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Show THE AMERICAN WAY WSl THE KERNEL $Jl OF THE NUT W'- By Georg Pb-i ( Who wins a strike the workers, the employer, the general gen-eral public, or' all three? The answer is that when all the returns re-turns are in and you add up the score, all parties lose. If the workers succeed in securing se-curing a raise in wages as the result of a strike, it would seem to be a victory for them. But is it? Figure out how many months, perhaps years, it will lake them to recover, even at the increased rate of pay, the wages lost while they went payless during the progress of the strike. If the employer holds fast and the workers finally are forced to return to work, without having hav-ing been accorded a raise in' wnfTPs at first, hlnch that ;nitlH look like a victory for the boss. But is it? Take into account the bad feeling and bitterness engendered en-gendered by the quarrel; plus the fact that the employer now has in his employ a group of disgruntled dis-gruntled workers. It is no secret that a dissatisfied employee is not an efficient worker. Most certainly the general public does not win, whether the strike is settled in favor of the workers, or the employer, or is a compromise. Loss of production produc-tion while the workers are idle creates scarcities and higher prices. If the workers gain a raise in wages, the public, in the final analysis, pays the raise, not the employer. If the workers return to work without a pay boost, as aforesaid, their production produc-tion falls off, and smaller production pro-duction means higher prices to the consuming public. Yes, no matter how the strike is settled, both parties to the quarrel lose and the innocent bystander, by-stander, John Q. Public, takes it "on the chin" along with them. THE QUARREL Under a great tree in the woods, two boys saw a fine, large nut, and both ran to get it. James got to it first, and picked pick-ed it up. "It is mine." said John, "for I was the first to see it." No, it is mine," said James, "for I was the first to pick it up." Thus, they at once began to quarrel about the nut. As they could not agree whose it should be, they called an older boy, and asked him. The older boy said, "I will settle this quarrel." He took the nut, and broke the shell. He then took out the kernel, and divided the shell into in-to two parts, as nearly equal as he could. "This half of the shell," said he, "belongs to the boy who first saw the nut. "And. this half belongs to the boy who picked it up. "The kernel of the nut. I shall keep as my pay for settling the quarrel. "This is the way," said he laughing, "in which quarrels are very apt to end." That's exactly what happens when labor and management fail to resolve their differences in peaceful and orderly fashion each winds up holding a hollow piece of shell neither gets any of the kernel of the nut. The little story told above is but one of the hundreds of nuggets nug-gets of wisdom to Be found in McGuffey's Readers. If you would like to know where you can procure a set of these marvelous mar-velous textbooks and the price of same, write me in care of this newspaper. A set of these books should be in every American Amer-ican home. |