On SEnse
On SEnse *Kj)fdne was now 60, and due for a little peace, you y* reasonably expect, in his remaining yours. But BgfceM his habit .of living in the future stood in sat>. 1 believe that Tom Paine's...
...In his youth ' Joe waif an oiler in the navy nisi a featherweight I boxer...
...Golden's pas sion i»for advancing the cause of "union-manage merit" Cooperation in the mills...
...Wiiy not...
...lucid exposition of this unchurchly faith was a liability...
...With the conventional idea of steel, the great "prince and pauper" industry, in mind, it doesn't seem to make much sense The steel market has always been variuble, uncertain...
...he has an Irish "the I hell-with-it" air, and his talk bristles with such i vivid phrases as "he doesn't know any more alMiut ¦ steel than a hog knows from Sunday...
...No doubt there are many liugs in the proposal for au annual wage...
...7 dent Jeffefitoti providing a warship so that he "might net ne intercepted by the British...
...But the more one thinks of tin idea of an annual wage, the more enticing it seem...
...Hut Golden, whose early labor activity was with the Amalgamated Clothing Workers, does not know steel making ns native steel country Is.ys know it...
...It therefore continued after the applause died sewn...
...For four years he sat at his ledgers, figuring steel production and sales processes in terms of dollars, dimes and pen nies...
...Not only, the Fundamentalists pounced on Tom Paine, but the counter ievolution too...
...As things stand now, a steel worker spends when he is getting good money...
...there woubi have to,lie, u good deal of production of billets, blooms and ignots for the warehouse...
...1 Packing Company has also pairl an annual wage in the past...
...He wss sixty five and no longer well He was welcomed with a deafening noise in the press, platform, pulpit, all ths wsy from Maine to Georgia...
...But if other industries were to get the idea—the automobile industry, the railroad industry, the electrical equipment industry— "the reHult Wf ironing out...
...The Founder of American Independence was denied J"6 right to vote in his home town of New Rochelle on the ground that he was not an American citizen...
...And of course to those interested jpjSrgsniitrd mlifinn it waa far more terrifying than -if the amh«i haul been an atheist...
...The case has no Parallel in the history of obloquy...
...He is apt to eat the cheaper starchy foods and get sick...
...Joe has been an open hearth worker, which accounts for his great famil iarity with the physical processes of steel making But before Joe worked in the mills he served as a cost accountant in the front office...
...The young man on the platform ww Jo* Soanlon, who conies from Mansfield, Oslo J<«' is a function ary in the United Steel Workers of America, but he is anything but a labor movement bureaucrat...
...probabilities of customer iespouse lie public Steel, for instance, has a. virtual, corner on much of the light alloy steel market, for its electric furnaces-see built t« tum out this sort of metal ti»- rigid specification...
...the seasonal production dips o*cr a Wiile'area of the economy would have if* stabilizing results in steel, A conservative economist, John Maurice Clark, has argued that fixed charges act as a goad to industry to go out and sell the produce necessary to cover the inexorable debt...
...Is this Utopian...
...I believe that religious duties 'Consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and en ffjSmhting to make our Yellow-creatures happy...
...Before taking over Ruttenlrerg's research job on a pro tern basis, Scaulon worked with Clinton S. • ..Ven...
...Most certainly he quits going to the dentist, he is late with his rent, and he tries to dodge the tax collector, h'li.m the point of view of simple administration, any steel town would be glad to see its population getting an evenly spaccd-out income...
...The steel union thinks it ran meun great il.nig- both to the ateel industry and to the workers in it...
...Paine, my son stand* here as testimony of the gratitude of America, -and I for France I" and dowua...
...The annual wage has been tried by sonic employers and pronounced good...
...His outspokenness about ins religious faith, a faith he shared with Jefferson, Madison...
...s#«?iisaiim', reeaance, reminis cence, imagination It save nothing that would pro coke a storm today, for fame's religion is now the faith of millions of Americans But it is a rather Kit'" book, and reads in some ptneea ss though • tie author had set out to shew bow irritating on-alloyed logic can be...
...But if it ever comes to bufk large in the process of making steel, it will lie because of Joe Scunlon and his double -barrelled ex lieiiei.ee as a steel Wolker and a while collar man...
...The only trouble with the system is that a worker must kriow algebra or calculus to understand just whv his pay envelope is fat or lean...
...Then, again, cat buying, ref rigerator buying, and agricultural machinery buying, go by seasonal spurts...
...1 believe that Tom Paine's name will rise jajdjly highei »» time go.* on, but il had to go mLgmgt psrgatorj hist KesBS Paine was a devout man, with »., susten snd '•stflavtual a religion that hr thought (hunhri...
...He was denied burial even in a Quaker cemetery...
...At the present moment Joe is rilling in as chief of research for the steel worker*, handling the job that Harold Kuttenberg held liefore he went to Washington as a dollar a-year man with WPB...
...for reinforced cousneto...
...Under 11 in mat Sjeacetimc coinnmaorav auavmwbuVes rake fifteen pet cent, of the steel eeUput, ohe construction, industry...
...His evangel of uni venal and yet Individual worship threatened their citadel from within...
...And the Amalgamated Clothing Workers Union has signed annual wage contracts in Detroit and in a few other cities...
...It being swept away togethei N& priests and theologiea in the turmoil of the Hugh revolution, he felt moved to lift it out ol the torrent ami hold it clear in its most rational form w*i*m believe in one God, and I hope for happiness an*%jty«nd this life...
...And, when he does get sick, he tries to get along without the doctor...
...If steel operations we,re to Ims levelled out...
...Bin if steel is a season...
...With his open hearth worker's background Scanlou | couldn't be fooled on an open hearth charging | operation, or the use of oil...
...Yon wouldn't I...
...Knowing that its customers can't very well turn elsewhere, Republic should be able to estimate at least some of its probable tonnage well in udvauce of orders...
...Placing her son at one end of the grave and herself at the Other, Madame Bonneville pronounced the funeral •ration: "Oh Mr...
...hV ¦ « • • • IJTGbI PAfNE came home to America in 1602, Pres...
...It would do won-di-rs for steel town and steel valley morale...
...The examples here cited are, of course, for consumers' goods that are not subject to seasonal ups (Csntlnned en Page Poor teen...
...He called it The Am, •/ K-*»<™ and it shows {anted' small sympathy toward any other age to I ward that 41 emotion...
...And with his cost j accountant's training he could translate a wasteful | motion or practice into dollars imd cents...
...Of course, this does not solve the proMams of an individual steel company, which may lose out in the bidding for battleship orders...
...But many of the stoel companies produce for special markets, and knew the...
...Before the war the steel union had managed to persuade some of the smaller, less efficient com-| panics to let the union cooperate with management on methods of cost rutting The idea was to keep shaky employers in a sound enough financial state to go on paying union wages When the war came, hikI the government began taking ateel without regard to cost, the Golden Scunlon program was mine or less shelved for the duration True, under the stress of war, "labor management" committees have hecouie the order of the day But they are, for the most part, "suggestion box" affairs, not basic uriioii-mai.agernent studies of how best to make steel cheaply After the war the idri...
...Just now especially, when under Jefferson they were fighting SB- make fast their gain...
...Scanlou's great value to the steel union is that he knows the steel business equally well from two ends...
...v. steligiOn is not an act that can be performed '' lJLJSSi*^' ^'V'T* P*rw0" mu!,t perform it for I Paine had written the book expounding these ideea " jMl awaiting arrest and probable death by the guil Istnie, driving his pan ul the usual high speed, and mushing ;u«t six hours before the gendarmes came to svthim...
...So he said farewell to his ever-loyal friend Jefferson and moved, up to New York and New i RacheUe, received as a hero by a dwindling few, and patted by the many with a mounting torrent of slander...
...And the democrats, although they did not repudiate him, could not march to his defense...
...There were exceptions, but most of the churchmen loked on Tkt Age of R*>•»<¦>, as the ruler* of England had looked on Tkt Rigkte of Man...
...Tom Paine's too...
...supn . fajos and mm»1 of the Bible stone* uiiwoilhy of God .rSfhss he saw religion its...
...Joe ; doesn't look like a researcher...
...pillt.ir MURRAY, President of the United Steel Workers of Amei ica, has had the temerity to slap down On the confrrei.ee table for purposes of collective bargaining a demand for an annual wage in the steel mills...
...of permanent union man Mgement cooperation on cost rutting in the mills will come alive again...
...The engineers took it all in g<»od part, for the cocky.young man on the platform bad his illus ' tralioiis and his answers down pat...
...The slander -warn organized...
...Franklin—and for that matter, Washington, too—made him open game for all re actionaries...
...Soap, is beOght on a month-to-menth basis in practically every home*in the land...
...For then the relief hill drops, and the town taxes are not in an ears...
...They clocked men at work in the steel mills, they compared the energy put forth to do one job with the energy required to do another And then, after a complicated mathematical pro cedure, they arrived at "proper" incentive pay...
...The applause was for deeds long past, but behind the abuse was a living , fear...
...Procter and Gamble, for instance, has made annual estimates in advance of its orders for soap, and then prorated the production over twelve equal monthly periods...
...By John Chamberlain The Complex Problem of Steel THE other night, in Pittsburgh, I listened to a cocky young fellow who looked .. bit like Henry Ford's famous—or notorious Harry Bennett talk to a group of industrial engineers...
...Half of the noise wis'applause, and half abuse...
...He went out into the mills to become an oiien hearth assistant as a means of proving his Irish independence, for his boss had told him that he must either give up his boxing matches or his job as a cost accountant...
...and for cruiser and battleship plates a year ahead...
...management agreement...
...And Mormel's hams and spam are for summer and w aatra consumptaon...
...for example, no one knows whui the orders for automobile body steel will lie until the General Motors and Ford salesmen have done their jobs out in the grassroots country...
...He harangued them, he upbraided them, he argued with them, and he called them mumbo jumbo men and slide rule boys...
...He points to the warswollen depreciation and "post-war" contingency reserves that the .companies have been salting away since Pearl Harbor...
...Is it craiy...
...w]ges*an ought to make a living out of religion...
...The II...
...bis hands are battered lumps...
...AjkjM "ease eighteen, per cent, railroads.sake tassntg-orie per c e n t re' nianicut flake* five per cent, and »o on, I t legislative and city Vnd state road planning programs .nee known ,In Advance, it should not be difficult to project Hie steel i,'nuti-eiiieiits tor brslgos...
...Scanlou's value to Golden derived from his ability to go into a mill, talk with the boys, watch the o|ieratioiis, and come out with a pretty good idea of wasteful motions, defective machinery, and bad fuel practices...
...It would be good for the capitalist system, even though individual capitalists might resent it...
...Thus the annual wage would have beneficial results on pricing policy, nil volume, and on competition...
...Phil Murray's assistant...
...It was made profitable, made fashionable, blown up by the forces of reaction to such a public enterprise and private entertainment during the seven years Tom Paine had still to live, that when he died in an obscure rented room in Greenwich Village, he was generally known to the public as a sot, a cheat, a lecher, an exploiter of women and thildren, a blasphemer of God,"a man vicious in spirit and in body too filthy to be washed...
...His body wss accompanied to its grave on the farm Ni w York had given him, only by his friend and housekeeper, Madame Bonneville, her children, two Ne-froes, and a Quaker named VVillett Hicks...
...But when the layoff comes, be tightens his belt, pulls in his horns, and goes into debt...
...I He stayed for a while as a guest in the White /House, but saw that hia presence was a political em-barrasament...
...Their ouly weapon was ostracism —to which, ia the case of a character as spotless as Tom Paine's, the sols effective means is slander...
...An annual wage would be a fixed charge, and the company that hud assumed it would presumably try to price its pioduel nt a point calculated to hike the gotsls off thr- market and keep the working force employed ut top capacity...
...he asks, use some of this money to underwrite a noble experiment...
...Practical or impractical, Philip Murray thinks the steel companies could afford to try the annual wage for a year or two...
...That is to say, he is asking far a guaranteed work week based on forty hours, with fifty weeks of employment coming to each worker whose time is contracted f<ti in advance under a in.km...
...Briefly, the young man's basic objection to the industrial engineers was that they made simple things difficult...
...I J.., to know anything alsmt statistical mu ! hipulatioii or reading comparative balance sheets It is only when you look into Joe Scanlou's past that a great light dawns...
...AMI they had no legal weapon with which to outlaw the rebel...
...perfcrnrer, it might be possible to use market tjrexlietsart as a> basis foi iroiuuK oat the ups a n d rarwTss oi lnget jroducti...
Vol. 27 • May 1944 • No. 2
