Evening star., 1950-03-28
Trumun Seen as USING
Hoover for Politics
Grave Concern Expressed
Over Case of Labor Board
The Political Mill
By Gould Lincoln


By Gould Lincoln
The attitude of President Truman and
his advisers is giving supporters OF the
report of the Hoover Commission, deal
ing with the reorganization of the Fed
eral Government, grave concern. Instead
of following the recommendations of this
bipartisan and nonpartisan commission,
Mr.. Truman is seeking to use the report
as a vehicle to put across political tricks.
A case in point is his proposal to do
away with the general counsel OF the
National Labor Relations Board and to
transfer to the chairman of the board
the functions OF prosecutor. This is
palpable attempt to get by indirection
what the President has tried to get from
Congress-his own Democratic Con-
gress-without success. That is the
repeal or notification Of the Taft-Hart-
ley Labor Act.
Under that act, Congress sought to
separate the prosecuting function from
the judicial, leaving the Board to exer-
else the judicial function as it properly
should, and placing the prosecuting
function in the hands of the General
Counsel. What Mr.. Truman is now trying
to do is to make the board, and par
ticularly its chairman, both prosecutor
and judge. That is going back to the old
days of the Wagner Labor Relations Act
when the Board did the prosecuting
the judging, too. The result was q COM
pletely onesided operation since the
Board was stacked with 100 per cent
supporters Of organized labor.
Denham Target of Spite.
The Hoover Commission, of course,
never made any such proposal as that
now submitted by Mr.. Truman. The
President has undertaken, however,
through the authority vested in him by
Congress last year to submit Govern
ment reorganization plans to in
sert this proposal. He has done it be-
cause organized labor hates Robert N.
Denham, the present general counsel,
and the members of the board itself dis
like Mr.. Denham almost as much.
Whether Mr.. Truman can get away
with it is another question. Senator
Taft of Ohio has filed resolution dis
approving this particular reorganization
plan-No. IL in a list of 81 recently SUBJ
mitted by the President. Under the re-
organization law. recommendation by
the President can be blocked and pre-
vented by the action of one house of
Congress. A House committee has ap-
proved the plan to do away with the
General Counsel-by a party vote. The
Senate Committee on Expenditures,
headed by Senator Mcclellan of Arkan-
sas, Democrat, plans hearings on the
Taft resolution to turn down the pro-
posal. Provision is made in the law that
reorganization recommendations, which
are challenged in either house, must be
voted upon. There is no way that fill
buster by administration supporters
could delay vote until enough time has
elapsed to make these recommendations
effective. Since the Senate has been en-
tirely unwilling to repeal the Taft-Hartley
Act, the Presidents recommendation to
do away with the General Counsel will
have tough time.
Maritime Change Proposed.
Mr.. Truman stepped beyond the Hoov-
er Commission report, too, when he pro-
posed to abolish the Maritime Commits
sion and set up Maritime Board in the
Commerce Department. What the Hoov-
er Commission recommended was that
that business" operations of the Mari
time Commission-like the charter of
shipS-be placed in the Commerce De-
partment, but that the Maritime Com
mission retain its authority over rates,
subsidies and conditions of service
Nearly all the rest of the Presidents
reorganization recommendations are in
line with the Hoover Commission re-
port. However, Mr.. Truman has not
tackled yet the main money-saving pro-
posals of the Hoover Commission, and
there seems little prospect he will, cer-
tainly before the elections. These, for
example, are the proposals to place the
civil functions of the Army Engineers
under the Interior Department, along
with the Reclamation Service, and to
have the Agriculture Department take
over certain functions relating to land
now operated by the Interior Depart
ment.
There is great mass of public opin-
ion back Of the Hoover Commissions
recommendations, due to a desire for
more efficient and more economical Gov
ernment. 1t may be defeated, however.
by exigencies of partisan politics, aided
and abetted by the so called vested In
terests." the interests of incumbent Job
holders.