The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-06-01
LABOR WAR TO
BAR VACATION
FOR PRESIDENT
Roosevelt May Be Kept on
Firing Line Because OF
Situation.
STRIKE PROBLEM ACUTE
Congress Is Unusually Ilmld
About Taking Vote on
Wagner Bill.
STRIKE PROBLEM ACUTE
BY RUTH FINNEY
Times Special Writer

Times Special Writer
WASHINGTON, June i.-Strikes
and strike threats are going TO
force either congress or President
Roosevelt to abandon plans for leav-
ing washington in the immediate
future.
So serious has the labor situation
become that unless congress stays IN
session long enough to pass the
Wagner industrial adjustment bill.
the President probably will have to
take on the role OF mediator
extraordinary for an INDEFINITE
period.
He already has admitted that ne
NAV have to postpone the trip ne
planned to the Caribbean, the
Canal Zone and Hawaii.
In the last year President Roose-
welt has had to do an unusual
amount of mediating. Weeks ago
he indicated it was taking too much
of his time and that he wanted. a
permanent board, with considerable
power and prestige, created to take
over this work.
Congress Becomes Timid
However. congress, battered by a
fusillade from employers who OPP
nose the Wagner bill, even in its
weakest form, and from workers
who want it made stronger in de-
Tense of their rights, has become
unusually timid about voting on the
measure.
It won't pass unless President
Roosevelt cracks the whip and
cracks it hard.
Mediating and enforcement agen-
cies now in existence can not cope
with the present situation because
workers believe their decisions OF the
last year have failed to uphold
rights guaranteed them by the re-
covry act.
In the background of the i'm
mediate crisis is this series OF
events.
Steel has consistently refused to
recognize unions of its workers
Captive mine strikes to force rec
ignition ended without clear-cu'
decision on this issue
Weirton Steel won preliminary
victory this week in the courts
where the government tried to force
if to allow workers to select then
our representative for bargaining
Cotton Men Rap NRA
Automobile strikers also failed to
bring about recognition of unions.
NRA has not succeeded in short
ening working hours and raising
wages as it attempted to do this
spring and workers have decided
that only a show of economic force
can help them.
Cotton textile workers say MIRA
actually has sanctioned a sharp cut
in their wages by permitting mills
to shut down for q fourth of theil
normal working time during the
summer.
Senator Robert F. Wagner recog-
nized the broad implications OF the
present unrest and warned tnal
failure to meet the situation viii
endanger the whole recovery pro-
gram, in an address last night.
Much of the present discomfort is
caused not by economic progress but
by conditions that are constant
menace to any decent and per-
manent prosperity, he said.
THE chief method which the new
deal has suggested for establishing
a balance between profits and wages
is ignored when collective bargain
ing is denied. Already the evil eff
fects are manifest.
100000 Still JObless
while business improvement ha'
been rapid, the real wage of the in
dividual worker has hardly in
creased during the last year anc
hours of labor actually have beer
heightened since last october. Nine
million people are still unemployed
and over three million families re-
main dependent upon public relief
Such conditions constitute bur-
den upon our whole society"
Wagner laid before the senate
Yesterday a series of amendments
strengthening labor provisions Of
his bill. In its present form il
would permit the new industrial
adjustment board to assume juris'
diction only over specified Labor
practices and collective bargaining
disputes, but not over wage, houl
and working condition disputes
Under this wording the board woulC
actually be weaker than the nation
al labor board it is to replace.
Wagner proposes to remedy thi!
with an amendment permitting thu
board to mediate or conciliate in al
disputes. His amendment is criti
cised by some because these power
are not made mandatory.
Creates Five Member Board
The measure, as now before tn
senate, would:
Create a board of five member;
three appointed by the President
two others selected for Unite,
service from panels of workers an
employers also selected by the Presi
dent.
Empower the board to stop unfai
labor practices or to force employer
to take affirmative action to "achiev
substantial justice"
Ban company-dominated unions.
Empower the board to decid
whether representatives selected
majority of workers in a plar
shall bargain for all.
Permit, but not require, close
shop agreements.