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Show National Service Act Is Answer to War Disputes 'Too Many Cooks' Root of Labor Disputes; Pressure Groups, Individuals Unwilling To Lay Aside Financial Desires. By BAUKIIAGE Netvs Analyst and Commentator. f WNTJ Service, Union Trust Building, Washington, D. C. Why did the President order the army t take ever the railroads? You can get seven reasons from seven different presidential advisors. I won't repeat them. I will name three. First, the epitome of those the politically po-litically minded probably gave; it will be a good thing for 1944. That is the sum total of a number of conclusions con-clusions of the master minds who are advising concerning the political campaign which is ahead of us. There are two other reasons which some of the time-hardened officials in Washington offer (aside from the threat, real or fancied, to the war effort). ef-fort). These officials let the political stream flow over them. They are more interested in getting the particular par-ticular job assigned to them done than figuring out its political effects. Needless to say, they belong to that large, conscientious army which most people outside of Washington forget exists, an army of people wise or unwise in their judgments but beholden to no political party for their positions. These are the two probable reasons rea-sons they offered; first: The roads were seized as a threat against other industrialists whe might make trouble in accepting terms of future labor wage decisions, deci-sions, such demands for increases which can't be easily dodged (perhaps (per-haps just demands, perhaps not, depending on who holds the scales). Tha second reason offered is this: Simply because many of the President's Pres-ident's present labor advisors have had little or no experience in labor relations, in the methods of labor leaders. Misunderstanding There are a number of signs which might point to reason one as the one which turned the scales, but, like most of the other motivating forces k many of the recent labor decisions, deci-sions, they spring from the same soil as does reason two: misunderstanding misunder-standing of the methods of labor leaders. You will recall that William Green, A. F. of L. chieftain, when he made what since seems to have been an ill-starred attack on the Marshall statement that threats of strikes might prolong the war, stated stat-ed flatly that the railroad unions had never intended to strike. That statement isn't questioned in Bpite of the angry denials of the railroad union leaders. It is what you heard in every railroad office from every old time councilor and advisor in Washington before the roads 'vere taken over. Unfo-tunately, the whole situation is reminiscent of the conversation concerning the dog. The dog growled. The owner said, "Don't be frightened, I know he won't bite you." "But," replied his friend, "does the dog know it?" You see the friend had no understanding under-standing of dogs. If you had slipped into the White House on a certain day not long before the deadline for the strike eall of the so-called recalcitrant unions un-ions (enginemen and firemen, and conductors) had been reached, you too might have been alarmed. The onion representatives (I am told) were making a noise very much like a dog that is going to bite. Now the old timers were used to the noise. But the two gentlemen upon whom the President leans for advice in matters of stabilization involving wage and price boosts, Messrs. Byrnes and Vinson, were cot accustomed to the sound. They did not know that a labor leader's bark is often worse than his bite. ("There never was the faintest possibility of an actual walkout on the nation's railroads." William Green.) Messrs. Byrnes and Vinson believed be-lieved what they heard and it was plenty. That experience, I think I can say, is authentic. The labor leaders lead-ers emphatically and enthusiastically enthusiastical-ly threatened, Messrs. Vinson and Byrnes took the warning growl for a real threat. Others of the President's Presi-dent's council were convinced that there was excuse enough to do something which they thought would be advantageous for political reasons. And so finally, the man with the long cigarette holder, just back from the world battlefronts where "so-much-per-hour-per-day" wasn't the argument, but "so-many-lives-per-hour" was, where world maps wer being re-drawn, where America's at. titude and action was about to rewrite re-write history, became a little iro patient. The Action Date "We have come to the action date," said the President, "we have been talking here since Sunday. If you can't take action by agreement, I will have to take action by myself." my-self." He took it and he took the railroads. rail-roads. To say that Washington was not surprised would be to misjudge Washington. The root of the whole trouble in this and all the labor disputes has been that there were too many cooks. The trouble with the confusing confus-ing statements which come out of Washington is that there are too many cooks. And yet, we have that paradox that when there are Uifr many people handling war problems, prob-lems, the only cure so far has bee to substitute too few to pass thv buck to one man the President. Th answer to that is that one man simply cannot do it all. The war is too far away from us. We cannot lay aside our personal and natural desire to make as much money out of it as the next fellow. This has gone on from the beginning begin-ning employer, making his profits, essential labor demanding and getting get-ting his high wages, the farmer, his incentive, and then those who follow fol-low after, shouting, "you did it for them, do it for me!" ! Not one group is blameless, only ! those who have been unable to bring pressure, hesitated to do so. And, for the most part, each group sincerely sin-cerely believing that it was getting no more than its just due, the rest were the profiteers, the chiselers. The solution? At this writing, a National Service Act that will order who does what and for how much just as it is in the army. An Abiding Peace Common Senbe Treatment ' Books on the postwar world can almost be described as the only commodity of which there is now surplus production, but this is one "Towards anAbiding Peace" that can be taken seriously. R. M. Mac-Iver, Mac-Iver, professor in Columbia university, univer-sity, for one thing writes a clear, simple unprofessorial language; saying say-ing what he means directly and without with-out qualifications. He is for a world order but is too practical to believe you can have it by just writing a world constitution. constitu-tion. He wants a temporary peace which in a way carries on from the i war alliance, and then a second I stage in which we move to real international in-ternational control. Furthermore, he thinks that sooner or later our present enemies must be taken in unless we are going to let the third World war slowly fester. An international order is an international inter-national order to Mr. Maclver. There are no weasel words. Mr. Maclver has worked out his plans in some detail. There is a lot of common sense in "Towards an Abiding Peace" on a subject on which a good deal of pretentious philosophizing is being done. Bond-Selling Plan Rep. Richard P. Gale of Minnesota Minne-sota has a plan for increasing bond sales to individual citizens the sales which it is most important to make. He thinks h, is a cheap and easy way for the government to increase sales and interest in sales on the part of the average man. .Senator GufTey offered a similar plan. Periodically, at intervals noi grearer than three months, he would have the treasury make a drawing. And the person holding the winning number he would be a bondholder, of course, would get a prize of from a hundred to 25 thousand dollars. It wouldn't be a lottery because nobody could lose you would have your bond for the money you invested invest-ed and your bond would be your ticket. |