Evening star., 1947-09-01
Labor Day

Labor Day
Organized labor has come long way
since Labor Day was first celebrated sixty
five years ago.
In 1882 the unions could look back upon
a record which was essentially one OF
failure to achieve their ends. Hostile
employers, unfriendly courts, succession
of economic depressions and the seemingly
inherent reluctance of most workers to
organize had combined to destroy or
greatly weaken the various federations
which had been formed. Even on the
first Labor Day, the unions could hardly
count 100000 members, and many of these
were in independent groups. The succeed
ing years brought a steady growth,
however, and as of today the total union
membership in this country probably is
somewhere between fourteen and fifteen
million.
Considering these things, it is fair to
say that organized labor has won the
battle with those whom it has regarded
as its enemies" Certainly it is true that
the courts no longer are unfriendly to
labor. Those employers who remain hostile
are effectively restrained by law from acts
which would destroy unions, and more and
more employers are coming to see the
wisdom of trying to get along amicably
with their employees. And despite the out
cries of certain labor leaders, it may be
doubted that more than a minority of
legislators are antilabor in any true sense
of that term. Most of the men who are
elected to public Office want and need the
support of workers. And most of them
will not lightly risk the loss of that
support.
What is it. then. that organized labor
has to fear in the year 1947? 1t is not
gress. The real thing which labor has to
fear is labor itself. The real danger is not
that any one will set out purposefully to
destroy labor, but that labor, by resort to
eXcesses, will force the enactment of more
drastic and more repressive legislation.
The critical test of this is going to come
in labor'S reaction to the Taft-Hartley law.
If one were W accept at face value some
of the things that are being said by labor
spokesmen he would come to the conclu-
sion that this law Is 8 sort of iniquitous
conspiracy to destroy labor cooked up in
the dark Of the moon by vicious Repub-
lican Congress But this line of propaganda
overlooks the fact that the law was passed
in response to very strong public demand
for legislation to curb some of the abuses
being practiced by some unions. The law
is the product, not of antilabor sentiment
on the part of few hundred congressman,
but of a widespread public insistence upon
corrective legislation.
Labor of course, has every right to
challenge this law in the courts and to
seek by legitimate means to defeat the
members of Congress who voted for it.
In taking this latter course the unions
will have to accept the risk that their So
called enemies will be returned to office
despite their opposition. But that they
have the right to work for their defeat is
beyond question.
What the labor leaders do not have a
right to do is to advocate, either openly
or covertly, that the rank -and-file of labor
refuse to abide by the law. AS yet there
has been no open defiance in any signifi-
cant sense. There have been rumblings
and implicit threats. but no responsible
labor spokesman has undertaken to say
that labor need not obey this law merely
because 1t does not like it. There has been
a diligent search for ways and means of
avoiding the impact of the law by one
device or another, but this is different
thing from outright defiance. If there are
loopholes in the law, labor has the right to
search them out and make use of them.
If any are found they probably will be
closed by amendment, but this does not
bear on the legitimacy of a search for
them.
The important thing, and the thing
which today should be uppermost in the
minds of all who have at heart the true
interests of labor, is that this country is
not going to tolerate flouting of law by
either employers or labor. A decade ago
some employers decided that they did not
have to conform to the Wagner Act. They
soon found out, to their sorrow, that they
were wrong. If any labor leader Is foolish
enough to make the same mistake now,
he, too, will have cause to regret it.
On this Labor Day it would be well for
all of us to bear in mind that govern
ment of laws, rather than of men, has to
stand squarely behind the proposition that
the laws must apply equally to all.