BILL KASHTAN’S LABOR COMMENT

Struggle of trade unions now
shaping up for work or wages

ad and General Motors settle-
ments in the U.S. have estab-
jished an important principle —
the responsibility of employers
for laid-off workers.
actual’ terms of settlement fall
short of the union policy of a
Guaranieed Annual Wage or An-
nual Employment’ Plan — the
guarantee being for half a year
instead of one year and for 60-65
percent of a man’s earnings rath-
er than 100 percent. Even so it
constitutes no mean victory and
establishes the bee for further
advance.

- Reaction to the settlement has
been varied and interesting.

Workers see it as ‘an ‘important
gain and rightly so.

The capitalist press is some-
what divided on'the issue. .

The Toronto Globe and Mail,
as was to be expected, sees noth-
ing but harm in the settlement.
Speaking for the more reaction-
ary sections of big business | it
naturally opposes any proposals
which in some degree would cut
company profits or make the big

corporations assume some ‘fre-
sponsibility for their laid-off
workers:

_* On the other hand, the Toronto
Star, welcoming the settlement,

exaggerated its results, going so.

far as to declare that it would
stabilize employment.
Mains to be seen. ~~ e

Me x

Certainly the settlement, while
falling short of what the workers
_ expected, constitutes an import-

: ant victory. But it is not a guar--
_antee for maintaining employ:

_ PEERAGES FOR SALE

True, the |

ment. This is beyond the ability
of any one company, assuming

‘its desire to do so. :

Full employment is a matter
of government policy and still
has to be fought for and won.

Neither Ford nor *General Mo-
tors will “produce: ears unless
there is a profitable -market for
them. The terms of settlement

make that clear because implicit.

in both settlements is the recog-
nition that the guarantee would

go up in smoke in face of a ser- «

ious economic crisis for any
lengthy period. The guarantee
is geared to meet seasonal un-
employment, not economic crisis
of serious proportions.

It is important to place this
question in proper. perspective
so that no illusions are created.

,Only half a victory has been
achieved so far,*the principle of
employers paying supplemental
unemployment insurance. Over
the next period of time the strug-
gle of the auto and other workers
can extend the guarantee to 52
weeks and for 100 percent com-
pensation. !

But over and above that is the
battle of the workers and the

trade union movement for full

employment policies without
which these gains could be wiped
out.

‘This re- ~

es

Now that settlements’ have
keen achieved in the U.S. the
spotlight will turn. to GM in Can-
ada. :

$s sos

Here, too,
been pressing for a guaranteed

‘ -

the. workers have .

employment=plan. But they -are
also correctly asking for substan-
tial wage increases, elimination
of differentials which have been

built up over the past five years, |
and important fringe demands. |

The workers need to maintain
their unity and militancy so that
one issue is not counterposed to
another. They need to win sup-
plemental unemployment insur-
ance; but they should also insist
that their other demands are not
dropped as its “‘purchase price.”

Moreover, with government
spokesmen declaring that the Un-
employment Insurance Act pro-
hibits workers from receiving any
other benefits, one of two things
may be required.

Either the act must be amend- .

ed or interpreted to allow the
receipt of such benefits, or, the
company must be made to pay
the full shot. Short of that it
may be wise for the union : to
shift its emphasis in Ene direc-
tions.

In any case the entire labor
movement needs to be rallied be-

hind GM workers from now until ;

the process of conciliation is con-
cluded. In no small measure, it
was the initiative displayed by.
Ford,and GM workers in the
US: which forced the settlement.
GM workers can win here also
and thereby open the door for
considerable advance by all sec-
tions of organized labor.

The battle now developing,
sparked by the auto workers, is
not only: a struggle for wage in-
cteases. It is part of the larger
struggle for economic security.
The workers have begun to take
up. the battle for work or wages
in earnest.

Book recalls scandal of man
who tratticked in royal honors

ANY of Britain’s noble fami-

- lies of today owe their titles

to the highly ignoble practice. of
greasing aroyal palm. |

_ There have been few kings not

prepared to accept—indeed, often

demand — a substantial sum of

cash before elevating their com-
moners to the peerage .

In the: ae Sk tees
have been firmly under the con-

trol of whichever political party

,_ BRPRESS ABER EE ROWS

Honors may not be ‘crudely
‘sold for cash nowadays; as they
were by the Liberal government
of Prime Minister Lloyd George

before 1922, but a glance at any.

Honors List shows 'that cash com-
bined with the “right” politics
opens the door to peerages,
knighthoods and baroneteies.

This is shown by the Gectns
this

Birthday Honors List issued.
month. Fa)

Sir "William Edward Rootes,
head of the huge Bri
trust which makes Hi

- ber and Rover cars, was made a
Knight Grand Cross of the Order
of British Empire. | Alexander
Fleck, chairman of Imperial
Chemical, was another who re-
“ceived the KBE.

A recent book about Gregory, ;

the man. who trafficked in hon-

ors, throws light. on the jnethods
- but inevitably leaves certain
questions unanswered.

Who, for example, were the
‘knights and peers Gregory ae

auto”
n, Hum-

ed create? There are probably

too many of them still alive ‘for

the truth to be told.

Who were the people in suc-
cessive Liberal, Conservative and

Labor governments who commis-

sioned him to act on their behalf

‘and paid his substantial fee for
collecting the ‘honors tribute? ~

Too many ‘reputations would

“be destroyed if the story were

told in full.

Gregory. was. the son of a poor

clergyman cand his early life was

marked by a series of unsuccess- ,

ful attempts to make the stage

_ ‘his career.) _

=

_ specified een to a press mag-

Then quite suddenly he acquir-

eded wealth. How, no one seems’

to know. He always claimed that
it was for rendering some un-

nate. .
To carry on his trafficking in

honors the acquired an office near —
Downing ‘Street, expensively fur-

. hood to $500,000 for <

nished, ai iaitoimed servants

‘in attendance.

He ' bought’ ‘the — Ambassador
Club and threw extravagant

_ «parties. He owned a hotel and

published a newspaper called the
Whitehall Gazette, which many
thought was an official publica-
tion. eee

For a time‘he was in control of

Oh hieabene

toconvert.us !

pvanceust Billy Gethin now

seeking converts in France
after his “conquest” of England
-and Scotland, is scheduled to
visit Canada again this year. Al-

ready a well-heeled headquarters’

has been set up on, Toronto’s
Yonge Street to organize the
event and drum up advance pub-
licity.

What is Billy Graham’s real _

mission?

Here is a man whose dynamic
evangelism brings not only tens
of thousands to hear) “the work
of God,” but in sddifiontwecom-
mends them all to seek their own
local religious representative, of
whatever denomination.

_His recent Glasgow services
were telephonically relayed to
400 churehes all over the British

Isles, and his Baster sefvice in-

Britain was both ae and
televised. :
“The -Treligion of Billy Giahan

is quite different | from ‘the reli-

gion followed: ‘by most Canadians
in our many , fine churches.

In the first place, it is Peon

in the age of mass “psychology”

’

_ the company which pul ,

Burke’s Peerage.

- Gregory’s tariff of charges ran
- from about $50,000 fo a knight-
‘peerage.
The bulk of the money, of course,
was paid into the fun ‘of which-
ever party he was acting for at
the time.

The crash came in 1933. ‘Under
an act passed in 1925 he was fin-
ed $250 and. sentenced to three
months in prison for offering to
sell a knighthood to an ex-naval

officer who was public spirited
enough to Bs oy ‘authori:

ties.

The trial was a ‘brief affair and
remarkable. not for its disclos-—

ures, but for the fact that Greg-
ihe was the only one to suffer.
As the book notes;
“It is extremely. unlikely that
the government would have rel-
ished too many facts
brought to light. . A convic-
tion had been achieved; leave it
at that.”
What shocked | the public was
the knowledge that a practice
which all thought had ended with

ibeing &

the Lloyd George government: in

1922 was in fact continuing into
the thirties.

LEON GRIFFITHS

be toe

_ Christ.

and the crooner. Thousands are .

gathered together, overwhelmed

‘with an enormous (but by no.

means unmusical) choir, moved by
an ex-crooner singing hymns solo,
and finally swayed: by a young
man with a persuasive voice and

first-class oratorical technique.

At the end of the “sermon,”

the evangelist calls upon mem-

bers of the audience to come for- —
ward to show their acceptance

of Jesus; and hundreds come for-

ward. Later, special “counsel- —
lors” have Biivate talks: with
them.

ae oa
The grand scale on which Billy
raham’s crusade operates natur-

ally leads to the question: What
is it trying to ‘put over? é

Ts it. for the ua of sunt t ey ‘

or not? —

“In his ‘Raster Sectional Chakdly >

the word, it ‘as really an har-

angue) in Britain, Graham took —
for his text the ‘crucifixion of -
He. pointed out that —
“Christ had died for mankind: for

mar’s sins. And, he went on,
man is a sinner; he was born’a
sinner, and will ‘die a sinner—
except if he turns to God!

This is the doctrine of Original

Sin. No use trying to. reform

American come .;

‘ ligious bodies is clear. Th

‘problem is not the HD

“to say about world ea,
. no!

‘4

_ most pressing worl

-ism—even if they h

_ wards socialism.

=

society —

or :
no use,

yourself —
“through God’);
over, looking for the ¢
wordly evil in the worl

problem, the hydrogen Pe

He admits that people all
the world are haunted —
terrible thing. When —
England after his first au
he promised a Reynolds —
correspondent: an answer to
guestion: ¥

“What do you | think shoal
done about the H-bomb?”
came back with this eee
problem is not the H-bom
vroblem ‘is Sin!” ;

The difference betW
Graham and most estab

do not turn or lead theif : ent

ers away from world

United Church, Anglicans
lusts, and the Pope have |
way or another condemne

H-bomb and called for” a

font? rj
Not so Billy aan

“Sin, clearly it would oa “tit
of time demanding | i

But does Graham ave oe

He says of
Eisenhower: ;

“These two see lea ay
lieve that the hope ° 4
today is a spiritual is
Sir Winston said z
three or four yen
long. . ? ot

That is ras Graham’
ed aim. For Churchilll5
limit” referred not 0”
H-bomb race, but als? ah
to the real race be ee
ism and socialism. —

- Graham's critsaties a
“to wean people ri

s0 that Eden and Eise
go re Pele for pint
feel they must aunch 12
four years to save me

the world into a ives?

But Billy Graham
thousand-voice choles t
cannot stem the re on 6 i.

religion means Pe

and humanity, shou
hot-gospelling a OF
gen-bomb policy to em
Reniaeom where he b