National Affairs: Wage Freeze?

It was as if a speaker at a meat packers' convention had come out foursquare and hearty for vegetarianism. With predictable indignation, labor leaders at last week's A.F.L.-C.I.O. convention in Atlantic City pounced on President Richard James Gray of the 19-union Building and Construction Trades Department for making a proposal that he himself conceded was "most unorthodox." The proposal: a one-year voluntary wage freeze to keep prices from rising to the point where demand declines and sagging demand causes unemployment.

Ridiculous & Irrelevant. Jowly old (71) Bricklayer Gray has long been a dissenter among labor leaders. He backed Eisenhower for President...

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