Washington and the Nation
STOUT, JONATHAN
Washington and the Nation One Slave Labor Bill Dead-But Issue Is Still Alive By JONATHAN STOUT WASHINGTON, D. C—The Administration suffered iu first major defeat on a war measure this week when...
...he sberates Poles...
...Johnson, who had helped work out the bill in the joint Senate-House conference and who had worked untiringly for its passage, promptly announced he would oppose the bill and said Byrnes had "destroyed all chances for Senate adoption" of the measure "by hia grotesque statement that the need for manpower legislation continues not only for war production but also for the production of essential goods...
...It was this admission that swung the Senate against the slave labor bill...
...One immediate consequence of the Senate rejection of the slave labor bill was the resignation of Assistant President James F. Byrnes as Director of War Mobilisation and Reconversion and the succession in that job of Fred M. Vinson...
...The one the Senate favors prescribes the penalty of government blacklisting:, unemployment and starvation...
...Tw Master Race The soldier of the Red Army is a chivalrous knight...
...He is superior to her, he despises her for being the wife of a butcher and for having reared teds...
...In resigning, Byrnes, at least temporarily, has retired to private life...
...fH»iaf the Sonata's overwhelming rejection of the Administration strategists promptly moved to an the bill by a request that the House reopen nego-nttiwu in search of a new compromise bill...
...It has been understood all along that this was very definitely war legislation and not as its opponents contend 'for the permanent regimentation of American manpower.' The conference report is dead...
...Re liberates Ukrainian girls and French prisoners...
...For 12 years Byrnes had served as a faith* fid lieutenant of Roosevelt in the House, the Senate, on the Supreme Court bench and recently as Assistant President...
...Ilya ttraaburg in the Information Bulletin of the Soviet Eabassy in Washington...
...The CIO, AFL and Railroad Brotherhoods have been unanimous in their condemnation of his "fronting" activities in the emasculation of the War Labor Board, his protection of the war profiteers and his recent master-minding of the attempt to put over th* slave labor bill...
...Many of those in the Senate who voted against do Ml) merely thought aome of its provisions are too Mean* These hoped that the defeat of the bill would sresst the House to reverse itself and accept the Sen -ittl manpower bill...
...Assistant President Vinson left the job of Federal Loan Administrator to which ha waa appointed leas than a month ago as the compromise in the battle between Secretary of Commerce Henry Wallace and Kx -Secretary of Commerce Jesse Jones...
...In a report to the President, Byrnes let slip the admission that the Administration's desire to "control" labor was not a war measure merely for the duration but that the Administration wished to perpetuate this "control" after the war is oyer...
...and later to facilitate reconversion...
...On Monday the White House announced the resignation of Byrnes...
...The •ely real difference in the bills lies in the penalties...
...Throughout this criticism, Byrnes retained th* backing of the White House...
...For the past two years Byrnes has been the object of almost constant and bitter criticism by labor...
...Washington and the Nation One Slave Labor Bill Dead-But Issue Is Still Alive By JONATHAN STOUT WASHINGTON, D. C—The Administration suffered iu first major defeat on a war measure this week when the Senate killed, 46 to 29, the ^n labor Manpower bill...
...The fact appears to be that the mm ef the Senate majority is not accounted for by any dew-cot opposition against such totalitarian meas-ar...
...But the Soviet soldier will not nolest German women . . . nor will he have intimacies with her...
...la view of Administration of arts to fad still taetatr way to above this measure down the throat tl American labor, informed quarters here advise karaaM so unsafe for opponents of the bill to relax tlear rif Ha nee Is addition to Administration efforts to save the bill, k it pointed out that the Senate majority against it has iectptive aspects...
...He »'» kmKlu without fear and without reproach...
...He hss not come to stare at a sapid and greedy doll, but to tame Germany...
...Basically, both bills sanction the use of force in com-aeUing workers to leave the jobs of their own free rseiea, almost invariably at a Wage cut, and under the intense of war necessity compelling the workers to amain the private profit of a private employer...
...Since then the speculation in Washington baa been divided over th* explanation that Byrnes Waa eased out of the Administration because of the blunder in his report and because he had outlived his usefulness to the White House, or that Byrnes had gotten tired of "fronting"" for his chief on unpopular measures, which brought him nothing hat an extensive collection of dead cats...
...Last Saturday, however, he committed a fatal blunder...
...As soon as Byrnes' report became known last Saturday, Senator Edwin C. Johnson, Colorado Democrat and Administration supporter, declared that the bill "is dead" and accused Byrnes of destroying it...
...He has not come to Germany in search of booty or mistresses...
...The latter is fundamentally as totalitarian as the bill just rejected, and is basically ¦ snacceptable, bat it covers this quality more suc-rtosfuily by being much more subtle in the manner of tracking the whip over free American workers...
...The House had passed the 0 ty the narrow squeak of seven votes last week...
...The one the Senate rejected prescribed a year in prison or $10,000 fine, or both...
Vol. 28 • April 1945 • No. 14
