THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by The
NOME PUBLISHING CO.
Nome. Alaska
Telephone: Main 125 P. O. Box 613
$1.50 PER MONTH $16.00 A YEAR
W. A. and EMILY BOUCHER.Editors
Entered as second class matter Octooer 14, 1943. at the postoffice at
Nome, Alaska, under the Act of March 3, 1379.
Friday, June 14, 1946 |
THE REAL LABOR PROBLEM *
THE ADMINISTRATION S so-called ‘‘labor policy”
appears to be confused and aimless only if it is
viewed as separate and distinct from anything else
that goes on in Washington.
It takes on a very different aspect when it is con
sidered in conjunction with almost every other admin
istration “policy.”
It is the same nature as the New Deal’s reconver
sion program, by which the supply of merchandise—
from fuels and raw materials to finished products, from
the farms and cattle ranges to the meat packers and the
dairy kitchens, from the cotton fields and wool yards
to the textile mills to the clothing shops—is bossed
from the capital by the Administrator of Civilian Pro
duction. by the Office of Price Administration and by
the Economic stabilizer.
It embodies the same spirit and purpose as the
administration’s housing plans and a long list of sim
ilar legislative schemes, ranging from socialized medi
cine and federal control of scientific research to vast
centralized satrapies supplanting state and local gov
ernments in the great river valleys.
It belongs in the same catagory as the British
loan agreement and the use to Export-Import Bank
funds, the actual effect of wrhich will be to create an
international trade organization in which American fi
nance, industry and commerce will be subjected to bur
eaucratic domination abroad as well as at home.
The policy is, in fact, one segment of a complete
system of controlled economy that is being riveted
part by part upon the uncomprehending nation by di
verse and devious methods.
At present this “labor policy” is being enforced
in the cause of “emergency measures” to deal with
the long series of demoralizing strikes in vital indus
tries.
I
President Truman’s “temporary” and anti-strike;
bill would have given congressional sanction to the
“policy” for an indeterminate period.
Within that period “permanent” legislation was toj
be prepared: and, with so much power already exer-;
cised by the government, it is a foregone conclusion
that the “permanent” law would simply make the em
ergency permanent.
The essence of the New Deal’s postwar labor pol- '
icy is governmental wage-fixing.
The wage-fixing is accomplished by the device of;
government seizure of private property in which a
strike occurs—a peacetime misuse of a wartime power
which was first flagrantly and unconstitutionally ab
used in the Montgomery Ward seizure.
Having seized a plant or industry, the administra
tion substitutes “government operation” for private
operation.
The next step is for the government to “settle”
the strike—itself determining, acceptably to the labor
bosses, the wage rates and working conditions of the
men by a pretense of “collective bargaining.”
When that has been done, the owners and opera
tors who have no voice in the strike settlement, can
recover their properties only by accepting the terms
which the government and the labor bosses have made.
There is no assurance, in law or elsewhere, that
oo«w< tw ggvoumow
the settlements will be such as the affected industries
will be iinanciaily able to sustain—the alternative pro
spect being continuous government operation, or gov
ernment ownership.
In his “emergency” anti-strike bill, the President
proposed a still further usurpation—that any “profits”
accruing during government operation should not be
left to the business but should be retained by the gov
ernment.
Here is a form of outright confiscation the like of
which has never before been suggested by an American
administration. •
There is a way—an American way—of solving the
labor problem, but it is not the New Deal’s way.
FIRST, legislation is needed to abolish the inequi
ties and racketeering evils inherent in the Wagner Act.
SECOND, the corrupt practices acts must be ap
plied in politics against labor unions as well as business
corporations.
THIRD, labor unions should be required to incor-!
porate, to hold honest elections, and to account for
thetir funds.
FOURTH, labor unions as well as employers should
be held legally liable for breach of contract.
FIFTH, the equity powers of the courts to issue
injunctions in strikes, especially against illegal actions,
should be fully restored.
SIXTH, judicial tribunals to hear and determine
as arbitrators all labor disputes should be established
—impartial courts to which labor or industry could
readily resort, just as citizens now appeal to civil!
courts for the redress of grievances and settlement i
of disputes, instead of “taking the law’’ violently into
their own hands.
Two things must be abolished—(1) governmental
seizure, by executive orbers, of private property andi
(2) wage-fixing by governmental bureaucracies or;
political appointees.
If, on the other hand, the federal government;
is to have permanent power to determine wages, then j
also the federal government must have permanent;
power to fix prices and to control all the process of pro
duction and distribution.
This is obviously the power the New Deal wants
—and is really using now—because it is a part of the
New Deal’s entire program of socialism and regimen
tation.
This is exactly what the New Deal must not have
if the American people are to become again a free1
people and if our matchless economic and social prog-'
ram is to be resumed.
Washington
! News Letter
ALASKA SHIPPING
Moving to insure continuation
; of government operation of ves
sels in the Alaska trade until a
! long-range federal policy can be
determined. Delegate Bartlett has
strongly advocated enabling funds
be made available beyond Dec
ember 31, 1946.
The present Navy Appropria
tions bill, now before the Senate
Appropriations Committee, con- y
i tains a provision stipulating that
all unexpended funds of War
Shipping Administration, the gov
ernment agency now operating the
vessels, be returned to the Uni
ted States Treasury on the last
day of this year. The House
Merchant Marine and Fisheries
Committee has joined Delegate
Bartlett in his belief that this ac
tion would be “chaotic and injur
ious” both to the nation and to
the Territory The committee
has submitted a resolution to the
Senate committee urging that
funds be appropriated for either
the Maritime Commission or the
War Shipping Administration to
continue the operation of vessels
to and from Alaska until June
30, 1947, or “until such time as
the Congress by appropriate leg
islation shall specifically provide
for the operation of vessels in that
service, or until such time as the
Maritime Commission shall deter- j
mine that these vessels can be re
turned to private operation with
out jeopardizing continued serv
ice to Alaska at reasonable rates.”
In requesting the Senate com
mittee to act favorably on his
recommendation, Delegate Bart
lett stated:
"The owners of the vessels ser
ving the Alaska trade are not
willing to return to private op
eration until substantial rate in
creases are allowed. These in
creases, as projected, would be
so great as to do untold economic
harm to Alaska, to bring to an
abrupt end all hopes for develop
ment of the Territory, and to in
crease the price of living there
so much that it is likely popula
tion would diminish rather than
increase. The aditional costs
such increases would entail would
fall heavily upon the federal gov
ernment which i^ anually requir
ed to ship a considerable tonnage
to Alaska.
“At the present time there is
pending before the United States
Maritime Commission an invest
igation which has, I believe, for
its purpose solution of the very
perplexing problem of water
transportation between the United
States and Alaska. Likewise, a
subcommittee of the House Mer
chant Marine and Fisheries Com
mittee has been appointed to make
a study and to report back to the
full committee and to Congress.
The House Merchant Marine Com
mittee hearing was held in May,
and a preliminary hearing of the
House Merchant Marine subcom
mittee took place last week; it
will be followed by subsequent
hearings in Seattle, Vfashington,
and in Juneau, Alaska. Natur
ally, it will be impossible for the
Maritime Commission and the
House subcommittee to make re
ports and for those reports to be
translated into effective action