Evening star., 1940-02-19

mean that the
two bills will be <s'
alike or that David Lawrence.
there has been collaboration in pre-
pairing them. But it does mean that
two leaders in Congress have gotten
ready to press for passage in their
respective houses bill which will
be of more aid in settling labor dis
putes than any statute Congress
has passed.
For the principle behind volun-
tary mediation bill is that both sides
cannot always sit down together in
friendly conference after having
suffered indignities and sometimes
even violations of the law. There
must be some friendly, patient and
fair Intermediary who though him.
self without power to force anything
on either side, nevertheless presents
the terms from one side to the other
in an atmosphere of peace rather
than rancor.
Mediators Well Chosen.
The United States Cancellation
Service at present is one of the most
efficient instrumentalities in the
whole Government. Its praises have
long gone unsung because its work
Is unspectacular and unselflsh. No
body ever heard of Federal media
tor boasting that he had settled q
strike and nobody ever heard of a
Federal mediator saying that either
side won or lost strike. The media
tors employed by the Government,
headed by DR.. John R. Stedman in
the Department of Labor. are well
chosen. The only difficulty has been
that there have not been enough of
them and that Congress has never
appropriated enough money to make
it possible for mediators to be used
in the many disputes arising these
days.
Senator Wagner frankly confesses
In his public statement explaining
his bill that the National Labor Re-
lation Act operates within a COM
paratively narrow sphere" and that
many strikes have sometimes been
mistakenly laid at the door of the
Labor Act"
1t is unfortunate that the New
York Senator did not also concede
that the Wagner law itself has pro-
voked so many disputes that Fed
eral mediation service is even more
necessary than ever before. It is
essential that the mediation service
in the new law be kept free from
political influence or from such mis-
guided conceptions of public duty as
govern some of the employees of the
labor board who consider themselves
agents for particular unions and
causes. Nothing would so quickly
cause the collapse of a mediation
service than to have it tied up with
either the labor board or any other
political agency. To the credit of
Secretary Perkins, it should be said
that she has not in any way inter-
ferred with. the operations of the
mediation service or prevented it
from functioning as it has in the
past. She has on many occasions
encouraged the mediation service in
its work.
The appointment of a United
States mediation board of three as
proposed by Senator Wagner to-
gether with regional and other
agents is step in the direction of
really getting at labor disputes in
America. For the principle it rec
ognizes is that direct negotiations
are the best way to straighten out
differences and that compulsory COL
lective bargaining as compelled by
the Wagner law is in itself made
quate.
Act Used as Black jack"
One of the principal troubles with
the present labor situation is that
the Wagner Act itself has been used
as form of blackjack. The act has
become at times an instrument of
economic coercion. Many a small
employer has succumbed to threats
OF powerful national unions that
they would haul him before the la
Dor board. He has known in ad-
vance that he had little chance of
fair hearing before the trial exami-
fers and that his case was judged
before he submitted the evidence.
Hence the little business men have
complied and this may account for
the big statistical summary which
the labor board so often boasts about
when it says that it has secured
widespread compliance with the law.
Confirmation of this point of view
can be seen in recent testimony be-
fore the House committee investi-
eating the labor board, when it was
revealed that the C. I. O., which
has helped to formulate many of
the policies of the labor board itself,
sent out word to its representatives
to concentrate on the "big fellows"
and the little fellow would be taken
care of in other ways. What this
policy, in which the board publicly
now confesses it concurred, really
meant was that small businessmen
could be coerced into a settlement
because they did not have the funds
to make a legal fight against some
Of the injustices imposed by the
labor board.
A disinterested United States
mediation board will also be q fact