Evening star., 1946-05-10
Domninq John l. Lewis

some OF the same people who are
damning John L. Lewis for the coal
strike have been the most consistent
breast beaters in defending what
they call the right" to strike.
They are damning John L. Lewis
now because it is the popular and
the safe thing to do and because it
diverts from themselves some of the
responsibility which is rightly their
own. Damning John L. Lewis is
popular with large element of Or
ganized labor politicians in and out
of public office who are jealous and
distruStful of him. It is popular
with the people who hate organized
labor and all it's works. 1t is popu-
lar with the man in the street who
unconsciously yearns for some per-
sonality on whom to vent his wrath
or release his discontinue over the
degrading spectacle of his Govern
ment's futility.
But damning John L. Lewis is
largely a waste of breath. 1t is, to
degree, insincere. Mr.. Lewis is
merely pursuing the course that
Government policy in the past dec
ade made possible and encouraged.
He is giving sardonic demonstra-
ton OF the ultimate in how to sacri-
flee the rights of everybody else in
preserving the right" to strike. He
has cause worth fighting for in
improving the welfare of his men.
He is not doing anything that other.
union bosses have not done. But
because he is tough and strong and
a national figure and because he
controls labor in an essential indus
try, he really counts.
He will have rendered a public
service II he succeeds in bringing
about a popular comprehension of
the extent that one sided labor laws
have gone in placing power over all
the people in the hands of one man,
or in the hands of a small group of
men in control of a union. That
power is unsafe in anybody's hands.
And If John l.. Lewis use of that
power is wrong, it is an even greater
wrong for Nation to have placed it
deliberately in his reach-to use as
he wills it. About twenty-five years
ago another President, Woodrow
Wilson, faced a coal strike under
conditions very similar to the ma
tional catastrophe" now taking such
alarming form. Here is what he
said:
From whatever angle the subject
may be viewed. it is apparent that
such strike in such circumstances
would be the most far-reaching plan
ever presented in this country to
limit the facilities of production and
distribution of a necessity of life
and thus indirectly to restrict the
production and distribution of all
the necessaries of life. A strike un-
der these circumstances is not only
unjuStif1able; it is unlawful. Il
cannot believe that any right of any
American worker needs for its pro-
lection the taking of this extraor-
dinary step, and I am convinced
that when the time and manner are
considered, it constitutes a funda-
mental attack, which is wrong both
morally and legally, upon the rights
OF society and upon the welfare of
our country"
Something like that needs saying
now. 1t needs saying by men who
have some concern for the rights of
society and the welfare of our coun-
try, as we'll as for what the PAC will
do next fall. 1t not only needs say
ing, it needs backing up by legisla-
tion which abrogates the right" to
strike when it affects the public in
terest and which substitutes a civil
lized method of compulsory adjudi-
cation of labor issues in place of the
exercise of brute strength by en-
trenched and politically powerful
labor organizations.