Show Labor Is Country's 1 Defense Problem Labor Leaders Appear to Be Working on Bog or Principle The President's address to the International Labor which was attended by delegates from some 35 was not as direct and as aggressive as' some had In language very similar that he has used in the he again condemned what he termed the misguided few in the ranks of industry and labor place personal above the welfare of the na- Perhaps the most telling sentence was that in which he spoke of those who use the established machinery for the mediation of industrial That certainly fits a good many labor leaders these A great many authorities are convinced that labor is this country's Number 1 defense problem Cases where Industry has refused to cooperate with the government and accept the findings of arbitration are few and Cases where la-bor has taken that attitude arc many and It is probably true that the of workers are willing and eager to do their share and accept But the fact remains that a number of labor leaders in key positions are working on the hog or principle and seem to think nothing ot virtually defying the government unless they get their own These leaders are in a position to call strikes which could bring the defense program to an Strike Causes It should be kept in thai the majority ot recent important labor disputes have not con questions of working conditions or working In some Instances they have simp ly been disputes between the unions A. F. of L. as a may refuse to handle lumber cut by C. I. O. and vice The strike which delayed production for some time in a factory making transmissions for trucks and other military was of this Other strikes have revolved around the closed shop There is no question but what the big labor leaders have goal a per cent union shop a shop where no man cau hold a job unless he joins ana pays dues to a Strikes have been or in plants which pay the scale or simply because non-union men were along with union All indicates that the is overwhelmingly Ilm posed to a closed the latest Uni Gallup for showed WL that those queried were more than 70 per cent against but W the union drive to achieve It b pom steadily Biggest Trouble ML Biggest labor trouble yet is the threatened strike of railroad on- M crating In this case a question of wages was M The union made demands for a 30 per cent blanket wage in- according to the sK would have meant an additional wage cost of a The labor man disputed and placed cost at Whichever t figure is the financial cost to the carriers would be several times as great as their total net income in any late It would be substantially greater than their i anticipated net profit for 1941 I which is a year of abnormally 5 0 high earnings due to the vast vol- ume of defense shipments i ft The President the T strike by submitting the contro- versy to an emergency arbitration m board made up of men with solid M reputations for fairness and in- W in labor mediation m The board gave the unions an in- crease of 7 per it w is would cost the rail- roads a The J carriers at once accepted findings even their spokes men said they regarded the in- crease as an exceedingly heavy burden on the One day later the leaders of the five operating r railway brotherhoods the plan and for a f nation-wide railroad strike begin- fi j ning December ft I Tie up Industry I Anyone can imagine what such fW a strike would do to this coun- I Transportation is the very backbone of to say noth- ing of normal trade and com- fly all the thousand and one things which jg are for arms could not be Key muni- V i airplane and tank factories i j. obtain their raw materials from other plants hundreds and ands of miles No other s kind of carrier is in a position to e transport more than a fractional J. part of this gigantic If the K railroads national defense ft We will know soon what is to L No other strike of such P and such infinite im- v. has been is Here is a case where the leaders 7 5 of already highly paid key r workers in an absolutely basic industry have refused a hand- some wage increase made by an it official board which no one could Z accuse of being The i labor issue moves swiftly on to the climatic |