Evening star., 1946-11-10
Election Is Warming
To Union Leaders
Results Show Public Opinion
Must Be Respected by Labor
By John H. Cline.

| 4SIuSt DC lNSSPSSt~A W AND"l
BIZ John H. Cline.
Those labor leaders who have seen fit
| to comment publicly on the election
| returns are putting up a bold front.
But they will find 1t difflcult to deceive
1 any one including themselves. for the
| plain fact Is that the labor politicians
| have been soundly spanked by the
| voters.
| The spanking was needed and long
overdue That it was highly distasteful
| to those union leaders who have been
accustomed to demand and threaten on
the basis of political power which they
| have been shown not to possess may
be taken for granted. Yet If the implica-
! tions of what happened throughout the
/ country last Tuesday are properly in
| terpreted and taken to heart, there is
no reason why any legitimate labor In
terest or aspiration should suffer.
One election-day development which
should be OF special interest to the pro-
fessional labor leaders was the adop-
tion by the people of three States OF
anticlosed-shop amendments to their
constitutions. The States to take this
action were Arizona, Nebraska and
South Dakota. Previously the people
of Arkansas and Florida had adopted
similar amendments, SO that now, in all,
| there are five States in which the closed
shop has been outlawed.
The wisdom of this approach to the
closed-shop issue may be debatable.
| There can be little debate. however, on
the proposition that the growth of SEN
| timent against the closed shop is
rooted in popular resentment Of union
abuses, particularly the abuse OF the
power over the economic life Of the in
dividual which goes with the closed shop.
1t may be said that the action taken In
these tive essentially nonindustrial
States is not too serious threat to the
| unions In a sense, this is so. But
union leadership will be blind, indeed, II
it does not see in this warning OF
things to come What has happened
in these States can happen and prob
ably will happen in many others II
union leadership persists in the pursuit
of selfish aims at the expense OF what
is good for the individual worker and
the community.
A second and much more spectacular
development was the miserable failure
of the CIO Political Action Committee.
This Is the organization which was
| supposed to hold the power Of political
life or death over public oficials. which
undertook to classify members of Con-
gress in accordance with whether they
voted right" or wrong" on issues Sc
lected by the PAC, and which tried TO de-
feat those who would not toe the line.
The results of the balloting show
that, in this year at least, the political
power of the CIO-PAC was a myth.
1t could neither elect it's friends nor
defeat its enemies and there Is ample
reason to believe that open PAC sup
port was liability rather than an
asset to almost all candidates. Some OF
those with perfect" PAC voting rec
ords-men such as Guffey in Pennsyl.
vania and Mead in New York-were
overwhelmingly defeated by their OPP
ponents who were opposed by the PAC.
Yet, if the PAC is strong anywhere. 1t
should be strong in States like Pennsyl-
vania and New York. So the inference
is that the organization not only is in
capable of swinging the independent
vote, but cannot even control the vote
of its own people.
The PAC had no greater success In
its effort to punish those legislators
who had the temerity to assert meas
ure of independence. It tried. f" -
stance, to defeat the members of the
House who voted to override the Pres
ident's veto of the Case bill. There
were 263 votes to override the veto; 139
to sustain it. Of the former, 223 we're
reelected to the House, were beaten
in the general election, II were de-
feated in primary contests and 1S did
net seek reelection. On the other
hand, of those voting to sustain the
veto and consequently favored by this
PAC, only SO were reelected. Forty
one were beaten in the general elec-
ton, lost out in primaries and IL
were not candidates.
A particular effort was made to defeat
IA Republicans and Democrats in
the House. All were reelected except
! Representative OlhuSAtCA Va 1sAAoooA4~
who went down in the primary under
the combined assault Of President Tru-
man, the Pendergast machine and the
PAC. In the general election, however.
his seat was won by Republican. On
the specially favored list were two Re-
publicans and six Democrats. The Re-
puplicans won, but of the Democrats
only one was reelected. one died and
the four remaining were beaten.
In tine face of this showing, 1t Is .
little ridiculous for the PAC leaders
and their friends to be making faces
and talking about becoming the decisive
political force Of the future.
|
There is no reason why labor, given
wise leadership, cannot be an important
political factor. But labor will never
achieve full political stature while it
1 pays lip service to high political ideals
and then joins forces with the Com
munists and the corrupt machines In
the big cities 1t must abandon dema-
gogic appeals to class prejudices and
it must desist from attempts to brow
beat officials who will not slavishly fcl-
low it's political line. Finally, and per.
haps most important of all, the men
who formulate union policies have got
to learn that there is such thing as
public opinion and that 1t must Re re-
spected Tuesdays upheaval clearly
| ~ - - -1,xAs,