Evening star., 1941-03-27

ulS again Cll0 ~ IA
patience of the
public and the David Lawrence.
sturdiness of the law-enforcement
machinery. History shows that un-
til a show of force is checkmated
by force there is little respect for
the constituted authorities.
The disputes at the Bethlehem
plant in Pennsylvania and at the
International Harvester plant at
Chicago reveal the c. 1. o. as the
union which openly resorts to phys
ical violence under the guise of
picketing.
For several months now Federal
and State legislators as well as
Federal and State courts have been
confronted with picketing disputes.
Some of these have reached the
Supreme Court of the United States.
accordance as violence is con-
doned by the courts through the
tricks of legalistic decisions or
through an indifference to the mo-
tivating influences of picketing con-
troversies, the believers in physical
force are encouraged and stimulated.
Tendency to Pass the Buck.
There has been a tendency, too,
to pass the buck. Labor secured
the passage of the La Guardia-
Norris injunction law by Congress
as a means of preventing the use
of Federal injunctions and troops
to preserve order. The assumption
was that the States having police
power under the Constitution
would do any preserving of order
necessary with State troops or local
police But now the believers in
violence have gone step further.
They have secured the passage
through the Democratic lower
house in Pennsylvania of a bill
which will prevent the issuance of
injunctions in State courts against
those who violate the laws of picket
ing in labor disputes.
Shall mass groups of strikers be
permitted to assault workers and
damage the property of the laboring
man, his automobile and his home,
as a means of intimidation so as to
prevent him from exercising his
constitutional right to work? The
labor leaders who believe in violence
answer in the negative and yet they
are preparing to acquire legal power
to sanction violence.
When the National Labor Rela-
tions Act was passed by Congress
and later upheld by the Supreme
Court, the principal argument ad-
vanced was that labor did not have
equal bargaining power with the
employers. 1t was urged that if
only collective bargaining alone
were assured the strikes would not
occur. A sympathetic Supreme
Court listened to the plea and
granted it. But now it develops that
the National Labor Relations Board
has surrounded itself with legalisms
that prevent it from ordering an
immediate election and thus Sc
curing a count of noses so that COL
lective bargaining rights can be
promptly determined
Issue in Strike.
The issue at the Bethlehem plant
Is the right of the workers to select
bargaining agents free from coer-
cion or intimidation. The employees
who have long been working for
Bethlehem have formed an organi-
zatlon of their own, which the N. L. |
r. 3. has ordered disestablished as
company dominated. The case is
now before the courts on appeal by
the company from the board ruling.
The Immediate cause of the present |
trouble is the holding of an election |
of officers in the Employees Repre-
sentation Plan. Basically, the c. I.
O.s demand is that the company
accept the N. L. r. BIS decision and
forego its right to wait for decision
by the courts.
The fact that violence is resorted
to rather than to let the matter be
handled according to lawful methods
would seem to indicate weakness in
the collective bargaining machinery.
This weakness was pointed out a
fortnight ago in these dispatches
when 1t was asserted that the Labor
Board could easily after its proce-
dure so as to order elections to be
held promptly and also safeguard
the conduct of the election ma
chinery.
When labor leaders take matters
into their own hands, preferring vio-
lence to the very law they them
selves have sD0nSored tho rl1h1ir
will begin to ask questions such as
whether labor really insists on a
One-sided deal rather than a fair
deal. If labor leaders resort to
physical force to get their rights,
they will only provoke others to do
the same thing. And when Amer
leans resort to lynch law instead of
the proper processes to secure
justice, climax comes in which the
pendulum usually swings far back
and takes away what hitherto have
been regarded as reasonable rights.
Labor stands to lose a lot by
adopting force. and the Congress of
the United States now in session
may find it desirable to forbid mass
picketing through Federal statutes
as we'll as any other forms of vio-
lence in connection with labor dis
putes. If collective bargaining is a
Federal matter affecting interstate
commerce so is the preservation Of
law and order at defense plants
where disputes occur.
Decentralization rir reservedN