WASHINGTON AND THE NATION
STOUT, JONATHAN
Washington and the Nation By Jonathan Stout Republican Down-Hill Spree *« 7 ASHINGTON, D. C. - Insiders %/%/ on Capitol Hill think the spree ?T» of the Republican anti-labor gtremists is...
...Washington and the Nation By Jonathan Stout Republican Down-Hill Spree *« 7 ASHINGTON, D. C. - Insiders %/%/ on Capitol Hill think the spree ?T» of the Republican anti-labor gtremists is beginning: to run down teoner than was expected...
...Actually, he said, it is "one of the most atrocious cases of deception Within the history of our country...
...Our way of living together in America is a strong hut delicate fabric...
...THE NEW LEADER WILL THEREFORE PRESENT, IN COMING ISSUES, AN EXCLUSIVE SERIES OF FIRSTHAND, EYEWITNESS REPORTS BY LISTON M. OAK...
...Other addresses were delivered by Senator Aiken, of Vermont, and Shane MacCarthy, assistant administrator of the Labor Department's rc-cmployment and training division...
...A second reason arises out of the fact that because of its previous existence as a Southern organization, the main roots of the new union ore now in the South...
...When the bandaicex came off, I found tha...
...The two conflicting drives in the Republican Party—coming from the right and left— appear to be playing into the hands of me.i like Senator Taft and Governor Dewey, who, despite many differences between them, are feeling their way to a middle-of-the-road position in preparation for the 1948 presidential race...
...In the event the Soviet Union sanctions a free election, hopes for world peace will Increase imnteae•resbly...
...The events mark a crystallising effort •f Republican liberals to make their ¦Pact on their party's program and He direction from straight reacSenator Ball too extreme for his taste...
...The immediate task before the convention was twofold: • 1—To obtain for agricultural workers some of the basic benefits enjoyed by most industrial workers...
...For the new union—born in the South, grown to its present ststure there, and led by native Southernersestablished long ago a policy of racial equality in the union and the doctrine of racial equality on the job which remains today a cornerstone of the union...
...A full report on this important meeting will be made in next week's issue...
...He described as "unnecessarily drasHe" the bill to ban the closed shop...
...Fellow Republican legislators— tod some Democrats, too—were thunderstruck last Monday night to hear Morse j) i radio forum on a small local Washington station suggest: |# 1—The Republicans may lose both Ceng rest and the White House in 1948...
...The opening sessions were addressed by Frank Fenton, AFL Director of Organization, who pledged to the delegates the Federation's financial support in their recruiting drive and its legislative support in Washington and state capitals...
...Morse also assailed the Republican local program...
...Morse put the accent on the word "perfecting" in contrast with those Republicans who are out to wreck the National Labor Relations Act...
...One reason is that for the first time it brings farm workers into America's largest labor federation and the mainstream of the American later movement...
...It is made up of many thread...
...In addition, the bill would outlaw the permit system under which non-members of a union are permitted to work in a dosed shop on payment of a fee to the anion without being granted union Membership...
...although his remarks were intended in equal measure to Republican Party leaders throughout the country...
...Should the Soviet-controlled Polish secret police nnder the direction if Ike NK VI) continue to utilise terror ind police brutality against the Peasint Party and other members of the political opposition, the nations of the world will know bow to ovalnato Soviet promisee la the fat ere...
...Equally interesting was the emergence of Senator McCarthy of Wisconsin aa an opponent of his fellow Republican, Senator Ball, of the neighboring state of Minnesota...
...2—To develop a program to take up the shock of worker displacement on farms due to modern technological mechanical inventions...
...T ' HESE Republican developments came •a the heels of the earlier statement by tionary to more moderate policies...
...This was one of the strawa which showed how the wind is veering in Washington...
...Each day I was fed by one girl, and taken for a walk by another...
...Morse's remarks about General Eisenhower were taken here to mean two things: • 1—The Republican organization in the Northwest is not yet committed to the support of any of the presidentihl candidates who openly or quietly have their hats in the ring now...
...In his radio remarks ht said the Republicans are out for tax reductions "because they think it is good politics...
...The convention was in its opening sessions at the deadline for this issue of The New Leader...
...Morse then went on to express approval of President Truman's position on labor and taxation, saying that the Chief Executive "is slugging right now, and has the Republicans on the defensive...
...Perhaps it we were all blind for a while, there wouldn't be so much race prejudice in the world...
...The bill, he said, would not Bake the closed shop illegal, but would protect the : ight of a worker to a job in a closed shop plant even if such an individual were expelled from the union or had been refused union membership...
...Already reports of physical intimidation and violence are coming from Poland, and these are conntered by Russian claims...
...For no man knows, once it is destroyed, where or when man will find its protective, warmth again...
...Several signs cjbm up to point that way this week...
...The general effect of the McCarthy substitute bill would be to force those anions which have closed- membership nils to open their rolls to anyone obtaining employment in their closed shops...
...Chartered by the AFL last August, the new National Farm Labor Union opened its first convention in Washington's Mount Vernon Place Methodist Church—noted as the mother church of Southern Methodism—last Monday...
...2—General Duright D. Eisenhower tesld beat any potential 11(48 premdenMai candidate now on Me scene, f And the next day Morse called in Capitol Hill correspondents and told laem: "If we are going to have sound labor legislation, we should turn our first at(ration to perfecting the Wagner Act...
...Listen M. Oak, managing editor of The New Leader, baa boon sent by this publication by plane) to Poland to report on the elections...
...His warning that the Republicans may lose both Congress and the White House in 1948 was directed particularly to Senator Taft, who heads the Senate Labor Committee...
...Signed by Elsie Carper, a Washington girl, the leMi>r states: "I've just spent several weeks in Episcopal Hospital with my eyes bandaged...
...Let us not tear it asunder...
...I was deeply grateful t^ the girls for their considerable attention to me, for without them I would have been helpless...
...It serves as a cloak {or the protection of poor and rich, of black and white, of Jew and Gentile, of foreign and native born...
...A NEW AFL union made its inaugural bow to Washington this week...
...And the price of support will be recognition for the moderate views on such controversial items as labor and taxation which are more popular among Republicans in the West than they are in the East...
...It offers a comparative note, therefore, when the extremely conservative McCarthy finds paid Btassen, the only Republican so mf *ho has openly announced his canPUey for the Republican nomination wt President, condemning the extremist anti-labor bills currently being trotted *»' by Republicans...
...Another Republican who helped pile »p the portents this week was Senator Joseph R. McCarthy of Wisconsin...
...One hundred and four delegates from eight states were present...
...Morse expressed the opinion that Truman's policies indicate that he has decided to run again in 1948...
...The Washington Pout last Tuesday printed a letter which deserves reprinting in every newspaper in the nation...
...one of the girls was a Negro and the other Chinese...
...In this respect, there is anpther happy element to note...
...It has been woven over many centuries by the patience and sacrifice of countless liberty-loving men and women...
...The identification between farm workers and industrial workers long ago was made in theory...
...McCarthy is a novice Senator, occupying the aeat of former Senator Bob LaFollette, whom he defeated in the Republican primary last fall...
...Who is tolling the truth...
...Introduced last week by Republican Senator Joseph H. Ball of Minnesota...
...As a beginning the new union is asking Federal legislation to include farm workers in coverage by the Social Security Act, the Wagner Act, the Wage and Hour Act, Workmen's Compensation and Unemployment Compensation Laws...
...Wendell Willki...
...Moat active in producing portents was gepublican Senator Wayne Morse of Qngon...
...In the chair at the convention was President H. L. Mitchell, who headed the Southern Tenant Farmers Union which after 13 years of independent existence became a part of the American Federation of Labor last summer...
...It probably also would have the effect of Preventing expulsions from unions...
...An example of this is the Rust mechanical cotton picker, which practically eliminates all hand cotton picking...
...It is in tha light of this picture that Senator Morse's activities this week should be read...
...The goal of the new union is to enroll 3,000,000 agricultural workers, itinerant farm hands, tenant farmers and sharecroppers...
...IT Is hardly possible to overestimate the Importance of the coaling Soviet-sponsored elections in Poland...
...McCarthy added that he would offer a substitute bill dealing with "the right to work...
...Liston Oak Goes to Poland...
...2—That if ^he Republicans insist on a ^reactionary course, and if the Democrat* should nominate for 1948 tome candidate like Eisenhower, whom ¦they could support in a %,iodem "Era of Good Will," West Coast Republicans may bolt their party or just go fishing on Election Day...
...With this convention, the identification is now made in fact...
...What Morse aaid was: "If the Republicans continue their anti-labor policy an,d their fiscal policies which will lead to fiscal isolation, they will lose both Congress and the White House in 1948—and they will give us the worst era of labor unrest in our country...
...The Soviet Union, nnder an enforced provision of the Potsdam conference, is obliged to admit American newspapermen to wit* noes the Polish elections...
...It becomes, therefore, an additional force in the indigenous growth of trade unionism in the South...
...In the Wiaeoniin primary race, McCarthy and LaFollette represented the right and left wings of the Republican Party In that state...
...The union's first convention us an AFL affiliate may well be an historic event in the history of the American labor movement...
...The promises that Russia ¦ado at the various conferences of rhe Btg Throe will either be kept or broken here...
Vol. 30 • January 1947 • No. 3
