Evening star., 1943-04-11
Tomorrow 10 Mark
7th Anniversary Of
Wagner Act VaIidatio9n
Bitter industrial Warfare
Preceded Supreme Court
Approval Of Legislation
BY ]. A. FOX.

BY J. A. FOX.
The National Labor Relations Act
which crashed the barriers agalns
unionization in such powerful
strongholds as automobiles and steel
tomorrow will have an anniversary
the seventh of its valuation by tht
Supreme Court.
With Chief Justice Hughes read
ing the 5-to-4 decision which broad.
ened the powers of Congress under
the commerce clause of the Con-
stitution, and gave new vitality tt
that section, the court, on April IL
1887, upheld the law which hac
been fought every step of the way
in the two years elapsing since its
enactment.
The law came into practical op.
Grafton against a background Of
bitter industrial warfare. More thar
100 Injunction suits had hamstrune
the Labor Relations Board, the ad-
ministering agency, and workers
were retaliating by strikes which
often we're accompanied by blood
she'd The division over the law
was equally in evidence in the court
Joining Chief Justice Hughes in
the majority opinion were Justices
Roberts, Brandeis, Stone, the pres
ent Chief Justice, and Cardozo. In
opposition was the old conservative
bloc" composed of Justices Butler
Sutherland, McReynolds and Van
Devanter, who had stood together
to wreck so much of the early New
Deal legislative program.
Toubles Continued.
The approval of the court did
nothing to make the path of en-
forcement easier. Employers looked
for new grounds on which to chal-
lenge the right of their workers
to organize for collective bargain
ing. in turn provoking more trou-
bles with the latter.
Then. the original members of
the board not only came under the
fire of employers. who frequently
charged the law was being admin
istered unfairly. but also of the
American Federation of Labor,
which declared the board was par
tial to the infant Congress of In
dustrial Organizations AS the re-
suit of widespread dissatisfaction
with the tribunal which frequently
was reflected in Congress. President
Roosevelt did not reappoint any Of
the trio as their terms expired.
Little by little, the scene has
changed The act is no longer viewed
in industry as an innovation to be
resisted. and this attitude is re-
f1ected in improved labor-manage-
ment relations. Figures from the
board demonstrate this In 1887,
unfair labor practice cases COM
prised 81 per cent of the litigation
before the board.
Today they make up third. while
the rest are election cases, involv-
ing the selection by the employees of
their bargaining representative. The
board also reports that last year,
when its work was the heaviest on
record because of the war-born in
dustrial activity, 80 per cent of the
cases docketed were settled inform
ally without the necessity of hear
lngs and orders, as the board itself
seeks now to work out adjustments
that will make formal proceedings
superf1uous.
Elections Average IL a Day.
At present, the board is averag-
Ing II elections daily, with more
than 5000 workers voting on repre-
sentation.
Successive decisions by the Su-
preme Court have implemented the
boards power greatly by giving
force of law to- its rulings on points
not spelled out in the act.
For example. in the Heinz case
IN 194l, the court held that once an
employer agrees to a contract, he
must reduce it to writing.
In the celebrated Phelps-Dodge
case, designed to deal with black
listing, the court said an employer
could be forced to pay wages to
an individual who had been denied
employment because of his union
background.
In number of instances the
court has supported the board in
its insistence that employers re-
main neutral, both by word and
act. where employees are choosing
their bargaining representative
whether the choice be between a So
called company union" and a reg
ularly established organization, OF
between the standard unions.
Enforcement Aids Unions.
The board. while encountering
trouble on more than one occasion
In District and Circuit Courts
has had good luck in the Supreme
Court. where it admits only two
outright reversals in 40 trips. One
of these was in a case of no con-
sequence The other was the bis
tering opinion by Chief Justice
Hughes in the Fansteel case. which
effectively broke up sit-dowr
strikes.
Unions have profted by this ef-
fective enforcement of the law
When the Supreme Court upheld
the legislation, there were 5.50000C
organized workers. Today this num-
ber has grown to 100000.
The board is ending its sixth year
In relatively calm atmosphere. There
is one row on because of the boards
challenge to closed shop contract
which the AFL negotiated with the
Kaiser shipyards when only hand
full of employees had been engaged
for a force that was to run high
into the thousands. The board also
is reviewing it's own policy in grant
ing plant foremen the right to bar
gain collectively under the Wagner
Act, several large employers disput-
i..nr 4l,ir fio., Of thu lon,