Pres. Opens Management Labor Parley

Pres. Opens Management Labor Parley John L. Lewis, United Mine Workers, & William Green, AFL, arrival outside Department of Labor Building, Washington, DC thru independent pickets against labor-management conference. 04:23:02 Int. MS Philip Murray, CIO; Sidney Hillman, Ladies Garment Workers; Eric Johnston, United States Chamber of Commerce; Ira Mosher, National Association of Manufacturers; Mathew Woll (AF of L). 04:23:21 LS of meeting hall. MS President Truman at podium speaks: “The time has come for Labor & Management to handle their own affairs in the traditional, American, democratic way. I hope that I can give up the President’s wartime powers as soon as possible, so that Management & Labor can again have the full & undivided responsibility for providing the production that we must have to safeguard our domestic economy & our leadership in international affairs. Finding the best way to accomplish that result without government directives to either Labor or Industry, that is your job! We must have production; vast production! We must have it soon. In order to have it, Labor & Management must work together to expand the economy of our nation as they worked together to protect the safety of our nation during the war. When industrial strife becomes widespread all of us lose the things we need: the wages that labor wants, the earning & dividends that the businessmen & investors want, & the products that the consumers want. No realist can expect the millennium of the perfect, no strike, no lock out era at once. But continued production on an expanding industry unhampered as far as humanly possible by stoppages of work are absolutely essential to progress. That is the road to security at home & peace abroad. We cannot fail in our efforts to move forward on that road. (applause) 04:25:20 LS of standing attendees applauding. Post-WWII Homefront; Economy; Post-WW2 Rebuilding; Labor Unions; 1945; Presidential Address; Economics;