Evening star., 1937-01-28
THE POLITICAL
MILL
BY G. GOULD LINCOLN.

the automobile strike OF today. When
John L. Lewis, chairman of the Commit
tee for Industrial Organization, turned
loose demand that President Roosevelt
pay his election debt by backing the
strikers in their controversy with Cen
eral Motors, he aroused considerable
anti-union opinion. But when Alfred
P. Sloan, jr., president of General Motors,
declined an invitation extended by Miss
Perkins, Secretary of Labor, to attend a
conference with herself and Lewis, he
set public opinion swinging in the other
direction. 1t looks as though both sides
had been pretty stupid. What the
country wants is the settlement Of this
strike, which is causing huge losses in
wages, production and business gen.
orally, and settlement without the loss
of life or destruction Of property.
Lewis is clinging to the Shutdown"
strike as weapon. Sloan has declared
there will be no settlement, and no
negotiations looking to a settlement,
until the sit-down strikers have left
the plants of General Motors. The ad-
ministration in Washington has said
nothing so far about the Sit-down
strike. The Sit-down strike, however,
threatens to become grave issue in
this country unless something is done
about it. Administration Senators are
unwilling to discuss the sit-down strike
for publication, awaiting a cue, perhaps,
from the White House. Privately, some
Of them say that there is growing new
conception of property rights, and that a
mans Job may be considered a property
finhf &c iyoopIinottAy, @4 fhof
effect in the Wagner labor relations act,
passed by the last Congress. If there
is to be new labor legislation in this Con-
gress, the property right of laborer to
hold his job may be more explicitly set
forth.
But even granting to labor a prop
erty right in its jobs does not clear
up the problem of the sit-down strike.
When group Of employees takes over
an industrial plant. refusing to get out,
1t is trespassing If it is not doing some
thing more serious. Sloan takes the
position that a small group of the
General Motors employees, now on strike,
have taken over the company's plants
and are holding them for ransom with
out regard to law or justice" In other
words, the plants have been kidnapped.
There are ways and ways Of maintaining
property right. But so far it has not
been held legal to maintain a property
right by seizing another's property. 1t
looks as though the Government would
have to take position, one way or
another, before long in regard to the
sit-down strike.
Miss Perkins latest move Is along
different lines. She has called upon
Senator Robinson, Democratic leader of
the upper house, to put through new
law giving the Department OF Labor the
right to go into all the papers and
records of any concern in which strike
takes place. Presumably the depart
ment would also have the right to go
into the records of labor organizations
which are conducting the strikes. Pre-
sumably Miss Perkins would use the
facts turned up by the department.
agents to influence public opinion, under
the proposed law. Or the facts would be
turned over to Congress to be used in
drafting legislation. Her proposal smacks
good deal of the John L. Lewis in
fiuence. He has been demanding that
Senate committee look into the affairs of
General Motors.
"What will the Republican party do
now?" is the question aSked-and tenta-
lively answered-in Fortune Magazine in
its recent issue. The magazine claims
to have made an exhaustive survey Of
the political implications of the Novem-
ber election. AS a result of that survey
it is proposing to the Republican party
that 1t do what the Federalist party did
hundred years ago-fold up and vanish
from the political horizon. One possible
result, the magazine suggests, from the
retirement of the G. 0. p. from the
field, might be split in the Democratic
party. The Republican party might do
worse, it says, "for if the Republicans
liquidate, the Democratic will split. And
If the Democratic party splits, the split
will run along economic rather than
economic geographic lines, and then
there would be no more solid South"
The ultimate result would be cleavage
between liberals and conservatives.
This might happen, and then again
1t might not. In the meantime, Re-
publicans go about trying to think up
something that may be done to put new
life into the old party. They are not
talking about liquidating. AS Fortune
points out, the Republicans are thinking
along two lines. One group wishes to
make the party more liberal and to put
it in closer touch with the people. An
other group wants the party to become
stout opposition party to the New
Dealers, biding its time until something
turns up. Today it looks as though the
Republicans would take 1t out in talk
at least for while.
Fortune denies that President Roose-
velt ran for reelection and was VIC
toriouS as liberal" It insists that
he ran and was elected as "Mr. Roose-
velt," and that his chief issue was not
liberalism, but prosperity. He was the
man who had brought back, through his
administration, prosperity. This, prob
ably, will shock some Of the liberal
followers OF Mr.. Roosevelt. 1t seems
true, however, that If there had not been
a big pickup in business and employ
ment and production in the year 1886
that Mr.. Roosevelt would have had a
tough time being reelected.
Il X
The National Get-Out- t-Vote Club,
headed by Simon Michelet, is entering
upon a campaign election and registra-
tion reforms. The president of the club
points out that since its organization in
1924 and it began its campaign for wider
c,,fFrooo fhnro hoe hepn hip inrrpncn