Show wash washington ington di digest es t national topics epics interpreted by WILLIAM BRUCKART FRES LOG W washington sa I 1 DC 0 C 9 washington many spineless officials of the federal government were horribly must curb shocked the other lewis day when several hundred farmers took matters into their own hands and drove a bunch of sit down dom strikers out of the great hershey chocolate plants in pennsylvania they thought it was terrible that men who ho were striking for higher wages should be beaten and slugged as the farmers at hershey pennsylvania treated the sit down strikers the strikers had closed the chocolate plants thus cutting off the daily market for thousands of gallons of milk fortunately for the country the number of these spineless creatures charged with official responsibility is very few but I 1 mention the fact because therein is a key to some of the things that have been happening in the roosevelt administrations treatment of the labor disturbances tur bances I 1 believe no one can support violence but there can be no doubt that the federal government is charged with responsibility for protecting rights rights are possessed by everyone under our constitution and under our form of government and when a handful of individuals assume to disregard the rights of others it becomes something more than a situation about which soft words and tears for the down trod den worker are required the importance of the action of the farmers at hershey pennsylvania cannot be minimized it is a straw that points which way the wind blows it means that unless the headlong and unrestrained actions of john L lewis and his labor agitators are curbed sooner or later we will pay with blood we will pay with lives of citizens because the american people always alwaes have insisted and always will insist upon a square deal in treating of conditions within the country it is well always to avoid inflammatory declarations I 1 hope I 1 am never guilty of unfairness in anything I 1 write but the cold fact is that in this country the time has arrived when government must make a choice between its functions as government and allowing autocracy of labor leaders to destroy the rights and property of the other millions of our population labor has its rights and they must be protected but it is equally important that the rights of those who are not members of any union who want to work who own property be protected thus far in the present labor controversy it must be said that the roosevelt administration and the governors of most of the states have fallen short in their sworn duty there has been much praise accorded governor murphy of michigan for settling the strikes in in the automobile plants yet I 1 cannot help wondering whether the term settler settlement rient is correct when strikers thumbed their noses at the courts court s and when law enforcement officers were told by their superiors to hold off the execution of court decrees it seems to me that we as a nation will have cause to regret se settlements of that kind for a good many years to come 0 0 0 I 1 am inclining to the belief that there is only one a word capable of describing the at political Poh of the roos cowardice evelt administration i n dealing with strikers of thesia down character labor has a weapon in in the strike and it is entitled to use that weapon because too many business interests have halve refused to be fair but when labor abuses instead of uses the weapon available to it then the time has come to call them to account just as business interests are called to account when they violate laws the difference is that the ranks of labor involve millions of votes whereas the ranks of business involve only a comparatively small number of votes therefore by any line of reasoning I 1 have been able to follow through it seems to me that the federal governments position thus far can properly be described as political cowardice coward ice there are a number of reasons why I 1 think this term is appropriate first there was the famous night conference when mr roosevelt returned from his georgia vacation and talked things over with the house and senate new deal leaders they emerged from that meeting with the president saying that the federal government could do nothing that no federal laws had been violated and that no request had come from any proper authority for federal government intervention tion it makes one laugh such statements as these if president roosevelt and his administration had desired to curb sit down strikes does anyone believe that he could not lave conveyed word to governor murphy of michigan that he was villing to help I 1 think there are plenty of grapevines by which word could have been sent to the michigan governor and I 1 truly belleve believe that ii if there had been a request tor for federal troops there would have hava been a distinct change in the attitude I 1 of labor leader lewis almost overnight further I 1 have heard from plenty of lawyers in the house and senate senata that the decision that no federal law was being violated was wholly questionable those lawyers were quite convinced that mr roosevelt had federal statutes at his command to use as the basis for action in the various sit down strikes if he seriously wanted to get mixed up in the labor row then I 1 am reminded odthe very frequent attacks which were forthcoming from the white house and other new deal spokesmen when employers and banks and business generally failed to measure up to new deal demands in the recover recovery programs the president spoke with emphasis on those occasions he has been completely silent in the current situation 0 0 0 and he has been able to maintain silence through protection given him by political ma kept neutering neu vering in the silent senate As an in stance of this let me cite the efforts of senator mcnary of oregon the so called republican leader in the senate who attempted to put the question directly to the president he sought when the senate was flounder floundering ingi and dodging over a resolution conj con j damning sit down strikes to changer change the form of the resolution from one needing only concurrence of ther house to a joint resolution which I 1 is a measure that requires the signature of the president M majority leader robinson was quick to block that maneuvering no one needs to tell you of course that mr roosevelt did not want to have that resolution come to him so as a second instance of federal government we seea subservient majority of new dealers adopting a resolution which said in effect you naughty boys you know it is wrong to indulge in sit down strikes to take possession of other peoples property and we are going to slap you on the wrist for it well that was a declaration of policy but when the resolution was before the senate they could not resist the temptation to denounce business because they charged it was unfair to labor then we have another circumstance representative dies a texas democrat proposed a resolution in the house for an investigation ot of sit down strikes mr dies was willing to condemn sit down strikes but he wanted to know what the facts were very quickly many of the weak kneed boys on the floor of the house smelled a thorough go ing inquiry into labor organizations generally into political activities of labor groups into racketeering where local labor organizations are in the hands of irresponsible or scheming radicals so the house housa sneaked out from under and as painlessly as possible dodged this issue issue by depositing the dies resolution on the table from which of course it will never be withdrawn 1 I called these policies political cowardice in an earlier statement ii iii this article all ot of the elements seem to me to be present to justify that description but there is another phase of the whole situation it concerns the future of the politicians who have run away from the real issue this time I 1 am quite convinced it will rise up to hold them in the not too distant future in the course cours 0 of th the e discussion of the labor controversy I 1 adverted on several occasions T it t talk of to the politics that third term is imbedded embedded im bedded in the situation there is so much of politics in the picture that one hears in the under current around washington a discussion of president Roosevel ts future plans it is curious but it appears possible that mr roosevelt may be forced to run for a third term such a course obviously would break all precedents but mr roosevelt likes to break precedents he has stated on several occasions his ambition to leave the white while house in 1940 with the nation at peace and economically prosperous this observation has been repeated whenever the opportunity was propitious on the last occasion there were a number of observers in washington who sustained the same reaction to the declaration cl namely that perhaps and only perhaps mr roosevelt had a yearning in his heart to serve another four years alter after his present term expires one writer noted for his direct expressions observed that only by constantly referring to his future retirement could the president invite groups to interest themselves in demanding him to run for a third term 0 western newspaper union |