Toledo union journal. [volume] (Toledo, Ohio) 1942-current, 1950-11-17

Pete Zvara should have expected tneSe
"upsets." SEN Taft won his overwhelming VIC
tory because he stood for something; he stood
for definite program while those who opposed
him were simply shouting their virtues of be-
ing against Mr. Republican" Well, apparently
ID is not enough just to be against" something
or someone. 1t is necessary to be "fOr some
thing" i'm order to convince voting pOpulace.
NOR OVER A YEAR Sen. Taft went literally
IL from house-to-house to expound his posi-
ton on such basic problems the high cost OF
living of war and peace and of the fight
against communism. Time and again he would
would emphasize that he was not against
labor" as such, but only against labor bosses !"
OF course it was to his advantage that the en-
tire press, radio and every other means OF
public communication was at his beck and
call - fully supporting his views and fiercely
opposing the views of his opposition.
1t is no secret that people are opposed to
high prices and to high taxes. So it was only
natural for them to welcome Taft's bitter at
tacks against these same high prices; against
the high taxes which, according to Taft, were
all the result of bungling in Washington by the
Democratic Administration of President Tru-
man.
The problem of war and peace was equally
exploited by Taft & Co. The Republicans knew
that most of them would do almost anything to
extricate themselves from the fearful possi-
bility of another world war. So Taft hammered
away for peace. He accused Truman of being
a warmOnger something very close TO It,
Everywhere he left the impression that If the
Republicans were elected the danger of war
would recede that peace would come to
us once again.
The people believed him and voted for him.
r ABOR ORGANIZATIONS were particularly
IL vociferous about their position w t re-
spect to the notorious Hartley Act. And
of course, everything we said about the Taft
Hartley Law is true. The Taft-Hartley law was
designed to wreck unions, to make collective
bargaining impossible, to give Big Business
complete dominance in the industrial arena.
We know all this But the membership of our
unions don't know these things. Actually, with
minor and rather insignificant exceptions Taft
Hartley was never really put to test. And
since workers learn best from bitter expert
ence, most of them did not believe their lead
ers And even if they did, they must have felt
that the other issues war; peace high prices
= that Taft hammered away at day after day
were much more important than the repeal OF
the Taft Hartley Act
War is immient; high prices here now;
higher taxes and all kinds of restrictions
Just around the corner - under the Democrats
that is-so in good many instances Joe Work
er voted for Taft to avoid these immediate
dangers to his personal welfare thinking all
the while that Taft himself, together with the
hated Taft Hartley Law, can be handled later.
kfsp lc;k
WE SHOULD LEARN one other lesson, it
w seems to me. Labor should not tie its skirts
down to either major political party as COM
pletely as it did in this last election. Too many
Democrats today take Labor for granted
Hence, very little, if any consideration is given
to Labor's views on decisive issues or the selec-
ton of major candidates. Labor should strive
to retain, to expand its independent identity.