Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1948-08-19
The Political Mill
Danger Seen in Lobor's g I
Endorsement of Trumon /,
Unions Would Suffer Black Eye
By Bad Election Defeat
By Gould Lincoln

For the better part Of two years President
Truman has angled for the labor vote. IN
1916, organized labor. a. represented BY the
AL, Clio and the railroad brotherhoods. had
no interest in Mr.. Truman. Their representa-
tives said 10 frankly-mdeed, the President Of
one Of the railroad brotherhoods had not long
before announced he would spend s3,ooo,o0o
to bring about his defeat. IS
But today Mr.. Truman hopes the situation
has changed and 20 does the Democratic Ma.
tional Committee. He is basing hope mainly
on the fact that ne vetoed the Taft.Hartley
Labor Act-which the leaders Of Organized
labor dubbed slave labor law.
After years demonstration, the new labor
law has shown no sign Of being a slave labor
law. Wages. and conditions Of labor have
continued to approve under it. But that makes
no difference either to Mr.. Truman or to the
labor leaders. They continue to fulminats
against 1t. Mr.. Truman has declared his pur.
pose to bring about It's repeal If he is re.
elected. ss-s..e
Called for In Platform. .
The platform on which he Is running calls
for such action incidentally this plank of the
platform will ALLEVIATE q considerable number
Of Democratic votes-for more Democrats In
Congress voted for the Taft-Hartley Act than
voted against it.
The vice presidents of the CLIO are likely to
take some action with reference to Mr. Tru-
man at meeting in Washington today, and
the Labor League for Political Education,
which holds session in Chicago August as,
also is expected to give consideration to the
Endorsement OF presidential candidate Pres
ident William Green Of the AFL personally has
already given his blessing to Truman Mr.
hnu &C.
always supported Democratic nominees for
President
Certainly Mr.. Truman has done everything
he could to get in to the good graces Of, labor
since the day he urged Congress to give him
power to draft in the armed services railroad
workers who threatened to go on strike He
turned over new leaf after that threat.
1t was not so very long ago, however that
many labor leaders were complaining that
Mr.. Truman, although he vetoed the Taft
Hartley labor bill when it was sent to him by
Congress, failed to use the influence of his
ONCE to make that veto stick. 1t is such an
argument that Henry Wallace and the more
radical labor leaders have constantly made
against Mr.. Trumah's nomination and election
to succeed himself. 80
Aim Of Organized Labor.
Caring little about Mr.. Truman personally,
organized labor is more intent upon bringing
about the repeal of the Taft-Hartley Act
through the election Of a prolabor Congress.
However, prolabor Congress, even If 1t passed
a repeal bill, would be in a hopeless situation
unless it had in the White House President
willing to approve such bill and make it law.
veto of the repeater could easily be sustained,
since it requires a two-thirds vote in both
Houses of Congress to override a veto. So
some of the labor leaders argue it is necessary
to get Mr. Truman elected rather than Recush.
can Gov. Dewey of New York.
The danger to organized labor however, lies
In the fact that If it indorses Mr.. Truman and
he turns out to be one Of the worst defeated
presidential candidates in history-as many
believe will happen-organized labor may re-
ceive black eye from that very defeat. Some
of the leaders OF organized labor are insisting
that labor must become more and more
political power. -s 5u.
To indorse Mr.. Truman and have him sunk
without trace is not a way to boost labors
political influence