Evening Star Newspaper, April 2, 1937, Page 8

LAW FEAR HELD STRIKE CURE CURB 7 Public Seen as Victory Once It Wakes Up to Labor Situation. This is the sixth and last of a series of articles by Mr. White on the changing industrial scene in the United States. The writer has talked with many leaders of labor and industry in gathering material Jor this series. BY WILLIAM ALLEN WHITE. The rights and wrongs of the sit-| down strike, skimmed off after boiling, simmer to this: One’s afraid and the | other dassent. This is a cryptic re- | mark, meaning that neither the own- ers of the property under trespass nor the trespassers themselves dare to appeal to the law. ‘The Wagner act, establishing the | National Lebor Relations Board, has | not been declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. This law is still | on the Federal statute books. It pro- | vides for the adjudication of all the| grievances which the Lewis C. I. O. complains about and provides em- ployers with a means for polling the workers to see if John L. Lewis’ con- tention is right or wrong that he | has a majority of any industry wherein he has called a strike. ‘Why are these two contenders, Lewis and his trespassers, and the various owners of the tools of industry where=- in sit-down strikers are trespassing— | why are they gun-shy of the law? The answer seems to be that neither side wants to give the public a break at the risk of its own hide. To put 1t otherwise: The labor legislation now on the books was written to produce | industrial peace through justice. Jus- tice to whom? Primarily the publie, the third party to these strikes. Now, how about the public—meaning: Who is the public? Public Not All Labor. Mr. Lewis of the C. I. O. contends there is no public outside of labor, that | we are all industrial producers first | and consumers afterward. In a class- less, proletarian society, this would be true. In a country dominated by & democratic middle class, this is not true, and however much wishful think- ing Mr. Lewis may inject into this situation, he can’t make a proletarian one-class country out of an overwhelm- ingly middle-class country. So he fears, quite properly, any legislation like the Wagner act. He won't go to court for fear of the decision of the court. Evidently John Lewis of the C. T. O. feels his $500.000 contribution to the Roosevelt campaign has bought him bur beloved Executive and, as an in- tidental hereditary appurtenance thereunto appertaining, Iltke the tail With the hide, Congress is thrown in with the title to the White House. But not so the courts. Therefore, Lewis doesn’t cotton to the courts nor to a legal solution of the labor prob- | -HOSIERY. Arrange Cherry Blossom Ball Charles Michelson, publicity director of the Democratic National Committee, and Mrs. May Thomas Evans, assistant director of the committee’s women’s division, arranging last- minute details for the Cherry Washington Hotel tomorrow night. The ball is under the auspices of the Women’'s National Democratlc Council. THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTO D. C, FRIDAY, APRIL 2, Blossom ball to be held at the —-Harrls Ewmg Photo. lem. For, with Mr. Lewis, it is not at base an industrial, but rather a po- litical problem. Courts Require Secrets. But how much better are the bosses, any of the bosses, of steel, motors, textiles, rubber or what-not? Have they gone to the Labor Relations Board, demanding an election and an arbitration? Hardly, at least not with any unanimity. To go to the courts ultimately means that capital will| have to put its cards on the table. It will have to expose to the public gaze certain figures about profits, trade practices, labor policy. The La Fol- lette Committee has unearthed enough shameful and disgusting facts about capital's employment of spies, thugs and gunmen to offset any little pecca= dilloes of revolutionary proletarian aspiration cropping out of Mr. Lewis. Neither the pot nor the kettle in this | case is a dizzy blond. Both run heavily to the brunette shades. In the meantime, William Green of the A. F. of L. has publicly washed his hands of the sit-down atrike. He would. He is not running a class- conscious proletarian show. He is running an industrial bargain counter. It is the policy of the American Fed eration of Labor to bargain for each craft independently, and to let the other crafts take their turn at the boss’ desk when the time comes, The | Lewis organization rounds up all of labor in an industry, from the rousta- bouts to the skilled boys with trade secrets, and Lewis represents them All 49¢ 3 length...pure Silk | at the boss' table, a united tront with class-consclous political aims. With Crossed Fingers. ‘They have & half million in the presidential jack-pot and a quit-claim deed on Congress. No bargain counter is this outfit! The sit-down strike, while it is not & crime, is a trespass, a tort, which is a legal expression for a crime with its fingers crossed! The labor law now on the books, but pending in the Federal courts, was written under the eagle eve of Mr. Green in a day before John Lewis came Walliesimpsoning around the White House. The Wagner act is| aimed at the sharp practices of capi- tal; so today one is afraid and the other dassent, | When the country, that is to say, { unhypnotized public opinion, takes charge of Congress, the American | | people may demand and obtain, de-| | spite Mr. Lewis and Mr. Green, labor |laws similar to those which have | produced industrial peace under ap- | | proximate industrial justice in Great Britain. These laws make labor re- sponsible for its contracts and for | the acts of its accredited representa- | tives. These laws provide for arbitra- tion, but it is more or less com- ring Classes } SPANISH | Famous Conversational Berlitz Method THE BERLITZ SCHOOL OF LA Conn. A Rational 0 “Travelers’ Cours pulsory on each side, something which labor today shrinks away from. But tomorrow also is a day. These laws will eventually come out of the heart of & middle class republic when it takes its eyes off the snake charmer. Tomorrow the laws affecting strikes, both sit-down and stand-up, will con- tain some consideration of the rights of the third party to the strike, the consuming public, the middle class, the petit bourgeoisie, if you must have the proleiarian name for us. In that fair day when we have such a body of unbiased legislation, government itself will have the right to initiate investigations. Govern- ment will proceed to grab both parties of a menacing industrial disturbance by the scruff of the neck and the slack of the trousers and bump their beans together and set them down hard on it. And so afflant will ever pray. (Copyright, 1937, by the North American Newspaper Alliance nc.) ‘HORROR PUBLICITY’ ON TRAFFIC IS HIT “More Policemen” Is Way to Cut Accidents, Council Head Says. BY the Associated Press. NEW YORK, April 2—In the opin= fon of W. H. Cameron, managing di- rector of the National Safety Council, it's going to take something more than “horror publicity” to cut the Nation’s traffic toll. “A flash in the pan” and ‘‘not very effective” were some of the words he used today in discussing such weapons as the much-discussed book, “And Sudden Death,” in driving home the lesson of safety to the motoring public. “More policemen on the road” is Cameron’s answer. “The average individual shies at the word regimentation,” he said, “but he has to face it more and more in traffic controls. The individual must learn to obey traffic signs, not to jay= walk, and to observe speed limits when driving. There are going to be more policemen on the road to enforce speed | laws” Cameron sailed on the Bremen to- day to attend the National Safety Con- ference in Amsterdam. Bncks Huxled by Chmese. As a protest against the new tax on bicycles 50 Chinese in Singapore, Malaya, threw bricks through the windows of the vehicles registration Aloohel 197 to 2% by Velume Roma Wine & Liquer Co., Was J TO THE TOP \)r ONE PRICE JgBeCk 1315 F YOUR HAT ST. N.W. CAROLE LOMBARD IN PARAMOUNT'S 4, M Now Showing Locally 9 OUT OF 10 SCREIN STARS USE LUX TOILET SOAP 1937, ays MY COMPLEXION SOAP- Lux ToiLeT Soap- MAKES A WONDERFUL BEAUTY BATH WHEN 1 STEP OUT MY SKIN (S SOFY AND SMOOTH- DELICATELY FRAGRANT. YOU'LL LovEe LuxToiLer SOAPS PERFUME! Hollywood’s Beauty Bath protects daintiness... EVERY girl knows how important it is to keep skin sweet. It’s only then you can be sure you are attractive! 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