Evening star., 1947-04-04
Trumon tumble Seen
In | telephone Crisis

1 sSSsa
Action for Seizure Of Properties
Suggested to Prevent Strike
By David laurence
President Truman is fumbling again
IN major labor crisis. Forewarned this
time as he was last year when the rail
strike was called, the President Is wait
ing for the damage to be done to the
Nation before he starts measures Of
alienation.
Although Mr.. Truman has known for
weeks that crisis was coming In COM
munication industries, he has not asked
Congress for authority to deal with the
situation, and only this week did Gov
ernment attorneys begin thumbiny
through the law volumes to see II they
could md some power to prevent the
strike or terminate 1t after 1t once gets
going.
The only remedy the President offered
Congress on the rapidly growing labor
management war was the proposal for .
commission to study matters further.
Doubtless for political reasons and q
desire to curry favor with labor unions,
Mr.. Truman decided to let the Repub-
lican Congress carry the ball.
Already the House Committee on
Labor has recommended action, but the
Democrats are fighting this. and there
Is scant chance OF any legislation being
enacted unless the crisis next week
forces 1t.
But the broad powers already pos
sessed by the President under wartime
statutes might be invoked, though this
is no solution. It merely means that
as soon as war powers have been re-
pealed the test viii come again.
Phone Service. Vital.
Telephone service Is vital to the health
and safety of the Nation. To paralyze
communications is to intiict devastat-
ing blow on the American people and to
cause many millions of dollars Of eco
nomic losses to innocent parties. {
The right of union to mobilize menu
bers for a Nationwide tie-up is far
cry from the right of the individua. to
quit work. The Wagner Labor Relations
Act has encouraged these nationwide
monopolies and the welding Of unpre-
cedented economic power.
The telephone companies are regu-
lated by public service commissions Of
the States and by the Federal Communi.
cations Commission as to the rates they
may charge. Inasmuch as their in
come Is regulated, they are not free to
increase their expenses unduly and run
the risk Of cutting the income Of thrifty
individuals whose savings have been
invested over the years on the assur-
ance that the management would pru-
IDENTIFY protect such investments.
If there is to be continuance Of
regulation Of income, then some means
Of controlling expenses also must be
found and the right Of a national unicn
to fix wage rates from coast to coast
on the telephone circuits cannot 60 un-
regulated
Hotel Strike Incident.
The extent to which the telephone
union exercises It's monopoly can be
inferred from an incident which hap
pened in the midst Of the hotel strike
In Washington last year. Telephone
operators refused to handle long-dis-
tance calls to or from the local hotels.
This was . violation of Federal laws,
because operators are not supposed to
diyulge the nature of calls which they
handle and any attempt to boycott
hotel residents is to eavesdrop and in
terfere with communication.
But the local company, while aware
Of the violation, found 1t unwise to ois-
charge the workers for fear 1t would
precipitate walkout and paralysis Of
the whole service In Washington. The
Congress, which is considering legisla-
ton to prohibit secondary boycotts,
might well examine what happened in
the hotel strike as an example Of
damage to the public interest and to
citizens who are deprived of telephone
service by workers who are not them
selves party to = labor dispute but
choose to apply their collective eco
nomic power to assist other groups In
their disputes.
The telephone strike would be
serious thing for the Nation, but 1t can
be avoided If President Truman recog-
nizes his responsibility of leadership
and demands that legislation be prompt-
ly enacted giving him power to seize
the properties and to set up machinery
for the settlement OF the current dispute.
(Reproductien Rishts ReservedJ