Evening star., 1950-06-25
Congressional Rabbits
Told to Cheer Up
Recent Developments Show
Conservative Trend
By Fronk R. Kent

There Is real announcement in certain
political happenings Of the past six
weeks for those scared rabbits In Con-
ereSs who. though hating 1t In their
hearts. dare not assert independence OF
the bullying labor bosses. who threaten
to drive out Of public life men who
refuse to take their orders.
The first Of these. Of course, was the
failure OF the CIO-AFL- Brotherhood
combination to save Senator Pepper
from a crushing defeat in Florida.
though he was their outstanding labor
stooge and they exerted their full
strength and spent q lot Of money In
his behalf Another incident was the
stern denunciation by Gov. Dun OF Penn
Sylvania of the criminal violence"
shown by the unions in the milk strike.
He compared those who held up and
upset milk trucks with bandits and
promptly ordered State police to put
an end to 1t. Reports are that Gov.
Duff. now Republican candidate for the
Senate. has been greatly strengthened
by this action. The labor bosses fastened
to disclaim and deplore violence. the
people applauded and there has been
complete absence Of threats toward the
Governor.
A third example was In the California
primary. where the CIO-AFL-supported
andidates-"Jimmie" Roosevelt for Gov
ernor and Helen Gahagan Douglas for
Senator-were unable to make q sum
ciently impressive showing to prevent
the odds from being to s in favor Of
their Republican opponents in q State
where the Democrats have a registration
majority Of more than a million. Further
evidence Of the prospects Of Jimmie"
and Mrs. Douglas. who have been rushA
ing around the State promising every
body everything are the pathetic pleas
of their friends that Gen. Eisenhower
give q public pat on the back to JIM
mie" and that Editor Manchester Boldly.
Mrs. Douglas primary opponent. now
declare he didn't mean any of the critical
things he said or wrote about her.
A final encouragement to the scared
rabbits is the Ohio situation. That fight
started months ago with an avalanche
Of propaganda and fiery declarations by
the labor bosses that Senator Taft.
author of the Taft-Hartley Act and
Public Enemy No. l." was to be driven
out of public life" The issue. they pro-
claimed. was clearly drawn between
labor's enemies and labor's friends.
Every ounce of strength labor could
muster would be thrown into the battle.
With full support from Chairman Boyle
and the White House. they were conn
dent of killing off Mr.. Taft by such q
majority as greatly to enhance labors
political power. Out Of victory would
emerge a national American Labor party
along British lines
But 1t isn't working out that way. In
the first place. there was wide public
reaction in the country against the
gross arrogance of the labor attitude.
People sensed what it would mean to
public life here if they could make good
on their threats. Senator Taft quietly
campaigned in every Ohio county pre-
senting the facts. The net result was
the union politicians, even with Mr..
Boyle's help, were unable to get any out
standing Democrat to run against him
and reluctantly have had to get behind
a political pignny. And few days ago the
popular and independent Democratic
Gov. Lausche. candidate for reelection.
and the original labor choice to run
against Mr.. Taft, came out In stimu-
lating statement strongly indicating his
intention of voting for him lin the ma
tional interests"
Add all these things together and
there does seem reason for the scared
rabbits to take heart. They ought
to know by now that these windy labor
politicians are more than half bluf and
buster and that the bulk Of American
neople have a strong diStaste for them.