Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1946-06-12
Truman 'BungIine' Hit
In Veto of Case Bill
Loses Support, If Not Respect,
of Middle of Road Voters
By David Laurence


of Middle of Road Voters
| By David Laurence
There always seems to be time In
midterm when President Of the United
States faces test which has bearing
| on whether he ever wins reelection.
| Such test came to President Truman
this week and he bungled it completely.
| Mr.. Truman stands before the coun-
| try as Wabbling Buchanan First he
moves to the right and demands that
labor be drafted in the Army as a pen
atty for striking, and then he swings
back to the extreme left and accepts
the CLIO argument against the Case bill
1t is not mere inconsistency, but a
transparent lack Of conviction, which
the President has manifested He has
forfeited the support, If not the respect,
OF middle-of-the-road independent vot-
ers who felt that Mr. Truman could af-
ford to think of the larger aspects of
| the labor crisis.
Invites Responsibility.
Today Mr. Truman, after having
asked Congress in January to furnish
| him with an alternative or substitute
for his recommendation on fact-finding
legislation to help settle labor Disputes,
stands before the country as inviting
full responsibility for future labor dis
turbances.
Hereafter the White House is the
place for labor unions to seek more
wages and more concessions Also that's
the place to win immunity from prose-
cution, as happened when the President
ignored the mandate of the Constitu-
ton in agreeing to immunize violators
OF the Smith-Connally law. The Con-
stitution says the President Shall take
care that the laws be faithfully exc
cuted"
The Congress, by an overwhelming
majority. wanted something done to
amend the Wagner law and to eliminate
violence and racketeefing in labor dis
putes, but Mr.. Truman has found q
pretext for vetoing the measure to &C
complish this. His message from be-
ginning to end might as well have been
written by the CLIO. 1t paralleled close
| ly their criticism of the Case bill
With Mr.. Truman definitely turning
to the left now to hold the CIO-PAC
support, the conservative politicians are
happy. One industrialist at Capitol Hill
on Monday said he hoped the Congress
would not pass the Case bill over the
veto because 1t would mean a chance
Tor Br1cker or some other conservative
Republican to get into the White House
in 1948
Reactionaries ENCOURAGED.
Mr.. Truman has certainly given re-
dictionaries who wish to see the Wagner
Law emasculated their first real en-
couragement in many years. For now
the country will see more instead of
less bitterness, more labor disputes in
stead OF fewer, and more illegal picket
ing and violence. The inevitable re-
action will occur and the cause of labor
Will be materially impaired.
1t would be much better now for the
democratic party to nominate in 1948
100 per cent left-winger. It certainly
would please the AL Whitneys and the
Johnsons, to say nothing of the CIO-
PAC groups, but it also would mean that
the country could count on consistency
ana courage, at least, in the White
House If Henry Wallace were named
The lines would be drawn and, with a
! conservative Republican on the other
ticket, the country would have a chance
to decide which philosophy of govern
ment it wanted.
The Wagner Act was passed in 1895.
IN the II years that have elapsed
ABUSES nave occurred which needed
correction. More study has been given
! oy congress to this subject in the last
oecade than any other single phase of
national policy. Yet Mr.. Truman gives
as an excuse for vetoing the bill that
ne wants the Congress to study it six
months more and that he is afraid that
to change the Wagner Act would pro-
mote strikes. What he really is afraid
OF is the labor union vote, but after
the congressional elections this autumn.
ne may find himself fearful of the in
dependent vote which surely will mount
up and bring a Republican House of
Representatives into power. Probably he
will swing the other way then-but it
will be too late. The Case Bill veto
Will not be forgotten
Roosevelt's Words Recalled.
Even the late President Roosevelt
never took the inf1exible position toward
amending the Wagner law that Mr..
Truman has taken. Mr. Roosevelt's pub
lie papers show that on December 2.
l94l, he told press conference:
THE Wagner Act ought to have vari-
Gus amendments made to 1t, but we are
funny people over here We at once
go to the extremes both on the side
OF labor and on the side of the en-
ployer. Now in England when they put
social legislation on the statute books
they do it with the knowledge that every
year or so they will amend it. -.
Nov the machinery of the Wagner
Act heavens above! - the machinery
needs improving, of course it does. But
do it the English way"
Mr.. Roosevelt was referring to COM
mission study. There was an analogous
attempt by the Labor Mana cement
Conference last October and by the
hearings before the House and Senate
committees to offer amendments. But
labor union influence in the Senate
Committee on Labor has succeeded in
keeping any bills from being reported