WHERE THE NEWS ENDS
CHAMBERLIN, WILLIAM HENRY
Where the News Ends By William Henry Chamberlin The High Cost of Vengeance AS Mars become bigger and more destructive, peace settlements become steadily less rational snd more blindly...
...If such fictitious ownership, which can be begun or discontinued in a moment—by the mere signing of a document—is to be accepted at face value and, in addition, il is lo remain settled that the Norris-LaGuardia Act does not applv to cases lo which the Government is a party, il will be seen that this act is effectively repealed with reference to every labor dispute sufficiently important for action l>v the Federal Government...
...The majority decision tourhed upon them in the sentence: "The gains, social and economic, which the miners and other citizens have realized in the past are ultimately due In the fact that they enjoy the rights of free men under our system of government...
...And Versailles was a model of justice, equity and humanity compared with llie preliminary decisions of Yalta and Polsdam...
...It is to lie regretted that the learned justices did not go on to develop this idea...
...And it look a powerful weapon out of the hands of the miners without affording them any new legal protection which might, conceivably, lead to the peaceful and continuous operation of the mines...
...llie expense of feeding Japan runs into liunilreds of millions nf dollars annually...
...which, like ihe Norris-LaGtiuidis Act, was passed by llie Republicans before the day* of Roosevelt...
...The men worked under their old conditions and received llieir pay in company script: ihe owners sold the coal and pocketed the profits...
...we should break out of this infernal cycle as quickly as possible...
...Tilers lias been a similar aggravation nf the Japanese population problem because of the compulsory repatriation of millions of Japanese who formerly made their livings in China, Manchuria, Korea...
...It sounds crazy...
...Or they csn be self-sustaining through free development of non-military industries and foreign trade...
...If a .peace worthy of the name is ever In l«e made, we inn-i start from scratch, gel back In llie \ilaniuCharter and try to undo jusl as much "i llie evil »..ik of Villa and Potsdam ss is humanly possible...
...A balance of power so favorable lo our side will have been created that Soviet acts of aggression would be sheer madness...
...It should be a sobering thought that we...
...The situation is fantastic and ha» only liecii permitted In develop because the majority of llie Aiueri. in people have never thought tin- economics ol llie postwar German and Japanese situation through...
...Society is now so clow-knit that some strikes threaten the vciv life of society...
...tion will continue at a more and more alarming pace...
...The situation lor Germany has been vastly aggravated becausr about a quarter nf its arable land has been assigned In l'nland anil the Soviet Union, while the Germans who lived in lliis area, those who survived, the people of German origin in the Sudeten area of Czechoslovakia and other smaller German minorities, have been dumped into the shrunken area left to Germany...
...It is the third alternative thai America should support with all its political and economic power...
...To keep capable and energetic peoples like the (.curiam and Ihe Japanese in a state of permanent ci ml.....Is paralvsi...
...Herbert Hoover lias estimated the cost of giving the population of the combined Amei'ii an and Iniii-li Zones a minimum subsistence diet fm llie next eighteen months at $950,000,000...
...It is, definitely, up to Congress and ihe President...
...It has been so effective that for many years we have had no important railway strike...
...The court has counter, acled the will of Congress as written into law bark in the pre-New Deal era...
...tions...
...Il is unfortunate that ihis elementary irutn should win recognition so'slowly, (hat a man of serious diplomatic experience like Sumner Welles should associate himself with the muddled destruclionisl proposals of the so-called National Conference on the German Problem...
...A strike by (he coal miners falls within this category...
...Peace settlements of this type, in turn, automatically generate bigger and more destructive wars...
...Ownership by Secretary of the Interior Krug was a thin fiction...
...They can be kept alive through a soup-kitchen type of relief...
...But it is unquestionable dial ill.- j.i-.n i-makcrs at Vienna did a far Im-ii.-i jnl> than id.- peacemakers of Versailles...
...The billions of dollars which a continuation of wantonly deslriu tinuisl policies would cost foi relief feeding .would he the smallest part of this expense...
...VlAGl'.ANCE it simply too eupcnsive...
...The ecu* nomir mural, both for Germany and Japan, is obvious...
...If we do not wish to see the whole universe destroyed in llie course »f a third world war...
...The sponsors of lliis Conference included a number of pronounced fellow-lrnvelers, along with others who are so obsessed willi the supposed German threat to world peace that the/ M not recognize the profound change in the international balance of power signalized-bs-the crash of the Thirl Reich and the emergence of missla as the strongest power in Europe and in Asia, To demand simulianeously, as the members of th«: Conference did, that German production be held dowel to the Potsdam level and that Germany, pay repara...
...die people of the I niled States, are being saddled with annual payments of between one and two billion dollars a »ear (probably nearer the second figure than the (irsl) merely to keep the Cermun and Japanese peoples in a stale of total destitution in whii Ii they cannot support themselves by their own labor...
...Whether v\c pav llie enlire German food bill ourselves 1.1 lend llie British dollars, which they cannot repay, to fn«>i llieir pari of llie lull, is of very liltle practical i nnsequencc...
...The Briti«li arc simply mil earning llie surplus dollars, and will not In- earning llieiu within any predictable future...
...Il was accepted as correct bv Justice Murphy in his dissenting opinion...
...The converse of this proposilion is equally true...
...Both Germany and Japan arc so densely pnpulaied that I hey i mild not conceivably feed themselves from llie products of their soil...
...What is really at issue here is llie changes in methods of settling labor disputes which are imposed by advancing technology...
...The expenses of minimum food imports into the highly urbanized British /nnr were $320,000,0(K> in l'M(>: tin- outlay for similar purposes in the American /..ne via* alx.nl $90t)Jlut),000...
...It will l» a noteworthy sid to the spread of Communism...
...The Supreme Court gave a slinging blow lo John L. Lewis...
...On llie oilier hand, the day when holli Germany snd Japan, under representative governments of ihrir own choosing, are firmly won for a western orients, 'tion will be the day when the Soviet threat will cease lo exist...
...This ((intention was not answered in the majoiitv decision...
...What this may mean in terms of future labor relations should cause both legislators and labor leaders to think through afresh the whole matter ol lire public's relation to wage disputes...
...If the citi/eii owes his first loyalty lo the government, it is implicit thai ihe government must so conduct itself as to deserve this loyalty...
...The true formula for dealing with Germany and Japan was suggested by former Secretary Byrnes when he recently told the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee: "The economic collapse of any country cannot fail lo have the effect of retarding recovery in other countries...
...It is a right whii Ii lias been hitherto considered l.a-n . It cannot be lia-tilv and arbitrarily modified or removed without some com pen sating privileges...
...Formosa and other countries outside Japan...
...There are three choices...
...Our position would become desperately critical if and when Germany and Japan fall into the Soviet orbit...
...The authors then go on to develop the thesis that the first loyalty of all citizens is to tin- governmenl under which they enjov the right to strike and ihus improve llieir conditions...
...But it is true...
...Bui it unsettled the labor problem rather than solved it...
...to regard as "dangerous to the security of the world" events now taking place in Germany it r shriek for vengeance, not the blueprint of a rational American policy...
...By a 7 to 2 decision the Court decided that the miners were actually working for lire Government, and bv ?t lo 4 it decreed thai the \oi ris-LaCuardia \i I docs not apply to cases In which the Government is a party...
...Their decision practically deprives great groups of workers of the right to strike...
...It will store up explosive billeiurs...
...The Attorneys for the miners contended llial at no time were the mines actually in government possession...
...Our greatest experiment in this direction is the Railway Labor Act...
...Otherwise we shall I"- pouring billions of* dollars down the drainhole of futle relief for a people to whom we are denying the elementary right of self-support...
...For the thought which underlies their decision is nowhere explicitly staled...
...it is decided that coalmining is also » basic activity, there should he an equivalent act to lake care of ihe men who risk their lives to give u« heat and power...
...Where the News Ends By William Henry Chamberlin The High Cost of Vengeance AS Mars become bigger and more destructive, peace settlements become steadily less rational snd more blindly vindictive...
...Certainly not everything in the diplomacy of the past was admirable...
...The cost of vengeance, financially, politically, morally, is too high...
...And the trend toward world disintegra...
...D , a-*liT the issues at slake in lliis decision go far deeper than these considerations...
...Ail Editorial— The Lewis Decision and the Right to Strike DISLIKE for John L. Lewis and Iris methods ought not to blind anyone to the sinister implications of the Supreme Court decision in his case...
...This is a persuasive argument, but il cuts two ways...
...It goes a long way in the direction of reducing the possibility of strikes, but it makes up this loss to the workers by providing machinery for the peaceful settling of disputes...
...And it is a mere legal and financial fiiilimi In suggest thai Britain has paid for or can pay for its share of this expenditure...
...will greatly retard nod peihup* muke impossible ihe economic reconstruction ol Ian ope and Last A»i...
...The problem as In how we shall deal willi such conflicts is not up lo the Supreme Court...
...Potsdam, which set permanently the figures of German industrial output on the level of the crisis year 1932, must be scrapped lock, stock and barrel, and our Military Government in Germany must be purged of fellow-travelers, wreckers and drstructionists...
...Then populations could he drastically reduced through massacie or starvation...
Vol. 30 • March 1947 • No. 11
