Evening star., 1948-12-26
Senator Ives Stand On
Labor Report Criticized
Praises Staff Work in Careful Study of
Taft-Hartley Act Effectiveness

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Praises Staff Work in Careful Study of
Taft.Hartley Act Effectiveness
By Gerard d. Reilly -.
As the Eightieth Congress draws to q close q
number of important reports are being filed by
the standing and special committees which have
been directed to conduct investigations and
studies during the recess. These reports deal
with q wide range of topics, including many Of
the major domestic problems which confront
the next Congress: The basing point system,
amendments to the Taft-Hartley Act, cor
porate profits, the extent Of Communist leader
ship in CIO unions, and industry wide bargain
ing-to name just few.
Unfortunately there has been tendency on
the part of two or three Democratic spokesmen
to discredit these reports, not on their merits
but merely because the majority of the Senators
and congressman who participated in their
preparation were Republicans and therefore
will be on the minority side when the Eighty
first Congress convenes. This attitude Is not
merely partisan but does great disservice to the
whole theory of making Congress an informed
and intelligent branch of the Federal Govern
ment.
In accordance with the traditional procedure
relating to recess committees, such reports are
rarely made until after the biennial election,
which usually means that at least some Of the
members of these committees have been de.
feated at the polls. In order to achieve con-
tinuity Of policy, however, the composition OF
these committees always includes members Of
both major parties. Hence to regard their work
as valueless because Of an intervening election
is repudiation of the bipartisan system, for
every Congress, regardless of its political COM
plexion, draws heavily on the work of recess
committees.
It is somewhat surprising therefore to find so
experienced q legislator as Senator Irving M.
Ives of New York declining to participate in
the preparation of the final report of the Joint
Committee on Labor Management Relations
on the ground that such report would be
partisan. The ostensible reason for saying so
was that a majority of the Democratic mem
bers of the joint committee stayed away from
the meeting at which the draft report of the
staff on the eighteen month operation Of the
ft-Hartley Act was presented.
Inasmuch as only two Democratic members
of the joint committee, Senator Allen j. Ellen
der of Louisiana and Representative Graham
A. Barden of North Carolina were even willing
to participate in the formulation OF the act,
the absence of their colleagues could scarcely
have been unexpected. A more likely explana-
ton is that developments of the past week indi-
cate that Senator Ives position as an advocate
of moderate labor reforms has been seriously
undermined in his home State.
Businessmen were startled to find last week
in one of the McGraw-Hill magazines, pub
lished in New York an editorial explaining why
the Taft-Hartley Act had failed" The tenor
80 k;oIn hot
did not rest upon the consent Of the governed.
and that Congress made fatal mistake in
passing bill placing some restrictions upon
labor organizations in the face of united oppo-
sition Of union officials.
Apart from the speciousness Of this reason
ing-for Congress has previously passed legis-
lation regulating the sale of securities, utility
holding companies, and corporate monopolies
without bothering to obtain the consent OF the
special interest groups thus affected-the edi-
torial attracted considerable attention, as the
publication in which 1t appeared, Business
Week, is widely read by industrialists. In
quiry among the McGraw-Hill staff elected the
information that the editorial was the work OF
Melvin Pitzele its labor reporter and one-time
economic adviser to a CIO union. In recent
years Gov. Dewey has been so impressed with
his astuteness as labor politician that he ap-
pointed Pitzele to the State mediation board
and has also relied heavily upon him for advice
on labor strategy in his campaigns.
Among members Of the Dewey entourage Pit
zele is generally credited with the policy which
led the Republican nominee to refrain from
any all-out defense of the Taft Hartley Act
and his refusal to debate any of the specific
labor issues raised by President Truman's posi-
ton.
It was primarily due to Senator Ives that
the provisions creating the watchdog" joint
committee were written into the act. AS chair.
man Of similar committee in the New York
Assembly, he had been instrumental in bring
ing about closer liaison between the legislators
and the State executive departments. On the
basis of the experience thus obtained, his COM
mittee successfully sponsored various amend
ments to the statutes administered by the State
agencies.
On the score of partisanship 1t is difficult to
believe that Senator Ives could have any quar-
rel with the staff Of the joint committee Sc
lected by Senator Ball. the chairman The real
work of any recess committee in an election
year must necessarily be done by the staff. The
chief counsel of the committee is Thomas E.
Shroyer, Democrat and former regional NLRB
official His assistants, chosen without any ref
erence to political ties, include lawyers, drawn
from the Government service as well as private
practice, and investigators trained in such nom
partisan agencies as the FBI and the intelli-
gence units of the armed services.
The reports drafted by this group have con-
formed to the highest standards Of scholarship
and objectivity. An example in point was the
report released yesterday dealing with labor.
management relations in the West Coast mari
time industry, prepared by two staff members,
John r. Preston, jr, and Ralph r. Pickering.
This report, based upon an exhaustive analysis
of the decisions of Government arbitrators,
opinions Of the War Labor Board, and studies
of the Bureau Of Labor Statistics, as well as re-
cent interviews with officers Of the maritime