Evening star., 1946-05-24
Truman Failure Seen
To Enforce the Law
Rail Strike Declared Violation of
.Connally Act.
By David Laurence

BY David Laurence
Four o'clock on May %, 1916, will ever
be marked down as a tragic hour of
failure by a President of the United
States.
Existing laws prohibit the slowing
down by word or deed of the operations
OF any property seized by the Govern
ment. Yet by concerted action taken
in defiance of the statutes. there have
been Nationwide work stoppages on the
railroads and in the coal mines No
warning of an intention to enforce the
law was given by the President, and, as
consequence, the Nations economic
system was paralyzed
Congress, being in session, waited for
the initiative to be taken by the Presi-
dent, but the damage had been done.
The fact is that labor unions are appar-
emily stronger than the Government
stronger than the law, and are being
given special privileges now as a means
of persuading them to respect the pleas
Of the Government that they order their
men back to work.
Authority Ignored.
The eighteen brotherhoods which ac-
cepted the Presidents formula are to be
commended. The two brotherhoods-
engineers and trainmen-Which precip-
itated the strike will not be happy over
the record they have made-for they
never can erase the fact that they
ignored the authority of the Govern
ment of the United States and deliber-
ately stopped transportation when the
railroads were in the hands of the Gov
ernment.
Whatever comes Of the proposals Of
compromise and settlement. the fact re-
mains that President Truman has failed
his countrymen. He has allowed a
strike to be called when he had in his
hands the leverage of prevention. He
needed only to enforce the existing stat
utes and command respect for the pow
er OF the Government. He chose to ig-
more that power and let the law be yio-
lated
But the last word has not been spoken.
The citizens damaged by the strike have
can sue for damages. They can sue the
Government for failure to enforce the
law. The taxpayers of the country may
some day have to pay the bill for
damages which President Truman by
his neglect of duty has unwittingly
allowed
Mr.. Truman's future may be sealed
by what has happened. He may never
recover politically from this sudden COL
lapse of his policy or program in han
ding labor disputes-that is, unless he
takes remedial measures at once. He
should have gone before Joint session
of Congress early this week and laid
the situation before the legislators. He
should have recommended the establish
ment of system of compulsory arbitra-
ton for the settlement of labor disputes
on the railroads. He could have gotten
legislation overnight But, above all
he should have warned the labor union
members of the two brotherhoods that
any strike put into effect after Gov
ernment seizure would subject them to
prosecution both as individuals and as
union officers. That would have been
an exercise of courage which the Nation
had a right to expect from the Chief
Executive
Garden Party Spectacle.
The spectacle of the President saun-
tering at garden party on the White
House lawn while the economic system
was being torpedoed is not one that will
soon be erased from public recollection.
Mr.. Truman certainly could not have
been aware Of the bad effect which the
dispatches telling of his apparent non
chalance created upon the people of the
country. Maybe if he had, he would
have been active in trying to organize
emergency systems of transportation.
Maybe he would have issued an appeal
10 the strikers to go back to work and
disregard any word from their unions.
For the Government had right to call
them back.
AS 1t Is, the law has been widely
violated. Labor union members booed
those who operated the trains. This is
prohlblted-in fact, any action which
tends to slow down or interfere with
operations is unlawful The President
has apparently made no effort to en-
1orce the law. If he issued any instruc-
tlons to the Justice Department, official
washington had not heard of them on
the fateful Thursday when the strike
went into operation. The messages out
hnlng course to be followed by the
railroad workers in the event of Gov
ernment seizure constituted a conspiracy
to violate the laws of the United States,
Ihey have been so construed by high
legal authorities. But the President did
nothing. Maybe Congress will.
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