Evening star., 1938-05-19
MADDEN DEFENDS
BOARD WITH DATA
Chairman of N. L. R. B. Cites
Negative Phase of Task
to Critics.
By JOHN c. HENRY.


appeared today to have been the most
effective argument advanced last night
by Chairman J. Warren Madden of
the National Labor Relations Board
in refutation Of charges of unfair
ness and partiality in administration
Of the labor relations law
The chairlnanS position, set forth
in radio address, generally was re-
garded as an Official answer to the
barrage Of criticism which has en-
veloped the board since the Supreme
Court in its Kansas City stockyards
decision cautioned quasi-judicial agen-
cies against failing to accord fair
play" to defendants.
Scolds Foe-Employers.
Chairman Maddens address last
night was far from being entirely de-
feIsive as he took occasion to deliver
bitterly Worded scolding to employ
erS who have persisted in fighting
their employees and the labor relations
law and to editors and publicists"
who deal out most of the criticism of
how the law is being administered.
sured, or warned. his listeners that
We shall not modify our policy Of
vigorous enforcement"
Dating most of his remarks from
the time when the Supreme Court
upheld the law as constitutional, Mr..
Madden spoke caustically OF those en-
ployers who. advised by their asso-
ciates and their lawyers as to how
they might pretend to obey the law
without obeying, have continued to re-
sist.
There is a discouraging absence
of any spirit of good sportsmanship
or fair play among these people.
Those who never once protested
against the one-sidedness of the law
in the days when the employer could
with legal impunity spy upon the
union activities of his men. discharge
or lock them out for such activities,
refuse to bargain with their repre-
sentatives and compel them either to
yield their freedom or strike. are loud
in their protestations of one-sldedness
when the law begins to accord to their
employees protection in their funda-
mental rights. The plain truth is
that these people are opposed to
labor's having the right to organize
and bargain collectively. They assign
to the man who works a low place
in the social scale, and believe that
he should take what his employer is
willing to give him for his work and
not meddle in matters that should be
decided for him by his betters."
$4,000 Cases Filed.
Turning to the actual work done
by the board, the chairman disclosed
that some $4,000 cases have been
fled. most of them in the year since
the law was upheld.
In some thousands of cases." he
continued, the charges have been
dismissed or withdrawn after the
boards agents have advised those who
fled them that investigation showed
them to be without merit. Does any
one say that it is not good thing for
the Government to have advised these
people who thought they had a griev-
ance against their employers. that, in
truth, in the opinion of an agency
OF the Government sympathetic to-
ward their rights, they had no griev-
ence?
In other thousands of cases en-
ployers and employees have. through
the efforts of the boards agents, ad-
justed their difficulties on the basis
OF compliance with the law
In some hundreds of cases the
board has issued formal decisions
These decisions have been
widely studied by employers and
unions and their lawyers. They have
created an interesting store for teach
ing and discussion by professors and
students in all the distinguished law
schools and colleges. Our law is new
and We have been obliged to make |
our own precedents in its interpre-
tation and application. Yet from |
these informed students of our de-
cisions there has come a great deal |
of intelligent discussion, but very little |
critical comment about them. The |
criticism has come almost entirely |
from editors and publicists who do
not read the decisions.
Cites Support in Court.
Eleven cases involving the boards |
work have been reviewed and decided |
BY the Supreme Court of the United |
States within the past l3 months. |
Constitutional doctrines of the highest |
importance, relating to the extent OF
the powers of the National Govern
ment and the limitations of due proc
ess, have been formulated in some of
these decisions. Several of the more
important questions of statutory inter-
probation which the act presented have |
already been authoritatlvely decided. |
In ea0h of the II cases the Supreme |
Court agreed with the boards posi- |
ton. though it was necessary to re-
Verse decisions of the Circuit Courts of |
Appeals in of the ii cases. Ameri- |
can Jurisprudence has been notably |
llberalized and enriched by these de-
cisions'
Answering the charge that the law |
and its administration have fostered |
strikes rather than reduced them in
number, Mr.. Madden cited figures to |
show fewer strikes in the first quarter
of this year than that of last year, just |
prior to valuation of the act.
Giving credit to employers and to
unions who have abided by collective
bargaining procedure and to observ-
ance of the law, the chairman con-
Cluded:
In industries where collective bar
gaining has been the accepted prac-
tice for years there is no difficulty
about responsibility and faithful per-
formance of contracts on both sides.
There is no possible reason why the
same should not become true of those
unions and those employers who have
recently, for the first time, made con-
tracts. In fact, they are rapidly ad-
justing themselves to their new status.
Great credit must be given to those
employers who have led the way to-
ward the acceptance of this law Their
calm voices have been most effective