Toledo union journal. [volume] (Toledo, Ohio) 1942-current, 1948-05-07
Washington
Labor Report
BY Bradford v. Carter NPA)

CoA a5OJ 0O 1AAS SSSAJ SNSSb
folks were pl ague by a
powerful gal named Medusa.
She was so terrible-her hair
consisting exclusively of hiss
ing snakes-that no man could
look at her and live.
Along came a guy named
Perseus. He figured out way
to take her. And he did.
Instead of risking his eye
sight by looking at her, he
looked at her reflection in his
bright shield, swung his sword
and cut off her head, snakes
and all. She died, the snakes
died, and everybody else felt
better.
That's about the only way
to look at the immediate
future, not directly, but at its
reflection in the bright shield
of democracy, stain d and
rusty though it is in spots and
round the edges.
It seeems that bad from
here, at this time. We've got
the sword of the ballot next
November; the question is,
will we swing it accurately
or will we miss the target and
fall under the evil spell on
snake-headed future for the
Good Lord only knows hou
long. No other question n
ters half as much.
SIX POINTS
1, Representative Hartley
says the trouble with the Taft
Hartley Act is NOT that it is
breaking down, but that it
isn't tough enough.
z. The Mcconnell subcom-
mittee of the House Labor and
Education Committee gets the
Government Printing Office to
print confidential run of an
anonymous composite analy-
sis" of the Wage-Hour Act,
and the Equal Pay and FEPC
bills which concludes that all
such legislation does more
harm than good because 1t
"interferes" with labor-man-
agement relatiosn.
3. Tying in with this, the
Ball bill amending the Wage
Hour Act proposes two new
standards for setting minimum
wages below or above the 60c
level.
BY requiring the Wage
Hour Administrator to apoint
Industry Committees immedi-
ately to lower or boost mini
mum down as low as soc or
as high as 70c, the Ball bill
would give an incentive to
certain industries to discrimi-
nate in employment against
married workers with depen-
dents and in favor Of single
workers without dependents.
AS former Senator Tunnel of
Delaware said on the Senate
floor the last time this this
idea was offered, What do
we want, a nation of spinsters
and bachelors?
q. The House tacks a rider
on an appropriation bill trans
ferring the u. S. Employment
Service out of the Labor De-
partment to the F e d er a !
Security Agency, against the
pleas of both the AFL and the
CIO, and the press and radio.
don't even mention the action.
s. Big industry, acting in
apparent concert, attempts to
smother labor's demands for
increases by phoney price re-
ductions,' - mostly in headlines.
8. Most vital, labor has no
candidate for President who
can unite the decent people of
the country for recapture of
the White House and the Con-
gress at the polls next Novem-
Der.
All this, plus the interna-
tional situation, is but a dim
reflection of the evil that will
be upon us if labor fails to get
a winning candidate and a
majority for him and support
ing candidates next November.
Medusa's horrible head is in
in plain sight; we have the
bright shield of democracy;
we have the sharp sword of
the November ballot. Can we,
will we do what Perseus did?
Not long ago Congress dis
covered that it had completely
forgotten to dissolve a World