SIX BIT STICK-UP

Nothing could be more indicative of a healthy state of affairs on Harvard's labor front than the threat of a general walk-out which the kitchen and dining-hall workers hurled at the University early yesterday morning. Hasty, aggressive and doubtless ill-considered, it nevertheless showed a majority of workers democratically exerting their rights without fear of reprisal: in short, the ideal personnel.

Behind it lies a story that can be duplicated wherever labor has organized. Once upon a time, the drawers of water and others who did menial jobs for Harvard were not treated in accordance with the liberal doctrines being taught in Sever and Emerson. There were even law suits, and the result was a lot of bad publicity for the University and a distrust on the part of employees which survived the advent of a more benign policy.

It was this distrust which led to the kitchen and dining-hall workers' affiliation with the A.F. of L. In a spirit of mutual cooperation they signed a contract with the University which at the time was agreeable to both sides. Through it the University benefitted in efficiency and the workers in a wage increase of upwards of two dollars.

But the cooks and waitresses pay the union 75 cents a month and want their money's worth. For this reason labor representatives have not stopped at a reasonable agreement. Their current demands not only ask for what amounts to a 50 percent wage increase over the 1937 level, but also attacks the University's cherished pension plan and its aversion to a closed shop. True to the history of American labor, the locals are taking a mile. Or trying to.

If yesterday's vote indicates the workers' good health, a more moderate stand will show their good sense. Discretion should follow their moment of defiance; their exuberant independence should be accompanied by a realistic facing of economic facts. They may regard their dues as insurance against possible injustice at the hands of the University, but six bits does not buy them the right to hold up such a currently liberal employer as John Harvard.