Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1949-12-02
Voice Might Agree
Relationships Can
Thrive in America
y. S. Economic Destinies
Now Seen Under Control
Of Mine Union Leader
By David Laurence

~ LAVA Laurence
When the Voice of America
broadcasts its criticism of dicta-
torships abroad. it might better
temper it's comments bit and
concede that maybe in America,
too, dictatorship can thrive.
For there has emerged in the
United States a dictator over the
economic destinies of the country
One man now says whether the
steel mills shall close down or cen
tinue to operate.
The same man says whether
there shall be coal for industrial
plants as whole.
The same man says whether
people who use coal for fuel in
their homes shall shiver or keep
warm.
The same man controls the jobs
of the workers and compels them
to stop work even when they want
to increase their earnings, which
they sorely need. This is form
of human slavery in which the
dictator is master of the lives
of these same workers.
Nobody in the whole his<y OF
the United States has ever ex-
ercised such a power of dictator
ship over the lives of the Ameri-
can people.
Power Is Complete.
This dictator's power is COM
plete. The President of the
United States is afraid of the eco
nomic dictator. and so is the Con-
gress. The votes of labor gicups
are needed and. if the dictatorship
Is overthrown by law. it will af1ect
adversely the countless number OF
little relationships that have
sprung up in the labor unions OF
the Nation.
So. large groups of voters &C
quiesce and other large groups are
seeking leadership to lead them
out of the wilderness. But no po-
litical party as such ventures to
take up the issue. To outlaw the
dictatorship is supposed to be bad
politics.
The history of relationships in
government reveals the same pat
tern in other countries. First
there arise economic groups which
assume dictatorial powers. Then
other groups find that opposition
through political methods is hope
less, and finally the way is paved
for totalitarian dictatorship which
is embraced by a helpless. i'm
patient and bewildered people.
The dictatorship in the coal in
dustry in America has been &C.
complished over period of years.
First a supine Supreme Court. po-
litically minded and politically
biased, ruled that labor unions
could not be prosecuted for mon
opoly or restraints of interstate
commerce, though the Constitu-
ton says that laws must be ap-
piled equally to all classes or be
declared null and void 49,
Next the New Deal introduced
a one-sided labor law. known as
the Wagner Act, whereby it was
possible for a single person to
achieve Nation wide bargaining
powers and to close down whole
industry at will.
Then came new law, known
as the Taft-Hartley Act, whereby
the people granted to the Federal
Government the power to enjoin
national strikes. But President
Truman ran for office on a plat
form calling for repeal of this law.
and he does not invoke the statute
for fear Of political injury in his
next campaign for reelection.
Industry Being Destroyed.
Now a vital industry is slowly
but surely being destroyed. Not
only are coal miners being driven
to look for work elsewhere-thus
Is manpower deliberately reduced
but coal production itself is cur
tailed by edict of the coal miners
union. This means the creation
of artificial scarcity and a forcing
upward of the price of fuel in
order to compel the coal owners
to increase the taxes levied on the
industry by the miners union in
the form Of royalty per ton.
Other fuels are being utilized
as substitutes, and the market for
coal is being deliberately dimin-
ished as a means of rigging the
price. This form of price-f fixing
is a violation Of the antitrust
laws, but nobody In the Truman
Administration dares to file such
an antitrust suit. The reason is
that there is fear of political re-
prisals from union labor whose
money contributions to the elec-
ton campaigns of the administra-
ton are preventing such action
from being taken or new laws
from being passed by the Demo-
cratic Party.
One man today says coal shall
be mined not at all for five days,
then for only three days week
and maybe for few months and
then interrupted again.
The first economic dictator in
America shrewdly appraises his
power-for he has successfully in
Inundated the Congress and the
whole Government of the United
States. Maybe Russian papers had
better not examine the American
type Of dictatorship too closely.
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