Evening star., 1948-12-22
Labor Chiefs TO Crack
Whip Of Dictatorship
On Congress Soon
Demand for Closed Shop
Monopoly Approved
BY Truman Forces
By David Lalcrence

on being different from the dictator
ship countries in that no man here
can act as dictator. But the test
after next January on the dictator
ship issue will come in an entirely
different way. Congress will be
called on to decide whether it is
going to yield TO the dictatorship of
minority group which claims to
have received a mandate in the last
election to do as it pleases with the
labor management relationship.
Already the issues are shaping up
and the lines of cleavage are form
ing. Unless congressman are willing
TO submit to the dictatorship and
become prounion, they are to be
threatened at the polls. Already the
same minority claims it is reSpon-
sible for the election of President
Truman.
The concrete question at issue is
whether labor unions shall have
no restrictions placed on them
whether for example, they shall not
be touched by Federal law when
they engage in mass picketing and
intimidation and interfere with the
right to work or when they demand
the right TO say who shall be hired.
Demand for CLOSED Shop"
The demand for a monopoly privi-
lege. legal!Zing what is known as the
CLOSED shop"-where no American
can work except with the permission
Of a labor union 10 matter how eff
cient or qualified he may be for
job-has been approved by members
Of the Truman administration.
The right to work-the most
fundamental of all civil rights-is
to be swept away and in its place
the closed shop" monopoly is to be
restored if, as planned, the Taft
Hartley Act is repealed in its en-
tirety.
Labor unions, assisted by the
Democratic Party'S managers, now
have announced that they want the
entire Taft-Hartley Act repealed
The Democratic national chairman
formally takes the position that this
Is what the public voted for in the
last election.
While most Republicans and some
Democrats say they want a fair law
to substitute for the Taft-Hartley
Act, this is apparently not the desire
of the Truman administration, |
which acknowledges that the labor
unions won the election for the
President and that hence the ad-
minlstration is politically obligated
to do as labor dictates.
Theoretically, for generations in
America, the public interest has
superseded that of any group or
bloc. Thomas Jefferson inveighed
against special privilege. Today
special privilege is handed out to
whatever faction or bloc produces
enough votes to help win an elec-
ton. There is no longer any shame
about accepting such plain assertion
of claim to special privilege
Today also the labor unions want
those prlvlSions Of the existing law
wiped out which place on them the
same restrictions on the use of
in elections that have for
decades been placed on corporations
The labor unions will insist-apd !
doubtless President Truman will &C !
businesses must not use .
any Of their funds for election pur- J..
poses but labor unions may collect
billions of dollars in dues and do
as they please about using those
funds for political purposes.
One-Party System.
Nobody has arisen from labor's
ranks to say that worker might
possibly differ in his political views
from another worker. His dues
money can be appropriated against
his will for a political purpose no
matter what he thinks-and he
better not think out loud, because
under CLOSED shop monopoly he
can cease to be in good standing
in the union and be fired from the
Job by order of the union. This is
q move toward one-party system
which Moscow will, of course, not
miss when it looks about for propa-
ganda accusing America of hypoc-
riSy.
Time was when labor unions were
like any other groups-their petit
ton for special legislation was con-
sidered only in the light Of the pub
lie interest. Today there is no
group in Congress representing the
public interest as such. The labor
unions have a list of those members
of Congress whom they consider
prounion. All others are consid
cred antiunion.
The labor leaders do not believe
there is such thing as objectivity
or neutrality. Nobody who dis
agrees with a labor union is ever
considered to be anything but anti
union.
This is totalitarianism with a
vengeance, but the American peo-
pie are going to learn all about it
soon after January l, when the new
Congress meets and labor begins to
crack the whip of dictatorship to
the assembled Senate and House.
No controversy in half century
presents as much drama as the
coming battle to wipe out the Taft
Hartley Act in its entirety and sub
stitute for it law that hamstrings
management and leaves labor un-
ions free to do as they please. That
same repeal action will wipe out
the rights Of workers to be free
from coercion, economic and phys
ical, exerted against them by la
Dor union organizers and officers.
The maximum power ever exerted
by a single group in American poll
tics will be manifest soon. It's
going to happen largely because the
spokesmen of management are ap-
parently in a defeatist frame of
mind while the defenders of the
nllhlic interest are not organized at |