Evening star., 1951-10-21
Trumon's S Subservience
To Labor Criticized
Writer BIomes President for
Plague Of Strikes

Writer BIomes President for
Plague Of Strikes
By Fronk R. Kent
Developments again call attention to
the degradation and danger of the po-
litical alliance between the Truman
administration and the labor bosses Of
the CIO and the AFL It is hard to
defend the mealymouthed subservient
manner in which Mr.. Truman deals with
this situation. It is even harder to ex-
plain why the American people should
remain inert -and aloof under such cir
cumstances-except that the realities
are so obscured by administration and
labor union propaganda that they are
baffled and confused.
A favorite form Of the propaganda is
to picture the labor bosses as unselfish,
patriotic statesmen and to denounce
those who present the facts as enemies
of labor" or 'reactionary Republicans"
This time the usual propaganda is so
preposterous that 1t does seem few can
take it seriously. Here is what has
happened: Ever since the national neces-
sity for an enormous defense program
arose, these labor bosses have con-
sistently asserted their rights" as a
favored class, constantly pressed for
higher wages and resisted successfully
the effort to establish real wage cell
ing without which there is no way to
check imitation. In this period there
have been scores Of costly strikes all
over the country, all of which have had
foiv1 n@s frxrc frnt frr1
two big strikes now causing grave con-
cern are one at the Douglas Aircraft
Co. in California; the other at the
Wright Aeronautical Co. in New Jersey.
These strikes are by no means all
now slowing down the defense effort,
but they hit at such peculiarly vital
parts OF the whole air program, already
far behind schedule, that the peril was
again made plain to Mr. Truman by
Defense Mobilizer Charles z. Wilson, by
Defense Secretary Lovett and Air Sec
retary Finletter, recognized as the three
best men in the administrative setup.
Also, on September 81, Gordon Dean,
Atomic Energy Commission chairman,
declared that a series Of labor strikes
are delaying secret projects Of utmost
Importance" to national security. Upon
these representations, Mr. Truman had
\ to act. But how did he act? He issued
a statement a week ago, asserting that
the Douglas and Wright strikes threat
ened the defense program. appealed to
strikers to resume work. told them he
had referred the case to the Wage Stabi-
lization Board. where their grievances
would be given every consideration.
Although this means that the strikers,
as usual, will be granted increases
greater than those offered by the plants
and up to now rejected. the union
bosses remain recalcitrant One asserted
that I'VE will regard anything coming
out of the board as recommendation,
not an order" Thus clearly when Mr..
Truman acts he acts inadequately-and
evades facing the facts. These are:
First, the unions at the Douglas and
Wright plants. as well as those Mr..
Dean cited, are CIO unions; second, the
CIO bosses are Philip Murray and WAL
ter Reuther: third, these are the men
with whom Mr.. Truman is allied and
who see him when they want and con-
cededly influence him. ..
Also, these are the men who constant
ly lecture Congress on its failure to
combat imitation, who advertise their
own patriotism, who now charge the
defense program is falling dangerously
behind because of "lack Of planning
and call on Mr.. Wilson to do something.
Also, these are the men back Of the
labor propaganda, the effrontery and
hypocrisy Of which cannot be exagger-
ated. The honest thing for Mr.. Truman
to do Is to call on these labor boss
friends Of his to square their words with
their deeds; to tell them publicly that
these unions which are menacing ma
tional security are CIO unions and that
as head CIO bosses and professors Of
great patriotism it is up to them to use
their power to end this serious threat to
the country.
But he does nothing like that. In
stead, he fails even to mention that the
strikers belong to the CIO. He does not
mention Mr.. Murray or Mr.. Reuther.
He makes no appeal to them, though
obviously they could stop the strikes.
All he does is refer the case to his
Wage Board (already overloaded with
ce1iC1 tdoCSt NAAC1l ID W4bklUuL 1CA1 pOWeE
to act Official United States Concilia-
ton Service figures show that, as of
today. it is futilely struggling with 1870
other strikes and slow-downs involving
100000 idle men.
Meanwhile, the unctuous Mr.. Murray
Is preparing new and exceedingly infia-
tionary wage demands for his steel
workers. 1t is disheartening situation
to the men Mr.. Truman has intrusted
with the defense effort. 1t handicaps
them terribly. It adds vastly to the cost
Of the program. and they resent the
fact that because of the political power
welded by these labor bosses they can
do so little. 1t ought to distress the
American people generally whose bur-
dens are increased and whose security
is at stake. The bald truth is that Mr..
Truman has not risen above politics in
this extremely vital matter. II he should
do so. certainly it would be the best pol
itics he ever played in his long political