The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1947-11-06
THE CHERRY TREE

| THE CHEZ
Well, there are great goings on
in the world. Two labor conventions
have just been held. Both were
stirred into their roots by resent
ment against the Taft-Hartley Act
and all who voted for it. Both
made plans for huge political cam
paign funds.
But the two will campaign sep
arately. They will not pool forces
and resources.
This is as it has to be, because
the A. F. of l.. cannot agree to
unity on any level until there is
organic unity at the base.
A World War was not suffi
cient jolt to bring the two togeth-
er, so why should it be expected
that the danger of the Taft-Hart-
ley Act will do it?
There will be tremendous pub
licity in the coming campaign, but
with all the publicity there has to
go a grass roots job of organiz-
ing in the wards and precincts.
Here is job calling for the best
fnV NJ
amount of door-bell ringing. You
have to find voters where they are
and one place where they are is
home.
Prohibition was knocked out by
discovering which congressman
could be beaten with change of
the fewest number of votes and the
smallest cost. Those babies were
picked off first.
Anyway, the coming campaign is
going to be something to see-and
something in which to be.
Much was made not long ago of
the fact that a Republican won over
a Democrat in a Pennsylvania dis
trict where the Taft-Hartley Act
had been made an issue.
Well, that district was one in
which nobody bat a Republican
could have won and it would have
made no difference where he stood
or on what. He couldn't loose.
How many votes can you swing
to labor in an area where most of
the barns are adorned with hex
signs?
But lot Of commentators waxed
eloquent over the Significance" Of
this little Taft Hartley victory.
1t was all quite funny, to those
who know little of their geogra-
ply.
There were some interesting
side-lights in these conventions.
Secretary of State Marshall went
to the CIO, but not to the A. F. of
l.. This was natural. There was a
job for him to do at Boston.
President Green was not at the
Legion convention, but the new
Legion commander was at San
Francisco and he did a good job.
Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr., was
not at San Francisco, but he was at
Boston, where a memorial plaque to
his father was unvailed, symbolic
ing the equipping of children's
division in Washington hospital.
The British fraternal delegate,
Deakin, was looked for in Boston,
but he didn't show up. He remained
in San Francisco. That was natural.
There is an important procedural
difference between the two con-
ventions.
In the CIO all resolutions come
in through the Resolutions Com
mittee. Bill Smith doesn't march in
and introduce a resolution. This
keeps everything in apple pie order.
There were 45 CIO resolutions.
In the A. F. of L. convention
any delegate can, within the proper
time limit, chuck in all the resolu-
tions he can write, or get written
for him. In San Francisco there
were 2O2 resolutions, many of
which were strictly "for the rec
ord," just as Congressman make
speeches for the record, for the
benefit of constituents. That is
sound American custom.
In the whole show-or in both
shows-about the most scholarly
piece of business was the speech
by the late Joseph Padway on the
Taft Hartley Act. When you read
that speech you get clearer idea
than you can get from reading the
law itself because Joe Padway
knew the meaning of legal phras-
ing and he knew how to look for
hidden things and how to piece one
section together with another. Lee
Pressman's speech at Boston wasn't
anywhere near in the same class.
The fact that Mr.. Padway collapsed
while making the speech drama
tizes it, but the logic was put there
while the brain was at it's best.
Finally, it wasn't quite nice for
Phil Murray to make that remark
about "the battle of the bulges".
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