CapitaL Comment
STOUT, JONATHAN
CapitaL Comment By JONATHAN STOUT The Issue Is— Loyalty to the USA or to the USSR? WASHINGTON The blow-off that rocked the capital and nations- and which is ilill rcho-ing around the world came I...
...Our war record does not depend alone on Mr...
...it ¦ould sweep across Maxwell ss I *' 'n my bed listening, I would fT though 1 hardly knew why I was crying, knew only (hat 1 felt a great loneliness as if some one 1 loved far away were singing a song whose words I would never be able to hear clearly...
...Wilson's statement, it is attested by the facts...
...This would onlv result in pulling lo cents in one porkcl and having CM take 15 cenlsfoiit of another...
...It was apparent to Gen...
...GM's rejection of our offer of at bi-tration," Beuther stated, "again emphasizes the fact that GM, viewing itself as a leader of American industry, is lient upon establishing an industrial dictatorship...
...Rumors spiaug up almost is last as picket lines There was one manufai lined bv George Romney, Crucial Mine-i of the Automobile M.inufscliiiers Association...
...The issue al last is going lo I" liicd before llie coiirl of the American people...
...Now litis same lliiug is happening in China...
...l/c Kwing Tanner, who marched Willi his father, C. W. Tanner, -Jatrd: "Wr'ir in this hglit logrlher...
...aiilbiuetii of wages, costs, prices and profits pioves it...
...Therefore, he felt it mandalorvFto resign with a fill public statement as a means of bringing this simple issue of loyally to the United Stales and to dein,m racy before the eyes of the American people...
...Just a few hours lieloie He Law a pro-Communist sprrrli, St became known that Secretary of Slate Byrnes had .prevailed on Hurley, despite the falters desiie for retirement, to return immediate!* to China...
...Achrsoii wauled In go beyond llie I'ots-daiu agreement and create a revolution in Japan...
...It is being openly flirted with...
...8—The Board of Arbitration shall tasks a final and binding decision of this dispute...
...Strike kih liens were set up to provide hot meals for the strikers and their families...
...Homney had staled that all companies) except Ford would be forced to shut down because of the CM stoppage...
...Ii.oili.-i who iisrd every means possible lo bring about a peaceful srltlrmrut through attempts lo bargain . ollei iiv.lv over a trJ-day period, staled that CM through its unwillingness lo bargain in good failh hid invited I lie- workers to strike...
...Our latest report is from Studeltaker...
...Hurley's single-minded eHoils to...
...Of, course, a combine is beting attempted...
...28,-Nol a wheel turned in almost 100 (General Motors plants in more than fifty cities today as the union announced its willingness to meet with the General Motors Corporation "any day, any hour of the day" to settle the strike which ended its first week today...
...Main strikers air rrlnans of llie K'ral sit down which organized CM plants into thr I \W ( IO in I1'!/ Determination ran high among workeis at all plants...
...Albert (.ore (D, Term...
...hi y out with lidrliiv the directives and policies oi, In si, President Roosevelt and...
...Maxwell, Georgia from each other by churches built *T the mill-owner where folks •died in sawdust anil shouted in """try to forget a supper of fat-¦Mk and cornbread and the long find of work hours that held no •""Prises...
...thinking about walls that white people have built in their desperate efforts to shut off colord people from them, only to find that in walling oft" Colored Town, they walled off White Town from truth and beauty and knowledge...
...IpM Sovereignty versus inlleetive Bargaining By Ann Teresch DETROIT, Nov...
...Any wage increase ordered by the Board shall not lie used as a basis for a price increase for any CM product for the duration of such award...
...Hurley that among the new iuHuenrrs in the Slate Department who vwie...
...Or it may be that Maxwell is not just the town in Georgia they came from, hut every place on earth where there are walls, rough and jagged or smooth and invisible, which shut human beings away from each other and from n world in which they should feel st home...
...Our record is unsurpassed...
...Despite this in all negotiation between iln- union and the company so far, CM haa i.-liiseil in discuss our demands on the basis of what ihe arithmetic justifies...
...Lost time amounted to only .tMSOfi percent of the time winked...
...and Rep...
...The fact that De l.acy's viciously pro-Communist attack...
...Henry Ford II has received several overtures...
...pray and (o believe in love and brotherhood...
...Ami it was obvious that the sniping was bring fed l>v "leaks" of the most higblv-coiilidrntial iuloi-matiou—before the surrender ol Japan, ami allerward...
...Iniunan lorn Connallv of thr Senate foreign Mr lations Committee has asked Gen...
...Hurley as a simple question of loyalty to I In- I nil-d States...
...1 his is how Gen...
...were certain persons whose moral perceptions had become so degraded by the cult of Stalinism thai all sense ol loyally to their ohii country had liecome blunted...
...I learned to expect colored chil drill to step off Ihe sidewalk when I passed by, and I learned to accept the bowing of head and bend iiif of body as due me, ami I learned never to call a Negro "mister" no matter how deeply I respected him, and I learned not lo doubt my own superiority, mid I learned to sing hymns and lo...
...Sen...
...I learned all the things white children in Maxwell had to learn in order to make their walking easy...
...Hurley who had been Roosevelt's trusted and moit able <11,>I......<<• trouble-shooter that was the nionienl of decision...
...Hurley will eel his wish...
...Hurley felt about it...
...One day Jose Ferrer and Arthur Friend asked me to make Strange Fruit into a play...
...Wearing his sailor uniform, decoiatril with balllr stripes, Sgl...
...Wherry 111., INebr...
...Wr can't lose...
...We delivered the goods during the war and we are prepared to do Ihe same in peace...
...There was singing in the picket lines which formed in the cold and wind outside all CM plants...
...It looks from here as though Ceu...
...A ltd so when I came buck home, I kept thinking . . . tblnking about chasms that cut deep gashes across the map of a (own hut more deeply across Ihe hearts of the people who live there...
...And I'm not going hack until wr win,' declared Mrs...
...It is seeking a return to a longer work week in Ihe fare of rising unemployment, and to maintain on relief-subsistence basis a large pool of unemployed te hold down wages...
...As the company remained adamant in rejecting the principle of arbitration, which it termed a "surrender of sovereignly," some 350,000 CM workers remained determined that they would continue to strike until they won their demands...
...And I never forgot the loneliness which always came hack when 1 heard old songs whose words would not grow clear again in my memory...
...which says that their production will not he affected...
...I introduced resolutions . .illiii» lor investigalinn of foreign service personnel, tin military and civil governments ol occupied enemy territory and administration ol foreign policies in these areas...
...minority whip ol the Senate, said llnii lie was now ciiiiviuced more llian ever that Mr...
...For I learned also that there are invisible walls that you are always bruising your heart against no matter how well your feet stay in the path, for your heart refuses to walk there...
...Kut the strike, which came as a result of GM's refusal to acrept the union's proposal to arbitrate, was no nearer sell lenient llian it was 69 days ago when negotiations for a 'Mi percent wage increase to maintain take-home pay began...
...And as Ihe years passed, its paths grew old and familiar and I learned to walk them without looking, even though I knew they edged charms deep and measureless that folks said could never be bridged over...
...It Has a moment which had been built up hv moulds of Communist sniping and undermining of Gen...
...At that time, he told the press that the work record of CM employee* wit* 14 tiinr* better than that ttf the industry a* a whole...
...The present attitude of (iM management is bitter payment for the record GM workers made during the years of war production—a record which (iM President C. E. Wilson boasted about in his October 19 press conference under (he auspices of (he National Association of Manufacturers...
...My falhei barked nir up in wartime, and I'm harking liiui in peacetime...
...close to Sccrelarv Stellinius IhIio liiinsclf remainrd juivrlv and almost incredibly blameless...
...We exhausted every possibility of settlement before we turned to our last resort, the withholding of our labor...
...We challenge you to match our action in relinquishing use of the strike weapon by laying the arithmetic of this wage dispute before a Board of Arbitration...
...It may be that these characters have a lot of kinfolks up North...
...Wr could have been granted our demands for a 30 percent in ciease two moulds ago if we were willing lo consent lo i price increase...
...Sometimes at night "* they sang, the sound of...
...Rimming the town like a shadow *«'e the Quarters where colored *»jk lived and at the edge of the Wjsrters a little unpainted church nv?r<' tfley worshipped an(l san|t 'heir gongs of yearning and ••'smed of a heaven where they •WH «it down and rest ami cat ¦t God's table...
...1)1 a final effect to reach a peaceful ¦eNJfceient, the union appealed to the rtiiporstioii two days before the walk-««t that the controversy over the 30 pgtent increase be submitted to arbitration...
...These things 1 fell a long lime before I wrote them down in a book...
...Capital Comment Continued Christian A. Ilerler I It Mass...
...WASHINGTON The blow-off that rocked the capital and nations- and which is ilill rcho-ing around the world came I <->i Monday iftrrnooB when Kr...
...And in »« Houne Rep...
...They are forever spilling over into the pit and the wings ami sometimes so many of them pop up in the audience that one begins to wonder after a lime just who are Ihe characters and who the spectators at this play about Maxwell...
...This was my town...
...But I never felt good in the learning...
...Hurley followed so quickly wa<< highly significant It was clearlv indicative that somebody pretty high in the State Department had "leaked" this inportant information to He Lacy...
...That is the mail to World Wai III ami, with the atomic bomb, the blackout of civilization...
...I don't think he will sucrumh...
...We ate prepared to meet anywhere, al any time, to resume negotiations...
...So I packed up Ihe fears and guilt and bate and love I had known as a child in Maxwell, and collected the char-actors from College Street and Milltown and Colored Quarters whom I had known also, and brought them North to (ho theatre...
...CM should lie investigated for variation of the anti-trust act...
...Industry can pav higher wages without increasing prices...
...Plainly, General Motors management has committed Ihe Corporation lo war all along the industrial front, war to break the bark of organized labor, and te turn the clock back to the days of plant or company unions, helpless against the strength of great employing groups...
...Huilry and Secretory KvMies to testify before this committee...
...I suppose it was easier to say that than to say it is about you and me and the others who are caught in this trap that white culture has made for itself a trap with a thousand doors it seems sometimes and all of them opening inward...
...It is seeking lo charge Ihe consumer whatever the traffic will bear and to stretch out and speed up American industrial production with disorganized labor and, finally, to rapture the world's markets by selling sweated goods for American dollars made cheaper abroad and dearer at home by spiralling inflation...
...Hugh I>e Lai y I went roast eouaterpart of Communist-stooge Marcanloni'o) and i»ir other j>ro t oiionoiti-i congressmen made a virion* attack on I'niied Stairs policy iii China, and charged that Maj...
...corporation was not being asked u •¦bin it to a revolutioriai y practice, far year* other employers have permit-is* the books of their business to be JEned '" collective bargaining and luM managed to prosper...
...2—The Board of Arbitration shall have full access to the Isooks, records mil other documents of both parties which, in the judgment of the Board, am essential to an intelligent and factual solution of this dispute...
...For what Ronmry is raying is that CM hot m Monopolistic stranglehold on every manufacturer in the auto industry...
...Ibis is an old-fashioned strike in which the woikris sav 'wr are not going to sell our labor powei until we get the conditions of work and wagea He air nilitlrd lo gel.' "We don't want an increase in wages al the c«-peiise of the consumer, Kruiher added...
...Opinions voiced In several Pernsledl Workeis were typical: "I know lis going lo mean liaidship lo make a go ol tilings willioul lli.il weekly pav clink, hut I know we'ie right...
...The letter further stated: "In the event the Board of Arbitration concludes that the General Motors Corporation has the ability to pay a .')() percent increase in scheduled hourly »»re rates and ttill yield profit* after totei in exce*n of *nrh profits in it* best fesr during the pa*t tin, the Board shall be empowered to make advisory recommendations concerning price reductions on the products of the General Motors Corporation...
...When I grew older, and traveled across the earth, I found white men everywhere walking the same old paths that I bad walked in Maxwell, and this was something I could not forget either...
...By the time you read this, there probably will be introduced fn Congress a hill requiring llie instant dismissal of I'nder Serrelary of Slalr Dean Acheson, Alger Hiss (who served as serrelaiy ol thr foiled fiat ions Conference at San Francisco) and one m two others among llie higher rank* in the Slalr Department...
...In a letter transmitting the proposal, Reuthcr pointed out, at the instruction •f delegates representing GM workers in approximately 100 bargaining units: "In the interest of GM workers, the Corporation and all the people, we urge jou to join with us in this arbitration Sfreement...
...Do yon' "Our proposed arbitration agreement provides that any wage increases awarded by the Arbitration Board shall be retroactive to August 18, 1945, the date on which our demand was filed, and shall remain in effect until August 18, 194n...
...Governed by the same sense of le-spousibility, we proposed public negotia-11.>n, conciliation and arbitration...
...But we have checked and are checking, and there is no truth to Romney's statement...
...It took me seven years to write them, but at last Strange Fruit was written...
...L. For Gen...
...I heir ie.i-soning bad become like that ol a Lord Haw-Haw or • Jolm Ainery, who defended Ibeii service to the \a/«s by pretending that in doing so they weir serving some vaguely higher purpose of llie British people Ami that kind of reasoning as shown in llie Haw Haw and Amery cases -turned olll to he only a step behind open treason...
...I he moment of derision presented iiscll to Ceu...
...such a thing were true...
...But it has not been easy to keep them on the stage up here...
...The proposal provided: 1—The parties' submit this dispute t«.a three-man board of arbitration, rem posed of one representative of rsanagement, one representative of labor, and a < ban man selected by the ether two members...
...Li IT CIO Viet President ami Director of the CM Hi/milm<-nt...
...H'e prefer the conference telle to the picket line...
...On Patrick J. Hurley, the late President Kwosrvell'* personal representative as Amhasador to China, had r-rcated the condition for civil »ai in China...
...later, Pie-mlru^ Triiuia u. The sniping and undermining began almost immediately allrr Secretary Hull resigned and Secretary Stellinius siirreeded to command ol the Stale Deputl-meni...
...countered Waller Reuther...
...Mvrllr llanrs, a widow, hIio has three children lo support and a sou in thr Army overseas...
...America read it and called it a book about the Negro problem...
...It took General Motors 08 hours to say "no" to arbitration lioth in principle and in practice...
...Nol only have they refused general Motors Strike to open their books to the union, but iay that -even their own stock-Ljj— can't aee them...
Vol. 28 • November 1945 • No. 48
