Labor-Management Parley

...The best bet is thet John Lewis I* headed fer an early re-entrance Into the "house of labor...

...The APL and the CIO, It would seem, while expressing full readiness to go along with the main objectives of the meeting, still have to manifest any special enthusiasm for it...

...it csn hardly he denied thst they still retain first place ae aa unmitigated irritant among the general public—labor net excluded...

...it may help to cool off some hotheads in Congress who are itching to give organised labor a blitz strafing...

...Still, rvea the pessimists among the delegates and in the press gallery can hardly overlook the fact that the analogy between the Wilson and the Truman conferences cannot be carried too far...

...Some AFL leaden may even accept the extreme viewpoint that the NAM and the CofC are likely to become, in the long run, the sole beneficiaries of this meeting...

...So, while it is indisputably clear that neither the President nor Secretary Schwellenhach has implied that this conference has among its tasks the solution of the current wage-price issue, it is equally evident that the Government's interest in the conference is far above the level of "moderating" and that it expects from it some concrete and far-reaching results...

...By Max D. Danish WASHINGTON, D. C-The Labor Management Conference is midway in iU second week but Hs swtool work is still in the explorative otsge...

...His humiliating rebuff of Murray on the subject of wagu policy, namely that labor cannot afford te peg wag** to industry profit* or Arm profits, however, is not only sound trade union theory bat I* also an affirmation of accepted APL practice...

...so msny, many years...

...Will labor hold a solid line vls-a-via management during the parleys...

...What effect a declaration like this, made without mental reservation*, may have on the stalemated negotiations for higher wages in msny Industries, Is rather difficult to sny...

...8. It Is likely to act a* a potent antidote to *nti -uiii.m ferment in and outside Congress, with the ultimate consignment of such law-projects a* the Ball-Burton-Hatch compulsory arbitration bill to early oblivion...

...Murray's continuous references to a "collsnse" of l*bor employer relations everywhere because of the acute situation in the auto and steei Industries, no doubt, have proved Irritating to the entire AFL panel at the conference...

...He mentions a net profit of $8,401,102, which divide* into a dividend ef $1.48 on each ihare of stock for the past six month...

...4. And, lastly —aad here hopefal thinking rises to a HOW high—locating of a substitute for Jurisdictional disputes, a sordid phenomena* that his keen plaguing friend and foe si Ike ia American industry for ke...

...No Droitic Changes Dee ores 1 HIS parley," one of the top labor delegates at the conference tells me, "will not bring about a revolution in labor-employer relations in this country...

...Willy-nilly, General Motors and United Steel cannot help remembering that a collective bargaining law has been on the federal statute books for over half a doaen years...

...The lapse of twenty kit...

...Do the gentlemen at the management tables, among whom are some of the leading executives of the country's greatest industries, mesn what they My when they profess allegiance to collective bargaining, or are they getting ready to launch an attack on the Wagner Act...

...Net sale* for the season added up to the neat figure of $280,787,519 This exceeded the previous high, established In the spring of 1144, by M.418,494...

...Another angle not to be lost tight of is constant repetition by management that tills conference Is strfttly a "between-fls" affair and that the Government has, of its own free will, limited Itself to the role of moderator, not "dictator," as Ira Mosher, NAM president, phrased it not without relish...

...Who, in the first place, is responsible for the Labor-Management Conference, who expects to gain most from it, snd who accepted it because they could not afford to stay out of it...

...Many of them recall another postwar labor management meeting back in 1919, at the time the first general steel strike was under pay...

...It is equally apparent, on the other hand, that l>oth employer groups, the US Chamber of Commerce and the NAM, have come to this conference with an assortment of chips on their own shoulders, as President Mosher of the NAM frankly admitted...

...AIMY SUCCISSFUl IN tUSINISf As a result of an AP dispatch (rem Chicago it I* being widely suggested that the Board of Directors of Montgomery Ward snd Company engage the United States Army to run their business on s permanent basis...

...What seeps out from the' meetings of it* busy six committees, through the well-manicured briefs doled oat daily to the press by Dr...

...We shall get the answer to this query, no doubt, some time later in the course ef this meeting...

...In his opening address Truman plainly indicated this when he told delegates that failure may mean congressional action...

...When It Is recalled how pathetically Sewell Avery, Chairman ef the Board, bleated hi* complaints when a detail of soldiers carried him, seated with dignity In his chair, out of the door, It is with surprise that the public now learns of the happy results of army management The same Mr...

...You hear all kinds of answers to these questions...

...don't speculate on this...

...Then, as now, collective bargaining end higher wages were the major issues, and President Wilson's conference collapsed after Judge Elbert Gary, spokesman e«inordinary for the Steel Trust, announced subsequent to a visit to the "House of Morgan," that under no circumstances would he agree to collective bargaining...

...Despite the gleeful comment by leading industry spokesmen at the conference that they like it best because the Government was satisfied with the role of a mere "good neighbor" the includible fact remains that it was initiated by President Truman and his Secretary of Labor st a time when the country is astir with labor unrest and a section of the public, considerably inflamed by the commercial press and radio, is clamoring for some repressive anti-union action in Congress...

...They obviously reckon that they cannot fell, at this turbulent hour, to fish out of this conference some material gains, in addition to appearing before the general community as s cooperative group imbued with profound patriotic motives...

...In other words, the employer groups did not arrive here with the Mee ef giving up anything substantial...

...For, wkstever jastll-catioa there assy be found for same jurisdictional fracases among the unions...

...a • tapected Rotufri TllllS, as the six committees of the conference are slowly chewing up their' sections of the agenda In the hope of reaching some areas of concord, the outlook for potential achievement narrow* down, along the lines tersely suggested by Truman, a* follow*: 1. A re-affirmation of collective bargaining by some important industry spokesmen who in the not-so-long ago either disregarded or Ignored this principle...

...The tengae-in-eheek brand or the genuine" kind of which President Truman spoke rather bluntly at epeaing the conference last week...

...Avery, new restored to hi* position of trust, reports on the operetlona of the past year...

...If yon stop te ask some of the oldsters among the newsmen who crowd the press conferences in the gold-trimmed Federal Auditorium, about'the prospects of the parleys, the answer is likely to be the sign of crossed Angers...

...A glance backstage, into the origins of the conference, its planning and agenda building, may reveal a clearer evaluation of what this assembly may or may not achieve...

...Hat what brand ef collective bargaining...

...W. Taylor, secretary of the Conference, appears to indicate that the conferees are beginning to clock eat firmer areas on which some tentative agreement, or disagreement, may soon be formulated...

...For the moment, it is well to bear in mind that these discus-liens for labor-management "peace" are seJng carried out in the shsdow of two general strikes—in sutos and steel— fairly hovering over the country and the pressure for higher wages—a subject riot on the conference's agenda—is roiling up right to the delegates' teats...

...Will John l. Lewis, whose dominating, If not domineering, personality easily makes him top attraction on the conference floor as well as in committee rooms, go on stds-swiping Philip Murrsy at every turn...

...The AFL, less perhaps even than the CIO In this respect —for, while the latter is eager to convert, If it could, the conference Into a national forum for its major current goals— higher wages in some of the basic industries where it is strongest—the AFL csn hardly look toward any tangible benefits accruing to most of its unions from this gathering...

...2. The promulgation of a general policy In favor of permanent impartial chairman machinery in every industry or important branches of industry, modelled perhap* on the voluntary impartial arbitration system in vogue in the garment Industry, and capable of regulating collective bargaining processes during the life of sgreements si well si In the course of agreement renewal...

...The employers did not come here, he said, to "meet demands" or to defend a "flock of sacred cows," Bather, they would be able, he declared, to present to the delegates a program of "sound proposals" that' would justify the "voluntary support of free govern-' ment, free labor and a free American citizenry"—whatever that means...

...years, since 1919, has wrought decisive mutations in the moods ami attitudes of industry towards labor's general position in the economic and social setup...