Evening star., 1937-09-07
MADDEN PLEDGES
LABOR NEUTRALITY
N. L. R. B. to Be Fair to
A. F. L. and C. |. O. in
Strife, He Saws.
Continued From Page AID

palQ any attention to them. Thi
board has no power whatever to en-.
force its orders except by taking then
into a Circuit Court of Appeals o.
the United States, which reviews the
case and, If it agrees with the boarc
as to the law and finds that there il
evidence to support the boards order
1t compels obedience to that order.
1t was physically impossible for the
board, with its small legal staff and
Its limited budget, to pursue such a
proceeding in any large number OF
cases. The consequence was open dis
obedience of the orders of the board
The board was in the meantime car
rying five cases, testing different ap-
plications Of the act, through the Su-
preme Court.
1t should be said that in many sit
uations, however, the boards agents
in the field had been able, by per-
suasion, to obtain compliance with
the law. Such employers served
themselves well and their communities
and country we'll by putting into eff
feet, without compulsion, the policy
of this law.
The consequence of all this resist
ance and noncompliance was that
employees and their union officials
came to realize that this law, from
which they had hoped much, was not
yet the law, and that nothing short of
favorable decision of the Supreme
Court would make it so to the minds
of many employers. Employers did
not yet have a peaceful alternative to
the primitive weapon of the strike,
If they would secure their right to
self-organization and collective bar
gaining. The real alternatives were
either to strike or surrender their
rights.
ruinous industrial conflicts occurred.
The workers struck without even COM
ing to the board. In one case it was
estimated that the strike cost the en-
ployes in wages, the employer in
profits, and the communities in loss of
business, $80000,000. The issue which
caused the strike, as reported in the
newspapers, was that the union, ad-
mitted by the employer to have an
overwhelming majority of the en-
ployes as members, demanded recog-
milton as the sole collective bargaining
agency The act entities such a union
to such recognition. The employer
fatly refused. He was, no doubt ad-
vised by his lawyer that the act was
not the law. The lawyer was wrong.
BY his advice he caused an $50, 900 900
strike. The union did not come to
the board because, seeking tc obtain
relief, they knew they would only en-
counter interminable litigation.
Injunction Device Used.
In another great strike of the past
Winter, the background was this: The
union had filed charges with the
board that the company had dis
charged its members in order to Grip
pie the union. The union, by coming
to the board, showed that it was will
ing to resort to orderly legal processes.
The company, however, obtained an
injunction against the holding of
hearing to take testimony as to the
truth of these charges, and though the
board made every effort to free itself,
succeeded IN keeping the injunction
IN force for several months. In the
meantime the union, conceiving itself
to have new grievances against the
employer, and knowing that the en-
ployer regarded the law as a nullity,
and would not comply with it, did not
again resort to the board, but initiated
the employer in ignoring the law and
calling a strike.
These incidents were being repro
duced on a smaller scale in other
parts of the country The law was,
In all reality, not in effect.
On April II of this year the ST.
preme Court of the United States de-
cided five cases upholding the act and
the extent. of the jurisdiction which
the board had asserted in those cases.
And so at last the law of the statute
book became the law of the land. But
In appraising its results it is not only
fair but essential to remember that the
law is only d few months old, and that
its ineffectiveness during the preced-
ing period must be charged to those
who violated it.
AS approved by the Supreme Court
the act constitutes a real charter of
liberty for very large proportion of
American labor. 1t would be difficult
to point to another instance in human
history of a single law which contained
within itself such possibilities of pro-
tecting both moral and material values
at the same time.
On the moral side numerous COM
munities have taken on a new tone
since this law became effective In
such communities American citizens
can join with their fellows in an at
tempt TO discuss and improve their
status, and at the same time can walk
10 their jobs holding their heads high
and declaring their status as union
men If they choose. Thousands OF
employers have accepted this new law
in the spirit in which was enacted
and their officials are keeping hands
of and leaving their employees to ioin
whatever union they choose, or no
union at all if they so choose. And
If their employees have formed a union,
these employers are dealing with the
union in good faith on basis of mu-
tual respect to solve their mutual prob
lens. Here We find industrial rela-
tions at their best.
And it is difficult to estimate the
total good to the community and to
the country which is resulting from
the union meetings themselves. Hun
dreds of thousands of citizens are
gaining an experience in self-govern-
ment which is incomparably superior
to the usual efforts at adult education
They are on the way TO find out the
difference between bunk and reality
TO distinguish between crooked leaders
and straight leaders, to judge among
those who are too rash and impetuous
on the one hand, or too timid and do
nothing, on the other. After some
experience of this kind, we will have
here. I venture to predict, a backlos
OF hard-headed realists who will b,
extraordinarily hard TO mislead. anc
before whom the old-time politician
with his paSv rlf~ec for the sl,e of ,,,n,,