A VOICE CRIES OUT:
WHAT'S WRONG WITH ORGANIZED LABOR?
Has it,
after all, contributed to a permanently better world, or
-- ?
THE UNION worker, as
well as the capitalist, executive and all of us, stands
today on the very brink of human extinction!
Right now we're all in
the same boat, facing the No. 1 problem of human
survival!
There has to be a CAUSE
for every effect. What brought civilization to the
chaotic state where for the first time it's possible for
man to erase mankind from the earth?
We're looking, in this
series, at six major facets of man's civilization. We
covered modern education first, because the leaders are
what education made them, and civilization is the product
of the leaders. We've covered the contributions of
government, of science and technology, of business and
industry. And now, organized labor.
What has been organized
labor's part in the development of today's civilization?
Surely, when we look at
the progress made during the 20th century, labor's
achievements have been incredibly good?
Modern organized labor
has produced the highest living standard for the common
man -- for the nation as a whole -- ever enjoyed in any
country since man has inhabited this earth. It has
shortened work hours, increased pay, brought fabulous
benefits compared to labor conditions as they existed
previously -- and still exist in most countries. One of
the great contributions has been child labor laws.
But conversely,
unrealized by most, labor has contributed its share to
the chaotic state of the country and of the world.
One might not think,
until looking more deeply, that organized labor has
contributed its share to the present problems of
unemployment, inflation, the inroads foreign competition
has made in these areas -- and now setting in, the
lowering of the American high living standard.
Early in the 20th
century American industry got the jump on that of other
nations, with mass machine assembly-line production, made
possible by the American mass market. This greatly
lowered production cost, and as greatly expanded profits.
Industrial ownership here would have followed the English
custom, in the human-nature pull to "GET"
rather than share or "GIVE." In Britain the
rich lived in the "great houses" maintaining
low-cost labor.
But the labor unions
went all out to "GET" all possible from the
enormous new mass-production system.
Labor wars ensued.
Historically were the "Herrin massacre" coal
strike, Herrin, Ill., in which 36 were killed, June,
1922; the Los Angeles "Times" bombing, and
other labor wars of extreme violence.
A new "GET"
economic philosophy infiltrated labor unionism. No longer
was a single company a "team" where all worked
together against rival competition. Even that had been
based on the "GET" incentive. But now capital
and management became the enemy of labor.
It may have been true
that a union man often was a more proficient worker than
a nonunion. But that was because unions enlisted the more
skilled, not because unionism encouraged or taught them
to climb the ladder of success. Too often a union leader
said to an employee, "Slow down, there, buddy -- or
we'll all have to work as conscientiously as you
are!"
I remember the
philosopher-writer Elbert Hubbard, whom I well knew,
writing, "Unionism chains the laborer to his
bench," and the theory "once a laborer, always
a laborer," with no policy in unionism to inspire
and help the working man to rise to higher status in
life.
Yet where is organized
labor different than those in other facets of a bankrupt
and annihilation-facing civilization? Are not capital and
management in it, also, for what they can
"GET"?
The world forgets -- or
did it ever know? -- that peace, happiness, contentment,
joy, are spiritual qualities! There is a basic spiritual
LAW in relentless motion that governs all life! It
governs not only these spiritual conditions of
well-being, but universal economic prosperity as well!
That basic LAW is, simply, outflowing LOVE! I simplify it
by the term "GIVE" and its transgression the
way of "GET."
"GET" seems
to have got us all! The "GET" incentive is the
root CAUSE of all the world's troubles and evils!
The way of
"GIVE," cooperate, serve, help, share, is the
basic spiritual LAW of our Maker! The world has been
trying to beat that law -- and is being beaten by it!
The supremely powerful
invisible "Strong Hand from Someplace" very
soon is going to intervene dynamically to save humanity
from itself -- before MAN blasts mankind from the earth!
This voice is crying out with that announcement -- the
world's ONLY and SURE HOPE!
Whether believed or
not, it is as SURE as the rising and setting of
tomorrow's sun.
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