LUCAS, RAYBURN BALK TRUMAN; OPPOSE FAIR DEAL THIS YEAR
STOUT, JONATHAN
Lucas, Rayburn Balk Truman; Oppose Fair Deal This Year Split May Force President To Take Program to People By Jonathan Stout WASHINGTON. D.C. SENATE MAJORITY LEADER SCOTT LUCAS' virtual...
...Consider these startling coincidences: 1. Lurye was killed at the height of a drive to clean up openshoppers and racketeers in the garment industry...
...FINALLY, all sides in Congress may, well ponder this significant statement by George Meany, AFL SecretaryTreasuier, made at the fifth annual dinner of the New York State Liberal Party on May 26: "I...
...We don't know whioh of his unholy trinity is guilty...
...Washington has been surprised to learn that Taft feels now that any strike threatening to become a national emergency can be handled adequately either "by the President or Congress...
...He took it with unbelievable sang froid then...
...One who has come to personify a new type of American—Walter Reuther— is crippled...
...What this adds up to is a scuttling of the Fair Deal by Us legislative leaders, tor the only domestic Item Lucas has Included in Ms pfeftam |« Taft-Hartley, and this was done only at the personal insistence of the President himself...
...They don't believe in it in quite the way Truman doe*, Perhaps that explains best why they do not share with Truman either the latter's aggressive drive to put the program through, his fighting spirit, or his complete faith in ultimate victory over the conservative coalition in Congress...
...They must be apprehended at once lest all labor become a bloody shambles...
...Taft is willing to amend the 1947 injunction provisions against so-called national emergency" strikes, and to loosen the closed shop ban to permit employers to do their hiring through unions...
...personally, have never been convinced that the two-party system as wt have had it in America fat a oreat many roars is so vital to iW welfare of our country...
...Both Lucas and Rayburn remain-personally faithful to Harry Truman...
...it is becoming increasingly ready to run the risks of Southern resentment...
...that it is not practical to force men back to work by law...
...Housing...
...These crimes against labor are crimes against America, against democracy itself...
...SENATE MAJORITY LEADER SCOTT LUCAS' virtual scuttling of the Fair Deal program for this Congressional session, in his announcement the other day that domestic "must" legislation cannot be passed at this time, is th» most recent instance of a serious split between President Truman and his leaders on Capitol Hill...
...In terms of personal loyalty, this is true...
...Solidarity is not a thing faahioned of easy sentiment...
...PRESIDENT TRUMAN WON out over his legislative leaders on the TaftHartley issue for two reasons...
...The record of the ILGWU—as a potent political force, a model welfare agency, a stabilizer of industry, and a great influence on world affairs—is well known...
...An Editorial— The Goons Ride Again THE MURDER OF ILGWU ORGANIZER WILLIAM LURYE, and the attempted assassinations of UAW leacffrs WSlWaHa Victor RMffler...
...For months the President and his chief legislative aides—Lucas and House Speaker Rayburn—have been trying to persuade the nation that there are no real "differences between them...
...These, and the attack on Walter Reuther...
...Only a church that heeds the summons of principle above all else, and that dares in deed and-spirit to defend the rights of all men without fear or if*vor, will gain the abiding respect of lie world...
...THE BALD FACT IS...
...end condemned "all organizations that seek to limit the opportunities and rights of any group on account of col r: tjK creed...
...Perhaps we shall never k,now...
...It would be a travesty were the rest of'us to stand,back and contemplate these martyrs with idle approval...
...The UAW is our biggest union, has pioneered new economic concepts, and is also in the vanguard of Independent liberal-labor politics...
...Social security improvements...
...Also, he knows he is fighting for his political life...
...all occurred in the first year of Taft-Hartley, of a return to the jungle psychology of pre-Wagner Act days...
...If a big part of the Fair Deal program is not enacted at this session of Congress, HMO promises to be a year filled with political surprises...
...WE ARE HALFWAY THROUGH THIS CENTURY...
...If Lucas should prove to be right, these item will go on the shelf for possible consideration not before next year—unless a special session is called in the meantime: Health insurance...
...As if to confirm this reasoning, Senator Robert A. Taft, confident of a 20vote margin in the Senate, is practically defying Truman and Lucas to try to get the Thomas repealer of Taft-Hartley through the Senate...
...Lucas ;in<l Rayburn thus plead that they are up against a brick wall in Congress...
...We're going lo put every ounce of strength into our effort lo defeat thai outstanding reactionary...
...Strengthened anti-trust laws, Military aid to Western democracies...
...He became quite accustomed to it by Election Day last November...
...A third who is known as a fine educator—Victor Reuther—is blinded...
...On the other hand, Walter Reuther is not sure whether communists, fascists or anti-labor employers pointed the guns which shot him and his brother...
...The obverse side of this strategy of Taft's is to make himself the successful amencler of the Taft-Hartley Act...
...The Ohio Senator thinks he can bolster his own political strength in a test with Truman by beating him in the Senate...
...He is known to be very son y that he permitted it to become known as the Taft-Hartley Act to begin with...
...2. Lurye and the Reuihers represent the two most advanced unions in America...
...Second, organized labor is continuing without letup its campaign against Taft-Hartley among wavering Congressmen, and these may still bo won over, For these reasons, Lucas and PayWufK gave in to the White House, albeit with pessimistic shakes of their heads, ' Lucas and Rayburn arc able to make out a persuasive case for dropping the Truman program this year...
...But we do know this: Any one 0/ them was capable of committing assasination...
...Wwa and other minority groups from brown shirts and black shirts abroad, •why shouldn't he likewise protect , tJmn from the white sheets and Others at home Who threaten their , civil liberties...
...and the black past of certain big corporations is too recent to let us forget what they are capable of...
...Perhaps the culprits will turn out to be a fourth party or parties...
...First, the Administration came within fourteen votes of putting over its repealer in the Mouse...
...Stuart R. Oglesby of Atlanta' and Dr...
...Communism and fascism are founded upon brutal suppression of free trade unionism...
...In particular, Walter Reuther's defeat of the Communists in the UAW made possible their isolation from the mainstream of U. S. labor...
...Each of them is bloodied o'er with the gore of countless labor martyrs...
...Taft is not to be underestimated...
...Victor Reuther was struck down during the Ford strike...
...But who is willing to bet against the kind of "optimist" who can do what Harry Truman did last No« vember...
...But lie is not taking into account the one thing President Truiiuin\is bunking on—and that is tho idea, which Truman bus never given up, of barnstorming the country before next January to rally the people's support for the Fuir Deal they endorsed la.t November...
...The press, as it has- so often done in recent months, took the view that Harry Truman is more optimistic than Scott Lucas...
...New farm program...
...John H. Marion of Richmond, Va„ declare that: ''Since Uncle Sam protects Negroes...
...Meeting in North Carolina, the Gentral Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (South) heard the report of its Christian Relations Committee, submimSfa by Dr...
...In a fundamental sense, in his relationship with his legislative lieutenants, the President stands alone...
...At a White House conference the President named a long series of items on his "must" list which added up to the whole Fair Deal program...
...At the other end of Pennsylvania Ayenue, Senator Lucas told reporters that he could see only three items as "must" legislation: repeal of the Taft-Hartley Act, ratification of the North Atlantic Pact, and extension of the reciprocal trade program...
...WHAT DOES ALL THIS ADD UP TO...
...To be genuine and effective, it must stem from dedicated struggle...
...That, of course, is not a strange predicament for Harry Truman...
...3. Both unions symbolize better than any other the twofold struggle of labor—and of democracy—to purge itself of communism yet remain progressive...
...however, that neither Lucas nor Rayburn can work up Truman's genuine zeal for the Fair Deal program...
...Only a few days ago, AFL President William Green said publicly at Atlantic City that defeat of Taft who is up for reelection in Ohio will be labor's number one task in the 1950 elections...
...Sightly or wrongly, as it puts that question to itself, the Nation as a whole seems unwilling to Wait much ' longer for the South of its own accord, 40 act in defense of minority r slightly or wroagly...
...On the surface, they would seem to be correct in pointing out that they do hot have the votes to pass the Fair Deal, that the conservative coalition Commands a Congressional majority on most issues, and that at the very least the conservatives constitute such a large minority on other items that they can delay and postpone action...
...But in terms of program, the differences are clear and significant...
...TO COPE WITH THIS sort of opposition, Taft is busy devising a new strategy for himself which consists, in part, of trying to get his name oil' the Labor-Management Relations Ad of 1947...
...Yet an innocent man who believed in the simple right to organise—William Lurye—is dead...
...A church that tries to be neutral by feeepisss Client, or a church that resorts to compromise to save itself, will to that extent forfeit its redemptive power and influence among men...
...Civil rights...
...We can demonstrate our solidarity with Lurye and the Reuthers by renewing our determination to rout out of the darkness the vampires who feed on free men...
...and he appeals to be taking it today m the same spuit, and with the same amazing self-confidence] he displayed last Fall...
...and that the light to strike is inherent in a free nation...
...ILGWU officials flatly accuse a "35th Street (New York City) manufacturer" of inspiring the Lurye murder...
...The time to atop murder is now...
...Green declared...
...He is by far the most intelligent leader the conservatives have...
...In fact, I do not share (the) feeling thai it would be a catastrophe if the two-party system wire weakened by a AM party assuming a statu** Alt Irouta give it a balance of power...
...Presbyterian Groups Back Civil Rights MEETING IN BUFFALO, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church has voted that segregation in churches "based on either race or nationality is not in acCflgd with basic Christian principles...
...seem to be so closely related that we wonder whether they do not preview renewed violence against labor...
Vol. 32 • June 1949 • No. 23
