Evening star., 1940-05-10

nlnGn ClTCulIJ Is
both incorporate and unjudlcial
and has already been repudiated as
unnecessary and 'ill-advised by
one member of the court. The boaro
regards the majority opinion as in
realty a reputation of and chal-
lenge to the decisions of the Su-
preme Court of the United States
which foreclosed the issue adversely
to the majority opinion Of the Cir
cult judges in the Greyhound cases
and again in National Licorice Co
VS.. N. L. R. B., decided in March
of the present term.
"In the belief that the majority
opinion is both erroneous and wholly
unwarranted, it is the intention OF
the board Immediately to request OF
the Solicitor General that review
of the decision be sought in the Su-
preme Court"
Board Not Too Meticulous.
What the board members forget
of course, is that the board itself
has not been too meticulous about
paying attention to Supreme Court
decisions when they happened to be
adverse. Thus, though the Supreme
Court held in the Fansteel case that
"sit-down" strikers need not be re-
instated, the board has whitfield
down the language so as to fit its
own notion about the use of vio-
lence in connection with strikes
The issue has to be fought over
and over again because the board
refuses to give full faith to the
precedent.
The Ninth Circuit Court opinion
written by Judge Denman, liberal
justice, takes the board to task for
destroying a workers union. He
says:
"One of the contentious of the
board is that the union, organized
solely to bargain collectively with
the employer, is not destroyed be-
cause the order does not run
against the union, but only orders
the employer not to have anything
to do with it.
ITO us this contention is as absurd
as if old Proscrustes of the Greek
myth had said to an athlete cap
tured on his journey to the Olym-
piad. You are not to be destroyed
for the races for I am proceeding
to cut off only the one leg which
happens to protrude over the foot
board of my bed If you are barred
at the starting line it is only because
you are indirectly affected. My
sword runs against your leg not
against you. Besides, I maintain,
Lycurgus has given a decision that
you are not a necessary party to
the amputating process I adminis-
ter Yet the board insists such
was the congressional intent with
respect to its and, necessarily, all
the many other administrative
processes created by Congress. I"
Board Rule Cited.
''The case loses none of its i'm
portance because, during a recent
congressional investigation, the
board, for the time being, at least.
divested itself of the power it claims
Congress gave it to deny to union
its civil liberty of notice and oppor-
tunity to be heard. This was done
by the boards PRONUNCIATION of a
rule granting that right. The right
new exists, the board claims, solely
by virtue of its grant. The strong
and now repeated insistence, first,
that Congress can create in the ad-
ministrative process such adminis-
trative absolutism of control over
human relations, and, second, that
1t intended to create it in the labor
board warrants our inference that
the board may contemplate annul-
ing its rule, abrogating the right
and reassuming the absolute power
when the pressure of congressional
investigation is removed. Signifi-
cant is the absence at the rehear-
ing of any request by the board for
q return of the proceeding for serv-
ice on the employees association to
give 1t an opportunity to be heard