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Show Grady, assistant secretary bor, and other Ubor officials have been douu in the various strike situations outside the railroad field. Await Court Fight The most the government hopes for. as a matter of fact, is some sort of agreement that there must be 30 days' notice before a strike is actually made effective-a sort of breathing spell treaty, so to speak. But few believe that even this would work, thinking that the modern idea of nations making war before they formally declare it is just as effectivea effec-tivea bit of tactics even if unfairin un-fairin labor warfare as in international inter-national conflicts. Meanwhile, of course, all this labor la-bor legislation, including also the much desired on the part of the administration ad-ministration federal regulation of wages and hours, is waiting on the outcome of the President's fight to enlarge the Supreme court. It would be ba? tactics, most New Dealers believe, to put any legislation legisla-tion through before the high court has its new blood transfusion. To feet any part of the program accomplished accom-plished in advance of action on the court enlargement law would, it is thought, take just that much steam out from the pressure for the court fight. This battle is tough enough, the New Dealers realize, without surrendering an ounce of advantage. All of which spells Infinite delay. There is no thought in the senate of expediting that debate. Senator Henry F. Ashurst, chairman of the senate judiciary committee, despite a complete flop to the President's side, announces he will fight any move to invoke cloture. Which means that the talkers in the senate will not be restrained. Best estimates are that the final vote will not come before June, even if then, which means that all the new labor legislation, and the farm legislation as well, must wait until after that. Heavier Spending Much heavier federal spending with higher taxes on 1937 incomes, both corporate and individual despite de-spite the heavily increased returns of March 15 are definitely on the administration's agenda. The vigorous vig-orous disclaimers on Capitol hill that followed the insistence of M. S. Eccles, reserve board chairman, that the budget must be balanced by new levies are just so much eyewash. eye-wash. Congress is in a spending mood and the administration is headed toward what tories will call a spending orgy. Bitter protests of senators and representatives will be calmed by administration insistence that new taxes to finance spending, without too great additions to the federal debt, are necessary to head oft inflation which would hit the consumer. Those in congress who oppose the tax boost will be put in the position of protecting the rich and the corporations of grinding the faces of the poor. Capitol hill leaders have not yet been consulted, just as they were not on the Supreme court enlargement enlarge-ment proposal. Chairman Eccles statement was not prompted solely by the slight decline in price of federal bonds. The administration is interested in that too, but far from frightened actually the day Eccles made his statement government 4 per cent bonds sold at 112, and some 2V per cent bonds sold at a fraction over par, so the decline could hardly be called a debacle. The government is concerned about this slight decline in prices because the whole move is a straw in the wind which, if it continued, would result in higher interest rates. The government does not want higher high-er interest rates, for two reasons. It wants to keep its own interest payments pay-ments down, and it wants to enable en-able business to borrow as cheaply as possible so as to encourage new industries and greater employment. anmnd tlc NATIONAL jCAPITAJLr py Carter Field y Washington. -Since his arrival In Washington, Georges Bonnet, the new French ambassador, has been the target at nearly every social function he has attended for questions ques-tions about the sit-down strikes and what has happened about them. The questioners started off with the popular deluiion that the sit-down strike originateu in France. M. Bonnet hastens to set them right about this. He is not sure just where they did originate, but he knows they were in vogue in Poland before they were ever employed In France. But the big surprise is what has happened since they started in France. The French government, questioners ore told, simply said it would not stand for them! It so notified strikers and labor leaders. When sit-down strikers were approached ap-proached bj the French police, they abandoned their "posts" with only vocal objections. No one was hurt There was no disorder. All of which is rather startling to Washington's diners-out especially aj they had assumed that the present pres-ent French government is almost Communist certainly more liberal than most, and presumably much more pro-labor than the present administration ad-ministration in this country. Meanwhile there is plenty of discussion dis-cussion in senate and house cloakrooms, cloak-rooms, and elsewhere, as to what ought to be done about sit-down strikers, and who ought to do it There are plenty of suggestions that Grover Cleveland would know how to handle it In fact his name was mentioned to a recent visitor on Capitol hill by two very distin-guisher distin-guisher senators. Where Power Lies There is a very wide difference of opinion as to where the constitutional constitution-al power lies. Some lawyers among the national legislators insist that the federal and state governments have joint power. The theory here is that the sit-down strikes In the automobile plants affect interstate commerce, hence thrusting responsibility respon-sibility on the federal government for the movement of goods across state lines. This is a minority view, as most lawyers agree that automobile production, pro-duction, to take the most popular instance, is strictly intrastate, despite de-spite the very obvious effects such a strike would have on interstate commerce, both in the flow of supplies sup-plies to the plant and the flow of automobiles from the plant. . However, the Supreme court Is expected to settle that point, very definitely, in its forthcoming decision deci-sion on the Wagner labor relations act. The two cases are almost on all fours. The government contends it has the right to compel plants engaged in similar production to submit to labor regulations of the federal government. The companies compa-nies insist they are intrastate. The decision of the court will almost certainly decide that point of contention. con-tention. Most lawyers who have studied the case believe that the court will hold the Wagner act unconstitutional, unconstitution-al, some of them even predicting that the decision will be unanimous. If that should prove true, it will become almost certain that responsibility respon-sibility for handling sit-down strikes if they are to be handled by any governmental power at all, which in itself is highly dubious will rest Trial Balloon So Eccles' statement was not just a trial balloon. It was a warning set up to make the impact less dreadful when it comes', later this year. The administration is gravely concerned over the political and economic effects of the continued advance in the cost of living, already al-ready set in motion by business revival, re-vival, advances in wages and shortening short-ening of hours. It fears something approaching a buyers' strike a little lit-tle later when a great mass of con-s con-s -mers, with no pay raises, find their incomes simply won't stretch. Hence the importance of budget balancing, or at least a step in that direction, so as to head off the fear of actual currency inflation accel-c-ating price rises already resulting from other causes. But the really important point is that the administration is determined de-termined on much greater spending spend-ing on relief to meet the situation described by President Roosevelt in recent speeches for instance, that so huge a percentage of the population is still wretchedly housed, ill-clad, undernourished and generally below the level of a decent de-cent standard of living. Roosevelt does not contemplate ever eliminating federal relief. He regards it as a certainty for all time, regardless of whether there be prosperity or depression. He agrees with Harry L. Hopkins that even in boom times there will be something like 5.000,000 families whose incomes must be supplemented supplement-ed by the government. He also agrees with Hopkins that the government gov-ernment has not scratched the surface sur-face in providing better housing. t Bell Syndicate. WNU Service. with state governments. Perhaps even local governments. A Real Menace Despite all reports to the contrary, con-trary, the administration does not propose tc attempt compulsory arbitration ar-bitration of labor disputes. In the first place, the administration has no desire to get in a knockdown and drag out fight with organized labor, and if mere is one subject on which John L. Lewis and William Green see eye to eye it is that they want no compulsory arbitration-least arbitration-least of all from the government. The administration recognizes the seriousness of the present labor development. de-velopment. President Roosevelt has told members of the house that he is much concerned about the possibilities possi-bilities of the sit-down strikes; that he regards them not only as illegal but as a real menace to the country. He made this admission despite the knowledge of every man in the group to whom he was speaking that he himself had virtually forced General Motes to negotiate while sit-down strikers were occupying its plants, which action resulted not only in the success of C. I. O. in that battle, but made its victory in steel easy, and started a wave of strikes and other labor disturbances In other industries. What the administration is figuring figur-ing on is something in the nature of the mediation board which has existed ex-isted for many years for the handling han-dling of disputes between railway managements and workers. This board has never had any authority. It merely sits in with the conflicting conflict-ing elements and seeks to bridge over the differences by moral sua-nion, sua-nion, very much as Edward F. Mc- |