Evening star., 1950-01-13
Respect for Law Seen
AS Matter of Whim
Inside Government
NLRB Head Reveals
How Toft-HortIey Low
Hos Been Sobotoged
Bv David Laurence

Hos Been Sobotuged
By David Laurence
Respect for law is deeply in
grained in the American mind as
one of the requirements Of good
citizenship but somehow or other
inside Government respect for law
Is sometimes a matter of whim
and caprice, especially If the law
Is disliked and its repeal Is being
urged by the bureaucrats them
selves.
From the lips of Robert N. Dem
ham. general counsel of the Ma
tional Labor Relations Board, has
come an amazing revelation OF
how an important law has been
sabotaged and its principles ig-
nored just because the President
of the United States, who appoints
the members Of that board, does
not like the statute and is urging
its repeal.
The Constitution stipulates that
q President when he takes the
oath Of Office must swear to ex-
ecute the laws of the land. Civil
officers and members of boards
take the same oath.
What Denham Said.
Mr.. Denham has this to say
about the National Labor Rela-
tions Board:
When you stop to realize that
beginning with the membership
OF The National Labor Relations
Board itself. and going down
through the entire structure of
the personnel of the agency, by
far the majority of the member
ship, both of the board and OF
almost every division of the
agency, was made up, in August of
1947, and still consists, of persons
who were raised in the climate OF
the philosophy and, I think may
say, in the religion of the Wagner
Act, 1t is small wonder that there
has been difficulty in obtaining a
enforcement of thinking among
these people from their old Wag-
ner Act formulae.
When you have spent ten
years or so, saturated with the
statutory and administrative the
ory that one segment of our eco
nomic society must be protected,
no matter what, and that the
offsetting segment of that society
must be saddled with the blame
for everything that happens, even
though the actual offender may
frequently be found in the pro-
tected group, that scheme of
thinking and reacting is hard to
eradicate.
With much the same personnel
still at hand who created and
administered the Wagner Act pro-
gram-from which, I fear, toe
many are still reluctant to depart
too much criticism must not be
visited upon them, especially in
view OF the fact that, for more
tnan year now. they have found
further deterrent to changing
their ways In the still unfulfilIed
expectation that the Taft-Hartley
Act would be repealed most any
time, and the salubrious cline of
the Wagner Act restored to them
sans the incubus of a general
counsel"
Mr.. Denham goes on to saw.
rather ironically, that many times
recently the courts which have
been granting injunctions at his
request have been "held by the
board TO be in error" and that
the board has dismissed some of
these cases "either on interpreta-
tion Of the law or just because
1t didn't care to decide them"
Sabotage Suggested.
Some Of these cases can still
go back to the courts for review.
but 1t is significant that the gen.
eral counsel virtually accuses the
board OF sabotaging injunctions
when they have been issued.
The Congress was mindful of
the tendency Of the labor board
to become autocratic and gaye
the general counsel the same
powers Of prosecution which have
been given to the solicitor or gen.
eral counsel Of each of the major
Government departments charged
with law enforcement. But ap-
parently the labor board considers
itself empowered to reverse the
general counsel, no matter how
closely his actions conform tc
the spirit or the letter of the
existing law.
The President has not helped
the situation any by his decision
to withhold reappointment of j
Copeland Gray, who is an tnde-
pendent-minded individual and
did not go along with the ma.
Jority OF the board. The rumo,
Is that Mr.. Truman is planning
to send to the Senate a new men,
Der who is known to be pro-union
and in sympathy with the Wag-
ner Act philosophy rather than
the present law. This is but an
other way Of weakening enforce
ment.
Politics has gone pretty far In
causing the citizenry to feel that
law enforcement has weakened In
Washington but in the matter OF
labor-management relations DO
litical factors have gone to an
extreme. It would be far more
realistic to change the name OF
the present board to 1.-THE Ma
tional Labor Union Board" TO,
that is what Mr.. Denham, In ef.
feet, says the board members. by
their decisions, reveal as theil
paramount duty-to enforce thu
rights Of labor. and to ignore thu
rights Of management as sci
forth in the Taft-Hartley Act.
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