Show 6 r A season of surprises 5 r F and m still i more to come C ome government control of railroads and national I 1 service act complete surprise in many quarters by BAUKHAGE news analyst and commentator service union trust building washington D C this is the season of surprises I 1 wont mention at this moment the big one which will wi 11 cause your eyebrows to go up at an early date if they already ill mention two others on the labor front since they represent two of the neatest problems with which congress still has to deal and which are particularly full of dynamite because of the coming elections and elections are bound to color the acts of every public man from now until the ides of november we are used to it now because it happened some time age and the effects were not visible to the naked eye but one big surprise that shook washington as the year ended was the sudden announcement on a balmy monday evening in december which ordered the army to take over the railroads all over washington the day before that day too as a matter of fact you could have collected fine odds against such a thing happening not that people were betting on that subject itself what they were betting on those who ought to have been and I 1 still believe were in the know was that there would be no railroad strike the second big surprise is still having its sharp repercussions although it happened not so much more recently than the other event to which it was closely linked national service act the first I 1 discussed in a recent ca column I 1 um n in connection with the sei seizure z of the railroads then the second the presidents demand for a national service act as a part of his legislative program outlined in that annual message came tumbling after and we gotten over either yet one astute and neutral observer of affairs in washington an old timer who sees parties come and go without loss of sleep over his job said something to me after the roads had been seized that I 1 have had occasion to ponder upon often since he is one of the men who was ready to give odds that there would be no strike and he knows all of the people who participated in the conferences feren ces employers union heads beads officials by their first names except the president of course whom nobody but his mother as far as I 1 know perhaps his wife when she is is here first names one just first name presidents anyhow this friend of mine aghast at the suddenness of the seizure of the roads remarked do you realize this overnight instead of being the object of all attacks for babying labor the president suddenly is in the position now of defending the people against labor that was the quick reaction of a technical man to whom politics is only an interesting sideline cynics reactions when the presidents message was droned dronek out by the reading clerk in bon congress gress and the president came to point five in his five point legisla tive program there was a sharp intake of breaths you recall the first reaction hardly anything but a frigid reception for the suggestion tor for what was immediately called the labor draft then came the cynical observation of the tha administration anti doli ticiano tic ians it sounded a little like the comment of my first quoted observer except that it was flavored more heavily with party tabasco pure politics they sneered he had no labor program he knew it so now he tosses the hottest controversial trover sial question on the boards labor draft into congress he probably hopes we wont pass it if we dont hell say see I 1 give them a labor program and they turn me down I 1 well there are the two surprises which are scheduled to breed others in their trail and you and every body else will interpret them in terms of your or their prejudices sharpened to a knife edge of devotion or hatred in this year of the ballot what is really behind these two sharp and unexpected moves it is pretty hard to be really objective anyone who has watched political campaigns in the making has a hard time not to attribute a partisan motive to any act or word spoken in washington in an election year As far as taking the railroads over goes that might have been prompted by a real and honest fear that transportation would have been interfered with at a moment when it was as vital to the war effort as a division of fighting men what possible sible excuse could there be for letting such a thing happen again A gain whether or not there was to be a strike there was a strike threat at the same moment there was a strike threat in another vital industry steel that was called os off by putting pressure on phillip murray head of the C 1 I 0 but could that pressure have been applied unless mr murray could have been told remember the chances 0 of acceptance of your demands by the steel men will be a lot better if they are afraid the government will take their industry over too the railroads are a warning and then il if you want to take one highly unofficial explanation from a nobody as far as officialdom goes but from a man who has fought in his own little sphere for things he believes in ill throw it in for good measure the comment was applied to the presidents call for a national service act not the seizure of the roads but it applies to both this observer observed politics no the guy just wants to win the war and come to think of it that might have had something to do with it too loo notes from a broadcasters diary the following two viewpoints received recently are interesting here is the first neither slavery nor involuntary servitude except as punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted shall exist within the united states or any place subject to their j jurisdiction uris diction from the constitution of the united states the president swore to uphold the constitution the national service act or the labor draft is involuntary servitude or human slavery what he called it in ia berlin and tokyo 1 and he wants it here what are we fighting for and now tor for the second viewpoints general eisenhower Elsen hower said we can win the war in 1944 but everyone must do his part something must be wrong somewhere for him to say that he knows it is not the armed forces so it must be on the home front for the armed forces operate on a functional all alignment ament from commanding officer down orders are given and obeyed servicemen cannot bargain with their commanders as to wages hours fighting conditions or make contracts on a cost plus basis their objective is to win battles but on the home front the objective is to make money see truman report ships planes tanks and guns are secondary we can have a functional operation at home by installing total conscription of men machines material and money these boys were conscripted to die then why not conscript the ones at home if its good enough for the armed forces its good enough for the rest of us who can say he is entitled to more |