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Show j flo Comment . By: James W. Douthat Some members of Congress say the clean-up movement move-ment in organized labor shows signs of becoming a flop. Defiance of the AFL-CIO Ethical Practices Committee is already seen in actions within the teamsters union. It is similarly expected in the bakery workers union. An immediate im-mediate result may be to increase pressure on the Senate Rackets Committee, headed by Sen. McClellan (D-Ark.) to broaden the scope of its inquiry in-quiry to all parts of the country. Exposure of labor union corruption cor-ruption and hoodlumism is regarded re-garded by some Congressmen as the best method of bringing about a clean-up in the near future. fu-ture. More and more legislators voice the opinion that legislation legisla-tion will be necessary to halt union un-ion corruption. Legislation is pending In Con-gress Con-gress to this end, but no action is foreseen soon. The legislation includes: (1) Abolition of compulsory com-pulsory unionism; (2) Reversing court decisions permitting the federal government to pre-empt rights of states; (3) Removing union antitrust law exemption. Seriousness of the problem within organized labor Is emphasized em-phasized by some members of the AFL-CIO Ethical Practices Committee. A. J. Hayes, chairman chair-man of the committee, has been quoted as saying that "Organized "Organ-ized labor needs the help of gov-ernment, gov-ernment, needs the help of Industry, In-dustry, needs the help of business, busi-ness, and others" In eliminating whatever wrongs may be in the trade union movement. Meantime, the McClellan Committee Com-mittee is completing preliminaries preliminar-ies of Its proposed hearings on labor union corruption In the New York area. One witness has turned over books which may help in uncovering "paper" local lo-cal unions set up by labor racketeers rack-eteers in New York. ECONOMY DRIVE CONTIN- TJES The economy drive in Congress continues. This is owing ow-ing to failure of Congress to enact en-act all appropriation bills by commencement of the new fiscal fis-cal year on July 1. Opportunity Opportuni-ty to save billions of dollars still exists. The Senate restored approximately approxi-mately $1 billion out of the $2.5 billion cuts made in the Defense Department Appropriation bill by the House. The Administration won a victory vic-tory in enactment of new Foreign For-eign Aid Authorization Bill In the Senate, but final triumph 1& in doubt The House may substantially sub-stantially change the Senate bill, lowering the authorization and placing other restrictions in the measure. Further, once the authorization auth-orization bill is passed, appropriations approp-riations must be voted separately. separate-ly. The goal of the "economy bloc" in Congress is to cut $3.8 billion autholzed by the Senate to an even $3 billion. This would represent rep-resent a real victory, since the original program of the administration admin-istration totaled $4.4 billion. Success Suc-cess or failure of the economy movement, which startled the country and especially Washington Wash-ington politicians still hangs In the balance. CIVIL RIGHTS DEBATE The historic civil rights debate in the Senate may block much legislation legisla-tion of importance to business. This could result in many bills of this character being acted upon up-on next winter during a political poli-tical year. Thus uncertainties for business could be increased. Once the civil rights fight is ended, however, there may be a rush to pass important measures meas-ures in a week or 10-day period per-iod before adjournment. If so, big spending advocates would make every effort to push through programs Involving huge future commitments. Pre adjournment ad-journment rush periods also are emp'oyed by the advocates of big government to force action on measures to this end. |