The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1949-08-18
They Say They're
For UnionS'--If
Hacked To Pieces

the line followed by corporation
witnesses during the past week, at
a hearing on alleged "labor mono
poles" conducted by sub-com-
mittee Of the Senate Banking Com
mittee, headed by Senator A. Willis
Robertson, big cog in the Byrd
Democrat machine in Virginia.
The "but" covered lot of terri
tory. Witness after witness parad-
ed in to declare that unions had
become "too strong;" that even
giant corporations were not at the
mercy of "Big Labor" and that
antitrust laws should be revamp-
ed to cut unions down to size.
For example, Charles l. Dawson,
general counsel for the Coal OPP
orators A s'n of Kentucky's
"Bloody Harlan" county, piously
told the committee he staunchly
favors Legitimate objects and
activities of labor unions"
! The trouble, he claimed, is that
trade unions are now as arrogant"
and powerful as the Industrial
barons Of the last century.
"Organized labor" he proclaim
ed, "has become as great threat
to our competitive system and the
general welfare as was the unre-
strained capitalism Of the 1S80's
and '9O's."
The Taft Hartley act, he argued,
doesn't go far enough and doesn't
protect the rights Of the general
public" What's needed, he said, is
an extension of the antitrust laws
to outlaw industry-wide bargain
ing and other activities Of labor
having wide effects on the national
economy.
His proposal, Dawson insisted,
would "outlaw such outrageous
and arrogant abuses of power" as
the three-day work week in the
mines ordered by John L. Lewis.
Also, he thrust forth the bogey
that unless his plan were adopted,
"the inevitable result will be a ma
tional economy completely regul-
lated and controlled by labor lead
ers."
A more sweeping program for
cracking down on labor came from
Fred A. Virkus, who is a register
ed lobbyist, and who runs what he
calls the Conference of American
Small Business Organizations.
Virkus also dabbles in politics.
Recently, he organized a midwest
conference Of right-wing Republi-
cans and demanded that the COP
abandon "me-tooism." The party,
he insisted should come out for a
thoroughly standpat program to
"save free enterprise"
He, too, protested he favors
trade unions "but" the labor
hierarchy" he said, is the demon
in the picture. This "hierarchy,'
he declared, follows "public-be-
damned" policy.
He called "industry-wide" strikes
"a form of blackmail" Union busi-
ness agents, he cried, force help
less employers to "sign on the dot
ted line" Labor as a whole ''has
become a Frankenstein monster"
Virkus let it be known. Unions are
the nation "to specialization
of key industries" he added.
Labor is now the most water
tight monopolistic trust this coun-
try has ever known" he shouted.
His solution, he said, was to
subject unions to antitrust laws
and break down all national and
unions into ''inde-
pendent, autonomous" units-that
is, to company unions.
Others gave testimony along the
same lines, but a variation came
from H. A. Toulmin Jr., wealthy
and patent attorney.
81 am pro-union," he started off,
but the power of labor today is
to the power of Wall
Street and the Great Trusts prior
to 1890"
Even Americas giant corpora
ions, he declared with a sober
face, are "as minor and inferior as
he working man has been in times
past compared to his employer"
"The tables have been turned"
le moaned.
He broke from the other wit
lesses, however, in condemning
he Taft Hartley act as arbitrary
'egimentation" which would seven
ually injure manufacturers more
han it will hurt labor"
In lieu Of Taft-Hartley, he de-
handed that the antitrust laws
,e overhauled to outlaw a whole
tring of practices by unions. His
,lan would subject unions to pro-
ecution and court injunctions if
hey call general or industry-wide
trikes, if two or more unions COM
'ine to launch a pattern" of
trikes, if unions RESTRAIN or re-
uce" production, if one union boy
otis materials produced by anoth-
r, or if they undertake half a
oxen other listed activities now
ully legal.
EX-ITU OFFICER DIES