Capital Comment
STOUT, JONATHAN
Capital Comment By JONATHAN STOUT Byrnes Seen on Way Out fp Reconversion Fight WASHINGTON, D. C.—Sensitive barometers her* tit reporting that "Dr. Win the War" is beginning to itix his...
...Small busineas joined the growing "Anti-Byrnes . Clab" when the Assistant President intervened on the side of the Big Business war contractors who are seeking to perpetrate their war-born business monopolies after the war...
...It is their war...
...We are at the beginning of a political fight thai is greater than the military one we are winning...
...This will come as welcome Ml to those who aaw Byrnes use the prestige of the Whit* House to help kill the liberal Kilgore Bill and in its place help promote the George Bill...
...We are afraid of what peace may bring...
...Big Business doesn't need s certificate of availability from the War Manpower Commission to change its job...
...They have furnished the manpower on both fronts...
...Great areas and Populations have been saved from the horrors of Nasi...
...But labor needs no orators or type-Writer-pounders to urge it on to that job...
...Any guarantee of security for the men and women and children of this country involves new ways of looking at and doing things...
...The device used by Byrnes to stymie Nelson was that of giving the War Manpower Commission a veto power over the Nelson Plan...
...For it served to unite labor and small business in a common grievance against Byrnes...
...We are threatened with a stark repetition of all that is worst in our history...
...On both they have piled »P a proud record...
...Much has been lost by our tardiness...
...They can produce goods, but have not learned how to prodec* good times...
...But it is not too late...
...The only cause for rejoicing right now is that we have sense enough not to rejoice...
...The New Leader wants war production to continue till the last German and the last Japanese have been cleaned out...
...Resentment against Byrnes' tory policies has slowly keen climbing to a peak of whit* heat over a period of tw* years...
...The Perils of Peace In 1942 and 1043 platoons of labor leaders, speakers, writers and miscellaneous morale builders utilised Labor Day as the occasion to plead for all-out war production...
...Organised workers have waked up to the fact that they have succeeded in one part of their task and failed in the other...
...The resignation of WPB Executive Vice-Chairman Charles E. Wilson, who was lined up with Byrnes, the dig Business war contractors and the military brass hats, was taken in observant circles here as a forerunner of the ultimate exit of Byrnes, After all, this is an election year...
...No wonder that the workers of the nation are restive and fearful...
...The war is not finished...
...Additional clarification appears needed' for what is really behind the battle between Nelson and the Big Business-Brass Hat clique...
...Donald Nelson rallied the backing of a powerful group of Senators and Representatives on Capitol Hill and was enabled thereby to issue the order Over the coalition of Byrnes, Big Business and the military brass hats...
...At home they want an industry geared to full production and steady distribution...
...The managers of industry and the...
...Instead of flguing out a wsy to meet this problem properly, the ill-advised Army snd Navy politicians embarked on a phony propaganda campaign to frighten the country with reports of hew labor shortages have left our boys at the front without the weapons they need to lick the enemy...
...They have asked that the producers of the nation, the farmers and wage-workers, be allowed to sit in the councils where such matters are determined...
...Workers can't leave their war jobs...
...And in the face of impending military triumph the people of the United States are un-•••7, apprehensive, fearful of what the future may hold...
...The United Nations will have a chance to reorganise the world...
...But here is a strange thing...
...A U. of our great labor bodies have agreed upon principles and plana that look toward a happier future for this country and for the world...
...But both at home •nd on the firing fronts we have the men, the machines, th* organization...
...American Working people have been in the middle of this war from the start...
...There has been a moratorium on planning...
...Byrnes stepped in over the head of WPB Chairman Donald Nelson and ordered a stay on the issuance of the WPB order carrying out the provisions of the Nelson reconversion plan...
...Congress is passing legislation to auction the government's property and scuttle its controls over industry...
...But there in nothing to stop the Big Business wsr contractor* from lesving their wsr John...
...And It did not require very astute political thinking to see the danger.in that gambit . . . that the resentment against the lieutenant unless assuaged might communicate itself to his boss...
...Patterson, who has been one of the nation's foremost critics of all optimistic forecasts heretofore, surprised his listeners, therefore, by predicting that Nasi Germany will surrender within the next four months...
...Victory is now assured...
...This is a far bigger thing than the current political campaign...
...We and our allies are winning the greatest war in history...
...Abroad they envision neighborly cooperation among the nations...
...One o' the important ones was the realization that their war contractors would leave them flat in one grand patriotic dash (probably w.ving their Army-Navy E's) as soon as the bars were let down...
...We started late...
...The military politicians have insisted, that the bars against civilian production must be rigidly maintained for many reasons...
...The labor, liberal, and Socialist forces of America can still win...
...conventional politicians have no idea of any real change...
...All of this la Involved when labor leaden urge their members to register and vote and campaign for candidates who represent their ideas...
...This resentment was first registered in labor circles when Byrnes forced the War Labor Board to frees* wages under the Little Steel formula almost two years ago while war profits and prices remained unrestricted in a runaway race to the horixon...
...We can beat the world with tanks and planes, but we have not learned how to conquer our own productive system...
...While we speculate on just how soon we shall celebrate our victory we are hag-ridden by fears of inflation, depression, unemployment...
...Under this new formula, the tory influence of Assistant President Jimmy Byrnes is reported to be on the wan* . . . and at may be on the way out...
...That is the secret of labor's activity in the presidential campaign...
...That campaign found its epitaph this week in a radio broadcast by Under-Secretary of War Robert P. Patterson on his return from the European battlcfroot...
...We are far from feeling triumphal...
...And from the moment Nelson quite reasonably and logically pointed out that the transition from war te peace production had to be made gradually and by an orderly plan, the War and Navy Department politicians have fought it tooth and nail...
...This Labor Day, then, Is no time for joyful celebration...
...The fact appears to be that the Army and Navy boy* do not greatly trust their Big Buiiness war contractors...
...Despite this, Byrnes and his clique retained the actual victory in the battle with Nelson...
...It gave Byrnes the final victory, but it was fatal politically...
...Win the War" is beginning to itix his prescriptions by • new formula...
...On Labor Day, 1844, war production is no longer ¦ headache...
...At last we are developing a sense of realities...
Vol. 27 • September 1944 • No. 36
