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Interviews
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box: 563
folder: 13
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1949 to 1955
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VOL.
JANUARY
SUNDAY,
II
to Know
Youth Wants
WALTER
President
NO.
17, 1954
3
Presents
REUTHER
of the
CIO
McCORMICK
STEPHEN
Moderator
RANSDELL
Inc.
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PRINTERS
and
PUBLISHERS
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WASHINGTON,
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The National Broadcasting Company presents
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that the future of America rests with the young people of our nation,
and to help resolve some of the questions in their minds, here is
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Mr. McCormick.
producer of YOUTH WANTS TO KNOW.
The Taft-Hartley law hit the headlines once
Mr. McCormick:
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course of action.
Today, we are very fortunate indeed in having a first-hand reaction to these proposals from a prominent spokesman for labor,
Mr. Walter Reuther, President of the CIO, the Congress of Industrial
Organizations.
Something else to incite interest is an article appearing in the
January issue of the Reader’s Digest, America’s most widely read
magazine, which deals with our subject, today. It is a very important
one, and I am sure you all want to read it, “The Rights and Wrongs
It deals at length with the probof Labor,” by Donald R. Richberg.
lems of business and labor.
Well, Mr. Reuther, the young people who have gathered here
today, under the auspices of the National Public Relations Division
of the American Legion, have many questions for you, so, shall
we begin?
Miss CoUNSER: My name is Joan Counser.
How do you think labor has fared during this first year of the
Eisenhower administration?
Of course, it is rather early to determine how
Mr. REUTHER:
labor has fared under the Eisenhower administration, because in a
real sense, the administration has not really carried out its legislaThat really is before Congress, now, and we’ll know
tive program.
more about how labor is faring at the end of this session of Congress.
We, of the CIO, have said all along that we will judge the Kisenhower administration not by what it does to labor, in the narrow
sense, but we will judge the Eisenhower administration based upon
how it deals with the problems of all of the American people, because
we believe that labor can make progress only as all the people make
progress in America.
My name is Edna Brennan.
MISS BRENNAN:
I would like to know what program the CIO offers to help decrease the present rate of unemployment?
Well, Edna, this problem of unemployment, of
Mr. REUTHER:
I personally believe that the findcourse, is a very troublesome one.
ing of an answer as to how a free society can maintain full employment in peacetime, making the good things of life, is one of the most
basic problems that we in America must find an answer to. Organized
labor believes that if we will mobilize our productive power and
gear that to the unlimited needs of people, that we can find full emThereployment and full production for everyone in peacetime.
fore, we are gearing our efforts to finding a way to bring about a
If the
balance between productive power and purchasing power.
THREE
people have the money to buy the things they need, then the demand
will be there and full employment will be possible in peacecime.
Mr. CANTOR:
My name is Paul Cantor.
I would like to know if you feel that the present low unemployment rate is a ‘serious problem when the unemployment rate was
much higher in 1950 and nothing was done about it?
Well the size of unemployment is not the thing
Mr. REUTHER:
bothering people in America. The official figures are around 1,800,000,
The thing that
but I think the actual figure is nearer three million.
The
is important is not that there are a lot of people unemployed.
thing that is important is that we are drifting towards greater unemployment, and the kind of dynamic economy that we have, a free
economy, you cannot mark time; you either go forward or you slip
What we are concerned about is that the administration,
backwards.
to date, has not taken decisive, aggressive and realistic steps to insure
that the present trend will be stopped and that we can achieve full
employment.
Mr. CANTOR:
Mr. Reuther, you just said that the official figure
is 1.8 million, and you believe it is actually three million.
Why?
Well, what happens is that when jobs become
Mr. REUTHER:
scarcer, many people withdraw from the labor force, because the
kind of jobs they would want to take are not available, but those
people are still unemployed, although they are not reflected in the
That accounts for
official governmental figures for unemployment.
the discrepancy between 1.8 million and three million.
My name is Max Waxler.
Mr. WAXLER:
What are your views on the proposal to shift military contracts
to high unemployment areas?
I think that is a very sensible policy, and I think
Mr. REUTHER:
the government, in placing military contracts, should do what it
can to alleviate serious unemployment in certain areas of the country.
As soon as the government tries to do that, other people begin
to protest and there is a great deal of rumbling in the Senate and
House of Representatives about taking work from one section and
There
That indicates the basic problem.
giving it to another section.
Every American city
ought to be enough work for every section.
ought to have full employment and every American, able and willing
to work, who wants to make a contribution, who is able to make a
contribution in creating greater economic wealth that we can all
share, ought to have such an opportunity.
That is why I believe—and I said many years ago that we, in
America, need a fifth basic freedom, and I call that freedom from
We divide up scarcity so long, and when
the fear of abundance.
you try to divide up unemployment, you are dividing up scarcity.
That
We need to learn to create and divide up abundance in America.
is the whole key to full production.
Mr. HUGHES:
My name is Everett Hughes.
What part is big business playing in the increase in unemployment?
t
FOUR
=~
I think that my criticism of big business is that
Mr. REUTHER:
there are too many big businessmen in America who are talking
That
about recession or depression or adjustments being inevitable.
is what the Communists are saying.
The Communists all over the
world are saying, in effect, that the American economy, this wonderful free economy of ours, is incapable of maintaining full employment and full production in peacetime.
The Communists say that
our prosperity was geared to the production of the armaments and
the instruments of war and destruction.
Now, some of the big businessmen are talking about a depression being inevitable, that we have to go through periodic adjustThe ComI say that they are wrong.
ments in our economic system.
munists are wrong and big businessmen who are singing that theme
They are manmade
Depressions are not inevitable.
song are wrong.
and what man can make, he can also avoid making.
I believe that neither war or peace is inevitable, nor depressions
I think you can drift into war, you can drift into a
or prosperity.
depression, but you have to work and build and sacrifice and pull
together the free people if we are going to have peace and prosperity.
My criticism of the big businessmen who are singing the same theme
song as the Communists, that depressions are inevitable, is that they
I have faith
have no faith in the future of the American economy.
in the future of the American economy.
I think our economy is
freedom’s greatest material asset.
I think if all groups demonstrate
the good sense of working together, labor, management, agriculture,
government, working together in peacetime, as we did in wartime,
we can find a way to achieve full employment, making the good things
of life for the people.
Mr. DUNLAP:
My name is James Dunlap.
I would like to know
fected by the President’s
if they are enacted?
Our
Mr. REUTHER:
itself, is a kind of negative
how you think organized labor will be afproposal to change the Taft-Hartley Act,
position on Taft-Hartley is that the law,
approach to problems that require a posi-
Therefore, we ought to make a clean start and get
tive solution.
back to the basic principles of the Wagner Act and reconstruct our
labor legislation around these basic principles, as set forth in the
Wagener Act.
Fundamentally, labor
You cannot legislate good labor relations.
and management must recognize the fact that there is no legislative
substitute for good faith at the bargaining table. Nor is there a
legislative substitute in a free society for the voluntary discharge of
We beresponsibility on the part of both labor and management.
lieve that the President’s recommendations do not deal with the
fundamental defects of the law.
Mr. DUNLAP:
In his proposal, President Eisenhower asked that
labor be polled before a strike, whether they would want to continue
the
strike.
If
this
to be taken, before
was
enacted,
when
would
or after the strike began?
FIVE
you
prefer
the
vote
Obviously, if you are going to have workers
Mr. REUTHER:
decide whether they are going on strike, you ought to have the vote
I think
before the strike and not after the strike is in progress.
here, again, the President does not understand this problem—and
it is understandable—President Eisenhower spent the major portion
Collective bargaining and laborof his life being a military man.
management problems, to him, are completely foreign.
People who advocate these kind of votes would have the public
believe that labor leaders call strikes without giving the workers
involved an opportunity to vote. Now, the union of which I am president, the Automobile Workers Union, has a constitutional provision.
Before workers can go on strike in our union, they must have a
special membership meeting and there, if by a majority vote, they
During that
vote to take a strike vote, then seven days has to pass.
seven days there is a great deal of publicity about the strike and then
there has to be a secret ballot vote—not by a majority, but twoSo you see, we are doing
thirds majority—to authorize a strike.
People who raise these issues would have you think that labor
this.
That is not true.
leaders just arbitrarily order the men on strike.
We have democratic votes.
Mr. McCormick:
Mr. Reuther, do you feel this provision should
be included in all union rules and regulations?
Mr REUTHER:
You see these things the workers have to work
out to meet their own problems.
If you have a democratic union in
which the membership is in control when they make these decisions,
then the protection that the workers are entitled to is there without
the need of legislation.
Under the Smith-Connally Act, the government took votes and the
same principle that the workers needed to have a democratic opportunity to determine whether or not they wanted to go on strike.
The
record shows the workers voted five to one overwhelmingly for that,
and the result was, since the taxpayers were being burdened with
the cost, millions of dollars for running these votes, they abolished
it because it wasn’t serving the question.
Miss ALLEN:
My name is Lois Allen.
I would like to know what do you think are the faults of the
President’s message to Congress?
Mr. REUTHER:
I felt the President’s message was rather vague.
He said a lot of fine things that I think every American can agree
with.
You cannot solve the problems of the world nor can you
strengthen American democracy and make a greater contribution
to solving the world problems by pious recitation of the basic principles.
You have to translate those into specific and tangible legislation.
Therefore, the real measure of the President’s speech, in
his State of the Union message, has to be judged after we see whether
or not the Republican Party will translate into specific legislation
the noble words that the President put in his speech.
Miss HOFFMAN:
My name is Mary Hoffman.
I would like to know if you think it is possible to amend the
Taft-Hartley Act, or do you feel it would have to be entirely repealed?
SIX
t
The CIO has said that we believe it ought to be
Mr. REUTHER:
We will support constructive
repealed, and we ought to start anew.
amendments that will try to make the law fairer and more workable.
Do you believe there is a possibility that
Mr. McCormick:
the law, itself, would be scrapped, Mr. Reuther?
I think that under the present political situation,
Mr. REUTHER:
that is rather remote.
My name is Helen Ann Cusik.
Miss Cusik:
Does labor approve any of the provisions of the Taft-Hartley
Law, especially those which tend to eliminate or correct some of
labor’s past abuses of their power?
There are certain principles in the Taft-Hartley
Mr. REUTHER:
Law that we do support, but we do not believe that it is a constructive approach to the basic problems of labor-management relations.
I have said many times that only if labor and management can find
a way to sit down across the bargaining table and carry out their
responsibilities not only to their own people, but to the community
as a whole, can we get a sensible approach to collective bargaining.
The Taft-Hartley Act is a negative
Now, you cannot legislate that.
approach to positive problems.
Now, when Hitler was in power in Germany, I lived in Germany
and I also lived in Russia, where I worked in a Ford plant there.
You can get industrial peace in a police state without justice, but in
a free society, where workers aspire to higher living standards, where
they want to give their children the kind of opportunities that every
child is entitled to, you can get industrial peace in a free society
only if it rests upon a foundation of economic and social justice.
Therefore, what we ought to do is to find the causes of strikes and
get behind those things and try to remove the causes, instead of
- trying to deal with these matters by negative legislation, such as the
Taft-Hartley.
Well, Mr. Reuther, isn’t the principle of the secMIss CUSIK:
ondary boycott contrary to our fundamental freedoms, and doesn’t
the Taft-Hartley Act help correct that abuse of labor?
Well, where a secondary boycott is used to proMr. REUTHER:
tect living standards, where companies are deliberately trying to
break strikes by farming out work, certainly, workers have a right
to use that technique to protect their living standards.
Now, I am opposed to abuses, but many of the things that TaftHartley tried to deal with are not in the realm of labor abuses.
Taft-Hartley is directed against the basic conception of free collecIf you want to eliminate the abuses—and I would
tive bargaining.
be the last person in the world to say there are not certain abuses—
and I have fought against those abuses—but it seems to me that
the real assurance that labor abuses will be stopped rests within the
It is up to the rank
ranks of the organized labor movement, itself.
and file membership to realize that as members of a union they
have responsibilities to see that their unions are clean, that they
are honest, that they are constructive, that they are socially responsible. The membership has to do that job, and nobody in Washington can do it by remote control.
SEVEN
.
Mr. McCormick:
Would you say progress has been made along
that line?
Mr. REUTHER:
I think you will find in CIO unions we have made
great progress.
You will find our unions are clean.
When I read
about gangsterism and bribery and corruption in the labor movement, I get sick at heart.
I think the way to handle that is to get
the members of the union awakened to their responsibilities, and
when you find a corrupt labor leader who takes a bribe, put him in
jail, and put the employer who gave him the bribe in the next cell.
That is the way to deal with these abuses.
JIM GARBER:
When Mr. Wilson was appointed Secretary of
Defense, he said whatever was good for General Motors was good
for the country.
I would like to know if you feel that whatever is
good for the CIO is good for America.
Mr. REUTHER:
At the last CIO convention in Cleveland that
we held several months ago, our big slogan was “What is good for
America is good for the CIO,” and we believe that, because you can’t
solve workers’ problems unless you work to solve the problems of all
the people.
What we believe that the CIO must do, and what we in the CIO
are trying to do, is to work with men of good will in all walks of
our community, and we want to work with them in order to find
common solutions to common problems, because only as we help
the other fellow solve his problems can we hope to solve our own.
Therefore, we agree completely that what is good for America is
good for the CIO.
RONALD
NUTTLE:
What is your opinion on the Union Shop that
many of our unions have forced on the businesses, so that a man
_ has to join the union or he doesn’t get a job?
Mr. REUTHER:
Well, Ronald, I would qualify my position on
the Union Shop with these two things: (1) if the Union is a democratic union and (2) if the workers by majority vote, through the
democratic expression of majority will, have decided on a union
shop, then it ought to be given because this only means that we are
applying the principle of majority rule to the industrial community.
Workers cannot solve their problems as individual workers.
They
cannot deal with the many complex problems in these great industries, and they have to have unions, of necessity.
Now if they are going to have a union and it is a democratic
union and by a democratic majority the workers decide they want
a union shop, then all the workers ought to help pay the cost of
maintaining the union, of processing grievances and doing all the
other things good democratic unions do for the membership.
RONALD NUTTLE:
Well, one man, if he doesn’t want to join a
union, should he be forced to?
Mr. REUTHER:
This is not a matter of force.
This is a matter
I would insist that if the majority
of the democratic majority.
of the workers in the plant had an organization that was clean,
honest, a democratic organization, and they said that every member
of this plant ought to pay his dues to pay for the cost of processing
EIGHT
iB
the grievances, of seeing to it that the working conditions and the
health conditions were maintained and protected, that every worker
in that plant ought to be morally obligated to pay dues just as every
You don’t say in the
citizen in the community has to pay taxes.
city, “Well, you can send your children to school, but you don’t have
to pay taxes.”
Everybody who derives benefits and the services of the community government has to pay taxes to make those services possible.
Now that same principle ought to apply inside of the industrial
This whole idea that only
It ought to be democratic.
community.
the labor bosses are in favor of union security is, of course, a lot of
When the Taft-Hartley law required elections sponsored
nonsense.
by the Government to find out whether workers wanted a union shop
provision, those elections proved that by better than 90 per cent,
the workers voted always for the union shop.
In the Ford plant, which was a good example, we had an elec88,000 workers voted for
tion there, on this union shop question.
the union shop and only 1,000 voted against it. This shows that this
gives them the practical, democratic tools through which they can
work together to do for themselves as a group what they cannot do
individually.
JIM HOLMES: How do you and the CIO feel about John L. Lewis’
support of Joseph Ryan and the ILA?
All the
You should ask Mr. Lewis about that.
Mr. REUTHER:
king’s horses and all the king’s men could not get me within ten
miles of Mr. Ryan and the people he has been associated with in
the ILA.
Do you feel, Mr. Reuther, that there was some
JIM HOLMES:
sort of combination for the advancement of John L. Lewis in this deal?
Mr. REUTHER: I still think you can get more information from
I really don’t know what motivates
Mr. Lewis than I can give you.
Mr.
Lewis.
What method do you use to prevent the
WALTER GUETTMAN:
infiltration of communists into labor unions?
You have
You have to be eternally vigilant:
Mr. REUTHER:
to be on your toes and you have to fight every effort on the part of
I think we in the
the communists to move in and take control.
CIO have done a very successful job of that.
What are your techniques of inquiry, or
WALTER GUETTMAN:
investigation?
Mr. REUTHER:
Well, I think primarily the way to beat the Com-
munists is to work harder than they work, to get to the meetings
earlier, to get more people there, and just make democracy function.
If you have an alert membership then the Communists can’t take
But if the rank and file go to sleep, then the Communists, of
over.
course, have an opportunity to move in and take over while the
membership is not aware of what is happening.
I would like to know, do you think the members
RAY BARNES:
of the CIO approve of the new Social Security plan?
NINE
MR. REUTHER:
Well, I think the members
of the CIO
support
the general principle outlined by President Eisenhower in his message and his recommendation.
We believe that Social Security ought
to be broadened, both with respect to the number of people covered,
and we think the benefits ought to be increased. We think that with
the wealth and the productive power that America has, we ought
to be able to, as a free nation, give all of our own people security
and dignity in their old age.
Therefore, we will support the President’s efforts to broaden both the coverage and the benefits of Social
Security.
YVONNE BOWMAN:
I would like to know if you are predicting
a depression in the near future.
Mr. REUTHER:
I think.a depression is the thing that is the least
necessary in America, but the problem is that wishful thinking will
not maintain full employment.
We have to work for it. We have to
increase purchasing power so the people can buy the things we
know how to make.
The American economy is a dynamic economy
and we can maintain full employment only if we maintain an expanding economy.
That means we have to go on making more and
more of the good things of life and seeing to it that the people have
the purchasing power to consume these things.
Mr. McCormick:
We have had a number of guests on our
program who say that we have a recession and we are about to get
into a larger recession. I imagine that 1s why she asked that question.
Mr. REUTHER:
There are a lot of danger signs on the economic
horizon.
We cannot just sit by complacently and say “Time will
it has to be ratified, now, by the affiliated unions—that means we
will not raid each other, but that is only the first step.
We have said
repeatedly that we will not trade principles as a matter of political
expediency.
To get a united labor movement without principles is
to have a labor movement without purpose.
ELIZABETH SLATTERY:
Should the two labor unions combine,
who would be their president?
Mr. REUTHER:
Of course, I feel that is very unimportant.
I have said repeatedly that I have no vested interest.
I think these
matters are bigger than individuals and nothing would make me
happier if we could get an honorable, constructive labor movement
and I could come back to Detroit and spend more time with my wife
and children.
Mr. McCormick:
Our time for ending the discussion is here.
I wish we had more time.
We certainly thank you, Mr. Walter Reuther, of the CIO, for
helping. provide some of the answers that youth wants to know.
Thank you.
Next week, our guest on YOUTH WANTS TO KNOW will be
Mr. John A. Hannah, Assistant Secretary of Defense.
Now this is
Pet
McCormick, speaking for Theodore Granik, bidding you
goodbye.
cure these problems.”’
We have to work at it. We cannot drift toward peace and prosperity.
We have to work and build them.
EVANGELINE LEWIS:
I would like to know some of the special
factors which have caused this increase in unemployment.
MR. REUTHER:
I think it comes from an imbalance of purchasing
power and productive power.
If the American people have the purchasing power needed to translate their needs into demands, at the
counter stores of America, then you get the kind of market that will
sustain full employment.
If everybody who needs a new automobile
has the money to buy that automobile, and everybody who needs a
new refrigerator or television set or decent home has the money to
buy these things, then the demand will be there and that will sustain
full employment.
Our problem basically is that we know how to make things,
but we haven’t learned how to distribute what we make.
Therefore,
we have to put greater and greater attention and emphasis upon
developing our distribution machine so that it will make our productive machine and I think fundamentally that is our problem.
JANE HURLEY:
I would like to know what action has been
taken to bring about the merger between the AF of L and the CIO.
MR. REUTHER:
Well, we have had a number
of meetings.
We
have worked out a no-raiding agreement, which is a sort of a ceasefire agreement.
Under this agreement, if we finally implement it—
TEN
t
ELEVEN
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718 Jackson Place, N. W. Washington
PUBLICITY DEPARTMENT
Cable
Address
6, D. C.
‘‘'CIOLABOR”’
EXecutive 3-558]
February 23, 195)
Mr.
Frank
Winn
:
Publicity Director
UAW-CIO
Solidarity
8000 E.
FEB 26 1954
oes
House
U.A.W.
Jefferson
Detroit 1),
Dear
ot
Michigan
Frank:
recent
I am enclosing reprints of Mr. Reuther's
television appearance on "Youth Wants to Know",
Since you probably
get some requests,
may want to have them for your files.
:
AJZsh1j
Enclosure
liu 1695
cio
MuIGEUES
I
Sincerely
and
Albert
Zack
OY
J.
Assistant
thought
you
fraternally,
—
Publicity
Director
|
” ClO.
al
- By
Defines Leader Role
Science.
Christian
Jr.
Sperling,
Godfrey
Mo
itor
SatePoheal., BASE
and the perio
is hard to believe that this a
der individual with the long
wave in his red hair could ever
be other than this genteel, alartistic, personality who
most
USC€sSw a pencil as’ a baton and
interview
press
his
conducts
with. real feeling and grace.
Staff Correspondent of
The Christian Science Monitor
Detroit
The relentless sword thrusts
which
P. Reuther,
of Walter
some people say punctuated his
rapid rise as a labor chieftain,
seem no part of the youthful man
of
ih ininstiqnlly
who’ speaks
CIO “harmony” and “unity” as
his ‘major achievements during
his first year as president of this
powerful labor union.
“They said that ‘heads would
roll’ after I became president of
I
“but
says,
he
this union,”
didn’t fire a'single person. I told
my opponents that there would
be: no hard feelings, that if they
were willing to work there was
a joh for them to do.”
There are those who say there
are two Reuthers—one the fiery,
hard-driving labor leader who
pushed his way to the top, and
the other the brilliant, articulate
idealist who mounts the podium
or greets the press.
This may be so, for the Reuther behind the desk seems to
have one foot on Mt. Olympus
and the other on the ground as
he discusses the year just over
cember
‘Lots of Room at Top’
he
“Tt ask
no
continues,
personal
“I
am
loyalties,”
opposed
to
building the labor movement on
personality. It must be built on
principles.”
With these words, he pauses
to réfiect for -a moment on his
swift climb to the top of the
labor heap. He-recalls that even
n
came
be
hee
back in 1946, wh
boss of the United Automobile
Workers with a slender majority of 124 out of 1,000 votes, he
had formulated his administrative policies which looked upon
‘leadership as a partnership.”
“I knew there was lots of
room at the top, room for everya contribution,”
one to make
he says. “I knew that the real
essence of leadership was the
ability to salvage my opponents,
if there. was a willingness to
26,
7 it
work—and
1
Communists:
any
‘were
not
“By the next year’s election
this program of salvaging’ opponents—plus kicking the Com-
munists out—gave me 98» per
~
cent of the votes.”
-The split in the CIO was only
relative by comparison with the
UAW schism. But Mr. Reuther
has used this same policy with
similar results.
“The stronger you are, the
more tolerant you. have to ‘be,”
he observes. “To the victor is
the
not
«responsibility,
the
spoils.”
Despite this disclaimer of personal loyalty, there is evidence
of an almost fierce admiration
for Mr.
among
Reuther
his sub-
ordinates at CIO headquarters
here. And he, -in’ turn, holds
certain
great
admiration
‘for
world figures.
his
swiftly ‘trom
rises
He
pictures
chair and. plucks two
off the. wall for. a table-top
close-up,
“Here is a truly great man,”
he declares, almost reverently, |
as he displays the: picture: of the
late Ernst Reuter; former Mayor.
of. Berlin. Then, ‘turning. to the
of Ralph
other _ picture, that
Bunche -of: the United Nations,
he adds: “This man
of
human
dignity.”
is a symbol
Social Justice Struggle
almost. any. subject :
On
some
Reuther idealism—which
elements of business which» decry his methods says is implemented with an adroit pragma‘tism—shines through,
annual
guaranteeq
the
On
wage, which
will be a big UAW
goal in 1954, he. asserts: “The
workmen eat by the year, sleep.
by the year, do everything by
the year, and they should ‘be.
paid by the year. We don’t want
to be paid for not working, but’
we feel ‘some way should. be}
worked out so that: we are not |
penalized. for’ unemployment.”
|
On peace,and the CIO:.
“We believe the struggle for
peace and freedom is inseparably tied up with the struggle for
social justice, Work for the minbetter
and. other
wage.
imum
working conditions not only promotes social justice but. it: also
creates the kind of climate in
which. peace and freedom can
be made secure.”
On. the role ofthe United
States in the world:
“America must be a spiritual
Sy mbol. It must give people hope
individual
The
in the world..
worth and dignity of the indi-
vidual
‘@) Chase
"ago:
ir eaaes
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ig
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Ga
sees):
omer
4
ogy
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deka
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a
i
;
aoe
a
e
is the
thing
only
that|
counts. America must remember:
that power withigut moralny: a
:
ae
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r
we,
THE FOLLOWING IS A TRANSCRIPT OF AN INTERVIEW BY JOHN wW,
VANDERCOOK WITH CIO PRESIDENT WALTER P, REUTHER OVER ABC
RADIO NETWORK ON OCTOBER 29, 1954
MR, VANDERCOOK:
The
Administration
optimistic
ment.
MR,
REUTHER:
views
has lately given out some
on the decline
in unemploye
To put it bluntly - do you believe them?
I would like to be able to share their optimism.
Unfortunately, their optimism does not square
with the economic facts of life.
Now the other
evening the President indicated that 400, 000
people
had gotten jobs,
that unemployment
gone down in that amount,
but what are the
had
facts?
The facts indicate that 3,000 more
workers lost their jobs in October than workers
were able to find jobs, and that the overall
employment figure is down 3,000 and not up
400, 000,
MR.
VANDERCOOK:
MR,
REUTHER:;
Mr.
Reuther,
in Secretary of Labor: Mitchell's
speech this week he referred specifically to a
pick-up in employment here in Detroit,
especially in the auto:nobile industry,
What's
your comment on that?
Well, it is true, there has been some slight
pick-up in the auto industry,
We had 195,000
unemployed workers in Detroit some weeks ago anu
they have called back a few thousand people on
the model change,
But what disturbs us is not
what is happening today, but what is going to
happen tommorrow, and the next month and down
the road.
The automobile industry, for example,
has indicated in their public statements that
they will produce 5, 300,000 passenger cars in
1955 and they are currently scheduling production
so that by December they will make 615, 000
passenger
cars
in the month
of December.
Now,
that means in 8 1/2 months they will produce
their total annual production and then thousands
and thousands of workers will be dumped on the
streets in Detroit, in Pittsburgh in the steel .
mills,
in the rubber plants of Akron,
in the glass
factories, in the electrical factories and the
textile factories,
And we believe that the way
this is going, this is going to be the shortest
Republican boom in history,
MR,
VANDERCOOK:
That brings us to the crux of a very immediate
situation,
How do you think all this is going to
be reflected in the voting Tuesday?
MR,
REUTHER:
I think that there is a great deal of fear and uncertainty in the hearts and minds of the American
people, of workers, of farmers,
Farm income
has come down, workers! jobs are insecure, and
even for the workers who are still employed,
their friends and their relatives and their neighbor
have been laid off, and I believe this insecurity
and uncertainty, which is a reflection of the fact
that the Administration has not dealt effectively
and
realistically
with the
economic
problems,
I think that will reflect itself in the political
trend on election day.
“IMO re «
Page 2
MR,
VANDERCOOK:
President
Eisenhower,
spoken of the possibility,
of cold partisan warfare,
Mr,
Reuther,
of the probability
to use his words,
of a hopeless jam if a Democratic
majority is elected,
MR,
REUTHER:
Well,
I don't
subscribe
has
to that,
congressional
First of all,
if you look at the record you will find that on
those items which the President has pushed in
terms of the Republican program that deal with
big business, helping big business (the giveaways of the oil, and the power give-aways,
of the atomic energy) on these kind of matters
that are geared to help big business, the
Republican Congress comes through 100%,
But
when the t resident comes forward with items
geared to the needs of the average family in
America,
there
the
Republicans
drag
their
feet.
Now, ina political campaign, every politician loves all the people. And the way you have
got to measure politicians is not what they say
at election time but how do they vote on the
issues as those issues affect the Amcrican people,
So I say that this is not true, that a Democratic
Congress will support the President when he is
working in the interest of the people, but they will
oppose the President when he is working in the
interest of big business in opposition to the
interests of the people,
MR,
VANDERCOOK:
One of the positive accomplishments of this last
Congress, Mr, Reuther, was the Administration's
tax bill, How do you think that is affecting the
economy and people in general?
MR,
REUTHER:
Well,
I think this is another classical example of
how the present big business Republican Administration is helping business and not the people,
Dic
the tax cut go to the people who needed relief, or
did it go to the wealthy corporations
need
relief?
Well,
the facts
who did not
are that 95% of that
7 1/2 billion tax cut went to corporations and
wealthy families, and only 5% went to 75% of the
millions of American families who needed the
tax relief,
Now, you can talk in generalities but let's get it
down to simple understandable terms,
Take the
General Motors Corp,
They have gotten a very
sizeable tax reduction,
Now, they didn't need it
because in the first nine months of 1954 the
Geazrai Motors Corp, made a profit of one billion,
two aundred millior dellars and after they pay all
tacir taxes and all their oills, they will make a
profit of more than 25% return on their investment.
Now the President and the Republicans would have
us believe that the 7 1/2 biiion dollars was givent
a lot of little people, a lot of needy people, to
widows, and pensioneers and dirt farmers,
But th
simple facts of life are that the General Motors
Corp, got a larger tax cut than all of the widows
put together, than all of the pensioneers in a
group,
all of the dirt farmers for soil conserva-
tion, And they got more tax relief, General
Motors did, than the 400,000 General Motors
workers put together,
“Mmore=
Page
3
MR,
VANDERCOOK:
One
MR,
REUTHER:
The Republicans are working on the basis of
Company?
raising the standards of luxuries of the people
who already have more than they need, rather
than raising the standard of living of the millions
of American families
MR, VANDERCOOK:
Organized labor,
Mr,
who have too little,
Reuther,
has become
conscious that much of its prosperity must
very
depend on the prosperity of American farmers,
What is their situation?
MR,
REUTHER:
Well,
we
believe
that the future
and the
economic
well being of the American farmers is inseparably
tied together with the economic well being in the
future of the American working people.
As a
matter of fact, we believe that what is good for
America is good for labor.
We believe that we
can solve our problems only as we work with
other groups in finding solutions to the problems
of all the people and the farmers are an important
part of this.
Now,
gets in trouble,
we know
that when the farmer
we get in trouble,
MR,
VANDERCOOK:
Let's touch for a moment on a nore general theme.
This is a tough question but I will throw it at you anyway,
What, Mr. Reuther, would you say at
this particular moment of history is the primary
need of our country of America?
MR,
REUTHER:
Well,
I believe that fundamentally our job is to
find a way to reach the American people and to get
thern to know the facts, I have unlimited faith in
the good sense and the loyalty and the sound judgment of the American people provided they know
the facts, and if they knew the facts in this electio:
there is no question about it -- they would reflect
that knowledge at the ballot box and they would
make for a change in the Congressional situation,
I believe that America is the last best hope of
free men everywhere,
I believe that America
can meet its responsibilities at home and in the
world only if America is fully employed.
MR,
VANDERCOOK:
Thank you Mr.
Walter Reuther,
- Item sets