The Akron Beacon Journal from Akron, Ohio • Page 72

'You iScicr Miss The Water AKRON BEACON JOURNAL THE SUNDAY FORUM Can This Be Liberty And Justice For All Americans? OUNDED DECEMBER 1S39 C. L. KNIGHT, ITBLISHER, 1907-1933 JOHN S. KNIGHT, PRESIDENT AND EDITOR J. H.

BARRY, HONORARY CHAIRMAN K. L. MILBURN, BUSINESS MANAGER Published Daily nd Sunday by the Beacon Journal Publishing Co. Akron Owned nd Operated-Phone BL-3-1111 7 A. M.

to 8:30 P. M. 15, 1954 2D Sunday, August THE EDITOR NOTEBOOK Will Business, Labor Take The 'Long Vieiv'? morrow. He said it would, but through no fault of his it would not be open to Negroes. He said, "Son.

this thing is bigger than both of us." He denied having any responsibility for the existing conditions and claimed that Summit Beach Park practices less discrimination than any park in the United States. After a flare of temper, he ended our discussion by saying that until Negroes earn the right to do all the things they want, they will have to do without. My only question is, "What must I do to earn the right to take a cool dip on a warm afternoon in a pool that is supposedly open to the public?" WHEN WILL WE, the people of the United States, learn to practice the principles of democracy that we preach? Each time I salute the flag I wonder if the phrase "with liberty and justice for all" will have real meaning when my children learn to say it. This phrase has represented a goal that someday, I hope, this nation will be able to achieve. It lost its meaning for me when I heard it repeated in the background while I was being refused membership by the scoutmaster because of my race.

And when I sing the national an-them "O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave," I pray for the time when all Americans can lift their heads with pride and truly say, "Ours is a land of freedom and justice for all." LEN II. CHANDLER JR. I AM A native born American, 19 years of age. My father is a veteran of World War II. I am in the Reserve Officers training program at the University of Akron.

In the not too distant future, I will be called upon to serve in the Armed Forces. My parents pay their taxes, go to the polls, and accept all of the other responsibilities of citizenship. Yet, in many ways I find that I am forced into the position of a second class citizen. Although I am willing to bear the responsibilities and fulfill the obligations of citizenship, I am denied many of the privileges that should go with the obligations because I am a Negro. ON FRIDAY, July 20, I went to a Sunday School picnic at Summit Beach Park.

I had intended to go swimming but when I arrived, the pool was not open. Tickets were not being sold but there were several people in the pool. I assumed they were lifeguards, but when they started to swim I asked them when the pool would be opened. I was told that the pool would not be opened because the chlorine pump was out of order. When I asked why they were swimming one said "We work here." Another said "We're privileged characters." There were 10 people in the -pool by that time.

LATER I met a man whom I believe to be one of the owners of the park. He also said the pool was out of order. I asked; wouldn't it be repaired by to Is Strike 'Helping' ARE RANK and file members of the Goodyear rubber union being duped by their union 'representatives who refuse to let them vote on the 5-cent an hour pay raise offered by the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Smart union officials who know, as they certainly should, the economic facts of business life, would never prolong a strike so long when they are in a position to observe the sales of the struck firm skidding downward. GOODYEAR'S best customer, not counting the U. S.

Government, is the Chrysler Motor Corporation; and it's no secret that sales of Chrysler-made cars have been way off this past year. Not only that, Goodyear dealers everywhere have been faced with the stiff- Susy Boston Boasts I NOTICE that Beacon Journal writers continue to locate the big turnpike bridge as "North of Peninsula." Many younger people dont know where Peninsula is. I Old timers can recall when Peninsula was quite a village. They had their stone quarries which gave employment to many; also six saloons, a blacksmith shop, a sawmill and flour and grist mill. But as time passed on, concrete replaced stone and the quarries had to shut down.

Four of the saloons had to close up, the blacksmith passed on, the sawmill ran but of logs, and the grist mill burned down. TO THOSE who want to see the big turnpike bridge, come to Boston, Colonialism Better SINCE THE Indochina debacle there has been much comment as to the difference between Communism and colonialism. A few words of enlightenment, I am sure, will benefit those who see no difference. COMMUNISM, the way I see it, was brought forth by hypocrisy and perfidy and is fed and cherished with plunder. It is not a reformation but a devastation of a people nourished by their blood.

Their agricultural symbol of the sickle is in reality a bent bayonet easily straightened to stab you in the back at the first Instance of your disagreement with their gangster methods. Only the thoughtless and gullible whose vision is clouded by complaisance and their inability to see the danger to their security and way of life are deceived. If they pause for a moment in their business of husbandry and their pursuit of elusive happiness which will be denied them should Communism succeed in enveloping them in delusion and darkness, and become aware of the deception practised on them, they will then know that Communism is gangsterism formulated by PRESIDENT EISENHOWER says business is good; that the economic slide has been halted. As proof, he points to: 1 A "tendency" toward diminishing unemployment 2 Rising retail tales. 3 A high rate of spending by business for capital expansion and improvement.

4 A construction boom. 5 Reduction in inventories. 6 "Great strength" in the stock market, and 7 Value of the dollar has remained stable. The President also gave a number of statistics which, to use his words, "suggest a high or even improving state of economic welfare." Economic historians of an earlier generation, he added, "would have felt no hesitation in describing recent times as a period of great prosperity." Ike conceded, however, that some industries, communities and groups had been "affected seriously" by the slowdown in business over the past year. Agricultural prices and incomes have suffered because of shrinking export markets and unbalanced production.

A decline in the sales of durable goods has caused most of the unemployment in our industrial cities. While the President's mid-year statement on the nation's economic health was intended primarily as. "a campaign document for use in this Fall's congressional elections, it is sure to be sharply challenged by the political opposition. Democratic orators and national labor leaders have long been chiding the administration for Its "failure" to "solve" the farm and unemployment problems; The tempo of these attacks will increase in number and volume when the campaigning starts in earnest after Labor Day. In order not to be misled by the extravagant claims of either side, the facts should be closely examined by every citizen who goes to the polls next November.

THE administration's farm measure, substituting flexible supports for agricultural products in place of rigid price controls, was a triumph of clear thinking and a personal victory for Secretary Ezra Taft Benson. True, farm income has dropped while the price of farm machinery remains high but the solution for this imbalance does not lie in continued rigidity of price supports for agricultural products which causes huge, unmarketable surpluses. Perhaps, as Henry Wallac now concedes, there is no ideal Behind The STRIKES The strike call Thursday night at Firestone plants all over the country appears to have been pretty much of a surprise to everyone management and labor alike. Although the strike authority had been voted by the membership, the general expectation was that the same tactics would be followed as at B. F.

Goodrich and U. S. that is, a continuation of bargaining on a day-today basis. This was anticipated, particularly, because with the Goodyear strike in its Kixth week, a call had gone out for $2 weekly contributions from all working members of the United Rubber Workers to help the 23,000 idle Goodyear employes. The Firestone strike, involving persons, will not only cut potential revenue by $11,000 a wrek but will mean that strike costs will be so much the higher.

The total of 45,000 persons thrown out of work by the two strikes is the most ever affected at one time by labor disputes in the rubber industry. Never before have there been company-wide strikes involving more than one firm at a time. NOTE 1 The final decision to strike or not strike is made in each case, not by the international officers, but by a policy committee made up of representatives from all the local unions of the company involved. NOTE 2 When the Firestone policy committee debated strike action Thursday night, the strongest, voice for a walkout came from a Pottstown, delegate who for years ha been an outspoken critic of International President L. S.

Buckmaster. Although the vote was announced as unanimous, the strike was opposed at first by some of the representatives of Akron's Loral 7, solution for the farm problem. Nevertheless, no one can deny that a prosperous agriculture is vital to our economic system. This means that farm supports must be continued and the Eisenhower administration has wisely decided that on a long range basis, the flexible system will prove more advantageous to the economy than the rigid supports advocated by many shortsighted Republicans and Democrats interested solely in getting their share of the farm vote this Fall. ON the industrial front, where unemployment is highest, the government cannot be held responsible for the slump in sales of "hard goods" and automobiles.

Having operated under wartime conditions since 1940 and huge defense spending, it was inevitable that such a high peak of activity could not be permanently maintained. With the cutting of military expenditures after the Korean war, and the disappearance of overtime in factories that had been producing both military and civilian goods, a needed and possibly healthy readjustment had to come. Another factor which has caused much distress among the independent automobile manufacturers is the fierce competition between General Motors and Ford for leadership in the industry. Despite recent mergers of independent firms, the going is tough. Even the huge Chrysler with its excellent cash position, has lost a share of its former market.

This it hopes to recapture with newly styled models and a more aggressive drive on sales. In a country geared to an automotive economy, these curtailments of production are in time reflected in the steel, rubber and automotive parts industries. While Walter Reuther and other labor leaders are clamoring for the government to "do something," they might at the same time reexamine their own policies for the long run. An example: In South Bend, the Studebaker one of the oldest concerns in America, is in extreme distress. Some of Studebaker's troubles stem from the competitive struggle within the automotive industry; others come from within.

Studebaker has had a long history of good labor relations. Some of its competitors have even sug-. gested that the company was "union run" because the unions demanded and got more in hourly wages than is being paid by its vastly larger and better heeled competitors. But the company is now losing money, a lot of it. Chairman Paul Front Page LITTLE CHRISTIE Welfare workers were enthusiastic in praise of Bob Hoyt's story about the Christie Riccilll case in the Beacon Journal last Wednesday.

It was accurate and complete and was packed with human interest. There is one additional angle, however, that is worth reporting here. As Hoyt's story pointed out, no less than nine public and UF-supported agencies had something to do with the case. All of them were represented at a meeting about a year and a half ago, called by Nathan Plnsky, acting for the United Community Council. (Carl Warmington, executive director of the UCC, had not yet taken over his duties here.) At that time Christie, aged 3, was in Children's Hospital, her body encased in a cast.

Though her case seemed hopeless, (tubercular meningitis), hospital officials said she no longer required hospitalization. All the hospitals were sensitive then to complaints that they were keeping relief patients longer than necessary. The city relief department had been paying the hospital bill, but if the child were transferred to a convalescent home, this would have to stop, according to law. Two questions were before the group at the meeting in Pinsky's officewhere to put Christie and who should pay the bill. Neither question was answered at that first meeting, but it wasn't long afterward that the Catholic Service League came up with a foster mother, Mrs.

Rowland France, who was willing to take on this difficult case, and the Summit County Child Welfare Board accepted financial responsibility. Today, to the delighted surprise of everybody who attended that meeting, Hoffman and President Harold Vance told the unions that Studebaker couldn't live under existing contracts and asked its employes to take pay cuts averaging 14 per cent. This request was first voted down by the unions but later approved after Hoffman served notice that Studebaker had "no other course" but to terminate the contracts and close the plant. Whether Studebaker can survive, even under more realistic labor costs, is still to be determined. The company's precarious position and the threat to South Bend of becoming a ghost town are not pleasant possibilities to contemplate.

The situation must seem incomprehensible to Studebaker workers who may be facing the loss of their jobs and homes. But, as the Wall Street Journal says: "Union leaders have long preached about the 'vast' profits of companies and the need for unions constantly to win immediate wage or fringe gains, regardless of anything else." True enough, the CIO-UAW officials urged Studebaker workers to accept the wage cuts and take the "long view," but what a tragedy it is that the "long view" is always taken after the debacle, and not before. IN OTHER cities like Akron, thousands of workers are on strike because the wage increases offered by employers are not enough." In the case of the Goodyear Tire Rubber an offer of five cents an hour was rejected weeks ago as inadequate. It is not our purpose to pass judgment on the adequacy or inadequacy of the offer, but the figure offered seemed to be well in line with settlements made in other major industries. Leaders of the Akron rubber unions take great pride in the fact that union members work a six-hour day, whereas the industry in Christie is an active, vivacious litUe girl.

The additional angle that we started out to mention was this: Christie's case was so complex that It pointed up the need for a continuing effort to promote among personnel of each agency a better understanding of the intake and referral policies of all the others. This has been a major project of the UCC in the last year. Another result expected from the Christie Riccilli case is an increase in the number of foster homes available. NOTE July is usually a poor month for placements, but last month the Child Welfare Board was able to place 2G children in foster homes. At the month's end, 389 children had been placed In such homes.

Always scarce are homes open to handicapped or Negro children. COUNTY HOSPITAL There is not Ihe slightest chance that the county will establish and operate a general hospital, but public officials don't seem to know how to stop talking about It. It all started when State Rep. Thomas L. Thomas, candidate for reelection, got the idea that it would be a good thing for the county to buy the old Barberton Citizens Hospital and convert it into a general hospital for indigents.

Thomas called a meeting of city and county officials at City Hall. A representative of the State Health Department poured a barrel of cold water on the Idea, saying the state would never approve use of the Barberton building as a hospital. Nevertheless, Thomas, who presided at the meeting, somehow got authority to appoint a committee to give the possibility of a county hospital additional study. The committee met last week. Again Thomas presided.

The 10 per- Goodyear? est competition from competitors they have experienced since 1939. From a businessman's point-of-view, it looks like the Goodyear company is relieved that a strike was called at this time. Goodyear holds all the aces: Business has been poor; there are plenty of tires and tubes stored away to last all Summer; and should it be necessary, Goodyear can grant more than a 5-cent an hour pay raise at any time to get Akron plants producing tires, tubes and other rubber products again. IF GOODYEAR union officials aren't dumb, then they must be, inadvertently, or otherwise, working in the interest of the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. and against the best interests of members of their union.

TEMPUS FUGIT Turnpike Bridges the oldest town between Akron and Cleveland. Here is where the huge steel bridge crosses the Cuyahoga River, and here you will find plenty of activity. New homes are being built. The Jaite Display Bag whose product is shipped all over the United States, Is moving into their big new factory. Here also is a large builders supply company, a box factory, three up-to-date stores, two night clubs, garages, restaurants and also plenty of railroad and highway frontage for factories.

Come Riverview rd. to Boston, see the wonderful twin bridges and be convinced that the Indians have moved out north of Peninsula a long time ago. WM. H. (BILL) BRADY Than Communism crooked and dishonest men who thirst for power and self aggrandizement and whose banner is slavery.

COLONIALISM Is not a conquest of a people but rather a beneficent approach looking toward their eco-nomic development, a better standard of living, improved methods of cultivation, and brings to light the richness of their land hidden from them by their nonprogressive way of life. Colonialism Is not founded on sub. jugation but aimed at enlightenment and elevation of a backward people who have never fallen in step with the march of time due to their adherence to century old tradition. The root of colonialism is progresi and the fault, if any, is not in its basic principle but In the administration ol it by incompetent administrators. It is a moving process of graduating the native from infancy to adulthood at which time he can fend for himself.

If colonialism is dead, it died victorious for it lighted the darkness which enveloped and obscured a back ward people and lifted them from oh. livion to be self-sustaining and welded them into a nation of their choice. PETER C. MESSEMER the inherent right to labor for wages without permission of any fellow man or self-appointed group. The idea Is abhorrent to me that any self appointed individuals should be permitted to stand at the gate of a place of labor and tell you and 'me that we cannot enter to perform our daily toil.

OUR ELECTED government are responsible for conditions a they now exist. As a matter of expediency they have permitted the unions to grow in power until now they have become a Frankenstein entirely beyond control. If the unions can demand a raise after raise indefinitely there re-mains nothing to prevent them from getting ten times as much as they are now getting. O. L.

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Philadelphia, CM) taio, Cleveland, lxa Atifelea, Atlanta. other parts of the country operates almost entirely on an eight-hour day. This means that rubber factories in Akron are not competitive pricewise with rubber factories elsewhere, nor does the Akron rubber-worker take home as much pay as he could get from the same company in another city. So, what happens? The rubber companies have stopped expanding in Akron. Their new plants go outside and Akron's growth is arrested.

Here again, it would seem to us that someone is failing to take the "long view." Taking it later might be too late. Six-hour days, annual wage increases, generous pensions and expensive fringe benefits are wonder-" ul while they last. But they don't amount to much when the plant shuts down. ON the more cheerful side, a business projection through 1959 by Gilbert Burck and San-ford Parker in Fortune magazine shows the American people eating 12 per cent more food per capita (in 1953 dollars) than they were before the war, buying 25 per cent more cars, 12 per cent more clothes, and so on. "The challenge to business," say these researchers, "is to keep up with the market's potentialities not only by making and selling more of everything, but by im-, proving, varying, and adorning everything by blurring still further the already blurred line that distinguishes Americans' luxuries and Americans' necessities." It would seem, therefore, that the President's optimism is justified provided both employer and employe take the "long view" and work together more cooperatively in the future for their mutual benefit.

JOHN S. KNIGHT. By Robert 17. JStopher and James S. Jackson sons who attended were able to think of many reasons why the county should NOT try to establish a general hospital.

In fact, the meeting opened with the reading of a letter from Lucas County (Toledo) Commissioners reporting that their experience in the hospital business had been very sad. Nobody at last week's meeting could offer a single argument in favor of a county hospital here. In spite of this, before the group broke up, passed Commissioner John Poda's motion authorizing Thomas to appoint a subcommittee to keep this fruitless study alive. MISCELLANY The Goodyear strike has added 270 cases to the city's relief load so far. These cases represent 1,004 individuals.

A 15-day food order for the average family of four costs about Registration fees for the Rubber City Open, Sept. 2-5, are $15 for professionals and $10 for amateurs. Those amateurs who fail to qualify will get their money back in the form of five tickets for the main Akron JayCees have turned down co-sponsorship of a sports car race which had been proposed for Akron Airport by a Cleveland group. is not true that public relief officials have been giving food orders to Goodyear strikers which are redeemable only at the Co-op store on S. Arlington st.

That is only one of many places where clients may go for their groceries. But because of the close link between the Co-op and the CIO, many of the strikers who are on relief are taking their business there. Congresswoman Frances P. Bolton, Ohio Republican, author of H.R. 7172, a bill railing for equal pay.

for equal work for women, signs her correspondence, "Congressman Frances P. Bolton." Who Can Deny A Man Right To Work? CAN IT be possible that our local charity agencies are dealing out relief to indigent members of the Goodyear strikers? I hope I have been misinformed. Since the union to which they belong has created the conditions under which It Is Impossible for them to work, it follows that that same union should assume the responsibility of Its members' maintenance. I BELIEVE In organized labor but I am very much opposed to unions in general as they are being conducted in recent years. According to the tenets of modern civilization, every man has INTERCEPTED LETTERS BUD ABBOTT LOU'COSTELLO Derby Downs Dear Boys: REMEMBER, today you're at the All -American Soap Box Derby and it's not "Who's ON first?" but just "Who's first?" AKRON Jr.

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