Evening star., 1948-05-16
Utility Strike Cruckdown
Would Lift Trumun Stock
Rail Threat Offers Way for President
to Retrieve Lost Ground
-Bv Frank X, Kent

BY Frank r. Kent
It Is true that Mr.. Truman's popularity. Is At
q low ebb. At this moment he hardly has
enough prestige to talk about. Politicians In
his own party berate him with even more ardor
than the Republicans. Scarcely day goes by
in which the liberal" journalists who once used
to patronize him protectively do not ingeniously
present some more or less lurid incident
designed to show him ip an unfavorable light.
Especially-though with less real reason than
any other-does the small group Of intimates
of the late Mr. Roosevelt labor in this direction.
Some of these try to make him out fool;
others depict him as q villain. OF course. Mr..
Truman is neither one nor the other. Actually,
he is decent man trying to do the best he can.
He makes many mistakes, but his chief piece
of bad luck is that he inherited the dreadful
economic and political mess created by his
hamboyant predecessor and the regiment OF
cocky and preposterous individuals with whom,
for Is years, he ran the country. Some Of
the Truman troubles are due to himself, but,
considering his inheritance, most Of them were
inevitable. At any rate. his most optimistic
friend would not consider his situation now as
pleasant nor his prospects good.
***
Nevertheless, 1t would not yet be wholly
wise to sweep Mr.. Truman up in a corner and
strike match. There are several conceivable
ways by which his popularity could be increased
and his prestige regained in the five months
before November. For one thing this business
OF kicking Mr.. Truman around may be over
done. The most potent force in politics is SYM
rsthy. Once let the people get the notion that
Mr.. Truman is the underdog, unjustly beaten
and stoned by men, themselves of little merit
nd uvifh Ia
once let them begin to say, Hold on he isn't
as bad as all that" or wait . minute. that
amt right"-once let them begin to feel and
talk like that and despite his inadequacies, Mr..
Truman might be elected. 1t is possibility
1t does not do altogether to dismiss A good
many years ago, . Mayor OF Baltimore with
the odds heavily against him, was elected large
ly because his opponents overplayed his con.
ceded dumbness.
And there are ways by which Mr.. Truman
himself may greatly improve his position.
Right now for example there seems an op.
portunity in the recently threatened railroad
strike which compelled him to seize the rail-
roads to avert q great national >caamity. In
this controversy, union bosses representing less
than one-tenth the railroad employees re-
jected the findings of the Presidents Fact
Finding Board. This made a mockery of the
Railroad Labor Act which had worked per-
fectly for 20 years. But it was in accord with
the pattern set by Mr.. Roosevelt in 1941, when,
the unions refusing to accept its verdict he
recalled his own Emergency Board and through
White House pressure compelled 1t to make
further concessions to the men. This ef-
fectively scuttled the act, and the scuttling was
repeated by Mr.. Roosevelt in 1943. 1t having
been demonstrated that more could be gained
l.,
the union bosses naturally have taken that
way since.
For handful of men thus to prove them
selves stronger than the Government and
above the law Is humiliating and degrading
spectacle. 1t must fill every understanding
American citizen with resentment and shame
Yet, the individual citizen Is as helpless as the
Government. The effects Of general railroad
strike would be so awful that there seems no
choice but capitulation Literally, the Nation
could be paralyzed. The food supply Of the
great cities would be cut of. Complete indus.
trial and economic prostration would ensue.
Chaos would occur in . week. This is what
faced Mr.. Truman last week when he took
over the roads For the time being he has
averted the strike, but the union bosses still
have the weapon by which they can frighten
the Government into the action they want
and hold the Nation at their mercy.
Suppose now, that Mr. Truman, having
twice undergone this shameful experience,
should 60 to Congress and to the people in
effect saying: This Is an intolerable situa.
ton. I am friend Of organized labor but
neither organized labor nor any other group
should have the power to strangle this Nation
and coerce its Government These bosses have
that power and at frequent intervals threaten
to use 1t. Mere possession menaces the eco
nomic welfare Of the country, the very lives OF
our citizens and the national security. 1t no
longer can be borne. No such thing as .
strike against public utility should be pos
sible. No such thing as a strike against rnu-
ncipal, State or Federal Government should
be possible.
II ask the Congress Immediately to pass Q
compulsory arbitration law that forever will
eliminate these threats to our existence and
take away this weapon which makes q small
group of men more powerful than the Gov
ernment ITSELF"
Suppose Mr.. Truman should, in the next
few weeks, say something like that! Can
any one doubt that he would get an over
whelmingly favorable response from the peo-
pie and prompt action from Congress? Fur
ther can any one doubt that there would be
a real increase In Mr.. Truman's popularity and
prestige? 1t is an intolerable situation Ac-
ton along these lines is needed Mr.. Truman
would be on the soundest possible ground In
demanding it. And after ALL what has he to
lose?
town, driving the spaniards from their guns
AIA