Toledo union journal. [volume] (Toledo, Ohio) 1942-current, 1943-03-05
Washington
Scene
By VIRGINIA GARDNER
BY Federated Press


HOBBS ON PATRIOTISM
l celebrated Washington's birth
day by interviewing Rep. (Judge
Sam Hobbs, Democrat, Alabama.
Apparently conscious of the
day, he said solemnly, but with
a little self-deprecating smile,
"I would feel that l was not
being a patriot" he paused on
the word, "if l didn't do my
duty by my country in sponsor
ing this BILL"
He alluded to the so-called
anti racketeering bill whic h
would shackle legitimate labor
in it's ordinary activities, ac-
cording to the AFL and the
CIO. Hobbs indicated that he
had his mental Valley Forge.
Here he was, friend of labor,
and yet misunderstood.
"I've always been for the lit
tie man." he said, his manner
one Of hurt reproof. But what
credit do l get for it? No, in
labor's eyes I'm just an S. o. b."
HOBBS HAS HURT FEELING
This language was a shock in
deed, coming from the judge:
But he: indicated he felt deeply
in the matter. He went on to
tell me how he had worked for
the railway brotherhoods, gotten
the railway bridge bill passed
and was known in Selma as a.
man who fought the Southern
Railway.
Only trouble with this picture
was that l checked with railway
brotherhoods officials and they
said the Southern Railway made
$65O,000 out of that bridge busi-
ness, and that it was the only
time Hobbs voted for labor. And
the bridge was near his house,
moreover.
HOBBS THE WOLF
He appeared. heartbroken be-
cause CIO President Philip Muir
ray and AFL Counsel Joseph
Padway and others persisted in
thinking the Hobbs bill was
anti-labor. Someone had sent
him a clipping from Labor, the
railway brotherhoods' weekly
(Which recently pointed out that
under the second section the act
could result in heavy Jail SEN
tences for railway workers on
almost any pretense at all),
"And do you know what they
said, honey?" he asked indig-
nantly.
(I want to state here for the
record that there was nothing at
all between Sam Hobbs and N.Y.
self, Honey is just a southern
phrsse.)
"They said that bill was dis
honest" said the man who de-
fends his bill by saying that per-
sonally he is against robbery. and
extortion.
"But, judge" l said, risking
his being just cut to the quick,
sit didn't strike me as very hon.
est when you told me the bill
wasn't aimed at labor and in the,
next breath said that it could
cover q strike"
"Oh, that's part two" he said.
"But only If there was violence
or threat Of violence. That was
put in only at the suggestion of
Joe Eastman (head of the Office
of Defense Transportation.
After he gave 100 instances
showing its need"
what were they? They all
involved labor?"
HOBBS ON LABOR LEADERS
"Oh, didn't read them," he
said, with a wave of the hand,
putting his pipe placidly. "That
part, is just for the duration of
the war. Now labor's given its
'ledge not to strike during the
war"
$50 you think it's best for the
national morale, for the public
welfare, to say, Wen get you
anyway'?"
"The point is," he said ear
nestly, his eyeglasses glistening,
his second chin quivering in his
apparent intensity, "the labor
leaders have to be zealots, to
hold their jobs" The CIO was
just as unreasonable, he said,
when he proposed the resolution
"to repeal the Strechtel verdict
of the Supreme Court, as he
put it.
1--WE knew that the law
wouldn't cover Bridges (Presi-
dent Harry Bridges of the Inter-