Evening star., 1944-03-19
WLB Hits Snag
in Courts
BIZ John II. Cline.

on his legal rights" rather than obey
an order of the War Labor Board is
apt to discover that the law is strange
and puzzling thing If the Montgomery
Ward case which came before District
Court Judge T. Alan Goldsborough for
preliminary decision last week serves
as a guide his experience will run some
thing like this:
After a hearing the WLB will order
him to sign contract with union of
his employees, the contract to include,
with other things, a maintenance of
union membership clause. Most of his
fellow businessmen will have signed
such a contract, but this individual, for
reasons best known to himself, decides
that he will not accept the maintenance
clause order; that he will hire lawyer
and file suit asking the courts to de-
clare that the board has exceeded its
authority and that he need not obey the
order.
His first surprise will come when the
board comedies that it has no authority
to enforce it's own order. The board
will say that so far as it is concerned
this is all voluntary matter, that it
relies on the force of public opinion to
uphold its hand and that in no event
can it compel any one to obey its So
called directives. There is a catch to
this, OF course, since the board, In a
case of noncompliance, can refer the
matter to the President or to Stabiliza-
ton Director Vinson. The President
then might take over the mans business
or Mr.. Vinson might apply certain eco
nomic sanctions which would leave the
protesting businessman with a choice
between obeying the order and bank
ruptcy. In the absence of unusual or
urgent considerations, however, it is un-
likely that either of these steps would
be taken. More probably, the board
would tell the court that it has done
nothing to enforce its order, that it has
no power to enforce the order, and that
1t has not referred the matter either to
the President or to Mr.. Vinson. Next
would come an affidavit from Mr.. Vim
son to the effect that the matter of the
businessman's noncompliance had not
been reported to him, that he has
neither taken nor threatened to take
any action, and that he does not know
what action he might take if the Incl
dent should be brought to his attention,
At this stage counsel for the Govern
ment would appear with a motion ask
ing dismissal of the suit on the ground
that the court lacks Jurisdiction and
that the complainant, not being pres
emily threatened with any injury at
the hands of the Government, has no
valid legal complaint.
This, while something of an over
slmpllfication, Is essentially the story of
the Montgomery Ward case up to the
time OF the ruling by Judge Goldsbor-
ough. Although the War Labor Board
order applying to several Montgomery
Ward stores was issued on August 20,
1943-seven months ago-the board has
oone nothing to secure compliance,
and there is no present indication that
1t intends to seek compliance. Instead,
1t seemingly prefers to leave well enough
alone. hoping that the courts finally
VIII refuse to order hearing on the
merits OF the complaint.
Judge Goldsborough was not in syn-
pathy with this. In the first ruling of
lts KIND since passage of the Smith
Connally Act gave the board a legis-
lative status, he held that the Mont
gomery Ward suit did set forth a cause
OF action and that it was entitled to
hearing on the complaint If the
issue before the court" he said, were
the question OF dismissing the complaint
not because 1t does not set forth a
cause OF action but because a national
emergency exists, it would mean that
while we may win the war we NAV be
breaking down the processes which are
indispensable to democratic govern
ment. To allow this case to 20 to trial
Is not going to interfere, as far as the
court can see, with the carrying on of
the war, and, If it should, Congress has
ample power to so change the law as to
make 1t impossible for the courts to
intervene" This, of course, is not a
final ruling. The Government undoubt-
edly will take an appeal and the matter
may well go to the Supreme Court be-
fore it Is definitely known whether
Montgomery Ward, in the absence of
coercive measures, can secure a court
test OF the validity Of the order which
it now refuses to obey.
X
1t would be interesting to know pre-
cisely why the WLB is so anxious to
avoid trial on the merits of the Mont
gomery Ward order. When the Smith
Connally bill was under consideration
last June, WLB Chairman Davis. in a
letter to Congress, urged that fer the
duration of the war the board be per-
mltted to function as it had in the
past, without the right to apply to the
courts for legal sanctions against those
refusing to obey its orders) and without
being subject to court review of it's deci-
sions," Whether, at that time, he an
ticipated the executive order empower
ing Mr.. Vinson to invoke sanctions is
not clear, but the record does show that
the board had been remarkably sue
cessful in securing voluntary compliance.
In only very few instances had en-
ployers or unions refused to obey board
orders, and it may be that Mr.. Davis
preferred to overlook these rather than
open the door to extensive and time
consuming litigation, with the pOssibil-
lty that the board might some day be
on the losing end of court decision that
would destroy its effectiveness.
AS matters stand, however, the board