 0 less concerned about the welfare of their nationals the stocks of standard prisoner ot of war packages amount to over B BRIEFS R I 1 E F S by baukhage the production of parts for the or renovation of used auto malic phonographs and used amuse ment or gaming machines is again permitted hitler has ordered the resumption of the award of a german defensive rampart badge to construction st workers on frantl frontier r io cat ions 1 |