Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1949-01-16

neaQS Cne FINANCE COmmlCCee OF
the Senate and Representative
Doughton, the Ways and Means
Committee of the House. Senator
Byrd is chairman of the Joint Com
mittee on Nonessential Expendi-
lures in the Federal Government.
He is recommending looping more
than 100000 employees off the 2,lo0,-
900 civilian payroll of the Govern
ment.
Real Tests Still Ahead
Since Congress is not likely to
approve of big deficit spending at
a time when business is flourishing
and employment higher than ever
beforehand many of its members
are opposed TO increasing the tax
burden, it looks as though material
parts of the Presidents program
may be in danger.
The real tests, however, are still
to come AS one of the more con-
sentative Democratic leaders of the
Senate put it: This is the most
radical Congress that has ever been
elected; it's still not possible to say
to what lengths it will co.
The Labor Committees in both the
House and Senate are overWhelm-
ingly manned by prolabor members.
Under the circumstances it may be
expected that any labor bill-the
Taft-Hartley repeater among them
reported from these committees
would comply with the demands of
the labor leaders. The difficulty
lies, however, in the fact that when
the repeater bill comes before the
Senate, it will be open to amend
ment from the floor. Even in the
House, unless a gag rule" should
come from the Rules Committee
denying the right to offer amend
ments, efforts to amend the bill will
be made, and conceivably could have
strong backing. A majority of the
present House voted to pass the
Taft-Hartley bill over the Presi-
dents veto.
The real reason the labor leaders
are demanding that the Taft
Hartley Act be repealed and the
Wagner Act restored, before any
amendments in the Wagner Act are
made, lies in the fact that if amend
ments to the Wagner Act displeasing
to organized labor later were put
through Congress they would be
subject to a presidential veto. In
the present Congress, it probably
would be impossible to pass such
amendments over a veto. On the
other hand, if such amendments to
the Wagner Act are placed in the
bill repeating the Hartley Act
and restoring the Wagner Act, and
because of these amendments the
President should veto the bill, the
Taft-Hartley Act would remain the
law of the land. In a measure,
Congress has both the labor leaders
and the President over barrel.
Repeater Improbable
Administration leaders have dis
liked very much to disappoint the
labor leaders-who are insisting
upon their pound of flesh in the
form of immediate repeal of the
Taft-Hartley Act and reinstatement
of the Wagner Act. 1t does not ap-
pear, however, that they could get
such a. repeater through both
branches of Congress. Further, the
President might we'll hesitate to
leave himself and the country pow
erless to deal with strikes that would
endanger the health and the safety
of the American people. Under the
Taft-Hartley Act, he has acted to
meet a crisis of this kind. Under
the Wagner Act as it stood origi-
nally, he could not act effectively.
Both Senator Thomas of Utah and
Representative Lesinski of Michigan,
chairmen of the Senate and House
Labor Committees, respectively, have
admitted that it will be necessary
to couple with the Taft Hartley Act
repeater an amended and restored
Wagner Act-and neither is able to
say just how far those amendments
will go. They don't know how many
of the provisions of the despised
Taft Hartley Act will be written
INTO the new bill.
Further, they are anxious to live
up to the promise of the admins
tration that Congress would repeal
the Taft-Hartley Act quickly. They
realize that this may be very diff
dcult; that many amendments to-
the repeater bill may take a long
time for consideration, particularly
in the Senate, and that the sup
porters of Taft-Hartley are not
going to give up easily.
Lengthy Hearings Likely
Presumably hearings on the new
labor bill, whatever it may be-and
it is presumed it will follow some-
what the lines Of the measure re-
Gently introduced by Senator
Thomas, plus certain amendments
by the President-win
get underway around the first OF
February. Unless the House and
Senate committees hold joint hear
ings, these hearings are likely to
run a considerable time, and it may
be weeks later before a bill repeating
the Taft-Hartley Act goes to either
house for consideration.
None of this has pleasing sound
to the leaders Of organized labor.
Nor does it please the administra-
ton. The latter is anxious to get
as complete agreement as possible
between labor and management over
what shall or shall not go into the
new labor law. But labor, feeling