Evening star., 1936-08-05

@oo|
deed, obtained
DaV'o Lawrence from the Repub-
lican nominee q declaration as i'm
portant as that which was revealed
in the letter to Norman Thomas. To
understand the point involved, 1t Is
worth re-reading the paragraph in
Mr.. Landon's speech, in which he
said:
THE right of labor to organize
means to me the right of employees to
Join any type of union they prefer,
whether it covers their plant, their
craft or their industry. 1t means that,
in the absence of a union contract,
an employe has an equal right to join
o union or to refuse to join union"
Deliberately Inserted.
What do the words, ''in the absence
OF q union contract" mean to imply?
The words were not put there casually
but deliberately. They have back of
them a vast background of labor con-
koversy which has live relationship
to present day conditions in the labor
world.
Under the national labor relations
act, when q majority of the employees
in a plant or industry vote to require
that all employees must be members
of the union, they cannot be prose-
cuted for setting up a monopoly or
for interfering with the rights of nom
union men. In other words, the Fed
eral law doesn't prohibit the closed
shop"
There are no State laws which ex-
pressly permit or forbid the "closed
shop" but there have been decisions
of State courts which have held the
CLOSED shop" to be unlawful under
certain circumstances as violation
Of common law principles.
Court Frowns on Monopoly.
Thus anybody ought to have the
right to apply for work whether he
is a member of a union or not, but
If shop is entirely unionized, the
understanding between employers and
employees is that non-union men will
not be hired. Wherever this agree
ment or contract is local, that is where
it Is between one employer and his
men, or where it is confined to a
small part of an industry, there has
been little inclination on the part of
the State courts to interfere. 1t is
only when the effort to exclude non
union workers takes on the nature of
a labor monopoly in an entire industry
and where groups of employers agree
TO such terms with single union
that the courts have frowned on the
action.
1t is significant that many of the
decisions holding the CLOSED shop" |
to be invalid were rendered in Massa-
chuSettS, when Justice Oliver Wendell |
Holmes, the great liberal, was on the |
high court of that State.
The legal status of the CLOSED shop" |
controversy generally is accepted, 50 |
far as State laws are concerned, but |
the Federal statutes have tended to |
exempt labor unions from being |
charged with monopolistic practices. |
Whatever the policy of the situation
may be, Landon has by inference rec
ognized that there are such things
as "closed-shop" agreements and that |
where they lawfully exist an employe
does not have IAN equal right to join
union or to refuse to join q union"
Fought on Principle.
The National Association of Manu-
facturers has fought this as a mat
ter of policy for many years and
they cannot have been too happy over
the apparent willingness of Landon
to accept the existing situation with
respect to CLOSED shop" AS for
the Republican nominee, it could be
said that the reason he stated the
matter as he did was because the
question is wholly for the States to
decide, as they have heretofore. Be-
cause certain union contracts v0Iun-
tar1ly made between employers and
employees have been upheld as to
legality, Landon may have felt there
Is no room for questioning of them
~nen discussing what are or are not
the rights of working men.
Summed up, Landon has taken his |
stand on labor issues in such q way
that he cannot be justly accused of
being a partisan Of the employer in
terestS any more than of the employees,
a truly neutral position which is in
line with the basic concepts of govern
mental mediation where labor dis
putes arise.
President Roosevelt's labor position
is in theory not bit different from
that Of Landon. In fact, the phrase
without coercion from any source"
which occurs in the Republican plat
form and was repeated by Landon in
his acceptance speech, was first used
by President Roosevelt himself in
1884 in proclaiming the automobile
code of the N. r. A.
There would appear to be no fun
damental difference in the expressed
position of the two candidates thus
far on the labor question, so that the
campaign must turn, so far as labor
is concerned, on other matters, as, for
instance, whether the President and
the Department of Labor are favoring
John L. Lewis and the industrial
unions as against the skilled workers
of the country who are unfolding
President Green Of the American Fed
Grafton Of Labor.
Copyright, 1885,,