The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1949-08-25
Says Labor, Not
Big Business
Threatens Nation

Washington LPA)-Day in and
day out, anti-labor spokesmen are
pouring into the sympathetic ears
Of Senator A. Willis Robertson Cd,
Va.) and his colleagues on a Sen
ate Banking Subcommittee testi-
mony that the monopolies which
threaten America are labor mono
poles.
Some of the witnesses, like DON
aid Richberg, protest that they are
against all monopolies-industrial
as well as labor-and assume a
righteous pose Of impartiality.
Others, like Willford /. King,
chairman Of the Committee for
Constitutional Government, dis
count the Importance of industrial
monopolies and talk as though they
do not exist.
King, for instance, told the Com
mittee last week with straight
face that it was difficult if not
impossible" to discover any major
industry in which evidence of mon
opoly existed. He contended that
uncontrolled monopolies having
any considerable degree Of power
are confined almost entirely to the
field of labor"
Whether the witnesses are of
the Richberg type or the King
type, they wind up with the same
kind of recommendations-for leg
islation that would destroy unions.
Richberg, for instance, urged re-
vision of the antitrust laws to out
law any union activities that would
"limit substantially competition in
prices or quality Of products or
services" either nationally or local
ly. He had already made it clear
that he felt most union contracts
did just that-asserting that more
than 100000 workers under
union security" contracts were
enjoying "monopolistic control of
the labor supply.
King started off his testimony
with the statement that one of the
basic constitutional freedoms in
this country, along with freedom
of speech and freedom of religion,
was the freedom "to buy labor and
other goods at the lowest prices
obtainable."
With amazing inconsistency,
King argued that labor unions
were monopolies, that monopolies
exist for the selfish purpose of
out more money for
themselves, and yet that, despite
their growth since 1888, unions
have succeeded in getting no larg-
er percentage of the output of in
dustry in the form of wages and
Questioned by Sen. Homer Cape
hart (R, Ind.), Richberg said the
three-day-a-week work schedule
by the United Mine Work
ers was "clear violation of exist
ing law" But when Capehart ques-
toned him eagerly about the pos
sibility of successfully prosecuting
the mine workers, Richberg hedg-
ed.
Asked by Capehart if he thought
Congress "has courage" enough to
enact a law prohibiting union mon
opolies, Richberg pointed out that !
the 80th Congress had enacted the
Taft Hartley law, which he said
was very good law.
Another impartial" witness was |
John V. Van Sickle, a pre- Hoover
economist, who testified "the chief |
threat to private enterprise and
hence to political democracy today !
comes from the side of organized
labor. This threat is due purely
and simply to the fact that organ
lied labor has too much power. :.
| recognize that Big Business may
also have more power than is de-
,irable."
That's all Van Sickle said about
business monopoly. His solutions
we're all aimed at labor-to break
lp closed shops, and national
lnions. He would do nothing to
oreak up big corporations which
each from one end of the country
20 the other and have more power
han state governments.
The MANS front, the Natl
Small Business Mems Association,
testified that organized labor is
zig business" and should be made
he subject of stringent regulation
lnder the antitrust laws. He also
a far-reaching program
o destroy unions.