Unions v. Eddie

Around Captain Eddie Rickenbacker swirled a storm of protest for his stern denunciations of absenteeism in war plants and general U.S. flabbiness. Union leaders howled bitter reproaches, called him misinformed, reactionary. Under Secretary of War Robert P. Patterson announced that the World War I ace spoke "as an individual and not as an Army officer." The sober Republican New York Herald Tribune allowed: "It does seem true that the World War ace lacks information on some of the obstacles to the all-out production effort he insists upon."

In Albany this week the storm mounted: New York unions berated the State Legislature for inviting Captain Eddie to address a joint session. An A.L.P. Assemblyman demanded a resolution that the invitation was not the legislature's endorsement of the flyer's views. But Eddie Rickenbacker went right ahead in his crusade.

To the legislators he preached the sermon with which he had stumped the country earlier (TIME, Feb. 8)--if the U.S. could understand the hell of battlefronts it would not worry about eight hours a day, doubletime for holidays, overtime. He stepped up labor's fury by denouncing a Fourth Term (see below); he emphasized a personal note.

Said Eddie Rickenbacker: "I claim that I am a real friend of labor, and that the men who are attacking me are labor's enemies. ... I definitely feel that our situation here at home is most serious, and that by such legislation [to give jobs to returning soldiers without making them join unions] our Congress could free honest labor from racketeers and parasites. ... I am not a labor hater. I believe in honest labor unions who are doing their darndest to turn out the weapons we need."

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