The Daily Alaska empire., 1946-12-24
Labor Solution
Washington Postl

John L. Lewis is perhaps the leading example on the current American scene of the Actonian dictum that absolute corruption flows from possession of absolute power The Government now is engaged
 in trying to remake American out of the miners
 leader This has become problem for the courts not for Congress At the time there other satraps at large who need to have tyrannical squeezed out of them and this is the first issue before the new Congress The need for general not particularistc, legislation is only dramatized by the spectacle of man. enjoying extragovernmental power over 4000O0 coal miners leading them for the second time in eight months in a campaign to paralyze Nation of 40 million people.
 Some persons nave called for outright repeal of the Wagner Act as an additional drastic cure for labor abuses That, believe, would cause more trouble than it would prevent The Wagner Act is basicaly good law which went far toward correcting the in Justices of management What it requires now is specific amendments based on the experience of the II years since it passed few of the desirable improvements include comDulslon on unions to bar gain collectively just employees must provision making unions legally liable for breach of contract the outlaying of urisdicional strikes the application of antitrust laws to unions, and guarantee that employers may express their views during union or ganizng campaigns
 But while these changes would define more clearly labors legitimate domain something more funda- mental would still be lacking. That is adequate recognition for the public interest Many of our dis putes have the atmosphere ot a pr1ze1lght III which the public as the innocent referee is slugged mercilessly with of the blows. Some such recognition implicit in President Trunans recom- mendaticn of last spring for long-range study or labor legislaon-a recommendation that the outgoing Congress fooishy chose to ignore Secretary SchWel lenbachs suggestion for broader of fact-findne
 likewise contains recognition of the public concern as a by-product
 The most comprehensive proposal for incorporating the public interest into settlement of labor disputes has come from Senator Ferguson of Michigan. He advocates the establishment of a system of labor tribunals which would parallel the present Federal
 judiciary system and would have jurisdiction in public utility cases and other vital industries such as steel coal and oil If collective bargaining broke down either labor or management could take the case to this court Strikes would be outlawed for a 3O-day period during which the issue would be decided The courts decision then would be binding and would be enforceable by penalties The success of such an operation of course would depend on the confidence of all parties in it's fairness Some difficulty, too might be encountered in defining just what IS vital industry But the suggestion has much merit winch ought to be investigated Senator Ferguson expressed the essential point when he said Neither labor nor management should be able to tell community you can't have light, or heat, or water"
 The Republican Congress has both a big re- sponsibity and big chance in the field Of labor
 egisation Probably law will solve our labor
 ills But if Congress demonstrates that 1t IS intent on creating reasonable mechanism rather than mere vindctiveness there is hope of human solution III terms of live and let live The time has passed when cur laws be debated whether they are good ter
 labor CT good for management The criterion now mast be whether they are good for country and had ample demonstration before the fresh nterrup- ton by John Lewis, that we cannot fit our union
 leaders with the powers of Government and expect to survive free people.