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Show Bruckart's Washington Digest Report on Labor Relations Act Is of Vital National Importance Special Congressional Committee Recommends Reor-canization Reor-canization of Board and Amendment Of 'Wagner Law.' By WILLIAM BRUCKART VVNU Service, National Press Bldg., Washington, D. C. WASHINGTON. The house of representatives has in its collective hands one of the most far-reaching and vital documents that has been presented to it In many years. I refer re-fer to the partial report of the investigation in-vestigation into the National Labor Relations act and its creature, the National Labor Relations board. The I report is vital because it exposes I some of the most damning evidence that has come to light since the famed senate investigation into the oil scandals and proposes means for correcting the conditions which the committee of inquiry found to be wrong. The special committee, headed by Rep. Howard Smith, Virginia Democrat, Demo-crat, has spent months delving into the labor board record, analyzing cases, obtaining the "other side" of board rulings, reports of coercion, intimidation, labor union racketeering racketeer-ing and such. It has done so with the minimum flare for sensational news publicity, and it recognizes, moreover, more-over, that it has just scratched the surface. The inquiry will continue, and there is very little doubt but that the New Deal attempt to put labor in a straightjacket under domination dom-ination of the C. I. O. is at long last eoinp- to he fullv of record for the gress does not prescribe some medicine medi-cine to cure the illness. The minority of the committee, two New Dealers-Representatives Murdock of Utah and Healey of Massachusetts were highly angered by the majority recommendations made by Chairman Smith and Representatives Rep-resentatives Halleck of Indiana and Routzahn of Ohio. The three-man majority was accused of seeking to "emasculate" the law and destroy the board. With respect to the present pres-ent board, I gather that the charge against the board is true, for there are thousands of people would be happier if Chairman J. Warren Madden Mad-den and Edwin S. Smith were out of those jobs. Complaints seldom have , come concerning Dr. William M. Lei-serson, Lei-serson, but the others have been I targets. So, perhaps, the minority charge is correct in that one instance. in-stance. Committee Recommended Abolition of Present Board The committee majority recommended recom-mended abolition of the present board and the establishment of a structure which would make certain that violators of the law would be prosecuted without direction from the body that was to sit as judge. It did not place any inhibitions against reappointment of the present membership to the new judicial posts. I suspect the committee thought such measures were not necessary. There are many who doubt that either Mr. Madden or Mr. Smith could be confirmed by the senate again since the house committee disclosures of some of their unusual activities. One of the other outstanding recommendations rec-ommendations by the committee concerned freedom of speech. As the law now stands, it is nothing short of an abridgment of that freedom free-dom of speech of which our nation na-tion always has been so proud. The law prohibits an employer from talking or giving advice in any way to any of his employees wherever the question of union organization is concerned. And there, in my opinion, you have censorship, a censorship cen-sorship just as flagrant, just as far-reaching far-reaching and just as complete as is exercised by the bloody-handed Stalin Sta-lin over the press of so-called free Russia! It is one of the steps that leads to other and more dangerous acts by government that leads eventually to the point where citi- voters. The committee majority vigorously vigorous-ly assailed the labor board and the law under which the board acts for setting up an agency that serves as judge, prosecution and jury. Separation Sepa-ration of these functions was recommended recom-mended and amendments to the law were offered for the consideration of congress. Government Housecleantng Should Be Undertaken That course is fine. But it affects only the National Labor Relations board. True, the committee has no jurisdiction over any other questions than those connected with the act and the board. But the point that I seek to make is that the government govern-ment woods are full of such setups as the National Labor Relations board, and they are dangerous to the future of America. I hope that the congress will see fit to do something some-thing about the odd mixture of justice jus-tice and personal government that is represented by the National La- zens are just numbers of men and women who make good peons or equally good cannon fodder if needed. The committee voted for elimination elimina-tion of the board's division of research. re-search. Here is another cancerous sore. No one knows why the division is in existence, unless it be for purposes pur-poses of subversive activity. The chief of the division is one David Saposs. The Saposs books and other writings writ-ings have been quite vigorously criticized crit-icized at various times. His favorite subjects are labor and political movements, and he always treats them from the extreme left-wing radical view. Mr. Saposs contends that his writings are "objective." But apparently the committee saw no need for the division of research in such an agency. It's a Little Embarrassing For Congressional Members And so a congress, especially a house of representatives, has something some-thing in the nature of an unwanted baby in its lap. You see, there are 435 members of the house of representatives repre-sentatives who soon are to confront their constituencies, again. Just a plain old-fashioned campaign. And among these are many who are really suffering. They do not know whether the factional split between the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations Or-ganizations has left sufficient strength on either side of the dividing divid-ing line to permit a bold position. I believe the chances are that congress con-gress will take no action on the re- ' port at this session. There are two reasons for this conclusion. First, the committee is continuing its investigation in-vestigation and, second, there are a great many members who want to 1 use the Roosevelt administrations 1 labor policies as campaign issues. If the weaknesses are corrected before be-fore the dog days begin on the hust.ngs. that issue is gone. But strangely, the 100-per-cent New Dealers are struggling to keep anything any-thing from happening to the National Nation-al Labor Relations act. This looks to be stupid politics. Whether anything is done at this sess.on really is of no serious con-sequence. con-sequence. The C. I. 0. and John L. Lewis no longer boss congress. S,HangCSal"eCertainla. I think they may come regardless of the position of the C T n k Willi., - - - because wiiijam Green anH i, a f a antJ the American w!?her,H Z0t Labor is 811 f w.th the biased deal they have re- ce.vcd the Wagner act and he present board. Furthermore of labor who can foresee that the Wagner act type of poliCy will dam! age labor's caUse in the long run SENATOR WAGNER bor Relations act (which is sometimes some-times called the Wagner act, after its father. Senator Wagner of New York) and the National Labor Relations Re-lations board, but I hope the attempted at-tempted cure will not stop there. There can, and ought to, be a thorough thor-ough job of housecleaning, because no government is going to remain really the servant of the people where such agencies operate with the law in its own hands. There are few political appointees within the realm of my knowledge who could be so completely unbiased as to administer their jobs without favoritism. fa-voritism. The National Labor Relations board, as at present constituted, was recommended for a good firing, in the committee's report. It did this on the basis of facts that showed a strange cocktail of judicial action, conferences with board attorneys who handle prosecutions, biased statements and actions and peculiar conditions of investigation by board agents. It arrived at the only conclusion con-clusion possible, namely, that the present structure for dealing with I labr disputes must be likened to I stomach ulcers. They continually 1 eat away at the lining of the stomach. stom-ach. The board's policies strike me as likely to eat away the digestive system of American liberty if con- VITAL XLRB REPORT Findings made by a special house committee on the National Labor Relations act are of great importance to the nation, according accord-ing to this article by William Bruckart. He feels that adjustments adjust-ments in the present labor board set-up are necessary and vital to the orderly progress of the labor movement. Such changes catch the members of congress at a bad time because 1940 is an clec-tion clec-tion year. |