Evening star., 1948-06-30
Labor Leaders Facing
Problem Of Practical
Politics on Election
= AII-Out Truman Support
Would Force Dewey Over
From Center to Right
Bv David Laurence

y
Labor leaders have a problem of
practical politics on their hands in
trying to decide how much support
they should give to the presidential
and congressional tickets this au-
tumn.
These leaders will have to de-
termine whether to line themselves
up solidly behind President Truman
and thus force Gov. Dewey to look
for his support either in the rank
and file of the unions rather than
In the leadership cliques or to look
entirely to groups and classes that
have been fighting the labor-union
bosses.
In brief, will the labor bosses, by
their strategy, force Gov. Dewey over
toward the right, while his natural
inclination is to move on labor prob
lens to the left of center? Ger
tainly If Gov. Dewey wins and has
not been helped in the slightest by
the labor unions, he will owe nothing
to these leaders. Their influence at
the White House in the next four
years WOulQ De neRllSlDle.
Gompers' Philosophy.
The Samuel Gompers philosophy
and tactics in presidential cam
paigns were to observe theoretical
neutrality, but actually little was
done to offend the man likely to
be the winning candidate. In the
headquarters of both parties were
to be found labor leaders.
Now, while all labor-union leaders
today say they want the repeal of
the Taft-Hartley Act, many of them
realize that this law embodies all
the rights which the Wagner Act
gave to labor and repeal means,
strictly speaking, the wiping out of
Wagner Act rights, too. What would
have to be done, even If the labor
union leaders had their way, would
be the writing of a new law. This
can be accomplished by amending
the Taft-Hartley Act.
There seems no doubt that Gov.
Dewey, If elected, would favor
amendments to the Taft-Hartley
Act. He may, during the campaign,
call them corrective" or clarifying"
but labor strategists will recognize
such a declaration as the opening
wedge toward the removal from the
law OF certain provisions objected
to by labor spokesmen.
The conservatives in Congress
would fight against such changes
but the politically minded Dewey,
conscious of the Importance of
labor union leaders and the sup
port they can give not only in this
campaign but four years hence If
Gov. Dewey is elected and runs for
second term, will want to meet
the viewpoint Of the labor chiefs as
far as practicable.
Hence 1t doesn't seem sensible for
the labor-union policymakers to &c
all out for the Democratic ticket in
this campaign. Much more likely
a goodly number Of labor unions
and leaders will openly indorse
Gov. Dewey and put themselves in
q favorable position for the advo-
cacy Of changes in the Taft Hartley
Act.
Problem Of Congress-
Another big problem for the
labor-union leaders in the coming
election is what to do about support
ing or opposing members of Con-
gress. The situation Is complicated
by the fact that the labor chiefs
have little or no influence in the
South where Democratic Senators
and Representatives of the conserv-
ative and antiunion variety are
usually elected The northern
Democrats, in large measure, are
radicals and left-wingers. Will the
labor-union leaders ALLEVIATE all the
northern Republicans or support the
ones that give promise of being
less rigid on labor legislation? Again
it is the Gompers bipartisan policy
that emerges as the most practicable
course-supporting those Republi-
cans who give promise of being
friendly to labor and those Demo-
Gratis in States or districts where the
Republican nominees are not likely
ever to aid the movement to modify
the Taft-Hartley Act.
If, of course, the union chiefs ex-
pect Congress that would emascu-
late the present law, they might as
well waste their support on losing
candidates all along the line. The
country wants the balance between
labor and management maintained
The recent effective use of the
present statute to spare the Nation
industrial catastrophe is too fresh
in the minds of the people to listen
to the arguments of those who
want outright repeal of the Wag-
ner-Taft-Hartley law.
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