Evening star., 1944-10-06

(0IIeO waste OF ] Tine
Incident Was Used to Reflect on
Labor Union, Says Writer
BY Dspid Laurence
It certainly u sad commentary on
the congressional tendency TO waste
time and money ON trivialities when
the chairman Of the Senate committee
investigating campaign expenditures an
nounces IN investigation Of . brawl in
hotel lobby that might better be for
gotten than emphasized.
n The facts already published are ade-
quate. The teamsters' union had Q ban
Qsiet few weeks ago and listened to
= rousing speech by President Roose-
welt. Afterwards some Of the exuberant
banqueteers got into an argument with
couple Of naval officers in the lobby
and foolishly became involved In . dis
cussion OF politics. Blows were struck.
Nobody was injured seriously and the
whole affair could be crossed on as Just
another regrettable episode in modern
politics.
But Immediately the politically
minded, seeing a chance to reflect on
trade unions, began to read into the
incident some enormous political sig
ni1cance and doubtless Senator Green,
chairman Of the Senate committee, did
receive lot Of demands for full in
quiry which he might just as well have
tossed In the wastebasket.
Any Saturday Night.
II the teamsters who accosted the
naval officers and asked how they were
going to vote had had a sense of dis
cretion, they would have refrained from
pressing the point when the naval off,
GERS refused to answer And II, as later
reported, the teamsters who gathered
did push the naval officers around, it
would have been much better If some
ofncial Of the teamsters union had in
quired into the affair and promptly is
sued an apology the next day for the
misbehavior of some of its members.
The fact that a handful of persons In
the teamsters' union strut through a
hotel corridor and become involved in q
brawl does not make the teamsters'
union or Dan Tobin, its venerable
chieftain, any less worthy of respect.
The report which involved Mr.. Tobin in
the affair has been vigorously denied
and the incident really has no more sig
nificance nationally than any brawl
which might have taken place on a
Saturday night in the vicinity of Q
hotel oasis.
That there Is bad feeling between
labor and the members of the armed
service is well known because of the
strikes and Interruptions of work in
strategic plants. The news reports have
frequently told of these strikes but bad
feeling arises because the administra-
tion has consistently attempted to mini
miZe or condone these strikes. 1t has
acted in manner that stimulates Bit
terness because everybody knows the
administration is trying to get labor
union votes
Even the labor union voter, however,
would have more respect for the admin
istration If it confessed that, while the
statistics about strikes may show a small
number of man-hours lost, the actual
damage to the war effort has been con-
siderable. Thus, interruptions in the
Detroit area in the last few days are
typical of the discouragements which
the armed forces have met in trying to
get the weapons they need while q
highly paid labor force back home, led
by misguided politicians, has apparently
in many instances cared more about
dollars than the sacrifices being made
for them abroad.
Lack of Policy Blamed.
careful examination of the entire
Labor Board in this war warrants the
conclusion that it Is not the labor unions
or the employers who have contributed
to these work stoppages. 1t Is the
clumsiness of the administration and,
its lack of constructive labor policy.
No more thoughtful or experienced
student of labor affairs than william M.
Leiserson can be found. He served for
years as chairman of the National Rail-
way Mediation Board. Then he served
by appointment of President Roosevelt
as member of the National Labor
Relations Board. His decisions were
frequently in favor of labor and he In
known as a consistent friend of the
worker. Yet he has published in a
recent address a comprehensive indict-
ment of the Roosevelt administrations
blunders in handling the labor question.
Gov. Dewey in his Seattle speech made
some of the same points.
1t would be tragic thing II more
bitterness were stirred up between the
returning servicemen and the labor
unions. The fault lies predominantly
with the Governments policies and
particularly the blame rests on the
President, who though constantly ad-
vised to clean house and get some able
and impartial men into Government to
handle labor and to keep his own hands
out of the agencies he creates, has
refused to heed that advice.
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