AFL Leader Presents a Program For Posf-War Jobs and Planning

...Will millions of Men walk the streets of America once more, as they did during the depression years ? That is very possible...

...Especially are such reserves essential to those concerns which have been devoting their whole or principal capacity to the war effort...

...These reserves are designed not only to provide employment by hastening post-war reconversion...

...Woll declares his faith in "free enterprise...

...And this problem will be perhaps one of the most serious that we shall have to face in the years that lie directly ahead...

...In its place came a trade war by predatory nations whose economic armament was as dangerous to American trade as their military armament wits menacing to world peace...

...The world depression in large areas, of trade broke down the old forms of competition between corporate industry and business conducted for individual profit...

...We believe Congress should give consideration to the encouragement of such post-war reserves In its pending tax program...

...We believe that the old practice common to government and business leaders, of preparing for emergency or depression through contraction should be changed to the dynamic ode of emphasis on planning for a constantly expanding economy...

...Fears for U. S. Work Standards T'HIS problem has ramifications...

...It shows that national planning—not governmental, but national planning— is desired by all income groups in approximately the same proportions...

...The chances are against repayment in gold...

...We shall be asking only for a belated adjustment of wage rales to productivity snd output...

...For example, decisions will be made between small and big business, between firms with union contractual relations and firms with non-union policies...

...In short, nearly 70 per cent of our adult population will be engaged in war-related work of one kind or another...

...The initisl moves to that end will provide transition to the normal work-week without reduction in weekly earnings...

...We must do so not out of any humanitarian impulse, but out of a sense of self-preservation,because we know by this time that chaos in Europe means international chaos...

...Arguments can be made for any of these types of agencies...

...It believes that the continued intrusion of government into affairs of business, management and labor will bring with it a still more rigid application of government controls, and a further pyramiding of government agencies...

...We believe that all employers should be specially authorised to create such reserves as will insure the payment of dismissal wages to their workers in the transition period between production for the war and production for civilian needs...

...The Naed for Dismissal Pay 11/E are pleased to note an increasing interest and tendency on the part of private industry to set aside or create post-war reserves...

...This problem of unemployment is basic in any consideration of the industrial and social difficulties inevitable during the period of post-war readjustment...

...From the point of view of Government, agriculture, labor, and industry alike, policies followed in the termination of war contracts and the disposal of Government property and surplus materials are of vital importance to the re-establishment of our...

...The Spectra of Unemployment WfHEN Pur flying fortresses cease their daily forays ' over enemy territory, when our tanks have rumbled on to their last victorious objective—what will be the state of the nation...

...We shall find ourselves dealing with countries in which foreign trade has become in whole or in part a state activity...

...In the years immediately before the war, American labor and industry were faced with remarkably aggressive forms of competition in both the domestic and foreign markets...

...labor's Views MATTHEW WOLL, vice-president of the Asser-fcan Federation of Labor, is one of the most articulate spokesmen of American Labor...

...In the post-war period the labor movement must be free to protect and . promote the welfare of wage earners...

...When the war is over, many European industries will be on the verge of bankruptcy, entire communities will be shattered...

...Even if we assume that 10,000,000 Americans will be required for temporary post-war military duties, such as international policing, and for the production of food and supplies necessary for international rehabilitation, and if we regard another 6,000,000 as temporary recruits to the industrial army who will go back to their homes or return to school after the war, we are still left with a staggering problem which will make the dislocations of 1919 seem simple by comparison...

...The American Federation'of Labor, in all the sixty-odd years of its existence, has subscribed wholeheartedly to the proposition that our economy and society can best function under a system of free enterprise...

...Yet he states that various social groups must plan for production and employment after the war, although he would deny government •ny large-scale role in that planning...

...However, we are not confident that reversal of existing controls would constitute the wisest program...

...There can be no sense of security on the, part of labor or industry, no ability to make plans, unless there are comprehensive policies which can be clearly understood and which represents the public interest, not merely some,, special interest or the whim of some branch of government...

...It will therefore be under no compulsion to respond to the needs of either employers or workers or farmers...

...Its debtor nations will be in no position to repay these loans in gold or its equivalent...

...Extreme economic nationalism was rampant, and the war in which we -are now engaged is its tragic result...

...We stand ready to offer industries union-management cooperation in the problems of production 'and the elimination of waste and inefficient procedures...

...These agencies should be handled by administrators with advisory boards composed of representatives of labor, industries, and farmers...

...there must be a vast continental program of rebuilding and rehabilitation...

...Reconversion is already in progress due to the /act that stockpiles in controlled materials have replaced shortages, so that orders limiting production are being modified...

...Policies determining these modifications will have lasting effects on the national economy...

...A recent sampling of opinion made for the National Planning Association, indicates quite clearly that post-war planning ia no longer the concern of a few individuals...

...and so on...

...advantages will be accorded one product as against another...

...And unless we are prepared to see Europe sink into the abyss of bankruptcy, civil war and chaos, we must extend aid to these' shattered economics...

...Dismissal wage payments have already been arranged for in a number of contracts between far-sighted employers and well organised units of workers...

...It is here that labor and industry must stand behind a national program of genuine social security which will make provision for increased education, vocational guidance, and other public, noncompetitive projects which will help absorb the shock of unemployment and at the same time help preserve our system of free enterprise...

...We realize that the danger of inflation will not end with the war, ami wo realize, too, how fatal to the workers' welfare is headloug inflation, wiping out values faster than they can be created...

...However, labor feels that the indispensable element in the program is an over-all policy board democratically composed of representatives of the various groups concerned in reconversion: employers, workers, agriculture, the Department of Labor, Commerce and Agriculture, the Federal Reserve Board, the U. S. Employment Service, the Social Security Board, and the procurement agencies...

...We concede that minimum post-war government controls will be necessary because of the interstate and international complexity of the problems which will confront us...

...Action on these matters concerns the civilian economy and should be handled by civilian agencies...

...We will advance additional ?inds for the rehabilitation of Europe's Industries and the rebuilding of its ruined cities...

...We have advanced * to Europe, and will continue to advance, funds for the prosecution of this war...

...By that time we shall have 12,000,000 men and women in the armed forces, approximately 33,000,000 in war industries, and 20,000,000 manufacturing and distributing consumers* goods and services...

...Collective bargaining must sgaln perform its function of assuring an increasingly equitable distribution of returns from joint production and joint work...

...Another and different labor viewpoint on these problems will be presented in these columns next week by Clinton Golden, CIO leader and vice-chairman of the War Production Beard...

...Special recovery and market provisions will be granted for soma firms as against other firms...

...Unless we do a little planning ourselves, we shall one day find that we, too, are living in a totalitarian, bureaucratic world paying lip-service to democracy...

...It is true that we shall draw the fangs of German, Italian and Japanese nationalism, but we shall still have othetvnationalisms to contend with...

...Even with full employment, it is estimated that we hsve still over 3,500,000 households (mostly aged persons, families without breadwinners, and the sick and disabled) who draw the major part of their Income from one or another of our social security programs...

...And while we often agree with what he says, we sometimes disagree—with his _ _ present article, we do not entirely agree...

...On this principle we are, however, certain— that a free labor movement las necessary concomitant of free industry...

...Our loans and our advances will return to us in the guise <jf a self-solicited com-v 'ition with American industry Obviously, therefore, if we need prot< '• ion from the dislocations which would follow Eur< 's complete failure to pay her debts to us, we are < rjually in need of protection from the consequen' * of payments which would tend to force us i'nun to European standards of living...

...I know of nothing so corrosive of the human spirit as public dependence on the whims and prejudice of bureaucrats without direct responsibility to the people...

...The, temptation to use controls to promote a special plun rather than to conserve free enterprise, will be most dangerous...

...Before the war, foreign trade was centralized and under strict control in Germany, Russia, Italy, Japan, and other states, There is no reason to believe that this system of state-controlled foreign trade will not spread to other countries of Europe and Asia...

...A comprehensive social security program would provide for a minimum flow of income which Would he a safeguard against the risk of Internal economic collapse...

...9 * Ait Over All Board of Economic Strategy /\UR wartime economy was brought into being through contracts let by the various war-procurement agencies on the production side, and through the Selective Service Administration on the manpower side...

...economy of free enterprise on a sound basis...

...As we return to a peacetime economy we reverse or modify controls, operating either through the same agencies in reverse, through the permanent government departments, or through new agencies...

...It is obvious that through any decline from full employment the number of these families will increase...

...Dictatorial control of government must inevitably lead to chaos and to wars of aggression...

...But-we must guard against encroachment by government upon those aspects of post-war planning which ntnst be the province of industry, labor, the farmer and the public...

...This standard will enable us to regain the social progress lost through the freezing of collective bargaining during the war...

...Equally vital to the economic health of our postwar world is the question of international trade...

...That hope cannot be fulfilled...

...and will help provide the,buying power to sustain production at the present national income levels...

...It calls for greater centralisation, greater bureaucratic usurpation of power, still more rigid controls for industry, and the conversion of labor unions into pawns of the various government bureaus...

...Many of the committees which have attacked it have expressed the hope that we shall have a post-war economy providing full employment...

...In the renegotiation of war contracts to eliminate unnecessary or excessive costs, there should be no interference with reserves necessary for conversion, retooling and the payment of dismissal wages...

...Farsighted plans for the relaxing of these controls in an orderly manner should be made, and made now...

...Obviously there is need for such an over-all board of economic strategy as labor is proposing if decisions are to be made clearing the way for free enterprise...

...However, merely because industry will be unable to employ all available manpower after the war, it does not follow that our workers must suffer the indignity of unemployment and dependence upon relief...

...This survey indicates unmistakably that the public wants cooperative national planning by business—including agriculture by labor, and by government...

...Bureaucratic planners have a chart all ready and waiting for us...

...This means an enormously expanded permanent bureaucracy which, in the nature of things, will be essentially undemocratic, being appointive and therefore beyond the salutary discipline exercised over elective officials by the voters...

...The policies approved by such an over-all policy board, as I have suggested, should constitute the framework within which the procurement agencies would cancel their contracts and the agencies disposing of government plants and materials would operate...

...It would be visionary to believe that economic nationalism will vanish overnight when the war is won...

...The people, the so-called men in the street, have their own ideas...

...With his emphasis on planning we agree, but we feel that unless there is coordinated large-scale planning, with the government balancing the economy where investment and public works are needed, then planning will fall...

...They are also designed in a number of instances, as recently stated by the general counsel and tax expert of the Treasury Department, for the payment of dismissal wages st the close of the war...

...But Mr...

...It is estimated that by 1945 we shall have 65,000,000 workers gainfully employed in the United States...

...We have seen in the past that ordinary import duties are in defense against an invasion of the domestic market by aggressive foreign industries...

...Competitive products of foreign countries should not be permitted entry into American markets in substantial quantities at total costs less thnn the American costs of production...

...Europe will owe us vast sums of money...

...Well's point of view Is important, for what he says sums ap the fears of the labor movement regarding the state and the post-war world...

...American Federation of Labor THE question what the world will be like after the * war is one that deeply agitates the American people...

...therefore, repayment will take the form of commodities—cheap imports of state-controlled products of sweated, forced or coolie labor...

...Certainly one of the flrst post-war steps that we shall have to take will be revision of the present anachronistic system of ad valorem tariffs...