Evening star., 1940-10-30

NEW YORK, Oct. 30.-FolloW-
ing is the prepared te.rt OF Senator
Wagner'S Nation -1Uide broadcast
last night, entitled "A Reply to
John L. LeiOiS".
My friends:
In recent radio address
broadcast throughout the Nation,
a well-known labor leader urged
the workers of this country to
support Wendell Willkie for the
presidency. Such counsel, COM
ing from such a source, shocked
from coast to coast the liberal
and humanitarian sentiment Of
America. But because of certain
fundamental beliefs that I hold
about the meaning and purpose
of democracy, I do not think that
the speech of Mr.. Lewis will in
terfere with the overwhelming
reelection of Franklin D. Roose-
welt.
For an election is something
ing confidence in leader, whether
he be seeking Office for himself
or supporting another. In a
deeper sense, the holding of an
election is an expression of con-
f1dence in the people themselves
in their inborn decency of pur-
pose and soundneSS of judgment,
in their capacity to govern them
selves. 1t is because our faith
in the people is greater than our
faith in any leaders, that we live
under a democracy and would die
If need be to preserve it.
This principle of faith in the
people themselves is nowhere
more firmly embedded than in
the minds and hearts of the men
and women who live by their
labor and belong to labor organi-
cations. For the labor movement
is the necessary extension of the
democratic ideal TO their daily
lives, to the struggle for bread
and clothing and shelter, to the
quest for security and dignity for
the common man. There may be
czars in industry, but there are
no dictators in the labor move
ment.
Leaders Sometimes Led into Error
BY Uncurbed Ambition or Pique.
l there address my plea, directly
to the workers of America to heed
their own conscience, to remem-
ber their own experience, and to
discard the advice of any leader
who favors the election of Wen
dell Willkie to the presidency.
The best of leaders make mis-
takes. Sometimes they are led
into error by uncurbed ambition
or by long brooding over some
personal pique. Sometimes, sub
ject to the human frailitieS which
affect us all, they are beguiled
into supporting their worst
enemies. And I say to you that
in supporting Wendell Willkie,
John L. Lewis has made a grave
and tragic mistake-a mistake as
great as when he urged the cleo
ton of Herbert Hoover in 1928
"a mistake fraught with stark
oanger to the welfare and happi-
neSS-yeS, even to the very lives
of millions who had looked TO him
for counsel.
I have never been a leader of
labor, but I have been a servant
of the average citizens needs as
I have felt them. Over the course
of so years, I have been through
long and bruising fights to write
into the law such measures as
Workmen'S compensation. unem-
plOyment insurance, old-age PEN
sions, the right to organize and
bargain collectively, relief, pub
lie works and housing. And I
warn you solemnly, out of the
fullness of my experience, out OF
my proven devotion to your
cause, that Wendell Willkie plus
the Republican leadership of to-
day constitute a most REACTION
airy and anti-social threat to your
rights and your Well-being.
The whole case of Mr.. Lewis
for Mr.. Willkie is based upon
the promises of an untried po-
litical candidate. That is a fran
reed upon which to rely. For
Wendell WILKES labor record is
not an unknown quantity. No
candidate can be known per-
sonally to all those who vote in
a presidential election. Even
Franklin Roosevelt must be
judged largely by his great,
warm-hearted deeds, by his hu-
manitarian record, by his noble
and sincere utteranCe Of the COM
mon peoples hopes and aspira-
tions. In the same manner, we
can Judge Wendell Willkie be-
cause he, too, had made a record
"a full record and a long one.
Wendell Willkie is not a man
whom nobody knows.
More than a year ago went
before a Senate committee to de-
fend the National Labor Rela-
tions Act against certain Grip
pling amendments. I cited the
blood-letting and privation that
workers had suffered through the
years in their struggle to be free
in their efforts to enjoy the right
to organize and bargain collec-
lively for better standards of
living. I laid emphasis upon the
elevation of simple human dig
nifty under labor's magma charta,
written with labors aid under
the Roosevelt administration.
Under this act over 100000
workers engaged in disputes with
their employers have found a
peaceful forum and 80 per cent
of all these differences have been
amicably adjusted.
Under this act 100000 workers
have been reinstated in their
Jobs after discriminatory dis
charges, strikes and lockouts, and
more than a million workers have
voted in peaceful elections to
choose their representatives.
Dirty Practices of Industrial
Espionage Being EXterminated.