FORD, LABOR, AND CONTROL

Last Monday 150,000 cards were distributed throughout the Ford plants as a counter-drive against the U. A. W. A., which has begun to organize all Ford employees. These cards contained such Fordisms as "A monopoly of jobs in this country is just as bad as a monopoly of bread!" and "If you go into a union they have got you--but what have you got?" When washed and sifted, the opinions claim that New York financial interests control labor as well as the managers of industry, that union workers must pay for their jobs, that independent competition is essential to business improvements and higher wages, and that the Wagner Act is an iron collar upon the neck of labor.

More recently Mr. Ford has shaken his fist at the federal tax on undistributed profits in much the same way he opposed the N. R. A. monster. Such "ramshackle legislation" he lays to financiers who aim to tax independent companies like Ford out of existence. He disapproves of the tax because of the way the money is spent, for in his opinion it provides no purchasing power nor market for industry.

It is fairly clear that ever since Mr. Ford pulled his company out of Wall Street back around 1920, he has been proud of escaping the fangs of financiers, and quick to blame them for all labor and political troubles. The amazing growth of the Ford Motor Company in the decade of the twenties as an independent concern without financial backing from outside has set an enviable precedent for small and large businesses that might wish to emulate its course. Yet, every business manager is not a Ford, and therefore big banking seems as inevitable a factor in the industrial picture as it is part of the political picture.

Though probably no fairer and more farsighted employer lives in America, Mr. Ford does not embrace leftist viewpoints. His philosophy is that of the small business man on a large scale; only over his dead body would he permit the abolition of competition and the control of industry by either the government or Wall Street or even labor. It might well be his ideal for business to control the others. Likewise, it would appear that he hates the pillars of the Republican party as much as he detests most of the New Deal policies.

In view of Mr. Ford's interest in the welfare of the individual worker and his conservative but same attitude upon current problems, it is not wild to suggest that if he were to run on an independent ticket for President in 1940, he would have a large following. But whether he likes it or not, the as the stick of government has grown. As taxes promise to play a leading role in industry, so is labor determined to have its say. H. V. Kaltenborn's prophecy last night in Phillips Brooks House that there will be five years cannot be laughed aside. Whether politician or capitalist, whoever plays host to labor in the coming months and years is certain of holding the upper hand.