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Show 'Washington. It is undoubtedly J" of the fundamental foundation stones of demo- he People cratic government x I Lose that where a civic " right or privilege accorded, thn persons who are snted those rights necessarily v ,ve some duty to perform under fjse rights. It is well established, - - example, that workers may or-mze or-mze into unions; that those ions have the right to bargain 4 llectively, which means that a v mmittee representing the mem-"rs mem-"rs of that union may speak for it dealing with the employers, and j is a right undoubtedly of unions """call its members away from work strike. I think there can be no ""bate concerning these three 3rrit'emises. But since these rights t 0five been granted to workers and j(j0;cepted by them on the same in-ienable in-ienable basi. as the right to vote, e obligations that go with these ghts necessarily have been accept-TQi accept-TQi by the workers. We have just seen a settlement ""J one of the great strikes of this cade and the return of more than le hundred thousand workers to ,ie plants of the General Motors prporation. Immediately after governor Murphy of Michigan had mounced that General Motors and ohn L. Lewis and his Committee -r Industrial Organization had ached an agreement, efforts fkrged and swelled in a movement V' the part of each side to claim 'ictory in the settlement. From all Purees I have been able to tap, torn every trustworthy observer of tional affairs, I have obtained vir-jally vir-jally the same story about the Gen-J Gen-J ral Motors C. I. O. strike settle-lent. settle-lent. As far as I can see after Agesting all of the opinions within :- reach, it seems to me that "either General Motors nor John L. rewis won. What is much more im-ortant im-ortant is that the American people jst by that strike and they are in fair way to lose much more. The General Motors strike was Nne of the costliest in history. I am "Sld that the workers alone lost naomething like one hundred million lrn.ollars in wages, and, of course, 'he stockholders of General Motors w.kewise lost because during all ' v,(iose days, forty-four of them, that ""he plants were closed, no new cars loved into. trade, That means that 'J ,,-tne xiiuus.tds of dealers and ,la'alesmen of General Motors auto-JI"iobiles auto-JI"iobiles earned no income. Y. The truth about the settlement Pieems to be that each side was willing will-ing near the end Truth About to accept Gover-Settlement Gover-Settlement nor Murphy's proposition for settlement as a face saving proposal. pro-posal. It is undoubtedly true that ijlohn L. Lewis would have been ''Sunk without a trace and his move-- move-- oient to break up the American "Federation of Labor and take con-Irol con-Irol of labor for himself would have been utterly ruined had there not 'been some concessions by the Gen-fcral Gen-fcral Motors officials. He apparently .attempted to break up the A. F. of ' ii. before he had sufficient union .jmen weaned away from the parent organization and that is the reason 'Xvhy his position in the General 'Motors strike was so precarious . Worn his personal standpoint. tors again will be the goat and the public will pay. I have been wondering whether many people recognize how they are going to pay for the cost of this strike. I have mentioned ways in which they have lost by it and it seems equally clear that when the Lewis unions get through with th3 use of force, it is likely to bring about an increase in the cost of the automobiles they produce. It is likely like-ly to go further than just automobiles. automo-biles. There is a move on now to attempt something of the same sort of labor attack on the steel manufacturers. manu-facturers. If that materializes, it h easy to see how widespread the increased costs will be and how consumers will pay in the end. This may seem to be an argument argu-ment against increased wages. It may seem to be a defense of steel boots that used to be worn by industrialists in-dustrialists and with which they trod upon defenseless labor. But it resolves itself into a question of justice and a consideration of the problem as it concerns consumers as well as workers. If there is anything in the theory that labor is entitled to a fair wage, there must be likewise some merit in the contention that the public which consumes the product of labor is entitled to an equal amount of consideration. con-sideration. Political leaders have been quick at all times in recent years to sit astride the neck Federal 0f business, es-Charters es-Charters pecially big business. busi-ness. Corporations were held up as something to be despised, especially if they were large corporations. Lately there has been quite a definite movement for legislation in congress that would force corporations to have federal charters; that is, charters issued by the government at Washington which, therefore, could control such corporations with whatever regulations regula-tions were deemed necessary. This legislation, it is true, has not approached ap-proached the stage wherj a prediction pre-diction of its passage can be made. The point is, however, that it represents rep-resents the thoughts of a certain percentage of the people. The question ques-tion of legality of such a statute obviously remains to be determined but it is to be noted that this proposition prop-osition is simply another step in the movement to cast a stigma upon business, a move to make business appear immoral or criminal or generally gen-erally infamous. Business has found it advantageous advan-tageous to incorporate. It removes certain responsibilities from the individuals in-dividuals joining in a corporation and adds certain commitments at the same time. Here again are the rights and counter obligations arising aris-ing with those rights and I think no one can dispute the fact that our nation has moved forward more rapidly because of the use of the corporation as a business entity. But I have been unable to find an answer to the question why the federal government should take control by law of business corporations corpora-tions without at the same time taking tak-ing control of labor organizations. Now, it is to be noted that labor unions have steadfastly avoided taking the step of incorporation. It is not true abroad where many labor la-bor organizations hold corporate ' On the other hand, it is quite evident evi-dent as well that General Motors was forced into a position where it had to make concessions or be charged by the federal government with responsibility for bloodshed and destruction of property in ; riots. Governor Murphy acted ; throughout the strike negotiations under the (lag of President Eoose-ili Eoose-ili vclt, saying his movements were aj at the wish of the President. Gen-a! Gen-a! eral Motors did not dare attempt . to run counter to the President's commands because it could not withstand public sentiment that " could and probably would be built up against it should it be publicly criticized by the President. And to support my statement that i the settlement is a face saving ' agreement and that neither side : won in it, it is necessary only to : consider that this agreement will j run just six months. It contains ; no elements of permanency nor ; docs it show any signs of a basic : understanding which will swing pub-i pub-i lie sentiment to the Lewis faction j ot organized labor as distinguished from the American Federation of Labor. Thus, there are many observers who feel that another crisis will . arise along about Another the first of July Crisis and that in the meantime W i 1-liam 1-liam Green, President of the American Amer-ican Federation of Labor, will have built up a considerable amount of strength on his side of the factional fight. What the future holds, therefore, there-fore, is difficult to guess. It can be said only that in the recent strike and in the controversy that seems certain to lie ahead, General Mo- .V , charters just as would a business enterprise. The fact that labor unions have not incorporated leads one to the presumption that the unions have felt such a step would hamper their activities. And, indeed, it might. For example, there have been scores of instances where labor unions, through their authorized officials offi-cials or bargaining committees, have signed wage contracts with their employers only to ditch that contract subsequently without regard re-gard for its binding force. As labor unions are now organized, or-ganized, they are very loosely knit associations and there is nothing by which the individual members are bound except their own will to perform. per-form. In the case of a business corporation, for example, the stockholders stock-holders have invested money and obviously when the corporation is sued in court or accumulates any kind of liability the stockholders money in the corporation is available avail-able to pay whatever obligations develop. Hence, the lack of a corporate cor-porate organization on the part of a union removes all responsibility insofar as law is concerned from the unit into which the workers have organized themselves. The point is, after all, that the General Motors strike has demonstrated demon-strated beyond the peradyenture ol a doubt that the national labor policies pol-icies are utterly ineffectual and contain con-tain no consideration for the consuming con-suming public. Labor, as represented represent-ed by the John L. Lewis faction, has shown its willingness to back its demands with force in disregard oi law an . it has failed to answer the responsibilities which it seems to me accompany the rights and privileges priv-ileges the nation accords it. Western Newspaper Unon. |