The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1950-05-18
Taft-Dixie Bloc
Axes Truman Plan
To Gust Denhanl

Washington UPA)-The forces
led by Sen. Robert A. Taft Or,
Ohio) successfully gave the axe to
President Truman's reorganization
plan to abolish the post of general
counsel of the Natl Labor Rela-
tions Board. The vote was SO to go
The job was done because 18
Democrats, all but one from the
south, deserted the Administration
leadership and voted with the 80
Republicans. Forty-nine votes were
required to kill the plan. Taft
chose a strategic time to bring up
the plan, since it interrupted for
two days the debate on Fair En-
ployment Practice legislation. Many
of the southerners who voted with
him apparently used the poll as a
protest against the fact that civil
rights legislation had not been
brought to the floor at all.
President Truman had proposed
the transfer Of the general coun-
sePs functions, now handled by
Robert N. Denham, to the NLRB.
In support of the plan, Sen. HUI
bert Humphrey Cd, Minn.) called
the present organization of the
board "two-headed." He said that
under the present set-up, the
''grand-jury, judge and prosecutor"
powers all are vested in many cases
in the general counsel, whose de-
cisions on whether or not to issue
unfair practice complaints can not
be appealed. He pointed to the fact
that Denham has inevitably come
in conflict with the Board on inter
probation of the Taft Hartley Act,
and that the Independent general
counsel has been able to refuse to
enforce some board decisions, and
to drag his feet on others.
Sen. Taft summed up his argu-
ments with the charge that Pres
ident Truman was using the reor-
ganization proposal as part of a
plan to "repeal the Taft Hartley
law. He charged that "this plan
is far worse than the plan changed
by the Taft Hartley law"-appar
emily referring to the NLRB under
the Wagner act. He repeated earl
ier charges that the Justice Dept
has "sabotaged" his pet law by its
Interpretation of the non-C -Commun-
lists affidavit, and other actions.
Summing up for the supporters
of Truman's plan, Sen. Scott Lucas
Cd, Ill.) drove home the fact that
only a year ago, Sen. Taft support
ed TIL amendments adopted by the
Senate which would have done just
what Truman's plan aimed to do.
Lucas said that the Ohio Senator
chad to get out from under his
position of May l949," and that
"then he was arguing for exactly
what is accomplished in this plan"
Earlier, in an appeal to his
southern colleagues, Sen. John
Sparkman CD, Ala.) has told of how
Denham's extreme interpretations
of the scope of Taft Hartley had
extended coverage even to corner
small bakeries, and
other local industries. This hardly
jibes with the principles of states
rights supporters, the Alabama
Senator observed. Besides Spark |
man, the southern Senators who
lined up with the Administration
on the roll-call vote were; Lister
Hill Cd, Ala.), Olin Johnston Is. |
CO., Estes Kefauver (Tenn.), Rus
sell Long (La.), Elmer Thomas
COX az, X enneth McKellarl
(Tenn), and Garrett Withers
(KyO. Democrat Guy Gillette of
Iowa joined them. Only five Re-
publicans voted against Taft. They
were George Aiken (Vt), Irving
Ives On. W, William LANCER On.
D. Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. MASS. } |