Montana labor news., 1938-08-04
On The Capitals Cuff
By HENRY ION


to describe the gall displayed by
some of the country's leading poll
ticians during the recent iaunt of
President Roosevelt across the coun-
try.
Take for instance, the case of Ken
tucky's governor, Happy" Chand
Ter, so-called because of a campaign
grimace wherein he shows his teeth
and tonsils in what is called a smile.
Chandler is running in the Demo-
cratic primaries, that is, the Ken
lucky election, against Sen. Alben
Barkley, leader of the administration
forces in the Senate.
Because of his position, Barkley
occupies a post second only to the
President in prestige if not in power
and his defeat would be hailed in
the nations press as a reputation of
the New Deal. That it would be a
reputation is hard to see but defeat
would be SO recorded and therefore
must be accepted as such willy-nilly.
This Reputation Chandler is
attempting to bring about. He is
backed, if reports from Kentucky
are to be credited, with all the heavy
sugar that the fat boys of Wall Street
can raise. The political objectives
of Wall Street, to say the best, are
undisputed.
Yet when the President, between
whose shoulder blades Chandler is
attempting to insert and twist long
knife, visits Kentucky to put in a
perfectly proper plug for his legisla-
tive leader, Chandler climbs without
hesitation on board the presidential
train, plants himself next to the
President in the presidential motor
car and pictures himself to the voters
of Kentucky as a bosom pal of the
New Deals leader.
Or take another instance, that of
Sen. Pat McCarran of Nevada, a
Democratic opponent of the Presi-
dent who makes no bones about his
opposition to the New Deal. The
engine of the presidential train bare
ly poked its nose across the Nevada
state line before McCarran was
aboard, determined to stay aboard
until the train left the state.
AS he got aboard, the reports say,
he told reporters that presidential
approval or disapproval doesn't
mean thing, that he could pull
through though the President lam
basted him in every hamlet of every
county. Yet under one arm he
carried box of fish and in the other
hand bunch of posies, like small
boy taking an apple to teacher
The accounts go on to say that
McCarran was nervous as a cat as
time came for him to make a back
platform appearance with the Presi-
dent. A nasty word or cutting look
would have sent him to the sani-
tarium for the rest of the campaign
and he breathed gobs of relief when
the President let him off without
mentioning his name.
He, like Chandler, was willing to
sacrifice all dignity, all personal
honor, to bend his knee in the dust,
in order that the voters of Nevada
might think that he was heart and
Drawn of the President they came
to cheer.
So it was the rest of the way
across the country. Men who curse
and spit every time the Presidents
name is mentioned and men who
move heaven and earth to bring
about his ears the greatest possible
calumny, flock to his side with the
smiles of Judas when election time
comes around.
ga
The "fact" of the National Labor
Relation Boards violent and vicious
partiality has been firmly established
in the editorial columns of most of
the country's daily newspapers. For
this reason it's a ten-to-one bet you
didn't see the following official an
in your local swindle
sheet
"The National Labor Relations
Board today announced that it had
set aside the record in the case of
the Express Publishing Co., San
Antonio, Tex, publisher of the San
Antonio Express and the San An
tonic Evening News.
''The action was based upon the
fact that the trial examiner had
stated at the hearing that he had
seen an editorial appearing in the
Express. The editorial denounced
'pro-NLRB trial tactics.
"In considering whether in the
conduct of the case the Trial Exam
iner, Waldo c. Holden, might have
been influenced to some extent by
circumstances coming to his knowl-
edge outside the record, the board
held, 8. we will order that a new
hearing before another trial exam
iner be held in order to remove any
possible stigma of prejudice"