Evening star., 1946-05-28
Congress- Memories I
Short in Labor Fight

S1SOt III 1OOOl 9ue
Forgets President Must Act to
Preserve Nations Health
By David Laurence
Memories are short. Just few days
ago the Nation was in the midst OF a
Nationwide rail strike and economic
paralysis. The people were demanding
that the President act in their behalf
and take any action to preserve the
Nations health.
So Mr.. Truman went to Congress
and asked for drastic legislation. and
as he spoke the rail strike was ended
and Immediately the crisis atmosphere
vanished.
Now the Congress is forgetting what
happened and cries out that it is
crime to draft a man to work to save
the Nation from starvation and disease.
II the draft for that purpose was un-
constitutional then it would be equally
invalid to ask man to accept draft
at any time into the Army, even against
an enemy. Self-preservation is the first
law Of the state.
But granting that the President was
trying only to provide some way to
avoid a recurrence of the economic
catastrophe that the Nation faced last
week, it does not follow that the glegis-
lation he recommended is necessarily
the way to deal with the situation.
Privilege of Service.
The President would have been better
advised not to make the draft into the
Army a penalty. The whole theory of
the work fight slogan has been OPP
posed in these dispatches many times.
Service in the Army cannot be made a
punishment. 1t is privilege OF service.
II the bill had been written so as to
empower the President to call into mill :
tary service in time of emergency anyd
citizens whose experience or skills mayt
be needed to operate essential facilities
SO as to maintain public health or safety,
he would have put the draft on more
logical grounds. For, after all, in time
of flood or disaster the Chief Executive
AAoo q AAlOi al AlSAit W Sda1 oit diiJ abAC-
bodied person to help in the work OF
rescue.
The bill also is defective in its refer
ences to the conditions under which the
Government takes over plant or facil- !.
ity. The status quo should be maintained
both as to employers and employees while .
governmental machinery to prescribe !
settlement is permitted to function.
The Senate has plenty Of time to
amend the House bill and make it less
an instrument of coercion and more
means of keeping unimpaired essential
facilities. There is simply no logic in
the position OF Messrs. Whitney and
Johnston that they have a right to
punish the American people by inter-
rupting the mails and the distribution
Of food.
The ill-tempered blast from the union
leaders that they are going to spend
$4,000, 900 if necessary to defeat Mr..
Truman will rally the country behind
the President and particularly will it
hasten the passage of legislation max
ing permanent that which is now tenn
porary in the Smith -Connally law,
namely the provisions forbidding the use
of union or corporation funds for polit-
ical purposes.
Unfortunately for the country it is
not yet clear whether Mr.. Truman has
really determined to fight the abuses
which have been. practiced for 10
years through the Wagner law. 1t looks !,
as If Mr.. Truman has merely recon-
mended 4 piece Of temporary legisla-'
tion in respect to strikes in essential
industries, but this legislation is to
lapse when the war is formally declared
70 be at an end. This means that the
recent catastrophe can be repeated.
That's no solution.
Political Move in House.
Likewise it appears that Mr. Truman's
henchmen are pointing out to organized
labor that the drastic temporary legis-
lation will affect only a few industries
and only for short time, whereas the !
Ball-Smith-Taft bill passed by the Sen
ate as substitute for the Case bill
passed by the House is really the meas
ure that organized labor wants to see
killed. Apparently the administration is
ready to accomplish that purpose. for ;.
already its spokesmen in the House are
trying hard to block the plan to haves
a vote on accepting the Senate bill and,
thus insure joint conference procedure
through which prolabor elements could
keep the measure from being acted on
at this session of Congress. \
There is talk on Capitol Hill of tack
ing the BallSmith- bill on to the
temporary measure so as to checkmate
the tactics of the administration in<
the House. A rider is an undesira ble%
means of attaining an objective, but#
when used as a reprisal against the&
efforts of the party in power to denys
the House chance to vote for thes
Senate-passed- bill it may be considS
cred justified. i
The President could win the plaudits&
of the Nation if he announced now
that he would sign the bill passed by
both houses as substitute for the !
Case bill. 1t remains to be seen whether :
he really is playing politics still and /,
will veto that bill or whether he has !
determined to follow the wishes of the !.
American people who want their Presi- !.
dent to stand up courageously against ,
all extremists and bring about better i,
balanced law on labor relations.
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