Evening Star Newspaper, July 19, 1937, Page 9

THE EVENING STAR, —— Right to Fire C.1.O.Striker Is Issue Contract Violators in Factories Nullifying Union’s Gains. BY DAVID LAWRENCE. ENERAL MOTORS and the C. I. O. have come to a stale- mate. Administration offi- cials have been watching the situation with increasing concern, for it has demonstrated conclusively that the C. I. O. leaders cannot control thelr men and that at least one of the major con- tracts signed by & the representa- ; tives of the C. I § O. was not worth 3§ the paper it was ‘§ written on The Nation w learn amazement a prolonged strike sulting in nomic losses not § only to iny and owners but David Lawrence, not res for the pr pages of wo £ponsible persor The ‘“sit-dowr been declared but the ri men to moment’s n ations on an plant or terials in one efficiency of with waited ive groups of the in vain for some responsibility to be i law or by the force of Issue Now Clarified. Today the issue has been cla It is not a q eral Motor with the ¢ groups of their wo fied a contract | entatives of | For Gen- no less the C. I. O. cials have clusion that March 11 con because that contract them to be \ xchanged between the union of and the General N tion has been the matter at s officials cials of thi of Labor he and others with the course of the negotiations, it has been ascertained that the follow- ing provision of the contract signed by the C. I. O. has been violated 200 times: “Shot any differences arise over grievances there shall be no suspen- slons or stoppages of work until ever: effort has been exhausted to adjt them through the regular grievance procedure, and in no case witho approval of the international officers of the union.” Admits Terms Tgnored. The C. I. O. concedes that the 200 strikes have been cajed without the epproval of the union officers and that the grievance procedure outlined in the original agreement has been {gnored. But the C. I. O. asks that the con- tract be renewed just the same and promises to make its men behave. The General Motors officials do not want to take any more chances and are insisting on the only safeguard that can be effective, namely to fire the men who break the union agree- ment with the compan; The corporation has suggested to the C. I O. a provision w 3 that until after all the steps set forth in the grievance procedure have been complied with, no shall be called and there shall be no refusal to work or stoppage of production in whole or in part, due to the union, its officials or members, and that for & violation of this provision t P forthwith discha otherwise discipline the guilty of the violation. stipulated that the unions shall take suitable disciplinary action against the parties responsible. This presents & new angle to the question of imposing responsibility on iabor unions. Will the union agree to this? Homer Martin of the C. I. O. has written a conciliatory letter, just made public in Detroit, which says the union is “prepared to co-operate and assist” the company in its position on the matter of discharge of employes “when the issue involves productive efficiency.” Many excuses are given by Mr. Mar- tin for the outbreak of 200 strikes and stoppages, but there is a frank eonfession that the violations oc- curred. The C. I. O. leadership now is denouncing such interruptions, but 18 unwilling apparently to put its name on the dotted line to the only method whereby discipline and re- sponsibility can be fixed. There is a way to solve the dead- lock. It is by the assumption of financial responsibility by the unions for the losses they incur through un- suthorized strikes or by acceptnig the proposal that instigators of “wildcat” strikes shall be fired automatically from their jobs and from the unions. (Copyright, 1937.) Smuggled Goods Seized. British customs officers seized 3,365 pounds of smuggled tobacco and 165 gallons of liquor in the last year. ~he BEST MOVE YOUVEVER MADE Brcbaete Comit frams o ge or employes ¥ WZYTITT TRANSFER e STORAGE (O 6900 920 E ST NW. What’s Back of It All “Loopholes” Sprout in Social Security Tax Laws. Delinquency Is Major Problem to Collectors. BY H. R. BAUKHAGE. HE income tax collectors aren't the only members of the Treasury Department who are worried about “loopholes.” The men who have to garner social security taxes are finding that there are old dogs who have learned new tricks {n this field, too. It isn't admitted officially and no figures are available, but here is one dodge that is being used. A man who always thought he had been a salesman, was treated as such, suddenly awoke one morning and discovered that he was a dealer. A dealer, of course, wouldn't be in the employe category and there- fore his company would not have to pay taxes on him under the old- age pension and unemployment in- surance provisions of the social se= curity act, But it isn't evasion that’s worrying the social security tax collectors 4o much as de- linquency. At least, so they say. Right now collections are $58,000,000 short of estimates made a year ego and covering what it was hoped would roll into the Treasury in the first siz months ajter the law became eflective, ‘The Internal Revenue Bureau isn't getting ready to sharpen its knives for these delinquents. It knows human nature and it thinks it knows why the people have been slow to pay. First, these are brand-new taxes to a lot of people who never paid & Federal tax before. They are Just putting off doing anything about them until they get a little jolt. Second, corporations delayed remitting until the Supreme Court be- latedly decided that they had to by upholding the social security law. Large bodies move slowly. Whole new accounting systems have to be devised, new departments organized. General Motors alone, it is reported, is spending $5,000,000 annually to meet the requirements of the law, quite aside from the tax itself. * K % x As Washington awaits the first velley in the new court bill fight, it is beginning to hear rumblings from the business world over the efforts of the Johnstown Citizens’ Committee to build a national organization on the back-to-work movement. While it was cxpected that this attempt, backed by one of the large professional money-raising firms of New York, would awaken tie shouts of fascism on the left, the aloofness of leading business men come as a rather cold douche to the Johnstowners. Only, of ~ourse, there won't be any official statement on the subject, Howev the composite view reaching Washington of representative groups including the smaller business men and the industrialist as well as the “in-betweens” can be stated as approximately thi 1. The Johnstown Committee did a good job for “law and order” and for the “ri to-work™ when it lined up solidly against the C. I. O. in the “little steel” strike in its own bailiwick in Pennsylvania 2. To attempt to ild a national organization, pledged to such a program, would simply be an “extremist movement” which would help the cause of the “extremists” on the labor side. 3. A plan which worked in Johnstown might not necessarily work elsewhere and could therefore do harm rather than good if applied * oK ok ok ¥y whose word carries plenty of weight in the business hsafed as his personal opinion that the attempt to nationalize the Johnstown Committee was the one “error” in the whole campaign against the C. I. O. organizers. Quite & different view is reflected by members of the Senate Civil Lib= Committee, and one that might be more cheering to the Johnstowners. Some of these men who have been battling for the civil liberties of ith no little apprehension at what they term “the vigi- They see it as a hi effective weapon in capital- gators for the committee point out that in the “little * no strike-breakers were involved, that the militia when d by the strikers and yet the strike was broken by wise insist that it was not a spontaneous campaign based on public opinion, but a carefully pre- pared, directed and systemat program based on the use of eco- nomic pressure. As an example, they call atten- tion to the report that ome of the largest dry goods stores in Johns- town discharged a large number of employes at the beginning of the strike and warned the remainder that if the strike continued they might have to go too. They have no machinery for proving such charges at present, Just as the committce members were ready to boast that they broken up the detective agencies hired for labor espionage strike-breaking. this new method appeared on the scene. They are pri- vately admitting that so far they can find no plan of attack upon it— couldn’t at present carry one on anyhow since the committee's funds have beerr exhausted. had and (Copyright, 1837.) WASHINGTON, D. C. MONDAY, JULY 19, 1937. THE opinions of the writers on this page are their own, not necessarily The Star’s. Such opinions are presented in The Star’s effort to give all sides of questions of interest to its readers, although such opinions may be contradictory among themselves and directly opposed to The Star’s. We, the People C. I. O. Must Learn Not to Step on Public’s Toes. BY JAY FRANKLIN. T SEEMS to be considerably easier for a Senator to pass through the eye of a needle than it is for a writer to comment impartially on the “little civil war” in the steel belt, under the auspices of the C. I. O. In particular, npw that John L. Lewis appears to be losing the steel strike, there is danger that both sides to the controversy will become more extreme. The C. I. O. is making the same mistake in 1937 that the A. F. of L. made in 1934. Bill Green relied upon Roosevelt and the N. R. A. for a quick organization of industry. His failure cleared the way for Lewis and the “industrial union.” In 1937, Lewis relied upon Roosevelt and the labor relations act for a quick clean-up. Moreover, his agreements with such corporations as General Motors and United States Steel may well have implied an obligation to unionize mru" competitors. Whether it was due to the mass psychology generated by a series of easy victories or to other causes, the C. I. O. tried to go too far too fast—as the event showed. It did not develop the experience, the descipline or the inner organization to hold many of its gains. It had not had the time to do so and now is paying the usual price of inexperience. Newspaper Guild an Example. Take one very simple example: The newspaper guild, meeting at St. Louis, decided suddenly to join the C. I. O. and to become an industrial union for every one outside the mechanical de- partments of newspapers. Guild members had never been consulted on this important point and the guild had not done so well for the newspaper writers that there could be any just fication in collecting dues from people in the business, advertising and circu- lation department. The guild is in its infancy as a labor organization and yvet assumed to organize everybody in journalism out- side of the typographical unions. This not only does not constitute intelliger unionism but caused alarm in publi ing circles which feared—newspaper being the most vulnerable of comm cial properties—the spread of str |5 g 2 The point here is not that is was wrong of the guild to act as it did, but that it was stupid to take on more than it was equipped to handle. Another matter which shows the relative inexperience of the C. I O. as & whole is the appearance of strikes in service industries where maximum interference with the public is en- tailed by a stoppage of work. Any strike which affects light, water, power, communications, food trans- portation, is & strike against the pub- lic. Its success is due to that very fact, whereas strikes in steel, automobiles, textiles, affect the operators first and the public only when the loss of in- dustrial pay rolls and general vio- lence and confusion entail hardship on the community. Should Aveid Public Hostility. It should be an axiom with the C, to employ every tactic and to shape its strategy so as to minimize interference with the general public and to retain public sympathy as long as possible, Its strikes should be better organized if a quick decision is desired, and just as no sane gen- eral desires a long war so should union organizers seek to avoid long strikes. Here again there is no issue of right or wrong. There is a problem in public relations for labor, as well as for industry. The cultivation of good will is a commercial necessity in American ind , the appearance of vigllantism in the strike regions sug- Rests that the cultivation of good will is becoming a political necessity for organized labor. John L. Lewis could benefit by em- ploying an Ivy Lee or a Bruce Barton ape his policies with relation to on and to political events rican labor a good deal of wandering in the wilderness ahead of it, even if the New Deal has helped it across the red sea of the depres- on. The time for great, undirected surges of unionism has passed. Many recent g will be jeopardized un- less the C. I. O. reali has alv nnecessary ever been the lightened le: ns or bloody bat- k of en- INDUSTRY SPENDS HEAVILY ON PLANTS $378.000,000 Secured in First Six | Months of Year for Basic Improvement. By the Assoct Securities Commission records showed today that business recovery sent industry to the financial markets for $378,000.000 to finance expansion of plants, equipment and inventories during the first half of this year. Registration statements disclosed plans to build new paper mills in Florida and Washingtan, copper plants in Arizona, distillery ware- houses in Indiana, chemical plants in the East, roofing plants in New ed Press. Jersey, p in Connec During the half year companies met legal requirements ties calling for $113,000,000 on plant and eq 5,000,000 to be added o 1 and spent for expansion or purposes. Officials described | these two types of issues as ‘new | money” financing, as distinguished | from refu debt retirement or investment. Y for selling securi- to be me ork- similar Seven Hurt in Bus Fire. SIOUX FALLS. S. Dak.. July 19 (), —A score of passengers, returning from a dance, were injured yesterday when a bus struck another ahead of it The first bus plunged into a ditch and | caught fire. Seven of those hurt were | in hospitals IT'S SWELL TO FEEL SWELL! OUTER JACKET OF “CELLOPHANE™ OPENS FROM THE BOTTOM They Stay Fresh.. . We keep a carton of Old Golds on our boat, and the last pack is always as fresh and delicious as the first, thanks to your double Cellophane wrapping. Their freshness, we think, tnakes Old Golds more wholesome. Frank Hovey Smith, New Haven Yacht Club, New Haven, Conn, INNER JACK OPENS FR This Changing World Hull Formulates New American Credo on Interna- tional Problems. BY CONSTANTINE BROWN. NEW American credo regarding international problems was for- mulated last Priday by Secretary Hull. ‘There 15 no question, like in the past, of saying that this coun- try “while deeply concerned with the distressing situation in other parts of the world . . . considers these problems as the problems of those nations alore and hopes that they will sometime gee the light of the day,” etc, etc, etc. This was the stereotype sentence used for many years by Secretaries of State and by the White House when it could no longer hide behind the classical “There {8 no comment” in answer to inquisitive news- papermen or to discreet diplomats. * * % X Secretary Hull told the world Priday night that if a regular war breaks out anywhere in the world, the United States is bound to feel its reper- cussions; consequently, while not prepared to go as far as to make al- llances with other nations or com- mit ourselves beforenand to any definite action “if any when,” the Government of this country is deeply concerned about the turn of events in Europe and in Asia. * x k% The Secretary of State's credo was issued at a time when the sit- uation in China appears once more hopeless and the situation in Europe, although momentarily less spectacular, is still worse. Whether the European powers will heed the warning of the Secretary of State is another matter. * K Kk Despite the apparent very grave situation in China, there are many students of China who still don't believe there will be a clash between Chiang Kai-shek's well-trainec forces and those of the Japanese. The reason for this s that Chiang is not likely to risk defeat at a time when his main endeavor is to consolidate the country and build himself a powerful army. The Chinese have a diflerent psy- chology about time than people in the West or even the Japanese. The immediate future is of no consequence to them. The Japanece penetration of the Asiatic mainland is considered by many intellectual Chinese as something temporary. Within the next 20, 50 or 100 years, they £ay, the Japanese will either be absorbed by the Chinese masses or kicked out of Manchuria, Korea, etc. * * ¥ % In the meantime, Chiang Kai-shek is busy strengthening his military forces and organizing his aviation at great expense. It seems unlikely that he will risk the work of many years now in order ‘to p! into the hands of the Japanese and fight them Chiang is concerned with his own prestige, which is very high just now. But his popularity would disappear overnight should his we! traired divisions suffer a military defeat * x ox ¥ It Is only recently that what is purported to be the truth of Chiang Kai-shek's kidnaping by Marshal Chang has come out. According to these reports the young and corrupt marshal agreed to kidnap his superior of- ficer in order to help his popularity. Chiang was kidnaped and held by his arch enemy. Evervbodv ex- pected him to be assassinated. Then suddenly the two men ret by airplane to Nanking and Chang throws himself at the mercy of the Nan- king authorities. “I was a criminal and a madman.” he said, “to dare put my hands on the beloved and honored head of the country. Do whatever you like I am ready to stand And the high court f e inflicted upon him the supreme punishment, while the head of the government, Chiang, according 1o previous arrange- ments, pardoned him. A few weeks later, with a fat bank account, the voung marshal proceeded to lands more amusing and interesting than having a grand time it to the Chi dares ricak ang Kai-shek, who is “as wise as the owl and as sly as the e Japanese to draw him into a wasp's nest and sting doubtful. fox,” will allow him, appears sti “HALO” HATS BANNED Louisville Priest Declares Them James Catholic Church and vicar- general of the Louisville diocese frowned on the open crown top pieces | expressing doubt that the so-called hats were adequate head covering un- der the church laws. “I understand these (hats) are called halos,” Father Willett said. "I “Inadequate’ for Churches. LOUISVILLE, Ky. July 19 P “Halo" hats—the latest feminine headgear craze were banned yester- day as “inadequate” for wear in Cath- | am sorry that the ladies here will have olic churches of Louisville [to wait until they get to Heaven be- Father E. E. Willett, pastor of St.| fore they can wear their halos.” It's swell to know, after a long day Who’s Who Behind the News Gov. Townsend of In. diana Has Been New Deal Backer From Start BY LEMUEL PARTON. OV. M. CLIFFORD TOWN- SEND of Indiana got & bad press on his announcement that Senator Frederick Van Nuys would be derailed by the Indi- ana Democratic organization because of his opposition to the President's court plan. Each side in the eourt melee has been charging the other with unseemly conduct in picking up |the fight before Senator Robinson's | funeral and Gov. Townsend gets his | share of this opprobrium. His state- [ment was made after a conference with the Preside He was Lieutenant Governor and became Governor with thLe retirement of Gov. McNutt, January 11, of this year. He is a former teamster, factory | worker, fa T, rural school teacher and county superintendent of schanl deriving his poli engih mai m rural dist He was director and organizer c Indiana Farm Bureau from 1 His first, venture in pc to the State cal s the slities Assemb] rst turn in He has cc s electior in 1923. This 1e national spot- derable strength He beral in po- as an ardent alumnus of Marion College been noted that the extre: technolog: rtunity either r aid her husband's an exception in Dr. Ka loped technicolor | had a hand in | May Extend Jobs Insurance. Britain may extend its u me irance to persons in ecertain | kinds of domestic service, other than | in private households A“one brand cigarette” girl...I really didn't THE TOP of hiking, that the Old Gold you light will be fresh as a daisy. It's the one cigarette we've found that doesn't o stale and get on the nerves. Howard A. White (Editor) and J. Bohannan (writer), Columbus, O. €1 OF “CELLOPHANE™ om | Seashore-proof . . . that's what we've found OId Golds to be! That double Cellophane wrapping keeps Old Golds fresh and untouched by the dampness that makes other cigarettes soggy and unfit to smoke. Fresh Double-Mellow Old Golds are our choice! Mrs, Marion C, De Freest (Registered Nurse), Atlantic City, N. J. IT'S THE EXTRA JACKET! = believe that an extra jacket of Cellophane could make me & “‘one brand cigarette” girl, but Old Golds are #o frech and delightful I've been won completely. They re a joy to smoke. Mrs. Earl J. Neff (jewelry desigrer) Cleveland, Ghio YOU CAN'T BUY A STALE OLD GOLD INE TOBACCOS are like star athletes. When they go stale F. . . both fail to deliver top performances. And it takes so little to spoil a cigarette's condition! A slight change in weather, an overlong wait on a dealer’s counter! Then dampness, dust and dryness get in their work. Flavor and aroma disappear. Tongue-bite and throat-irritation creep in. The cigarette neither tastes good nor s good for you! That is why the initial freshness of the rare prize crop to- baccos, blended into every Double-Mellow Old Gold, is safe- guarded by a special weather-tight package. Two jackets (instead of one) of finest moisture-proof Cellophane keep this package weather-tight. Thus, every Old Gold cigarette reaches your lips as fresh as the minute it was rolled. Rich in flavor. Mild and mellow. Cool and soothing to your throat. To keep in condition yourself . . . smoke cigarettes that are always in smoking condition. Smoke FRESH Old Golds! P. LORILLARD COMPANY, Inc. (Established 1760) Copyright. 1987, by P. Loriliard Ge., Ine. Every pack of Double-Mellow oL eoLbs is wrapped in Twa_jackets—double Cellophans. That EXTRA Jacket keeps oLD GoL0s In prime condition in any climate, You can’t buy a stale oud soLn.