AMERICA'S INDUSTRIAL TROUBLES.

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 130, 18 June 1937, Page 4

AMERICA'S INDUSTRIAL TROUBLES.

The frequent messages with regurd to Aianifestations of industrial unrest in the United States grow more portentous as the weeks go by. There are continually increasing evidences of their assuming characters of violence and of disregaa'd of the law. To such an extent has this phase developed that there seems some prospect of needing to invoke measures of niaxtial law in order to quell consequent disturbances that are scarcely distinguishable from riots. In reading tbe news thus received it is essential to - understand that in America trade unionism has secured no such recognition as has for very niany years been accorded to it by legislation in most British communities, and probably in greatest measure in Australia and New Zealand. Here both the right of collective bargaining and preference to unionists have been long established. By our present Government, membership of a trade union has, indeed, been made eompulsory in order to secure employment in most of our industries and services. In the United States it is only within the last year or so that provision for collective hargaining has found a place on the Statute Book. The right to this has now been specifically granted by the Labour Relations Act, popularly known as the Wagner • Act, from the name of its chief sponsor in Congress. This enactment, hailed as the Magna Charta of trade-unionism in Almerica, not only recognises the right of the workers to collective hargaining, but also sets up machinery — something akin to our own Industrial Gonciliation and Arbitration Court — to ensure that unions can function effectively for this purpose. Incidentally it may be noted that this Act of the Federal Legislature was for some time regaxded as being "unconstitutional" because of it being an infringement of the rights of the individual State Legislatures. A judgment of the Supreme Court has, however, established its validity and it is now in full operation. Under it the "company unions," which alone most big employers recognised, have been practically outlawed. The hargaining authority has now been vested in the unions representing the majority of the workers in each industry, the Labour Relations Board acting as a court of reference for the settlement of differences. It was confidently expected that this legisaltion, which had the full blessing of President Roosevelt, in fact, was inspired by him, would go f ar towa,rds calming the serious industrial troujbles that were pervading the land. Far from this being the case, it would seem only to have acted as an incentive to still more militant demonstrations of Labour 's undoubtedly disruptive powers. This development is mainly attributable to the rise of a new trade ,union leader, John L, Lewis, who is bent on securing for his Committee of Industrial Organisation — the . *'0.1.0." of the cable messages^— something like universal control in all industries throughout the countyy — much, it: may bo ?aid in pagsing, in the same way as centralised control in & National Federation is now being sought in this Dominion. Mr. Lewis's orgnisation would seem to be on the eve of cpmpletely displacjng the old American Federation of Labour (the "A.F.L."), led by Mr, William Qyeen, whose coixnsels to h.is follp\yers have alwayg taken much more moderate shape. The President can scarcely but be badly disappointed at the turn events are taking, though there were prpphets who foretold that legal recognition wpuld prphably have the effect of ineiting to further forceful exhibitions of power on the part of organised labour. The responsibility may not lie altogether on the side of the wage-earners. The big employers have also shown tliemselves as being at least very reluctant to accept the new law, in which, they allege, essential safeguards for the interests of their industries have not been provided. For instance, one of to-day's messages points out that the unions alone are allowed recourse to the couvts ih order to have agreements or awards enforced, certainly on the face of it a rather lop-sided position in which to be placed. • The President has so far refrained from any personal interyention in the many strike movements that are in progress, but it looks very much as if he would be compelled to some sort of action, if only in support of what is virtually his own legislation. There are aJ$o symptoms of a party political organisation in the Labour ranks. This is also something entirely new in the United States and cannot but occasion serious misgivings to both Democrats and Repkblieans, who have hithertp had things very much to themselves in electoral eontests.