Toledo union journal. [volume] (Toledo, Ohio) 1942-current, 1947-09-26
Washington
LaborReport
BY Paul Sifton,
LPA Columnist

Firmly, with a hint OF sad
ness that the wild-eyed radio
ais in the Truman Admin
stration make it necessary,
Senator Taft has shut the door
on health, d u a t / on and
housing legislation until l949
at the earliest, until after the
1948 elections.
Then, if there's a Republl-
can President, the Republl-
cans in the Congress, with the
aid of poll-tax Democrats,
may open the pantry door and
let the nice little boys and
girls have some of the good
things inside.
Taft's alibi for a years sit
down strike against social le-
Rislation is that the Republl-
cans In Congress just won't
trust the Truman crowd with
the administration of 1t. Look
at the men appointed to the
Labor Board! No sympathy
with the purposes of the Taft
Hartley what-iS-it. And, he
includes Denham.
No matter how careful the
Republicans are in writing a
law, the Truman crowd Will
twist it into "a totalitarian re-
suit" 5000, no jam today,
no jam tomorrow, no jam un-
til, maybe, sometime after
January 1949. And then only If
the Republicans are sure 1t
will be administered in the
spirit in which they vote for
it. Or unless, on the other
hand, the Democrats should
win both Congress and the
White House with enough
margin to legislate without
the poll-tax Democratic allies
of the COP. Taft, naturally,
didn't mention the second al
tentative, but it's there.
SIGNIFICANT
This freeze-up takes in
lot. Significantly. Taft didn't
include in the list of items for
the deep freeze lockers the
IveS-Chavez bill against dis
elimination in employment, to
which his principal rivals for
the Republican nomination
dewey, Vandenberg an d
Stassen) are committed. Nor
did he mention the anti-lynch
and anti-poll tax bills.
1t is possible that Taft may
be clearing the decks for a
showdown on these three civil
rights bills. All of them will
be urged by the Presidents
Commission on Civil Rights in
its forthcoming report. A
knock-dow and drag-out
fight to break a filibuster run
by poll-tax Democrats who
are the elder statesmen OF
that party would be an excit-
ing affair. If successful, 1t
would give the Republican
Party great credit for putting
through long overdue re-
forms advocated by Roosevelt
and Truman but fought by
the ranking members of their
party.
DISCIPLINE
Such an effort by the Re-
publican Party calls for a de-
gree of discipline impossible
to achieve except perhaps in
a campaign year, and then
only IL the members in both
Houses are convinced that vic
tory depends on 1t. For the
minority groups who look to
the Ives Chavez bill for first
class citizenship in employ
ment, there is the danger that
a compromise bill would
strike out enforcement or
leave II to cities, counties
and /or states. Or, after q
pretty good performance, the
Republicans might fall just
short OF the two-thirds major
ity necessary to break a
Senate filibuster by limiting
debate, and then hope to pin
the blame for failure on the
Democratic Party. This, de-
spite the fact that, II the Re
publicans hold their ranks,
there are enough sure Demo
cratic votes, outside the
South, TO vote cloture by
two-thirds majority.
Barring a great emergency,
Congress will quit early for
the conventions. Appropria-
tion bills must be passed and
will take most of March,
April, May and early June.
That leaves only January, Fe-
bruary, and the first two
weeks Of March for other le-
gislation. A filibuster might
run that long.