Evening star., 1946-05-20
Roll Union Leaders
Facing Prosecution
Chances of Strike Now Remote,
Columnist Says
Bv David Laurence

BY Dauid Laurence
There will be no railroad strike after
the fiye-day truce Is over-unless, of
course, some labor leaders want to face
criminal prosecution.
The railroads now are under seizure
by the Federal Government. Under the
statute that applies to this situation
it Is unlawful for any person or per-
sons to conspire with others to persuade
or cause any one to stop work. Eo
order to stop work or 60 out on strike
can be lawfully issued by any railSoad
labor union even If during the five
days of negotiation an agreement has
not been reached. An order to continue
at work is lawful but an order to strike
Is not.
High officials are already discussing
the alleged illegality of kilograms sent
out last week by some of the labor
leaders to their local unions advising
them that, regardless of who is in con-
troll of the railroads, the members of
the union are not to go back to work
unless they receive instructions in the
form of code word mentioned in the
kilograms.
Attempt to Evade Law.
Here in effect is an instruction to
the workers which could amount to an
attempt to evade the consequences of
the law. For the statute could be made
meaningless if arrangements to disre-
gard the law were secretly agreed upon
in advance of the period OF seizure by
the Government.
This may have been the result Of
bad advice given some of the labor
leaders for it does not seem plausible
that they would deliberately seek way
to circumvent the effects of seizure.
The railroad brotherhoods are veterans
in trade unionism and they have en-
deavored at all times to comply with
the laws of the land
In any event, the President of the
United States under the Smith Con-
nally Law holds in his hands the
| power to prosecute if the Government
| finds that, as a consequence OF the
kilograms sent out before the seizure,
any word uttered or written by the
union leaders subsequent to the seizure
or any failure to rescind the coded in
structions results in resumption OF
| the strike.
Even the "postponement" OF the
strike call for five days and failure to
cancel it altogether raises an interest,"
ing question since the messages were
sent out after the seizure. Cannot this
modification in the date of the strike
be construed as the calling Of strike
during the period of Government seiz-
ure?
Law Had Held Up.
Up to now it has been the boast of
many defender of the Railway Media
ton Act that no major strike on the
railroads has occurred since 1t was
passed. Up until recently the machinery
of the act has been effective even
though strike votes and plans for strikes
have been frequently announced. Those
who defend the value of the act, how
ever, insist that it was the late Presi-
dent Roosevelt who broke down the
record of conformity by disregarding the
findings of one of the tribunals set up
under the law and making a settlement
outside the machinery of the statute.
The present controversy is due to
the unwillingness of some OF the rail-
road brotherhoods-2 out Of 20-to
accept the findings of the boards
created by the statute. The assump-
ton that either the President by per-
sonal intervention or the railroads a.
result Of economic damage inflicted
by strike will give the dissenting rail-
road brotherhoods better terms than the
tribunal set up by the law IL being
tested.
What, for instance was Mr.. Truman s
argument to the two brotherhoods
when he urged them to postpone their
strike call for five days? Perhaps he
assured them they could resume the
strike without prejudice if the ive
days negotiations collapsed, though it
is doubtful whether the President could
offer such immunity from prosecution
to anybody as a condition Of compli-
ance with his appeal to stop the strike
on the railroads.
Perhaps also the President offered q
new formula which seemed to the
brotherhoods to promise settlement
Perhaps, too, the President learned that
a face-saving device was needed as 80
often is the case when either labor or
management is beaten but does not
like to appear to have been defeated
Thus a slight modification in terms,
SUFFICIENT to enable the leaders to say
they won concessions, could be agreed
upon during the flve-day truce and
then the strike called off or the fve-day
truce could be indefinitely extended
until an agreement was reached. ANY,
way, the chances of a stoppage of the
railroads now seems to be remote.
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