Toledo union journal. [volume] (Toledo, Ohio) 1942-current, 1946-04-05
Washington
LaborReport

ANNIVERSARY

ANNIVERSARY
When you get to read this
stint it will be one year, more
or less, since Harry S. Tru-
man succeeded to the office of
President of the United States.
1t is perhaps fair to say that
it has not been, on the whole,
a happy year for the new
President.
Truman inevitably suffers
in any comparison with the
late President. To the nation
at large he lacks Roosevelt's
expressive speaking voice as
well as FDR's flair for stir
ring phrases. The ringing
words of "One third of a ma
ton 1--WE have nothing
to fear but fear" and 1--WE
have just begun to fight" will
never come from Truman,
convincingly. He just isn't
that kind of man.
It is interesting to conjec-
ture how Roosevelt would
have Jared with Congress in
the postwar years. 1t is gen.
orally agreed that Truman's
record in this respect has not
been impressive.
In our speculationS we
should probably recall that, to
all intents and purposes, the
New Deal as a successful in
strument was through by 1888.
And the event that marked the
beginning of the decline was.
of course, the battle over
packing the Supreme Court"
(Some may doubt whether in
the long run EDR actually suf-
fered defeat in this battle
since the Supreme Court from
that period on looked more
favorably upon social legisla-
tion.)
NEW DEAL
The heart of the New Deal
was the legislation embodied
in the Natl. Labor Relations
Act, Social Security Act, the
Fair Labor Standards Act, the
Security and Exchange Com
mission and the Public Utilities
Holding Company Act. All of
these laws were enacted be-
fore 1888.
And l think history will
record that Roosevelt's sin
gular genius was his remark
able capacity to ride on a
wave of inarticulate popular
protest without anything like
a rank and file political sup
port. This is just another way
of saying that the New Deal
was an intellectual movement
with little support from the
wards and precinct political
workers. But because the
country was in such desperate
straits when the late President
came to office, and because he
was resourceful and daring
enough to capitalize on that
desperation, it was possible to
effect a thorough overhauling
of government functions.
NORMAL CONGRESS
In the Supre e Court
battle, the normal tendency of
Congress reasserted itself and
Congress emerged out of its
period of acquiescence. When
this happened, not one i'm
portant addition was made to
the New Deal legislation. On
the contrary, Roosevelt suf-
fered several SetbackS, includ-
ing the reduction In relief ap-
propriations which was doubt
less one of the factors caus-
ing the recession" of late
1887.
AS the political situation de-
veloped after 1887, only the
clouds of war on the European
horizon shifted the scene of
conflict and pushed domestic
issues to the background.
This is by way of suggest
ing that had Roosevelt lived
he would have encountered
the same intractahility on the
part of Congress as has his
successor - the possible diff
ference being that FDR would
have fought harder but with
little expectation that the out
come would have been diff
ferent.
Speculation on what-might-
have-been is normally an ex-
ercise which might better be
left to the historians unless we
can make out some useful cur
rent application. Inescapably,
we get back again to the fact
that the only effective way of
getting the kind of legislation
labor wants is to do something
about the people who are
elected to Congress.
Farmer: II don't get those
high wages"