The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1940-10-09
ON THE
CAPITALS CUFF
Federated Press)
BY HENRY ION

I WAOf1lNG1O N--On OCtOD6T D, l.
, Pittsburgh, Wendell l. Willkie, reput
lican candidate for president, made hi
Tabor speech" of the campaign.
By comparison, Abe Lincoln's "hom
eopathic soup made from the SHADOW
of starving pigeon" was dynamit,
and TINT.
The candidate whose funds are be
ing collected by Ernest T. Weir, chair
man of the finance committee of the
republican party, began by quoting
Lincolns famous phrase. Labor is
prior to and independent of capital
He stands with Lincoln, Willkie said
Then the ex-utilities president went
on to quote Lincoln again, to the effect
that people should not tear down other
peoples houses, that they should go
out and build their own. He stands
with Lincoln on that, too, Willkie said.
The inference was that labor should
not demand a share of the profits of a
corporation such as Bethlehem Steel
1t should go out and build its own
steel plant and thus be prior to and
independent of capital"
II was for the National Labor Rela-
lions Act before 1t was passed, was
for it after it was passed. and l am for
1t now" Willkie asserted.
The next day Senator Wagner 3D.,
N. W, author of the law, told the SEN
ate, "On an issue of such far-reaching
Importance, labor and the country at
large will want to square these kind
words uttered a few weeks before
election with the record made before
Mr.. Willkie became presidential can
didate
1.-THE record shows that three Of the
cooperating companies in the Com
monwealth & Southern utility system
have openly defied the rights of their
workers to organize in unions of their
own choice and established and main
tanned company dominated organiza-
lions whereby the companies could sit
on both sides of the conference table
"In one of these companies where
opposition to an AFL union extends
back to 1889, before the National La
Dor Relations Act was passed, labor
has denounced the situation as one |
of the blacklist spots on the utility |
map"
Wagner put into the record NLRB |
and court orders concerning the Con-
sumers Power company, the Alabama
Power company, and the Southern In
diana Gas & Electric company.
Wagner might also have noted that
M. Toland, counsel for the
Smith committee which is doing its
level best to destroy the act, is an
ardent supporter of Willkie and holds
a position as Wilkes labor adviser.
Willkie went on to say that the
place the new deal let labor down was
in the matter of providing jobs for
The unemployed. He will provide jobs,
he said, through the mysterious magic
Of encouraging business.
1t is a matter of small Importance
If course, that one of the things bust
ness wants to be encouraged about
he most is the National Labor Rela-
ions Act.
After this interlude, apparently in
erted for the purpose of disconnect-
ng his remarks about the labor act,
Willkie proceeded to attack the adj
of the act and to say at
would therefore seem to me wise, be-
ore materially changing the act, as
many suggest, to change the admins
ration of it.
"This would require some special
egislation but that problem is not
The problem of special legislation" {
hanging the administration of the act r
, indeed not insuperable. 1t has al /
eady been prepared by Mr.. Toland's r
NTH committee and, in Toland's Z
lew, preserves all the basic principles
f the act.
Fortunately, Toland's view is not :
haired by the AFL, CLIO, or railroad :
The presidential candidate went on r
} attack Secretary of Labor Perkins,
robably to the modification of
umber of women voters, on the !,
round that her job is mans job,
nd to talk about establishing mini !
lum wages and maximum hours just
) if he had never heard of the wage
our act.
1t is going to take more than a
good specific con-
nce labor that handpicked candi- c.
ate of the very group that made the 81
Dor relations act necessary has Ia "
)r's best interests at heart. N