Show stassen at best on labor issues WHERE I 1 STAND by harold E stassen doubleday p p fa 2 by bill in an age of quasi literate clans clans mr stassen the determined candidate tor for republican bial nomination has tugged at the bootstraps of his social conscious ness and raised himself above the hurly burly burly of 01 the vote getting mob to the rare level of a forthright political thinker who takes as his ken Us his own national society the former governor of minne mume sota attempts no probing into the intricacies of foreign policy and makes no bones about admitting it his thesis is that once a sound tor for ward looking domestic organization has been achieved an equally con tive foreign policy may be worked out from that basis this is not to say that the lack of an ex on foreign policy is not felt in mr stassen s book it is one of the shortcomings more important stassen s lethar gic estimate of foreign policy hi his relegation of it to a secondary post tion his failure even to touch upon the voluminous subject of foreign aid all would seem to indicate a preference for a kind of tolerant elastic nationalism whether or not this is the right time tor for the emer gence of a strong nationalistic phi in the united states is a topic which is being subjected to universal debate the man from minnesota consistently refrains in his book from entering the discus sion it is an omission which un will be brought piercingly to his attention by his more aniag monistic colleagues but it is in the area of labor lems and labor legislation that the writer is most confident of his ground in a single monolithic chap ter he dissects and analyzes the varying status of the united state states labor movement from 1920 to 1947 and nails down with a hammer of realism its inevitable relation to the prosperity and sound ness of the entire economy stassen offers his theories on la bor in the form of the testimony which he presented before the sen ate labor committee in february of this year during the period when congress wag was preparing ing the legisla tion which ultimately resulted in the taft hartley act that law he believes will be tte the foundation tor for a fair just and well balanced labor policy in america in total stassen approves of the act specifically he is opposed to three portions of the law as it stands 1 the provision making it unlawful for a labor organization to contribute to election funds 2 the non communist affidavit rule 3 the ultimatum stipulating that ex asting union shop contracts cannot be renewed unless and until an elec tion is held and a majority of all employees votes in the affirmative for the rest of his platform stas sen turns to the issues of taxation with which he deals from the stand point of dynamic capital hous ing survival of small business and the paucity of medical care and hos pital facilities to each of these he brings an application of the classic republican theory of laissez fairs faire and damns heartily all efforts to give the federal government greater control in those fields |