Automatic Age

November, 1937
AUTOMATIC AGE
Labor Racketeers Attempt To
Destroy Coin Machine Industry
BY O. C. LIGHTNER
CPASMODICALLY in times past labor rack­
eteers have attempted to fasten themselves on
the payrolls of coin machine manufacturers. One
by one they were fought off. Lately under the
stimulus of the Wagner Act they have made re­
newed demands to gain a foothold in the in­
dustry and extract something like 10 percent of
the wages of the workers-
These labor agitators only defeat themselves
in the end. They put high costs upon the manu­
facturer who in turn must pass on this cost to
the operator. Machines that formerly sold for
$40, for instance, now bring almost $70. The
operator simply cannot take this increase. It
curtails his buying power. Even if the machine
cost identically the same, the operator’s own
troubles in increased living and operating costs
would curtail to some extent his buying power.
The industry got to going pretty good- We
were employing lots of men at good wages. The
operators could buy machines cheap enough to
come in the market and order. The working
men were supporting their families and riding
in good cars. Then came the racketeers with
their exhorbitant demands and the prosperity of
the industry blew up. It wasn’t all legal troubles.
Plenty of machines are operating today. Exorbi­
tant costs had as much to do with the depression
now existing in the industry as any other factor-
The futility of going to extremes is shown by
the fact that thousands of men have been let out
of employment. One factory that at one time em­
ployed 500 men has dropped down to 25. Another
factory reduced its floor space 50 percent. Many
plans for new machines have been abandoned be­
cause of high costs of raw material and labor.
It’s the old story of the consumer having some­
thing to say. You can’t get your price so high
that you stop consumption. The situation will
take a little time to straighten itself out- From
month to month now we look for better condi­
tions. When the racketeer is squelched so that
it doesn’t pay him to be around agitating the
men, factories will be willing to resume. They
will again turn out machines at a fair price to
the operator and that will stimulate demand.
The operator, himself, has begun to suffer
from factories closing down. Western Electric
Company in Chicago has let off 6,000 men. One
of the steel mills shut down a blast furnace that
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cost $10,000 to light and start again- It sup­
ported several thousand men. A u t o m a t ic A g e ’ s
office is located in Automobile Row, Chicago, and
one of the local dealers offered us a brand-new
1938 model at 25 percent below advertised price.
We asked “how come?” He said the ‘38 cars are
not selling. He had his order in expecting a good
business but consumption has fallen off so much
that he must move his cars and get his money
to finance himself, or the factory will cut him
off and he will lose the agency. This shows how
business is falling off at the present time.
These labor racketeers agitate working men
into thinking they can get rich in one year- The
only way to get rich is to invent something new
or go in business for yourself. Don’t expect the
other fellow to make you rich. A friend in one
of the coin machine supply lines told about union­
izing his men and how they got their wages
up to $60 a week. He told us sometimes he could
not scrape the pay-roll together and since the
scale went up there has not been a single week
that he took home as much as $50 for himself!
Situations like that will not last long.
What we are facing is a business-men’s strike.
Industrial leaders are going to strike next.
Business men are not going to face exhorbitant
taxation on one hand and the demands of labor
on another. Between the two they will grind him
to death-
What attracted the labor racketeers to the coin
machine field was a publication which became
desperate because we were beating them. They
concocted the idea that if they could cause us
some labor trouble they could make us raise our
rates. A year ago a couple of high-binders came in-
toourplaceand mentioned that we were competing
with that publication and we were going to have
to meet certain demands. They remarked at the
time that they had also begun to look into the
coin machine industry and it was likewise going
to meet their demands— or else. That led to a
crew of C. I. O. organizers starting in on all the
factories. Several of them had strikes. Others
were driven into bankruptcy. We had more bank­
ruptcies in the coin machine business in the past
year than we had since 1931.
Our industry, like all others, is suffering from
too much dictatorial politics. John Lewis wanted
to organize everybody so that he could extract a
portion of their wages to be used in political
elections. We have had entirely too much
dictatorship already. Everything was going
along all right until these labor racketeers were
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