Evening star., 1947-01-12
Labor Action Assured !
In the New Congress
Makeup of Committees. to Shape
Character of Legislation
By Gerard D. Reilly.

Character of Legislation
By Gerard D. Reilly.
With more than q hundred bills on
the subject of labor introduced In the
first week of the new Congress, only q
rash prophet would forecast the form
of legislation upon which both houses
can agree. That significant amend
ments to our existing Federal statutes
will emerge ard become law seems rea-
sonably certain, however, in view of GER
tain passages in the Presidents mes
sage.
His denunciation Of secondary boy
colts and strikes to compel employers
to violate the Wagner Act means that
he is now prepared to approve not only
changes in that statute, but also IN the
Norris-La Guardia Act-a statute which
has long been regarded by many liberals
as sacred cow. Although the Presi-
dent made no express reference to this
statute, it is difficult to see how Con-
gress can carry out his recommendation
without modifying it. The only effective
method of restricting strikes and boy
colts for Illegal objectives is by authoriz-
ing the Federal courts to restrain such
practices. Yet this is precisely what
they have been forbidden to do by the
Norris-La Guardia Act.
One reason why our labor laws have
not been revised in recent years, despite
certain defects revealed in the light of
administrative experience, was because
the House and Senate Labor Committees
did not represent real cross-section of
congressional sentiment While neither
Mrs. Norton of New Jersey nor Senator
Thomas of Utah, conscientious legisla-
tors, who headed these committees for
several sessions, were blind to the need
of certain reforms, they always feared
that if bills containing desirable amend
ments were reported from their COM
mittees they would be rewritten by ex-
tremists on the floor. Moreover, many
members Of Congress who applied for
membership on these committees were
less interested IN balancing the scales
OF industrial conflict than in posing as
undying champions of labor organiza-
tions. AS consequence, their critics
characterized these committees as bot
tlenecks and invented various kinds of
ingenious maneuvers to send legislation
to other committees. Unfortunately
these other committees displayed little
talent for dealing with labor matters
A glaring example was the Smith-C Con-
nally Act-a combination of bills with
only few good provisions) which
originated, respectively, in the House
Military Affairs Committee and the
Senate Judiciary Committee.
The emergence last session of a
moderate Republican group led by Sena-
tors Ball, Taft, and Smith, indicated
that the fears once held for the fate
Of any labor legislation which reached
the floor are no longer well founded.
BY subjecting the provisions of the
Case bill, which had come over from
the House, to extensive hearings and
patient study, this group. working with
three of their Democratic colleagues,
showed great discernment in perfecting
the sections which were sound and
diScarding what was mischievous. Out
voted in committee, they nevertheless
won approval for their program on the
floor. While the bill was ultimately
vetoed, the Presidents chief objection
was to the establishment of an in
dependent mediation board outside the
Department of Labor-a provision which
had not originated with this group. The
redrafted Case" bill introduced by
Senator Ball last week places the pro-
posed board In the department, and
since the secondary boycott section in
the present draft would seem to accord
with the Presidents views, there is a
real chance of its being enacted into law.
Because of the important role which
committees play in the legislative pro-
cess, there has been considerable specu-
lation as to whether or not this bill will
have smooth sailing in the new Senate
Labor Committee. Despite Senator Taft's
election to the Craftsmanship, this is by
no means certainty. Under the La
Toilette Monroney Act, the size of this
committee has been cut from 18 to 13,
with the Rupublicans claiming eight
places. One reason for their doing so
was that Senator Morse of Oregon and
Senator Aiken of Vermont, two of the
Republican holdovers, had seemingly
been irrevocably committed to the CIO
at the last Congress. These two even
went SO far as to denounce the National
Labor Relations Board for not inter-
vening with complete enthusiasm on
Walter Reuther's side in the General
Motors strike, although Reuther later
admitted that he had filed the charges
against General Motors for publicity
purposes.
With two vacancies to fill, the Repub-
licans assigned the seats to newly elect
ed Senators, viz: Ives of New York and
Jenner Of Indiana Senator Jenner's
views on labor problems are not well
known, but Senator Ives has had con-
siderable contact with labor issues as
majority leader in the New York As
sembly. There he successfully resisted
attempts to amend the State Labor Re-
lations Act, even opposing certain ad-
ministratiye changes recommended by
commission appointed by Gov. Lehman.
He was quoted in New York paper as
saying that he would have voted against
the Case bill had he. been in Congress
last year. Should it turn out that he
concurs with Senator Morse, this would
mean that the Republicans would bes
divided So.
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