Toledo union journal. [volume] (Toledo, Ohio) 1942-current, 1949-07-08
Tough Push Ahead
To Make Congress
Pro~Labor In Fact
by Nathan Robertson


election, it still has Congress that is more
friendly to business than to labor and the
consumer. What is labor going to do about 1t?
David Lawrence has spelled out in his con-
fidential letter to businessmen what kind OF
Congress this is. He says it, like the Repuo-
lican 80th, listens to business instead of labor,
is dominated by business, rather than labor,
and will waterdown or abandon the "fair
deal' program on which President Truman,
and even this Congress, were elected
Even more bitter evidence of the kind OF
Congress we have is provided by the way 1t
has speedily confirmed all nominations of
businessmen, or friends of business - but
has blocked nominations of liberals such as
John Carson, to the Federal Trade Commis
sion and Leland Olds to the Federal Power
Commission
The record of Congress on the ft-Hartley
law is even more clinching evidence to labor
men. The Taft Hartley law was one of the
major issues of last years campaign. Many
members of Congress were elected to office
committed to its repeal But the holdovers -
chiefly Republicans and southern Democrats
- have blocked the kind of action the voters
wanted. They have nullifed the 1948 election.
So the issue boils down to what labor is
ROlDR 10 40 dDOuJ IL. ODNlOuSly hOIliillS NSAJ
drastic can be done to change the attitude of
the present members of Congress. The major
ity of them are against labor and for business
and will remain so as long as they stay In Of
flee So the question becomes what can Ia
Dor do to get more friends in their places?
The obvious answer is that labor must
begin at once serious campaign drive to un-
seat more of the unfriendly Congressman in
the next. election - in the fall of 1880 - an
election which begins with the primaries less
than a year hence
This is going to be tough job because Ia
bor skinned the cream off last year. 1t elected
scores of Congressman all over the country -
but its victories came in the easier districts,
where the over-turn of votes did not have to
be large. Next year it will tackle some of the
tougher districts, and will have to win in them
to win Congress.
What are the chances? BY and large, the
overturns next year must come in the so-called
solid south against comparatively well en-
trenched Democrats or in the north and west
against comparatively we'll -entrenched Repub-
licans. Only in this way can labor and lib
eral forces break the power of the Republi-
cans southern Demoratc coalition that has
controlled Congress for the past 10 years
ever since President Roosevelts fight against
the dictatorship of the u S. Supreme Court
The prospects are best described in re-
cent survey by Congressional Quarterly the
research publication serving newspapers with
the record of Congress Congressional Quarter
ly estimates that on the basis of last years
election figures, labor has a chance unseat
80 unfriendly Congressman in 20 states. These
are all districts where there is strong labor or
ganization and where switch of five per cent
OF the votes would do the job. These would
virtually all be Republicans who would be
succeeded by Democrats friendly to labor and
liberal causes
Congressional Quarterly has been exceed
ingly conservative in compiling this list. 1t has,
for instance, left out the Sixth District of
Maryland where there is a strong labor
vote and which is represented by one of the
most conservative Republicans in Congress
j. Glenn Beall. Beall is a typical machine
Republican. Few people, even in his own Dis
trict, know how to pronounce his name which
is sounded like Bell, not Beall. He has never
been conspicuous in Congress. But he has
managed to survive for several years, despite
the fact that he was voting regularly with the
reactionary Republican leadership by playing
good politics in his district
Yet Beall comes from a district which has
often gone Democratic and which was once
represented by one of the great liberals of
Congress - David j. Lewis. 1t includes a big
labor vote In Cumberland and Hagerstown.
The Cumberland labor forces have tradition
aiiy DSSIl ItSpuDliCdll Out are swinging
and by next year should be fairly solid
against Beall
Last year labor and liberal forces did not
get organized until the deadline for filing
one month ahead of the primary They got
no one into the Republican primary, but
tered a labor democrat in the Democratic
primary and came within a few hundred
votes of nominating him, although the dis
trict includes one of the richest and most con-
servative counties in the United States
Montgomery County in which Chevy Chase,
and Silver Spring, wealthy suburban COM
munites are located.
Against Beall in the fall election they had
to support weak machine candidate who de-
feated their candidate in the primary. Even
SO they came within almost five per cent of
the votes of electng him. Beall won by per-
centage of only 553 per cent. just enough to
keep him out of the list published by Con-
gressional Quarterly
But labor and liberal forces in the Sixth
District - including CIO, AFL, the Machin-
ists and the Railroad Brotherhoods allied with
the Americans for Democratic Action - can
beat Beall next time, if thy get organized
properly. In fact they would have done so last
time il labor had managed to turn out fourth,
instead of only a tenth of its votes in Hagers-
town.
There are many other districts like this in
America. Congressional Quarterly lists "a dis
tricts, including ga now represented by Re-