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Show HomE 4 )1 Town IN WASHINGTON T"J-j No Labor for Labor SECRETARY OF LABOR Lewis B. Schwellenbach, a sad-faced man at best, is more mournful than ever these days. For the former I U. S. senator, judge and law school dean finds himself heading a department of labor with little to do about labor and, as a matter of fact, with little to do about anything. any-thing. The long gray stone building on Constitution avenue, which houses the cabinet agency set up to promote pro-mote the welfare of the workers of the nation has been fast emptied of its agencies. First the U. S. employment em-ployment service was turned over to federal security. The retraining and reemployment administration to help veterans also was transferred trans-ferred to security. The Taft-Hartley bill makes the national labor relations board an independent agency and the federal conciliation service also is divorced from the department. The labor standards bureau has been made impotent by lack of appropriations. Left for Schwellenbach to operate op-erate with an under-secretary and three assistant secretaries are the women's division and the bureau of labor statistics. When members of congress get back to main street at the end of July they will be asked by veterans what happened hap-pened to their 350 bills introduced; by housewives what has happened to prices; by farmers what happened to the farm program; by school teachers what happened to the teachers federal fed-eral aid bills; by veterant and tenants what happened to the housing programs pro-grams and by the taxpayers what happened to that six billion dollat appropriation cut. No Uncertainty Here Labor will not have to ask congress con-gress what happened to labor. They know. The portal-to-portal pay bill and the omnibus Taft-Hartley bill are on the law books. Labor calls the measure a "slave labor bill." Industry dubs it a "Magna Charta for labor." And in the meantime, the president, who vetoed it, and the NLRB who must administer it, say they will give the measure a fair administration to make it work. It is almost certain, however, that 1 some provisions will be declared unconstitutional. The national council of farm cooperatives doesn't want any tinkering which will change the purpose and operation of the farm credit laws. Witnesses told a senate committee considering H.R. 3756, already passed by the house, that the bill would "seriously "seri-ously damage" the present system sys-tem by making it a direct government gov-ernment lending agency. i As adjournment of congress ; nears, the senate civil service com-I com-I mittee still is playing politics with ! appointment of some 700 postmasters postmas-ters which have been awaiting confirmation con-firmation for six months. It may take a last-minute log-rolling to get 1 them through, if at all, before the gavel sounds for congressional re-, re-, cess. 'Sneak Attack' A PARADE of witnesses, lobbyists, lobby-ists, attorneys and big guns oi the private power industry have been testifying before the house interstate in-terstate commerce committee in behalf of a seemingly innocent measure introduced by Congressman Congress-man William J. Miller of Connecticut. Connecti-cut. This bill, however, is not innocent. In effect it would take most of the huge power trusts from under control con-trol of the federal power commission commis-sion by repealing important provisions provi-sions of the law creating the commission. com-mission. Opponents of the measure meas-ure brand it a "sneak attack" at the governmental policy of power regulation. There is no denying the fact that the private power interests are finding the 80th congress a sympathetic one in their attempts at-tempts to evade the anti-trust laws, to slap down public power which is giving cheap electricity to millions of users. t ... Action Delayed The first six months of the 80th congress finds nothing done on President Pres-ident Truman's proposals for health insurance, universal military training train-ing or river valley developments, although in this latter category the record-breaking floods along the Missouri and Mississippi rivers have given added proof of urgently needed action. Likewise, there has been no acton on federal aid to the needy, anti-poll tax or anti lynching legislation. |