The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1941-06-19

orders the strike-bound plant of the
North American Aviation Company
in California taken over by the Gov
eminent, he. cannot be accused of
precipitate action. On the contrary,
his inaction in face of situation
which has been growing more men,
acing for months has been so costly
that it has appalled, many of his
warmest friends and created feeling
of unrest and alarm throughout the
country.
Even now, when prodded into ac-
ton, the step contemplated does not
face squarely the facts. On the con-
trary, it is a move which penalties the
employer rather than the striker The
former is required to give up his
plant, while the latter is required to
give up nothing. He merely works in
stead of idling while the Mediation
Board considers the union demands
and, as it has uniformly done in the
past, yields to them. In addition, this
plant seizure inches toward the ma
tionalization of industry objective
which the more radical New Dealers
have always in mind. Plant seizure
is not the right way to deal with this
strike situation. Compulsory arbitra-
ton would be the better answer; but,
of course, taking over the plants is
better than no action at all. Almost
anything is better than cessation of
work, which aids Hitler, imperils the
life of the British and threatens our
own security-which is exactly what
these strikes are doing.
s#a
Some of Mr. Roosevelt's friends
complain that he is being stabbed in
the back by labor" and they warn the
professional labor leaders that he may
be "goaded" into turning on labor"
There is plenty of evidence as to the
bac&-stabbing part of this, though it
should be said that the country, which
is more important, is being stabbed as
we'll as Mr.. Roosevelt. Also there is
reason to believe that great major
ity of the American'people would like
very much to do something really
drastic about these paid labor leaders
hO coi1i,,o tho national
gency to play their greedy game, in
different to the fact that the fate of
the world hangs in the balance while
they block the wheels of the defense
machinery.
= #ss
The questions naturally arise as to
why the people submit and why Con-
gress does not do something? The
reason is that both are impotent
without White House leadership. The
people, of course, have no way effec-
lively to act by themselves. And
Congress is now so constituted that
restrictive legislation not acquiesced
in by the President cannot be put
through. This puts the whole terrible
business up to Mr.. Roosevelt, where it
belongs. He is the real labor leader in
this country and he has made this a
labor Government. In Congress this
week he was directly charged with re-
sponsibility for the frightening mess
in which the strikes have put the de-
Tense program.
Ordinarily, this charge might be
discounted as coming from Repub-
lican politicians. But in this case there
are two things which prevent it from
being brushed aside in that way. One
is that it comes also from Democrats
and Independents. Another is that the
record seems to sustain it. There is
the fact that at the start he en-
phatically opposed any change in the
| labor laws which are retarding the
program and set his face against any
proposal to make strikes on defense
contracts unlawful. There is the fact
that his weight was used to block a
compulsory arbitration bill and that
he quietly killed Mr.. Knudsen's sug-
gestion of cooling off" period
a#m
There is the fact that his wife pub
| licly encouraged strikes concerning
the merits of which she had no knowl-
edge at all. There is the fact that in
his defense setup he included so many
paid labor leaders, upon whom he con-
ferred "coequal powers" that dis
tinct labor flavor is given the whole
organization. There is the fact that
for weeks, he minimized the strikes
insisting that they were of no conse,
quence and were exaggerated by the
newspapers. There is the fact that the
vice-chairman of the Mediation Board
into the naming of which he was
prodded, is alleged, since his appoint
ment, to have encouraged union lead
ers with existing contracts to upset
these contracts in order to demand
more wages and other concessions.
$3.50
Combine all these facts-and some
others with the eight-year-olC
Roosevelt-labor political partnership
which made possible his recollection II