The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1950-06-15
DonneII's Batting
Fails To Bulge
Chiefs Testimony

i VHEuVn W D w
Washington LPA) = Sen. For
rest Donnell OR, Mo-, failing to
present plausible arguments in fav-
or of his bill to outlaw strikes on
railroads, is resorting to batting
witnesses instead.
He tried it on David Robertson
president of the Brotherhood OF
Locomotive Firemen & Enginemer
June 6, before the Senate Labor
subcommittee holding hearings or
the bill. Donnell didn't do so well.
Robertson testified the bill vio-
lates all the principles of free en-
terprise and of free trade unionism
To docket his case, he referred to a
scholarly book by Gagliardo on the
failure of compulsory arbitration
of labor disputes under Kansas
law in the early 1920's.
Donnell leaped right in, and for
20 minutes he ranted, while Sena-
tors Thomas Cd, Utah), Lehman
| Cd, N. ", Pepper Cd, Fla.) and
Morse Or, Ore) sat by more or
less patiently.
Donnell asked Robertson was the
author a Scandinavian or an Ital-
ion? How many pages were there
in the book, and had Robertson
read the whole book? How long
did it take to read the book? How
did you pronounce the authors
name. Donnell wound up by intim-
ating that Harold C. Heiss, union
counsel, had written Robertson's
testimony.
Robertson got back at Donnell
when the latter said he had receiv-
ed valuable help from J. Carter
Fort, head of the Association of
American Railroads, in writing his
anti-union bill. "I'm sure", shot
back Robertson, "that Fort render
ed. you a greater service than my
counsel did in preparing my state
lment."
When Donnell insisted "the pub
lie interest is paramount" Robert
son agreed, but observed the l.
100000 employees of the nations
railroads, plus their families, un-
derstand the public interest. "My
guess is that if you submitted this
bill to the public in a referendum
the way our union submits the car
rier's offers to our members, you
wouldn't get fifty percent or even
a twenty five percent vote in favor
of this bill"
AS for improving collective bar
gaining on the railroads, Robertson
told Donnell he could do much more
to further industrial peace if he'd
get behind bills to speed up adjudi-
cation of time disputes which now
are showed up to the national ad-
justment boards set up under the
railway labor act. Millions of doll
ars in time claims by individual en-
lployes sit for years in the hands
of one national adjustment board,
Robertson said. The carriers have
discovered that they can push any
case where a timekeeper disputes
workers time record out of the
hands of management & union
spokesmen on the scene, up to the
board. causing serious grievances
and much i'll will.
"Once compulsory arbitration is
adopted for one of the major indus
tries" Robertson warned, "the eff
feet is certain to be widespread"
and not just confined to the rail-
roads.
Robertson told the committee, the
Donnell bill was of doubtful con-
stitutionality," that strikes have
been rare except in the immediate
postwar period, that the bill would
slow down the work Of the railroad
adjustment boards, would encour-
age employers to stall on demands
because they would know their
workers couldn't strike or enforce
the demands, and would weaken
collective bargaining. 1t would sub
stitute government regulation not
only of wages, but of rates, result
in government subsidies to margin
al roads, and would lead to govern
ment regulation of what new enter
prises entered the picture.