Toledo union journal. [volume] (Toledo, Ohio) 1942-current, 1948-01-23
Behind The
Scenes In
Politics
By
Clayton
Rusch
| OledO
CIO

gressmen,. candidates m u t
be elected. In order to stay in
Congress, they must be re-
elected. Therefore, they realize
the importance of votes. Citi-
zens who take the trouble to
write their Congressman are
generally registered voters.
Hence letters to Congressman
serve as a barometer of public
sentiment and are definitely
needed by the legislators.
Regardless of their personal
views most public office hold
ers want to stay in office and
realize that this requires re-
spending to the wishes of the
articulate m a jority. Many
good bills have been defeated
and many bad ones passed
merely because there was no
effective letter writing cam
paign on the issues involved.
There are several important
issues now before Congress on
which we should write letters
at once. There are several
bills coming up dealing with
parts of the Wage Hour Law.
Any of these could carry a
rider providing for an increase
in minimum wages from 4Oc
per hour to 75c per hour.
Write your Congressman and
let them know you want mini
mum hourly wages increased.
We must also send strong
letters urging our national
legislators to push repeal of
the Taft-Hartley Act. Urge
support of the Aiken Hatch,
Political Spending Bill S 1913.
This bill would repeal the
ban on political spending by
unions.
RENTS
There are several bills COM
ing up on rent control. Urge
the extending and strengthen
ing of rent control.
The Taft -Ellender- Wagner
Housing Bill Is 1866 Oh. R.
2523) would provid d e long
range government aid for slum
clearance and low rent homes.
1t is important to urge passage
of this bill.
The Anti-bias Bill Is 984)
(H. R. 2820) provides for the
setting up of a national agency
to enforce no discrimination
in hiring in industry. The
Senate Labor Committee gave
this bill mild approval last
year. Write to your Congress
men and urge passage of this
bill.
The Anti-Polltax Bill, which
would outlaw tax as a basis
for voting in United States
elections in seven southern
states, was passed by the
House last year. There has
been no action by the Senate.
The Senate has killed such
bills before and will do SO
again unless there is a strong
protest from the people.
There are now before Con-
gress good anti-lynching bills
which would make lynching q
federal crime punishable
through federal courts. No &C
ton was taken on them last
year in either Senate or House
1t is essential that one of these
civil rights bills be passed
The bill known as H. R. 427S
provides compulsory military
service for all 18-year-olds in
peace time. This is simply pre-
pairing for war and doing it by
building armies and navie:
whose value is debatable in ar
atomic war. We need worlc
disarmament, not peacetimt
conscription. Write your Con
gresSmen.
EQUAL PAY
lHGlG 10 q Dlll liOW DCAOA
Congress which would provide
for equal pay for equal work
The number of it is S 1856
H. r. 4273. OF course, discrim
ination based on sex is just a.
reprehensible as discrimination
based on race. Write to you
Congressman and insist upol
passage of the Equal Pay
Equal Work Bill.
The National Health Insur
ance Bill IS 1920 (H. r. 3548
would set up a health insur
ance fund based on 12 pc
cent payroll tax which woul
enable people to pay thei
medical bills. Write your Con
gressmen on this bill AM
demand its passage.
Candidates for Congress d
not hesitate to ask for our vot
in November. We must le
them know how we want ther