Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1945-12-08
Wage Strikes Blamed
On Truman by 0wIett
AT Meeting Of COP
BY GOULD LINCOLN,
Star Staff Correspondent.

CHICAGO, Dec. 8.-PreSident
Truman and his administration
were blamed for the wave of
wage strikes in a speech deliv-
cred to the Republican National
Committee today by G. Mason
OWlett, national committeeman
from Pennsylvania.
Mr.. Owlett's attack came as the
committee prepared to end it's two
day session here.
In addition to business sessions
this morning and afternoon, the
committee will hold a luncheon
session at which Mrs. w, Glenn
Suthers, president of the National
Federation of Women's Republican
Clubs, will speak.
The committee will wind up its
meeting tonight with a dinner in
the Palmer House. The speakers
will be Senator Hart of Connecticut,
Gov. Robert D. Blue of Iowa and
Chairman Robert E. Brownell, jr.
Mr.. Owlett opened his address
with sharp criticism of the admins
bdtiUH pollCleS.
Mismanagement Charged.
The record of President Truman
thus far Is one of failure and mis-
management" he said. 1T has been
nigh lighted by vacillation, broken by
spurts of hasty, spur of -the-moment
decisions on complicated and impor-
tant matters. Power and patronage
are the twin threads upon which
most of the recent proposals of the
new President are strung.
Millions of Democrats have
watched the upsurge of Communism
in their party and no longer have
party which truly represents
them"
Turning to the labor management
issue, Mr.. Owlett said:
"CommuniStic concepts have pene- /
trated far into our labor affairs.
The Government has largely lost
sight of its true responsibility, that
OF protecting the larger interests of
the American people /
lrresolutlon and favoritism from
the White House have produced a
situation bordering on anarchy.
Those attempting to make peace
can know neither what the law is
or whether it will be enforced.
Strikes Blamed on Administration.
The deadlock on our industrial
front traces directly to the White
House. 1t was President Truman
and his cabinet that pressed the
button starting the present wave of
wage strikes They told labor in SO
many words that this is the time
to demand more money-to demand
30 per cent more wages before, not
after, reconversion. And then the
White House made it impossible for
free enterprise industry to grant
the wage increase by insisting that l.
most colossal economic absurdity of
the generation-that prices would
be frozen regardless of increasing
costs.
rs it strike wave or economic
civil war? Who can tell? President
Truman asked for it, and here it is"
James So Kemper. chairman of
the Republican National Finance
Committee, also assailed President
Truman in his report to the COM
mittee yesterday. 1t was not until
opportunity had been given to digest
the Presidents September message
to Congress that Mr. Truman in
tended to go down the line for all 1
the Roosevelt policies that contri-
buttons to the Republican cause
began to roll in from contributors
in amounts which had been hoped
for, he said. /,
Mr.. Kemper urged that the pres
ent limitation of $4,000, 900 on any
one national committee should be
removed.
Balanced Budget Basis.
Although the Republican organi-
zation had not completed the quota
assigned at last January's meeting
of the national committee, the COM
mittee has operated on the basis of
balanced budget this year, he said
Representative Halleck of Indiana,
chairman of the Republican Con-
gresslonal Committee, said the Re-