Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1940-01-26

moval of the David Lawrence.
present personnel of the board and
is made necessary, if a change in
personnel is desired by Congress, by
the fact that individual members of
the board cannot be removed except
after due notice and hearing.
Even if the President should de-
eide that he wants to remove the
present membership, he could not
do so without perhaps legal battle.
The prospects, therefore, are that
the section of the law which pro-
vides for the present board will be
repealed and another provision in
serted which very likely will require
7, If not an 11-man, board
The Interstate Commerce Com
mission is an excellent example of
the value of an 11-man board be-
cause the work can be allocated to
divisions. The likelihood, however,
is that seven-man board will be
sought just because the 11-man idea
permits of return to what is being
criticized at present, namely,
three-man tribunal in which one
man can virtually sway the decisions.
Green States Position.
When William Green, president of
the American Federation of Labor
testified before the special House
committee investigating both the
labor board and the Labor Act, he
was we'll aware that some of the
defenders of the board in the New
Deal have been accusing him OF
scuttling the law itself. Hence he
forthrightly declared that he did
not favor the amendments proposed
by the National Association of Man.
ufacturers or the United States
Chamber of Commerce, and that his
principal complaint is against the
administration of the act itself.
Many friends of genuine collec-
tive bargaining will regret the turn
of affairs which the present labor
board controversy has taken. Again
and again the prejudice and bias of
subordinate personnel was drawn to
the attention of the labor board
members without avail. Likewise,
decisions were made which stretched
the law to an extreme degree. Mr..
Green thinks there have been de-
cisions which were actually contrary
to the spirit as we'll as the letter
of the law.
Throughout the last year friends
of the Wagner law have been point
ing out that many of the evils COM
planned of could be corrected. But
the board members have stubbornly
refused to concede that the criti-
cisms were valid or that they had
erred. Their position has been to
draw smokescreen over the charges
by counter attack, declaring that
all the fuss came from those I'M
friendly to the law itself Just why
the American Federation of Labor
was overlooked as one of the arch
critics of the law is uneXplainable
except on the general ground that
the two majority members of the
board are unwilling to concede any
thing at all about their mistakes.
The history of the administrative
and judicial processes when eXer-
cised by the boards and commits
sions is that arbitrary decisions in
the long run provoke bitter reac-
ton and then the subject becomes
beclouded with emotional aspects
that prevent it from being examined
on its merits.
Prestige Suffered.
Unquestionably many of the de-
cisions of the board have been
right, but the method of getting
testimony or the manner of con-
Quoting the case has been so mani
festly unfair as to weaken the pres
tige of the board itself. The board
made its biggest mistake a year ago
when efforts to amend the Wagner
law were being made by taking the
position that it would oppose any
important modification of the act.
Every proposal except a few minor
ones became the subject of deep
seated opposition and thereafter the
one-sided decisions and refusal to
allow fair and impartial hearings
continued undated despite the
criticism.
Finally it has come about that a
Circuit Court of Appeals in a unani-
nous opinion concurred in by Judge
Florence Allen, liberal Democrat,
reversed an order of the board and
said that the latter had attempted
to substitute "surmise" and guess"
for proof. Few accusations of a
governmental tribunal have been
more sweeping. Only men of
judicial temperament should be ap-
pointed to quasi-judicial commits
sions, and the President will be
urged next time to be sure that he
has selected fair minded persons
instead of administrators who re-
gard their appointments as per-
uniting them to use governmental
power for the carrying on of class
warfare in our midst.
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