The Waterbury Democrat., 1939-04-11
SENATOR WAGNER
 BACKSLABOR ACT
Sponsor of Much Disputed National Bill, Tells Why
 It Should Stand
BY RONALD c. VAN TINE United Press Staff Correspondent

(Umlte0 fTcSS StaH COfrcSpUuUcut)
 Washington, April 11.-(UP) = Sen. Robert F. Wagner, D., N. r., to- day defended the basic principle of the National Labor Relations Act, saying it was "eminently fair"
 But he said he would support, with appropriate safeguards" a change that would give employers caught between the competition of rival groups" the right to petition for collective bargaining elections.
 Wagner thought the National La- bor Relations Board could institute such change under it's rrlle-mak- ing power.
 But if not" he continued, "there should be legislation toward that end unless these hearings develop com polling reasons, which I do not now see, why such change would inn pair the objectives of the act"
 Wagner First Witness
 Wagner, who sponsored the Labor Act in 1885, was. the first witness at hearings of the Senate education and labor committee which is con- sidering changes in the act pro- posed by the American Federation of Labor and by various business and industrial groups.
 A charge by the Congress of In- dustrial Organizations, which op- poses any change, that the AFI, the U. s. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manu- lecturers had entered a conspiracy" against flair employers, against la bor and against the welfare of the general public" were 8 prelude to today's hearings. AFL President William Green replied that the charge was untrue.
 Wagner Summary
 Wagner concluded his testimony with the following summary of his viewpoint:
 '1. The Labor Act has been an effective instrument for economic peace and industrial justice.
 "2. A powerful minority is trying to destroy rather tEan to perfect the act.
 8. Amendments proposed by la Dor groups and labor's friends de- serve most careful consideration.
 A. Amendments pretending to make the act fair by placing new restraints on labor would resign la bor to its earlier status of economic underling.
 "5. Amendments proposing dras- tic administrative changes would weaken traditional type of informal tribunal where average man has better chence to be heard.
 "6. Within comparatively nar- row field, there may be changes which these hearings will reveal to be sound in principle and practical in operation"
 Noble Objectives
 Wagner appealed to all believers of economic democracy to make sure that whatever may be done to the act is done in furtherance of its mo- ble objectives."
 "No one challenges it's objectives" he said. No responsible party open ly advocates its repeal. Any diminu- tion of its effectiveness would be national evil. Its mutilation would be national calamity"
 Those who charge that the Labor Act is unfair" he said, are "look- ing at the act in an intellectual vacuum"
 "In this intellectual vacuum, since the law conferS direct protection upon employees alone," he said, ''it is 'one-sided' in the anne sense that workmen's compensation law is 'one-sided' because it pays compen- sation to employees alone. It is 'one- sided in the same way that the re- construction Finance Corporation law is 'one-sided' in that it provides big loans to business and not small loans to laborers.
 s Test of Laws Fairness
 "The test of whether law is fair, is whether, in conjunction with the other laws and facts of society, it establishes a fair relationship among the people and groups with which it deals.
 By this test, the Labor Act is eminently fair"
 Wsgner said supreme court deci- sions upholding legality of the La- bor Act were responsible for the end of sit-down strikes.
 "Once workers were afforded a peaceful. valid remedy for eliminat. ing the grievances at the root of the sit-down strike, the sitdowns vir- tually disappeared from the Ameri- can scene." he said.
 "Very small but amazingly com pact and powerful minority is at tempting to destroy" the act, Wag- ner told the committee.
 The three members of the labor board Chairman J. Warren Mad-