Labor Opens Drive for Wage Rises,Destruction of 'Little Steel' Formula
EVERETT, MURRAY
Labor Opens Drive for Wage Rises,Destruction of 'Little Steel' Formula Steel Workers, C/O Ask Rollback To Curb H. C. L By MURRAY EVERETT SpeeM to TfflC N«w Leads* WASHINGTON, tt C—The present...
...The action: Big-bosomed "Mama" Lewis is walking...
...A person with an I.Q...
...This week he acknowledged that the situation was now too hot for him to handle by damping the problem into the lap ef Economic Stabilization Director Fred Vinson, whose reactionary policies are mapped for him from the East Wing of the White - House by Director of War Mobilisation Jamea F. Byrnes, sometimes also referred ' to as the Assistant President...
...So, the steel workers have ¦chednksd a wM8 conference to demand increases for 909,909 workers covered by 1900 individual uwUtlata...
...That is another of his great crimes...
...We took the deficit out of the 4'/2 billion stockpile, so that now our stockpile is down to 2 billion yards...
...Daring the Air...
...Here As 194S draws to a close, there ia a greater demand for clothing and leas clothing available since the days when our colonial forefathers went around in homespun...
...There is a political angle to this story...
...Churchill U/INSTON CHURCH" ILL'S "report to the nation" this week was a measure of British confidence in the Allied victories and the prospect of imminent success of the democracies...
...That left us with a deficit of 2^ billion yards...
...which owns one-third of it, to be...
...Vinson...
...With demand climbing and production declining, therefore, the prospects for 1944 are worse than 1943...
...Butcher *Savl* stares at Mama Lewis quite unhappily...
...This was universally accepted as a "delaying action" to counter the move to scrap the wage foraaala...
...De Lorenzo is being slandered for a far more fundamental reason...
...A new recommendation which averages a T reata an hour increase was rejected by the unions because the "distribution of the increases wnsdd destroy the wage structure built ap ia the lest 40 years...
...The outlook for 1044 is considerably worse unless clothes rationing is instituted immediately, right now...
...This is best shown by the vicious methods that were employed by the Vinson Committee when Union-President Tom De Lorenzo was on the witness stand...
...There might be one or two mere world wars bet net a dozen...
...Industrial usees and the government teak 7 billion yards (the Army alone took 2 billion yards...
...Nelson never did see anything until he stubbed his toe over it" Voorhis Warns of Monopoly Growth, Asks Anti-Trust Laws Enforcement •y JEkKY VOORHIS Member of Congress One of the greatest problems that this war is going to leave with us after it has finally been won is the problem Of monopoly power...
...It will be argued, the prophets foresee, that the War Labor Beard's approval Of the coal mine contract started a general labor demand for higher wages, as a result of which the ceflrng had to be rifted on the Little Steel formula aad, therefore, inflation rssslted and caused all the woes on hand...
...While the railway unions were seeking to andn their demands through their legislative lobby, CIO was blanung Congress for obetnartte* food subsidies and ether attempts to roll back living costs...
...None other can protect their future...
...the msnaatarian, drat and later the aniveraatiea...
...dawelopmen and operation of thjs field is apparently the only other alternative If such a contract were anything like the original one, the advantages to the oil company and the possible loss to the American people would be enormous...
...So wrote Arthur Koeatler, distinguished European author, in the New York Times Magazine" last week, ia a long view of the violence and tragedy of the modern age— "The next decades will be a time of distress and ef gnashing of te*th...
...Some people who talk about "free enterprise" do not really PMan free enterprise ia the true sense...
...Associates strike in 1941, when a viciously anti-labor management was attempting to ran scabs into the plant, De Lorenae lay down ia front of a track loaded with strikebreakers and at the risk of his life prevented them from entering...
...This, the greatest oil reserve, so far as we know, that our Navy has or ever can have, ought to be managed as a true reserve...
...This resolution referred to the collective bargaining agreement made on August 7th by the anions and the earners providing for a wage increase of t cents an hour and declared that the contract Wm legal and binding under the Railway Tali Am and should be carried out...
...And this does not take into account what wfll be needed by LendLease to clothe our Allies and by the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration to clothe the liberated areas of Europe and Asia...
...In the past year clothing sales have gone up 40-50', on a yardage basis...
...Labor Opens Drive for Wage Rises,Destruction of 'Little Steel' Formula Steel Workers, C/O Ask Rollback To Curb H. C. L By MURRAY EVERETT SpeeM to TfflC N«w Leads* WASHINGTON, tt C—The present wage tnv passe is aptly illustrated by a Jerry Dey*e cartoon in the Philadelphia Record this week The scene: ft butcher shop and William H. Davis, WLB's chairman...
...If the labor-haters get away with this smear, next will be some other labor leader and some other labor union...
...The postscript is somewhat QtwhMe...
...TwoTJrSfifc&f&r&S"r^oflbwed...
...Reports this week of serious clothing shortages already developed in low-priced cotton clothes...
...Yoar correspondent ran into a whole slew of aervoas wrecks going around with fingers to their lips, saying: "Hush: Hush...
...During the past year we produced 13 billion linear yards of cloth—cotton, rayon and wool...
...This ia a Communist smear...
...are all the fault of labor...
...It was he who recently threw out a War Labor Board award of an hourly 55-cent minimum wage in the work glove industry (he thought, it too high), just as he is responsible for the threatened national railway strike because he threw out the mediation board's award of an eight-cent-an-hour raise for railway workers...
...The signing of a 'contract giving Standard Oil a monopoly of exploltftt^pn and...
...Exemption for any line of business from such anti-trust laws is an invitation on the part of Congress to that business to engage in monopolistic practices...
...operated under the terms of some sort of contract, or else the one-third holdings of the Standard Oil Co...
...The Vinson Committee, aided by a reactionary press, has sought to shape public opinion along anti-labor lines...
...1943, t lerela bat that prices are to he rolled hawk io September...
...That was one of his great crimes...
...nw^nrewwTnioTww cncnnwrn tuus iiee lo control the economic life of the American people...
...4Ma*L auto—and clothing- aad textiles and the whole labor movement are going to storm the WLB icebox to get their share of •meat" which Mia been denied for more than a year and a half...
...Bat what he means by ••necessary" doernt appear to be what the public would understand by tkat word...
...This week the Language Research Institute reported that "Basic English" aim- ( ply won't work...
...The contrast with conditions of work, hour and wage rates that now prevail far tremendous...
...Whiteside fakes refuge in the airy statement that elothing rationing can be instituted any time 'it seems necessary...
...365, UAW-CIO...
...Now...
...But the danger is not past of another contract being made which will pass the test of technical legality— which the original one did not—but which will deliver Elk Hills over to the Standard Oil's operation and control just the same...
...No other solution is fair to the American people...
...Newton, and Columbus, the age of scientific formulstion...
...Pacific island groups have been taught Basic English—then cornea an American to converse with them—bat it still sounds like nothing they know, not even an Hawaiian war chant The limited vocabulary of 859 words necessitates many meanings for each, "and the average person is incapable of distinguishing just what is meant" The Prime Minister made no statement on the setback, nor on the near-Dunqnerqe crisis which set in when it waa learned this week that the 850 words of Basic English vocabulary did net include two treat words—1) "Bask," and 2) "English...
...Comment Vs 'Scandal' Again , By JONATHAN STOUT WASHINGTON, D. C—On August 28—two 'gad a half months ago—this column reported: •The hottest issue inside the War Production Sotni right now is the question of clothes rationing...
...It will probably mark the end of oar historical era...
...Dialogue With History A WHOLE age is dying, and the war and peace ef ©or time are only events in an "interregnam...
...Perhaps the most virions smear is that peddled by Westbrook Pegler, who charges that De Lorenzo has an occupational deferment and therefore is a draft dodger...
...In the face of this prospect...
...They have gone up 100'i on a dollar basis...
...That simply cannot be done unless it belongs to the Navy—the whole of it...
...Theoretically this was supposed to bring wages to the price levels of May 1Mb...
...the period which began with Galileo...
...iViijinM^in in iumi iamdew i...
...Now he is a WPB vice-chairman wider Nelson, in charge of the Office of Civilian Requirements...
...I'm reporting this prophesy now, months ahead of time, because if, as, and when that propaganda starts rolling in 1944 readers of The New Leader might remember that It was reported here on Aug...
...which is mere familiar wHh the pane of Wall Street than ef Main Street...
...Vinson bears his share of the responsibility for this situation...
...Defeats...
...off happily with a big- leg of lamb marked "little steel formula" while the other customers in the shop, marked steel andean to, look on startled and envious...
...It is also a matter of fact that a man has the perfect right to change his name legally...
...Either the whole Elk Hills reserve can be turned over to the Standard Oil Co...
...De Lorenzo was the spearhead ef that drive...
...lack of honor or honesty or good faith on anyone's part...
...If demand, therefore, grows no greater in 1944 prospects indicate a shortage of a billion and a quarter yards of cloth...
...Moreover, there is the added thoroughly reprehensible fact that these accusations were either magnified or distorted by a press more interested in cheap sensationalism and laborbaiting than in fair play...
...The inquiry developed into a hot potato...
...Meanwhile the government stabilisation twTka* were seeking to head off labor drives for lacreased wages...
...As for the changes in De Lorenzo's income tax return, the important fact remains that he has paid a full return on every cent he ever made...
...Nelson still can't see it that way...
...This is why I believe that it is absolutely essential to the health of any line of business that the anti-trust laws pf the country be vigorously enforced with respect to that business...
...The committee members went all out in the job of smearing his character, making much of insignificant details which had absolutely nothing to do with the question of what has been wrong with Brewster airplane output...
...A {Treat to do has also been made concerning De Lorenzo's apathy towards the winning of the war...
...The age ef religions wars ended when secalar polities began to dominate...
...But it is obviously too late for that, and only a full report is now likely to move the nervous wrecks into doing the one sane thing that is left to do . . . that is, to mtion clothing...
...Chairman Dwvis of the War Labor Board asserted that the coal controversy had "greatly injured the policies of the WLB," although the WLB itaetf had precipitated the fourth general strike and approved almost the identical contract they had rejected the week previous...
...In the traditional Hitlerite fashion they hope to pick us off one by one until the trade union movement becomes an ineffectual shamble...
...Setbacks...
...This was the broadcloth consumption picture...
...The labor members of the board are pressing for immediate rationing ef clothing Nelson still can't see it that way...
...Oil in the ground is a gift of God to the American people—to the whole people...
...1943—two and a half months ago, and long before John L. Lewis won his technical kayo over the War Labor Board, that: » "The hottest issue inside the War Production Board right now is the question of clothes rationing...
...John L. Lewis laid aimed thunderous blows against the administration's wage policies—and succeeded...
...So far the severest pinch ia the clothing shortage has bean felt h? the mwiaceme grasps, ae rationing stiu doesn't seem "iTl IMS J" I Dsnn * Bredstreet...
...And these things did frfjMb waafly...
...To make things worse, clothing manufac' turers are either shifting out ef the low price lines and into the higher price (and 1 higher profit) lines, or they are deliberately keeping down production in the lew price lines...
...Meanwhile the chief aim will he create oases hi the inlerregnaa desert____ Is the so-called Dark Ages seen aasee assured the centtaaity ef civilization...
...In meet food itoans it haa rieea as high at SO to M per cent...
...De Lorenzo's position, like that of the union, is that the worker in this country has a most important, stake in this war, that we must win this war...
...1*41...
...Pegler, as usual, has his facts cockeyed...
...of the ascendance of reason over spirit . . . "As the frequency of the convnkdoaa increases, the amplitude ef their violence grows...
...De Lorenzo was subjected to a going-over which practically stands alone, in the history of hearings of this kind...
...This is tacitly recognised in the Preafcieaf*a raw- . back order which wenjd paah «i6aa haak ~ i» *? SopteaiWr...
...Elk Hills ought to belong, in to to, to the American people...
...His job is to protect the civilian public on Home Front problems...
...What are the reasonable prospects...
...But, then, Nelson never did see anything until he .stubbed his toe over it...
...One of the most nervous guys in Washington ia Arthur D. Whiteside...
...the point ef exhaustion has cease within almost measurable range...
...We shall live in the hollow of the historical wave .. . [bat] the day is not far when the present interregnum will end and a new horizontal ferment will arise...
...can be purchased by the Navy which owns the two-thirds, and the whole field made into to* real oil reserve it ought to be and which Congress intended it to be...
...of less than 129, apparently, cannot use it successfully...
...j A special emergency investigating heard gave the railway workers an i-eents an hoar increase, instead of the 20 cents rtnrBe.nda.il...
...For that is the only way it can protect the oil it already owns voder its own land...
...But OPA is powerless to institute rationing until it is ordered by WPB— which means okayed by Byrnes...
...Out of about six million machines, it is estimated four million at present are idle despite the fact that the industry is...
...Don't even whisper or you'll start a landslide...
...What they actually mean is "freedom" for huge aggregations ef financial and industrial power to eliminate at will all competition in their line of x J y...
...Towards the end of the week...
...The oil industry is another one where the danger of increasing monopoly in the future is most real...
...And as monopoly practices arise some kind of public regulation becomes absolutely necessary...
...Acute observers here already see coming the propaganda in 1944 that clothing shortages, clothes hoarding, higher prices, etc...
...An example of that situation is in the workglove industry...
...A general condition of full employ men I is prompting a constantly rising demand as the public finds it possible to climb out of the category of what the President used to refer to as the "one-third ill-clothed...
...children's wear and work clothes, suggested another inquiry into the subject of clothing rationing might • be appropriate...
...The new movement will re-ewtabUsh the disturbed balance between rational add spirltaal vahaea, . . "In 1917 Utopia aeeaaed at hand...
...either the wage policies are revised, or the country will see a wave of spontaneous strikes foe—a by workers who see their pay envelopes thinning as prices inch up...
...We used up 16'/2 brfiion yards, which pat us 2</2 billion yards in the hole...
...y Well, we always liked Esperanto...
...They Involved a tremendonr aaafawt of sacrifice...
...What is the "Little Steel Formula 7" The wage policies of the Administration are baaed on a formula—called the "Little Steel ftorwala," the agreement that set the pattern-'which permits a IS percent wage .increase ever the 1 seals of January 1*41...
...The intelligent handling of shoe rationing before shortages and runs got out of hand is pointed to as an example...
...The labor members of the board are press ins for immediate rationing of clothing...
...but was overruled by Judge Vinson...
...Today it is psstpsnsd far the deration ef the interregnum...
...ouUisea...
...This is why I have spoken out in opposition to bills presented to Congress to exempt the fire insurance companies from the application of the anji-trust laws...
...Bat labor poiaU eat that the cast af Uv¦eg kas risen Ur above li pea cent erar January...
...He is symbolic of the labor leader whp gets things done, who fights for the man nt tike shop and has the ability to get these threes- which the man needs and deserves...
...This is the view of the leading officials of CIO...
...while other anions in CIO will take their cue from steel and press wage danaWIJhi too...
...Fen del politics ended when economic factors aaaasaed overriding importance: the straggles ef •canonic man will end by the emergence ef the new ethical vahsee af the new age...
...The Jrwtrage rate of pay was about 60 cents aa hour, the company played favorites, men could be fired almost at will, seniority was a ward in Webster's dictionary—the entire contract was al most as meaningless as a- piece of paper...
...In order to win such a war, we must be prepared at all times to beat back the attacks of our own native fascists...
...De Lorenzo has never sought a deferment nor will he seek one...
...short about five million pairs of work gloves on Navy contracts...
...And the whole reserve would be subject to the chance that a long succession of Secretaries of the Navy would be wise, resourceful, and incorruptible enough to keep abreast of one ef the two or three tightest, most powerful organisations of any sort — political, military, religions, or industrial—that the world has ever seen...
...De Lorenzo is an individual keenly interested in seeing that the worker in this country gets a weekly wage in keeping with a decent living level...
...The Vinson Committee is playing its real role with a tremendous amount of success...
...Fortunately, at the start of the year we had a stockpile inventory of 4'/j blihon yards built up through previous years...
...It has made a secondary consideration the real and vital problem of Brewster prod action...
...Before he was loaned to the government he was president of Dun A Bradstreet...
...But one thing was omitted—the progress of the campaign for "Basic English" which he opened several months ago here •t Harvard...
...an irresistible global meed, a spiritual springtide like early Christianity or the Renaissance...
...Uke an n list, staircase...
...Since 1939 it has never been under 4'/2 billion yards...
...And the conclusion that the vicious attack was deliberate and intended for no other purpose than that of smearing Labor, is indicated by the fact that since Henry Kaiser took over, the planes are rolling from the production lines...
...1 -Whatever Vinson may decide to do about it, the outlook does not appear promising, because the government officials in charge of this problem are still playing around at 11:55 p. m. with ideas on how to avoid clothes rationing...
...And I believe Congress ougty to require such a policy to be followed...
...As a combined result of ell these pressures, a clothing shortage already is on hand, and still there is no sign of clothes rationing...
...The CIO meeting in convention has pdbhtsty stated that the "Little Steel Formula" mast a*: several weeks before, the WLB had been the subject of sharp attacks by the American Federation of Labor convention...
...en which mm gondaimt could set feet . . . "We can discern in the past a •accession ef la vela ef seesal ewer in ass...
...The broad picture is that we are using up more cloth than we are producing, and the graph of production is downward...
...De Lorenzo was accused of having tocited to riot Here are the facts on that score...
...Gloom...
...He is one of those puissant advisers Of Donald Nelson who...
...This is one of the reasons I have kept up a kind of running fight to prevent the great Naval oil reserve at Elk Hills from failing j^tofon^ol of the Standard 01] Company...
...Determining what has held up production at Brewster aircraft plants obviously is not the motivating factor in the hearings being conducted...
...judging the matter as be was able to do on the basis of his own experience...
...aad werae still If Election Dey next November tarns est te he a eels day...
...The motivating factor is the smearing of Local 365 in particular, and through that, the labor movement in general...
...Private monopoly has been strengthened, not weakened, as a result of the war...
...The civilian population used up &}/> billion yards...
...I do not do so now...
...There are a lot of people who hate that kind ef a guy...
...AH wage demands are figured against tenvmjpe levels prevailing in January, 1941, and if mote than IS percent higher than that figopa, Mf* matically denied...
...But even if 1944 by some miracle should not be worse than 1943 (and rationing is the only thing that, can produce such a miracle), the fact that our stockpile is down to 2 billion yards means that in 1944 we will run short 500.000.000 yards of cloth And government experts estimate that 1944 production will be lower than this year's by 750.000.000 yards...
...Bat, then...
...WveL (It fcf ea*y a minor injustice of eearae that the Linda Steel fersaala pegs wages at May...
...If there is anything still to be gained or saved by keeping quiet at this point, I might be blackmailed into silence...
...The President named a frra snail War Labor Board committee to report ia ft days on the cost of living ia the country...
...1*42—if they can be relied back...
...That is the situation up to the moment And, frankly, that is far from being the blackest part of the picture...
...De Lorenzo is not in the Army because he is a married man with three children and his draft status is 3A...
...gas so far fought successfully against labor's demands for clothes rationing...
...Behind the De Lorenzo "Scandal" By GABRIEL DE ANGELIS Educational Director, Aircraft Local No...
...The communiques there don't' read so well...
...Swam people might call that "inciting to riot" We call it having a lot of guts and acting as a real labor man...
...This formula ia nwjflB til the President's hold-the-line order of April 8, 1943...
...sacrifice that Tom never tired of making— long hours away from his home, endless negotiations with management which for the most part were unfriendly, the neglecting of social life and the inability to take many offers of jobs at much higher pay than he is now earning...
...A new wrinkle in an effort to bypass the administrative checks on wage inrrsaaes was thought up by the railway workers when Senator Harry Truman introduced a Got if toe sional resolution which would fire the railway workers their demands...
...Neleon and Whiteside, all of whom are primarily interested in manufacturers' problems and not in consumer problems...
...The Navy ought to purchase, by condemnation if necessary, the holdings of Standard Oil in that field...
...That De Lorenzo haa been successful, no one can deny...
...The reason behind that is the fear that foil prdduction would require paying higher wages, and the manufacturers don't want the end of the war to leare them with . a high wage industry on their hands...
...He took over active leadership of the local three years ago, Umpn old-timers remember what wages and working conditions were in those days...
...Which leaves us in a serious situation, because onr stockpile usually runs from 4'/i to 5^ billion yards at the start of each year...
...OPA experts agree that the danger of praine-fire buying and hoarding is so great that clothes rationing should have been instituted months ago...
...After I made my speech on this subject in the House, another Western member who has been a topflight insurance executive for many years came and told me that I was absolutely right in the position which I had taken and that my speech on the whole was rathe* too conservative and reserved to suit him...
...But he...
...How many persons who have driven cars haven't gotten at least several tickets in ten years of driving...
...as' well as the union, recognises that shtoiy in itself is a meaningless thing if we cannot insure the continuance of the democratic process at home...
...ths minute...
...Manpower problems are only draining off clothing workers into the Army, but also into higher-paying war industries, so that the battle of production in clothing is constantly in retreat...
...Let us plant oases...
...1*42...
...The question of De Lorenzo's real name, the number of tickets he received for minor traffic violations, the fact that he once was in the wine business, the revelation that he made changes in his income tax to conform to his changed name, the charge that he was arrested for inciting to riot—all these have absolutely nothing to do with the expressed desire of the committee to get the planes rolling from the production line...
...tee, Aad It wfll he hatefsstiag te watt* ¦ Vinson try to awarrm off the bet spat af the political cu—leaoatts If the voters fad it necessary te go te the psHs ia 1944 ia rags aad patches...
Vol. 26 • November 1943 • No. 46
