Evening star., 1941-11-02

JOHN L. LEWIS.
His coal strike challenge has
brought to a head the 1Uhole ques-
ton OF defense strikes and 1Uhat
to do about them. A. P. Photo.
ure that it would take care of such sit
uations as the captive mines strike.
Significant also in this same connection
were statements from Senator Byrd Of
Virginia. who has differed with the Pres
ident sharply on domestic issues, but
followed him in foreign relations. and
from Senator Connally. Democrat, Of
Texas, chairman of the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee Senator Byrd in
a formal statement declared that unless
the administration took immediate steps
to end strikes in defense industries, he
would no longer, except in the case OF
actual defense measures, follow the
President in foreign policy. Senator
Connally's feelings boiled over in sem
tence: Let me finish this neutrality
bill before take care of the fourth
member of the Axis"
There have been numerous other
warning signals TO labor. On the day
after the President, last June, ordered
the Army to take over the ke-closed
plant of the North American Aviation
Co. at Inglewood, Calf. Senator Con-
nally introduced a measure to give the
President statutory authority to seize
plants in which defense production had
been stopped or was threatened by
labor dispute. offered as an amend
ment to the pending bill to defer men
aged % to 35 from the draft. the Con-
nally proposal was adopted by vote of
81 to T. Joined with this amendment
Congress on record as condemning
strikes or lockouts which impeded or de-
layed the national defense program
The Byrd amendment was adopted by
as to IS.
Their Effect Softened.
Along with these amendments the
Senate accepted by unanimous vote a
declaration offered by Senator La Fol-
lette. Progressive, of Wisconsin, averring
that Government. labor and manage
ment could completely cooperate only if
collective bargaining were accepted
Fundamentally, without being under
mined by unfair labor practices. Thus
the Senate, eager as a whole not to APP
pear an enemy of labor softened the
effect of the Byrd and Connally amend
ments. Lacking the support of the ad-
ministration, all the labor provisions OF
the draft-deferment bill were thrown
out before the bill was passed by the
House. A record had been written, how
ever, both through the votes in the Sem
ate and the subsequent debate in the
House, which constituted a clear warn
ing that continued failure on the part
of labor to use the existing mediation
| machinery for the settlement of strikes
would be followed by action in Congress.
Early this year there was a strong
movement in Congress for legislation to
require a cooling-off period before a
strike could be called A favorable word
from the administration almost certainly
would have brought about the passage
of some bill of this character. The ad-
ministration. however, continued to hope
that the strike situation could be ham
died adequately through executive action.
The proposed cooling-off legislation was
| opposed at congressional hearings by
both William Knudsen and Sidney Hill
man, the associate director of o. P. M.
In part, the congressional agitation for
action against defense strikes, either
| through a cooling-off law or something
more drastic, was quieted by the Presi-
dents creation, on March 13, 1941, of the
National Defense Mediation Board and
its success in dealing with the Allis-
Chalmers and other pending strikes
Failure to settle the Chalmers
strike Gin which, according to the calcu-
lations of Chairman Davis of the Media
ton Board, over three million man-hours
were lost to defense production) would
have touched off another and probably
this time, irresistible demand for action
by Congress.
| Vinson Bill Comes Out.
Even as it was, the House Naval Affairs
Committee month later, under the
prodding of its chairman, Representative
Vinson, Democrat, of Georgia, reported
out the Vinson bill requiring 25-day
cooling-off period in advance of strike
in defense industry and outlawing the
closed shop unless this had been in effect
at the time of the passage of the bill
The Vinson bill has been given a
privileged status by the Rules Commit
tee of the House and can be brought up
for debate whenever the House leaders
see fit. In the last form in which it was
pressed by its author. the vinson pro-
posal lacked its original provision fol