Evening star., 1953-09-13
Eisenhower Seen Free
Of Labor Domination
Writer Says Union Leaders
Have Lost Power to Dictute
BY Fronk R. Kent


BY Fronk R. Kent
From time to time one hears or reads
of complaints that the Eisenhower ad-
ministration is following along Roose-
elt-Truman lines and that there Is no
great difference between them. This
is not well based. Yet 1t is mouthed
by many politicians and propagandists
formerly attached to the New Deal-Fair
Deal regimes who lack the wit to see
that the great spending days are over.
never to return. The country may re-
cover from the harm that has been
done but it will take long time and
hard work.
One thing that can be said about
these complaints is that they do not
come from the organized labor bosses.
They know better. For them the differ
ence is clear and distinct. From jan
uary, 1896, to January, 1858, these
labor statesmen" Gas the liberal
columnists like to call them) had the
had had before. The Murrays, the
Greens, the Reuthers, the Meanys, the
KrollS, the Tobins, the Dubinskys and
assorted others ran in and out prac-
tically as they pleased, always assured
OF q warm presidential welcome and
full presidential support for whatever
proposal they currently were interested
in whether it was new legislation or an
industry-wide strike.
4
For II years this had been their
greatest asset. White House support en-
abled them to build up their unions and
extend their membership. It made it
possible for them to enter politics in
such q way as to dominate the Demo-
cratic Party. Many will recall the 1914
Chicago convention when at the late
Mr.. Roosevelt'S humiliating direction
Mr.. Truman's name for the vice presi-
Dental nomination had to be cleared"
with Sidney Hillman and Philip MUIR
ray before the convention could act.
This was sample of the extent to
which the Roosevelt administration
would 60 for the labor bosses. But
there were many others. perhaps, the
most degrading being the 1851 Truman
promise to the CIO not to use the Taft
Hartley Act in the national interest in
the event Of a steel strike. Also, the
infamous effort. thwarted by the Su-
preme Court, to seize the steel plants
regardless Of the merits Of the con-
troverSy. Clearly. the labor bosses were
established as specially favored class.
In return for this priceless White
House aid, the labor bosses were sup
posed to throw their full strength be-
hind the Democratic candidates-and
did! They contributed heavily with
money. publicity and advice. They made
the presidential policies theirs and Mr..
Roosevelt and Mr.. Truman made the
labor policies theirs. It was supposed
to be an unbeatable combination and
SO 1t seemed UP to 1949 when the Taft
Hartley bill was enacted over the Tru-
man veto and Senator Taft followed
that up by overwhelmingly beating
them in Ohio, when with money, prop
aganda and full administration sup
port they "ganged UP" to drive him
out Of public life"
Last year Gen. Eisenhower re-
peated this performance on a Nation
wide scale and entered the White House
the first President for two decades
wholly free Of financial or political OBJ
legation to any labor boss. Without ex-
ceptlon they all were against him
and still areas witness the recent
bellyaching. demagogic Labor Day
speeches of the Messrs. Reutiler and
Meany. It seems hard to believe that
any detached observer could compare
this administration to those preceding
it and not realize that there is a very
great difference, indeed. Certainly,
there is no hostility here now toward
organized labor or it's leaders. Neither
the President nor his aides harbor any
grudge against them. There will be
some amendments to the Taft-Hartley
Act in which Gen. Ike concurs and
which ought to be applauded by labor
Leaders generally-though, perhaps that
is too much to hope
However, It is now clear that tho
CIO and AFL labor bosses are no
longer in the drivers seat in Washing
ton. They do not and cannot affect
administration policies. They are un-
able to dominate Government officials.
They no longer scare Congress and no
one is very much afraid of them. They
keep up more or less steady stream
OF poisonous publicity, but it Is rela-
lively ineffective. Responsible officials
here want to protect the rights of
organized labor and give it everything
to which it is entitled-but no more.
And the great labor statesmen" so
accustomed to dictate and dominate.
are not in position to bully or brow
beat either the Government or the
party in power.
Few will deny that this is salubri-
GUS change. good for the country and
good for everybody else, including Or
ganized labor Nor will many deny
that 1t is change strongly desired by
l. ANsII L
Getting the heavy heel of these labor
statesmen" off the neck of the Ameri-
can President was a great achievement
and great change. There ought not
to be any favored class in this country
and there seems to be none now.