Evening star., 1937-01-11
Strike Testing
Both Politics
and Business
Constitution Declared
Inadequate as Now
Interpreted.
BY JAY FRANKLIN.

IF YOU want any proof that our
economic royalists" have learned
nothing and that our political
= system is still run on the CASH
and-carry plan, take good look at
the strike situation which has broken
in the automobile industry.
Since the time of the N. r. A.
and the foolish attempt Of the A. F.
Of L. to "organize" everything at once,
the automobile situation has been as
wide open as Senator's mouth. This
situation Is simply that John Lewis
and the c. I. o. want to unionize au-
tomobiles, along with steel and rub
ber, and that the motor magnates
simply do not want to be unionized.
There is no socialism involved. Mr..
Lewis doesn't seem to have many ideas
above the pay envelope in the pants
pocket, and the operators seem to
cling to the notion that billion-dol-
lar business can be run like corner
grocery was in the days when Chester
Arthur was President Of the United
States and John D. Rockefeller was a
rising young man.
Pressman Able Adviser.
During the last year the c. I. o.
has been moving in on Detroit, steadi-
| ly, ShreWdly and with great self-con-
fidence. Its officials even talk blandly
about employer trouble" to Offset
the old phrase, "labor trouble" by
which employers cover everything
from small riot to a labor war. In
its legal adviser, Lee Pressman, the
| c. l. o. has one Of the ace attorneys
of the New Deal.
That there will be violence goes
without saying. The industry which
fought the bloody Toledo strike and
fostered the Black Legion is not going
TO take the closed shop lying down.
There will be oarrage OF conserva-
| tive publicity and the law-and-order
boys will be there with the "finks."
the "hook men" and the private de
| tectives."
Men are walking the streets today,
strong and ambitious, who will be in
| their graves soon If the Detroit en-
ployers do not back down. Coughlin
has come on the air in a laSt-minute
| fight to stop the strike.
The strikers have, for the first
time in labor's history, some very
strong cards. In the first place. the
automobile industry is the backbone
Of the present boom"
In the second place, Frank Murphy
| is now Governor of Michigan. Muir
ply was kicked upstairs to the Phil
ippine Islands when the Detroit gang
| found him an inconveniently liberal
Mayor four years ago. Now he Is
back, in control of the State govern
ment and the National Guard. He
| can, if necessary, do a Floyd Olson
aad call out the troops against ths
/ strike breakers 1t may be remem-
/ bered at this point that Murphy was
/ recently in consultation with F. D. r.
In the third place, the New Deal
! is in power at Washington and the
powers of the Federal Government
will not be used against the c. I. 0.
in its attempt to unionize our great
est maSs-production industry. for
Roosevelt believes in national action
to regulate wages and hours of labor
and general working conditions in in
dustry, and only the Supreme Court
! holds that this power lies exclusively
with the States. The automobile
/ strike has wiped out State lines as
though John Lewis had rdawn wet
! sponge across the map Of the United
/ States.
Injunction May Not Stick.
1t will be rather hard to make the
old Federal injunction game stick in
the face of tough labor crowd. Ger
tainIy it has not worked with a tough
employer crowd.
Finally. Mr.. Henry Ford is not d.
rectly involved in the struggle. He
is too popular and too easy mark
1t is better strategy to fight General
Motors, while Ford tries to clean ur
| on the side, than to challenge the
ageing leader of our biggest one-man
| business.
The point of all this is that here
Oue VI IHe greatest IIluuSlgldl UdIIles
in our history threatens and Is our
political system prepared for a crisis
which the Supreme Court says IS be-
yond Federal powers? Are our busi-
ness potentates ready for the testi
Is the public prepared? This, we SUBJ
NIT, is sufficient proof of the in
adequacy of our Constitution. as nov
interpreted. to deal with the real
problems Of the twentieth century.