Capital Comment

...There are no more fancy speeches about "the desire to serve their country" which these same people were "asking in 1941 and 1942 when they were chiselling ?keif way into the government war agencies and getting in on the ground floor of control of the nation's WW economy...

...The End o f O n e F o rm o f D i s c r i m i n a t i on It happened so quietly this week that few even in W a s h i n g t o n realized that America reached the end of an epoch in o u r race r e l a t i o n s with China last Tuesday...

...He knew well that slavery was not limited to a geographical section and that knocking out an army would not end it.- In one of his messages he remarked: "It is naturally concluded that all laborers are either hired laborers or what we call slaves, and, further, it is assumed that whoever is once a hired laborer, is Axed in that condition for life...

...For months there has been a steady exodus of industry executives from the war agencies, going back to the corporations fitm which they camt...

...It wss on this account that, even In the midst of bitter military straggle, he exerted the Influence of his high office to preserve and enlarge the possibilities of movement, change, development, for all common men...

...He wanted to abolish black slavery—but his object was to liberate both blacks and whites, northerners as well as southerners...

...It was in this connection that he recognized the strike as an indispensable part of a free-labor system...

...t let's get back to the new industrial crisis...

...He was fighting a two-front war from 1861 to 1865...

...The profits of war pro-dectien, with the limited period they have to run, are duty having leas and less allure compared with the long-time civilian, market with its stored-up reserves of spending power...

...Their motive is to beat their competitors and be the first ones te get to the civilian market...

...Hut he knew, too, that that was not enough...

...the smaller companies claim t h a t this is uneconomic for them and leads to discrimination...

...The Kind of War That Lincoln Fought COR us in the year 1941 the important fact about Abraham Lincoln is that he fought an ideololical war...

...The South was to be treated "with malice toward none...

...These proposals are now coming to a head in t h e B y r n e s - N e l s o n fight reported here...

...The Big II w a n t s quotas est a b l i s h e d on t h e b a s i s of prewar production...

...And each manufacturer wishes to be first to skim the heavy cream off that market...

...Tftt Wall Street Journal reported last week that a fight was brewing in t h e a u t o field between the Big 3 (General Motors, C h r y s l e r , Ford) ami the .smaller ind e p e n d e n t s on the question of using steel and o t h e r mat e r i a l s for civilian purposes...

...In the course of "serving their •ountry," these people served their corporations even better—as all statistics on corporation war profits amply prove, buttressed by the already discovered hnd •till to be discovered cases of chiseling on government *«r contracts...

...He knew that the Union Army must win on the Arid of battle...

...The workers were warned to overcome "division and hostility" among themselves...

...But t h a t by no m e a n s puts the g o v e r n m e n t completely in t h e d r i v e r ' s seat...

...Words did not fool him...

...Some are calling it "esrtelisation of industry...

...It means the same thing in attar ease...

...But, then, Big Business •Was millions on high-class public promotion and 'f0P*gands campaigns, Whereas organized labor, gen-speaking, does not yet realize that this is the *H of propaganda and has been spending peanuts to **>t its case to the public...

...And if Biddle can lick t h i s problem, I hereby nominate him for next P r e s i d e n t of t h e United S t a t e s.Who Will Control ImduttrM R e c o n v e r s i on F o o t n o t e s : It is now more c e r t a i n than eve^ t h at such w a r t i m e controls as t h e War P r o d u c t i o n board, OPA, etc., will live on for a long time a f t e r the war is over...

...The New Leader reported last year that proposals were being made in t h e D e p a r t m e n t of Commerce that in the p o s t - w a r reconversion period no new e n t r e p r e neurs he allowed to e n t e r any business field in competition with i n d u s t r i e s r e c o n v e r t i n g to peace-time production...

...They see the handwriting on the wall, and they're getting in on the ground floor...

...Having taken this progressive step in our foreign r a c e relations, by recognizing the Chinese as fellow human lieings, it is now c e r t a i n l y in order to improve our domestic race relations and recognize our fellow Americans as fellow human beings...

...He wanted no system in which mm sre "tied down and obliged to labor.'' Lincoln viewed the abolition of chattel slavery aa a mere prelude...

...So War Mobilization Director Byrnes, to whom Roosevelt handed t h e domestic running of t h e war effort, is championing the demand of established business until they have g o t t e n bark into full-scale Civilian production and h a v e obtained a h e a d - s t a rt in the civilian market...

...A united nation was to go forward by taking positive measures to implement the will of the majority...

...The jp** of established manufacturers now engaged -in ii'WNJJtetion to beat, their competitors back to the "Man market is curbed by government controls on ~* ""terials, on the kinds of products which it is per-*»Ued *o make at present, and by the President's power •Wse and run plants in the interest of the war effort...

...The Chinese row come under the quota system under which 105 Chinese may e n t e r the United States e v e r y year...

...And Roosevelt, despite what Wall Street used to say about him, is not a socialist and has no desire to explore such a field...

...Nelson is r u n n i n g a poor t h i r d to B y r n e s and Baruch for control of t h e I n d u s t r i a l Reconversion P r o g r a m . But circles close to him say he is o p t i m i s t i c of results in the long run, because if he continues as head of W I 'B t h e actual machinery of industrial reconversion will r e m a i n in his hands and he believes this will prove •nine potent than all the high policymaking...

...Industry still has t he weapon of t h e sit-down s t r i k e — ( e x a c t l y t h e parallel •f labor's w e a p o n ! — a n d is t h r e a t e n i n g to u s e i t unless the government a g r e e s to g i v e it a complete monopoly over the peacetime civilian market...

...Only thoae hare a right to conaider themselves followers of Lincoln who hare a similar view of the present war snd s similar vision of what is to come...

...Simultaneously, there will be launched a nation-wide c a m p a i g n to r a l l y public support for the bill...

...Without attempting to paint the corporation exec-•hvaj as devils and labor as angels, it is nevertheless J**"*!* to point that the attitude of Big Business— ¦•first and the devil take the hindmoft"—is not wising the same wave of indignation in the public presl Jf w,,»ch of patriotism manifested therein as was ™«d at those labor unions that have tried to protect ¦j interests of their members...

...On that day President Roosevelt signed a proclamation p u t t i n g into effect the repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act...

...I n t r o d u c t i o n of the bill, which is sponsored by t he National Council for a p e r m a n e n t FKPC, is exported in th<- S e n a t e next week...

...The time is over, apparently, for such emotional nonsense...

...Others are railing it "tig business monopoly...

...horror as chattel slsvery itself...

...This notion of a large part of the population fixed in a lower position had for him the same sort of...

...The question Mere them is: Shall new manufacturers be per-mitted to enter the leld ef civilian industry in competition with established manufacturers during the period of reconversion from wartime to peacetime mdaetry...

...The key A fares in the puszle are Bernard ¦•rack, Donald Nelson...

...Assistant President J sines Byrnes and Attorney General Btddle...

...It is presenting Washington right now with the most perplexing dilemma of the war period...

...WPB Chairman Donald Nelson is c h a m p i o n i n g the view t h a t t h e g o v e r n m e n t h a s no r i g h t to s a y who m a y or may not g o into business, or what they should or should not m a n u f a c t u r e , provided the raw m a t e r i a ls and manpower a r e a v a i l a b l e . Nelson thinks the l a t t er two qualifications will be q u i t e enough to keep newcomers f r om s t e a l i n g t h e civilian market, and will enable the e s t a b l i s h e d m a n u f a c t u r e r s and the newcomers to a t a r t from scratch...

...What makes it a problem is that the industrialists h war production believe the end of the war is in sight and are already moving in the direction of re-Cpnverting their plants to peaetime production...

...It was to remove a danger and usher in an era of the enlargement of liberty...

...And if t h a t ' s so, b e l t e r watch out for a new d r i v e to oust Nelson from V\ I * It > If the Byrnes l i a r u r h program prevails, little business will find itself gohhled up o r squeezed out of business much f a s t e r during the reconversion period than d u r i n g the war period...

...But s e i z i n g one or two plants is quite a different problem from seizing i l l Of them...

...That should call for the m i n i m um recognition of p a s s a g e of the ScanlonDawson I . a F o l l e l t e hill now before the House of Repr e s e n t a t i v e s , outlawing discrimination in employment on t h e g r o u n d s of race, creed, color, a n c e s t r y or nation of origin...

...Bernard Baruch is s e e k i n g a compromise between both points of view (any compromise, of course, will give Big Business the edge in the peacetime race for markets a n d monopoly) and A t t o r n e y General Biddie is looking at the p i c t u r e and wondering what is going to h a p p e n to h i s a n t i - t r u s t laws...

...He realized— as a lot of generals and politicians of his day snd ours do not realize — that tlarery anywhere is « threat to freedom everywhere...

...With the end of the wax believed to be in sight, the ¦*sd for continuing the rate of corporation profits now tarni«the eyes of corporation executives in new directions—away from the nation's war needs—under the wsewed slogan: Business Is Business...

...Theoretically, of course, t h e President could conceivably b r e a k t h i s w e a p o n by s e i z i n g all t h e p l a n t s and having the g o v e r n m e n t r u n them...

...He kne# that ideas must triumph on the political field...