GOVERNMENT FORUM REJECTS RICKENBACKER'S LABOR VIEWS

Captain Eddie Rickenbacker's stand towards labor was condemned by a vote of 41 to 9 in the second of a series of forums sponsored by the Government Department, held last night in the Lowell House Junior Common Room.

The discussion found no disciple for Rickenbacker, as both speakers, John T. Dunlop, Faculty instructor in Economics, and Morton R. Godine, Teaching Fellow in Government, found the views of the aviator untenable.

Dunlop on "Cherry Blossoms"

Dunlop, casting aside the beliefs of "cherry blossom fluffy idealists," pointed out that the Rickenbacker question is "not all smoke, there is also fire." Granting two general problems, he set up his own four questions to stimulate thought on the issue.

Unfortunately, Dunlop said, Rickenbacker's views are typical of a substantial part of the Armed Forces, a matter of extreme concern. His second consideration was that there was a lot of "fire" or material behind the abundance of "smoke."

Which Came First?

But in answer to the unanswerable question of which came first, the "smoke" or the "fire," Dunlop replied by asking if the trade union is still a private club; is the organized labor movement organized for self-reform; do unions give people what they want; and is this proper criteria to judge the performance of any social organization?

Godine, however, in his condemnation of the Flying Ace, disputed, in the first place, Rickenbacker's right to speak for a class which he didn't represent, in addition to the fact that the validity of many of his statements were highly questionable.

Godine said that from all he could gather, Rickenbacker's speeches were aimed to increase production, but, in reality, they were no more than "playing politics with the war program." His speech to the New York legislature, for and Northeastern most strongly in favor of the first possibility. Every college wanted less power for labor unions.

Claire Luce's "globaloney" speech was the only one not favored in the list, which included the speeches of Wallace and Churchill, the Atlantic Charter, and the Beveridge Plan.

The last question showed the most variation, ranging from the 80 per cent by Wellesley and Simmons, to the 35 per cent of Harvard men who thought "religion should assume a more important role in the post-war world." Fifty per cent of B. U. thought it would, against 70 per cent at Harvard who thought it would not