Evening star., 1947-06-14
The Political Mil
Labor Lobby Compared :
To swarm of LocustS
Descends on Truman and Congress,
To Kill Taft.Hartley Bill =
By Gould Lincoln

The labor lobby like swarm of locusts has.
descended upon Washington and more par
ticularly. upon President Truman and mem
bers of Congress. 1t is the supreme effort of
the leaders of organized labor to prevent the
Taft-Hartley bill amending the Federal labor
laws, from becoming law. Their first objec-s
tive is the White House, to assure veto Of
the bill by President Truman. Their second
is to assure sustaining of a presidential veto
by one or both houses of Congress. Their
pleas are that the measure, if enacted into
law, will greatly harm organized labor in this,
country. Their threat is political death for,
the men who do not help to kill this legislation,
Mr.. Truman has maintained silence re-
garding his probable action on this bill. He
has until midnight Friday, June 20, to approve
or disapprove the bill. If he does neither, the
bill becomes law. Confidence is expressed,
however, that veto will be overridden by both
House and Senate should veto be sent to
the Capitol. So the prospects for a new labor
law appear bright. %
So far, it is said the administration has
done nothing to pull Senators and Representa-
tives away from support of the labor bill.
Obviously if the administration sets to work.
it will be clear indication that President
Truman intends to veto the bill. The better
chance to prevent the overriding OF a veto
lies in the Senate. Since the bill originated
m the House a veto message would go first to
that body, and there, where the bill passed by
some four to one finally, vote to override is.
practically certain
Seven Must Change Views.
In order to sustain a veto of the labor bill
in the Senate, seven Senators must be per-
suaded to change their original position. Cans
vases so far made indicate this is unlikely
to happen Unless the President, in veto
message should produce new arguments
against the BILL of great weight, few Senator'S
are expected to change their stand.
Many and dire predictions of increased ln-e
austrial strife, if the Taft-Hartley bill becomes
law, have been made by leaders OF organized
labor What this country needs today, OF ali
times, is peace between labor and management
1t is what the American people desire. II
labor and management do not recognize this,
and undertake new industrial warfare, so much
the worse for both. Eventually the Govern
ment will be compelled to take over and force
peace, with resulting loss OF freedom 1or
both labor and management.
Congress, in this proposed new law, has un-
dertaken to establish procedures and conditions
which will make possible the peaceful settle
ment of labor disputes. 1t has not forbade an
ultimate resort to the use of force-the strike
labor and management to undertake to make
the new law work The shortsighted course
will be for either labor or management or
both. to embark upon industrial conflict Of ma
jor proportions.
Record of 1916 Cited.
It is evident that change in the Federal
labor laws is needed. 1t is only necessary to
look back to what happened in 1946, when an
unprecedented and terribly costly record OF 49,
100000 man-days of work lost was hung up
This at a time when production ana more
production was the great need. The old laws
including the Wagner Labor Relations Act'
were not working to reduce industrial STRIFE
The Wagner Act fell short of its declared pur-
pose to reduce strikes and forms of industrial
strife Yet the labor leaders demand now that
nothing be done, that matters be allowed TO
work themselves out.
The Taft-Hartley labor bill bears Repuo-,
lican label. But it is not partisan measure.
When the conference bill passed the House,
1o3 Democrats voted for it and 66 voted against
it. When it passed the Senate, II Democratic
Senators voted for it and is voted against 1t.
Yet the plea is for Democratic President to
make the bill a partisan measure, by his veto.
IT he does and should his veto by chance be
sustained the issue will go into the presl-
Dental campaign next year in very big
way. If the bill becomes law over his veto, the
issue will 90 into the campaign.
Opponents of the measure argue that more
time and more study is needed to draft labor
legislation Yet no bill has been given more
careful and longer consideration than this 1t
was debated at length in both houses. COM
pared to the speed with which the wagner
Labor Relations Act was speeded through Con-
gress in 1885, the present Congress has been
eminently careful in dealing with this I'M
portant problem. q
Donald r. Richberg who headed the NRA In
early Roosevelt days in a recent address gave
some sound advice to both labor and manages
ment about what not to do He said: TO raise
wages and lower production per man-hour,
which has been one of the most popular pro-
grams of organized labor, is about the most
effective way to lower the standard OF living
and to create unemployment To raise prices
and restrict production, which has been the
voluntary or involuntary policy of far too many
businessmen is about the most effective wags
to bring about the self-destruction OF private
enterprise. ~