Th_e Case for a Fair Deal Labor Policy
Speeches of HON. HUBERT H. HUMPHREY of Minnesota
In the Senate of the United States l June 10 and 14, 1949
"I submit that the processes of democracy are a s relentless and ever-flowing as the )ide itself ..• the American people, the worlcing people of this country, the people who have been oppressed by this law-, are determined that they are going to remove this kind of punitive legislation from the statute books, and are determine.d that they are going to have something to say about the proc esses of government, because this country is their r-- country, as well as it is yours and mine."
NOT PRINTED AT GOVERNM~NT EXPENSE
844385---30518 A Case For a Fair .Labor Policy SPEECHES of the appropriate purposes· of such pol OF icy. What can_a Government labor pol icy achieve and what are its limits? Table of Contents HON. -HUBERT H. HUMPHREY What should a Government try to do in OF MINNESOTA that field, and what should it refrain IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES from trying to do? Page June 10 and 14, 1949 Statements of objectives too often are Objectives of a. National L abor Policy______3 mere generalizations on which everyone The P lace of Labor Unions in Our Economy______8 can agree. This is true of much of the June 10, 1949 "declaration of policy" in the preamble H istorical Background of Government's Attitude The Senate resumed the consideration of. the Taft-Hartley Act. Few will dis of the bill porations came upon the scene. The act and labor in a free economy are to meet ernment but by the parties-free action Davis, of William . M ~ Leiserson, and of ignores a fundamental fact which was together, the strong arm of government by .free citizens in a free economy in a Dr. Nathan P. Feinsinger, professor of recognized by numerous Supreme Court should project itself and be the final de free country. law, of the University of Wisconsin, decisions, as when the Court in the Jones terminer of what is just and right. The Wagner Act in its statement of three eminent men, who have been hired and Laughlin case relied in its decision Is this a biased view? If so, the bias is policy recognizes the actual facts of in by business, who have been used by Gov on the helplessness of the single em not restricted to those who are commonly equality in bargaining power between ernment, and who have proved 'them ployee, his complete dependence on his charged with pro-labor bias. In evidence employees when they do not have full selves o.ver the years ·as knowing the daily wage and consequent inability sepa it is worth while to recall the editorial freedom of association and collective sound ·economic .facts of labor-manage rately to resist arbitrary and unfair treat views expressed in Business Week of bargaining rights and employers who ment relationships. They think in terms ment, and his dependence on his union February 19, 1949. The following is a are organized in corporate or other forms of public policy, not in terms of special for equality in dealing with his employer. quotation from the editorial in tr \Jf ownership association. The preamble privilege or of private advantage. In other words, Mr. President, labor re journal: ,if the Wagner Act recognizes the fact What did Mr. Leiserson say ih his ar lations in the year 1949 cannot be con What was wrong was that the Taft-Hartley that this inequality interferes with the ticle in the New York Times? Act went ceived of as being in some s.ort of fairy too far. It crossed the narrow line flow · of commerce, tends to aggravate A good way to begin thinking about a new land, as might have been the case in the separating a law which aims only to regulate business depressions, and causes indus labor law, now tal{ing shape in congressional days of 1800, before the growth of the from one which could destroy. trial strife or unrest. The whole pur h earings, is to compare the policy pronounce giant corporation or what is commonly Given a few million unemployed in Amer pose of the act was consistent with the r.lents of the Taft-Hartley Act and the Wag known as big business. Labor relations ica, given an administration in Washington traditional ner Act. which and basic principles of Gov cannot be considered in a theoretical was not pro-union-and the Taft ernment in the United States. lt'sought The Taft-Hartley Act says: "It Is the pur vacuum. Hartley Act conceivably could _wreck the pose and policy of this act to prescribe the That question is no longer an labor movement. to avoid unnecessary positive interven academic one; it is the very substance of legitimate rights of both employees and em These are the provisions that could do it: tion by Government. It sought merely to ployers, to (prevent) interference by either a sound, productive economy. (1) Picketing can be restrained by injunc use the functions of Government for re with the legitimate rights of the other, to Equally important is the fact that the tion; (2) employers can petition for a col moving obstructions and inequalities and protect the rights of Individual employees in individual employee is helpless as com lective-bargaining election; (3) strikers can encouraging free and equal collective their relations with labor organizations pared with his employer in making use be held ineligible to vote-while the strike bargaining. It • • •, to define and prescribe practices replacements assumed the carrying on of the laws of the land designed cast the only ballots; and (4) (inimical to general welfare). on ~he ·part for the if the outcome of this of industrial relations, not by Govern maintenance of rights, and in appealing is a "no union" vote. ment of labor and management, and to protect the Government must certify and enforce it. but by the parties, under condi t he rights of the·public to the courts or to administrative agen tions of full and mutual freedom of as ." The editorial froM Business We Quite different was t he purpose of the cies for the interpretation and enforce ek con sociation, self-organization, and nego Wagner Act. It declared the policy of the ment of these rights. tinues: tiation of the terms and conditions of United States to be "encouraging the practice The. Taft-Hartley Act is profoundly Any time there is a surplus labor pool employment on a free and equal basis. and procedure of collective bargaining reactionary. It ignores the facts of eco from which an employer can hire at least Many authorities, eminent for their • , protecting the exercise by workers nomic life by assuming that the individ token strike replacements, these four pro , long experience and impartial attitudes of full freedom of association,- self-organiza ual worker can successfully pit himself visions, linked together, presumably can de tion, and designation of representatives of stroy a union. in dealing' with labor-management rela against the power of a highly organized iJ.ons, have spoken on the proper objec their own choosing for the purpose of ne and complex economic system. The gotiating te·rms and conditions of their em act, Mr. President, the editorial writer hves of Government policy in labor ploym.ent or mutual aid or protection." however, is worse than reactionary, in Business Week understands one of the management relations. Probably none is the sense of seeking to reinstate a one basic reactionary tendencies of the Taft more eminent or more widely respected Mr. THOMAS of Utah. Mr. President, sided individualism applicable to the Hartley Act. I submit that the real than William M. Leiserson. Mr. Lei will the Senator yield? worker but not to the employer. It de danger of the Taft-Hartley Act to sound serson, a well-recognized author-ity and The VICE PRESIDENT. Does the parts from our past traditions and poli labor-management relationships does student in·the field of labor-management Senator from Minnesota yield to the cies by setting up a governmental system not lie in its individual provisions alone, relationships, expressed himself tn the Senator from Utah? for the direct and detailed intervention considering them one by one, but, as New York Times of February 6, 1949. Mr. HUMPHREY. I yield to the dis of government into areas of economic this wise editor has said, the real dan Before I read the statement, let me say, tinguished Senator. activity always heretofore reserved to ger lies in their being linked t0gether; I feel that as Members of the Senate, as Mr. THOMAS of Utah. Mr. President, the parties in the field of industrial re and all too often they are linked to members of the Committee on Labor I think the contrast between the two lations. gether. and Public Welfare, the testimony which bills should be emphasized, one being Mr. President, let me say that some The facts of life in our highly complex was the most vital, the testimony which based upon rights of conflicting inter of the proponents of the Taft-Hartley and highly organized economy with its seemed to ring most true, the testimony ests, the other upon the theory of hav Act and some of the groups in the United powerful corporations and associations which I fert came in with the least evi ing these interests work together and States that so staunchly defend it are of employers are recognized far more dence of bias, the testimony which was come to a decision. I know of no con the very first to criticize the use of gov realistically in the ..statement of objec the most direct, did not come from flict which has ever been settled so that ernment in any area of our economy, the tives of the Wagner Act. The preamble either labor or business. I wanted to the people could carry on together where very first to use the phrases "free enter of that act recognizes, furthermore, the rest my judgment on the kind of testi the arguments were left entirely in the prise" and "private property," the very highly desirable limitations on the func mony which was submitted by those who sphere of rights. One right is posed first to call such developments to the at tions of Government in avoiding as far have made labor-management relations against another right. · Probably the tention of the Congress and the Presi as possible a positive interference with a life profession, and are known for their . best illustration I could give would be a dent, and to point to the fear of state the liberties and rights of both parties ; objectivity and their impartiality in _case involving domestic relations, for ism or socialism. These same people it attempted merely to remove obstruc dealing with labor-management prob example, .in which .the husband decl;ues and concerns are the ones who today tions and prevent the bad effects of in lems. So I have literally for all prac his rights and the wife declares her would say that in the great area of our equalities of power in the carrying on tical purposes, taken to myself for con rights. There is never a reconciliation productive process, where management of industrial relations, not by the Gov- sideration the ·testimony gf William H. so long as they talk about rights. There 8443£5-30518 844385-30518 6 7 is such a thing in law as divorce. If we Mr. TAFT. Mr. President, will the third i_s the policy by which the Government If our national policy is to_be eff~ - ctuated attempt, in view of this conflict of rights Senator yield? determines the rules or terms of employment, through collective bargaining, we canno.t to make a decision in or _both. simultaneously encourage a competing sys in labor relations, Mr. HUMPHREY. I yield to the Sen tem of individual bargaining. If collective the field of rights, there is a divorce and ator from Ohio. The Taft-Hartley Act fayors this third policy. Although it did not venture to fix bargaining is to be free and voluntary, we not a reconciliation. Mr. TAFT. Does the Senator from cannot have governmental ·intervention, ex Mr. President, I wages, it did decide by congreSsional fiat Mr. HUMPHREY. Minnesota also agree with Mr. Leiser vital issues of rules and working conditions cept to insure the conditions under which must say that the observations of the when he says that the closed shop inVolved in labor contracting, under the free bargaining -can take place. (I use the son advisedly. distinguished chairman of the Senate and the union shop should be prohib -guise of determining legitimate rights. In term "governmental intervention" Committee on Labor and Public Welfare purported to further the policy _ I have observed that the term used is "gov ited? doing this it the are surely to the point and exemplify his of collective bargaining, but its concern that_ ernment interference" when it helps Mr. HUMPHREY. The Senator fro other fellow, and "Government protecting sound knowledge of the prob ~tr ikes and other forms of 'industrial unrest deep and Minnesota will continue to read fro the public interest" when it helps our side.) lems of economic and human relation ,br concerted activities (shall not) impair the Mr. Leiserson and from the opinions o of the public led it to -prescribe - If we are to have realistic bargaining, each ships. I think his presentation in the interest to say the other men whom I have mentioned. which h ad the effect of determining side must be free in the final analysis of the debate was clear and rights ans the right to beginning I do not say that Mr. Leiserson is a saint. disputed issues and removing them from the "Yes" or "No," which me his intimate ac the right to lock-out if no agree adequate testimony of I said I considered that, in the main, he field of bargaining. Incidentally, in encour strike and quaintanceship with the problems con bargaini-ng, the act in effect ment be reached. The exercise of the right is a wise man. aging individual the rirk of eco fronting our economy in the field of labor for employees a right to refrain to strike or to lock-out entails he had stipulated only to the adversary but relationships. Mr. TAFT. The Senator said from collective barg_ainlng. · - nomic injury not what Mr. Leiserson a high•opinion for Mr. Leiserson's views. to neutrals. Such risks are -inevitable in a I continue with Only a democracy can meet such has to say on the subject: I wondered if he agreed also with his That is the conclusion of the substance democracy. that the union shop and the closed the article which appeared in the New risks, and take them in stride. The two laws approached the problems of view of employer-employee relations differently, and shop should be prohibited. York Times on February 9, 1949. Mr. President, I think it is of para they went off in different directions to find Mr. HUMPHREY. I have a high re Mr. President, among the many other mount importance that the American solutions. The Wagner Act put Its faith spect for the Senator from Ohio, on some eminent authorities with long experience people, who speak of freedom, who be in collective bargaining- subjects. There are some things on ·an-d whose impartial views are beyond lieve in freedom, who want freedom, po but while the Taft-Hartley Act paid lip which we disagree. I am agreeing with . of Mr. freedom, economic freedom, re service to the principle of collective bar question, mention may be made litical Mr. Leiserson's views on the broad, gen Nathan P. Feinsinger. As a professor of member that there is a price for it, and gaining, its insistence on "legal rights" en re couraged individual br.rgaining and, to an eral principles of labor-management law, a public official in both State and a real price. In the economic area it is even greater extent, Government determi lationships. I shall arrive, in the course Federal capacities, and a conciliator or the price of a strike or a lock-out; it i~ nation of the labor b:trg a~ n. of my remarks, at the question of the arbitrator in numerous cases, Mr. Fein .. the price sometimes of a stubborn union I shall be more than Mr. Leiserson continues: closed shop, and singer's views have special value. These or a stubborn employer. There is no anxious to receive questions from the dis are already fr.miliar to members of the doubt that at times some neutrals, those The act's attempt to pursue three incom that patible labor policies at the same time could tinguished Senator from Ohio, so Committee·on Labor and Public Welfare who are not involved, possibly, are af result only in confusion. once and for all we can dismiss the .'who were so greatly impressed with his fected, at least for a period of time, short The confusion was soon reflected in the subject of the closed shop and the uni /testimony, but they should also command or long, as it may be. But every one of administration of the law-the NLRB and shop, so far as those two subjects con the earnest attention of alL He sum us has a stake _in economic freedom, its coordinate general counsel being unable cern the junior Senator from Minnesota marized his views for conside-ration by not merely those who are participating to agree as to its intentions. and the senior Senator from Ohio, be or particular dispute. Apparently the voters sensed the act was the committee as follows: in an individual cause there is plenty of sound argu follow Every one of us has a deep concern for working at cross purposes, and returned to the floor of the Sen Legislation in this vital field should office the President over whose veto it was ment, not only on a long-range national .policy; it should be and a vital interest in political freedom, adopted with a Congress dominated by the ate, but in the long-range practice in confined to basic problems; it should provide free speech, free press, freedom of re party whose platform called for its repeal. American industry, for the closed shop, practical measures. ligion, freedom of enterprise. These are the Taft-Hartley Act notwithstanding. We Mr. Leiserson says, further: I would state my conception of a sound precious heritages for everyone. I proceed, then, with Mr. Leiserson's policy for America as follows: As a that the right to strike to say precisely what labor need to remember No one is in a position comments and his general observations: nation, we are dedicated to the ideal of a · is a vital _part of the American system the rr:anda te is as to the kind of a new labor liber But we shall But what are the possible choices? Broadly free society, through which individual of freedom, and the right of the em Jaw that should be adopted. to the highest degree if we assume that the public speaking, there are only the three: (1) Indi ties may be exercised ployer to lock-out is a vital part. I am not go far astray like liberties for others. We Jaw based on a clear-cut labor policy vidual bargaining; (2) collective bargailiing; consistent with we can get wants a a system of free enterprise because not one of those who believe that it can understand, with specific pro (3) Government dictation. The first leaves endorse wili'ing we believe it most conducive to a free society. freedom cheaply. We have to be visions reasonably calculated to carry out the labor relations to be governed by individual to pay the cost for individual freedom. definite choice among contracts of employment. This means, as We seek to promote industrial self-govern policy. Making a coopera then discusses recent possible national labor policies is in any case the Supreme Court said as far back as ment, through labor-management Mr. Feinsinger because we believe interruption of an Indispensable preliminary requirement 1898, "The proprietors lay down the rules and tion and self-discipline, -history, the wartime it to be, iii the long run, most consistent bargaining, and the for ~afting a workable law to govern so the laborers are practically constrained to normal collective and explosive a subject as with a system of free enterprise. We adopt disturbing problems of the tran.sitional emotion-fil!ed obey them"; In other words, management as the labor and management relationships. free, voluntary collectiTe bargaining period. He then states: dictation. The second policy requires the instrumentality best suited to the practice That statement indicates the political rules to be made jointly by representatives of industrial self-government; to the protec The Taft-Hartley Act was a product of sagacity and the philosophical maturity of managements and the workers, and em tion of the liberties of the individual worker; anger, confusion, and compromise, but also of Mr. Leiserson in the field of labor. body them in collective agreements. The to the attainment of practical democracy of considerable idealism. within our modern industrial society; to the describes the act as "a throw 844385-30518 achievement o! Industrial peace; to the He then maintenance and Increase of purchasing back to doctrines once discarded as un power; and, through all these, to the safe realistic and unfair. The antiboycott guarding and advancement of public Interest. sections, for example, restore the dis- 844385-----30518 8 back people of equal physique, of equal The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. credited notion that the only persons would prevail here in the absence of a strength, of equal maturity, of equal GRAHAM in the chair). Does the Senator interested in a labor dispute are the em free and strong labor movement. power. ·It is something like patting on from Minnesota ·yield to the Senator ployer and his employees, thus ignoring It is worth while to recall some of the the back a 2-year-old son and a 40-year from· Louisiana? , the facts of industrial life. Implicit in main facts as to the nature and-functions uncle, and then coming along and giving Mr. HUMPHREY. I yield. the act is the notion that individual bar of unions in the United States. There equally vigoro'us kicks to the 2-year-old · Mr. LONG. I ask the Senator from gaining is on ·a par, policy-wise, with are approximately 200 national and in son and the 40-year-old uncle . . It can Minnesota what the effect is when strike collective bargaining, and the proc.ess of ternational unions, affiliated either with be said theoretically that both have breakers replace union workers? ' About organization for collective bargaining is the American Federation of Labor or the equally received a pat and have equally 6 months ago some laborers came to me at bottom a contest between the em Congress of Industrial Organizations. received a ·kick, and then call it equality and asked if something could not be done ployer and the union for the loyalties of The A. F. of L. and the CIO are some ,.of treatment. . It is like Anatole France's to help them. They had gone out on the unorganized workers." what loosely organized groupings ,~tatement, that all men have certain strike and had ·been replaced by strike The "severest indictment of the Taft these nationals and internationals. The basic rights; that the rich and the poor breakers. At that time there was a short Hartley Act," Mr. Feinsinger continues, unions which make up the A. F .of L. and alike can sleep under the bridges and eat age of labor and it was difficult to replace is the "invasion by legislative fiat of the the CIO are autonomous, and are com in the gutter. Both can do so equally, union workers, but nevertheless the area of collective bargaining." He states posed of local organizations of workers .and that may be called equality of oppor strikers had been replaced. The Board that "We have now in embryo the leg in the various crafts, trades, professions, tunity, if one should desire to call it such. was then in the process of declaring that islative determination of the terms and and industries. The locals themselves ·I do not. the strikebreakers were entitled to bar conditions of private employment." He are more or less autonomous, the degree Union members probably comprise be gain, and could avail themselves of the .concludes: of autonomy varying from union to .tween 40 and 50 percent of that portion provisions of the Taft-Hartley law. The I do not say that legislative control of the union. of the labor force in which unions have union workers were out on the street, and employment relation in its entirety is good The national and international unions ·concentrated their organizing efforts. were obliged to find employment in other or bad. But I am certain that the propo range widely in size; 16 of them each had Unions are thus extremely diversified fields of industry. nents of the act did not intend or foresee less than 10 locals in 1948; more than in size, in types of membership, and in such a result. Yet they have started the half of them had less than 200 locals; My question is, What protection has ball rolling in that direction, and who is to their relations with central or over-all the Taft-Hartley law conferred upon say where and only 6 had as many as 2,000 locals. organizations. They have certain basic and when it will stop? Among the national and international those strikebreakers? We are really at the crossroads of two common interests but they do not have Mr. HUMPHREY. The Taft-Hartley conflicting ideologies. The choice is clear. unions, 16 had less than 1,000 members any strong central authority or any and all but 37 had less than 100,000 law made it possible for the strikebreak We must either return the incidents of the means of concerted action except in re ers to come in and take the jobs of the employment relation, beyond the establish members .. stricted fields and for limited purposes. ment of minimum standards, to the. parties In addition to the national and inter legitimate bargaining workers, and to be or we must be prepareg to have the Govern Union organizations in general are char certified· as the legitimate new bargain national unions, both the A. F. of L. and acterized by the typical spirit of auton ment play the role of the camel in the tent CIO maintain city and State organiza ing agent. of collective bargaining. omy, independence, and action on the Mr. TAFT. Mr. President, will the tions with which these are ordinarily basis of discussion and agreement. Now, Mr. President, having discussed joined by the affiliated unions in t Senator yield? · · ;rendenetes:·toward organic unity and Mr. HUMPHREY. I yield. the objectives of a national labor policy, area. Early in 1948 the A. F. of L. ha 'concerted action have been promoted I turn to a closely related subject. 795 city · centrals and 50 State federa chie'fly by a defensive attitude-which in Mr. TAFT. . ·In the first place, the per tions of labor; the CIO reported 243 citY. turn has ·arisen most significantly in sons in question are not strikebreakers. The Place of Labor Unions in Our county, and district councils and 39 They are persons who are permanently Economy recent years from policies which Business State industrial councils. Week editorially described as potentially employ€d, who live in that section. In Mr. President, I wish to discuss the Several of the larger and more influ destructive of unionism. order to take the place of the strikers place of the labor union in our econ ential unions are not affiliated with either they must be permanent employees. L·aboring m.en in this country are fear omy-not the economy of Alice in Won A. F. of L. or the CIO. This question .arose first under the derland, not the economy of Henry VIII, The total Membership of the unions ful of the Taft-Hartley Act, because of Wagner Act, not under the Taft-Hartley or Thomas Jefferson, but in the economy in the United States now exceeds 15,000,- their keen insight. Although they do nCit possess Phi Beta Kappa Act. Under the Wagner Act the Supreme of 1948 and 1949, when we produced 000 worl{ers. These workers comprise keys, though Court held that a striker who was re more than $200,000,000,000, gross, of roughly one out of four workers in the they may not have Harvard degrees, placed by a permanent employee, that is, commodities, in an economy that has total labor force, including the self without being profound students of eco- , nut by a man_br.ought..in....fr.oiiLthe. .oOu .t.- seen great concentration of business. No employed and managerial and super . nomics, but simply- by reason of . their side, but a man employed permanently, one can deny the fact that instead of visory workers. experience, their suffering, they have was not entitled to reinstatement. He there being less merge:.· and less con I submit, Mr. President, that corporate looked at this law . and they have said was no longer an employee for the pur centration of economic power in this Na business in America does better than· 25 they were against it, long before the edi poses of the act. The Board haa great tion, there is more and more of it. Let percent of the total business, and has torial writer of Business Week ever got' difficulty at that time in determining us take a look at the place of the labor more than 25 percent of the control <;>f around to finding out about it. The whether or not he could vote. The Board union in our economy. the Nation's economy. Yet all the plain ordinary worker of America looked held, under the Wagner Act, that both Public policy toward unions and labor unions in America put together repre at the law and came to his conclusion the strikers and those who had replaced management relations should be viewed sent only one out of every four of the about it 1 week after the law was passed, the strikers as permanent employees in the light of the place of union organi total available labor force. · whereas it took the editor of Business could vote. That created a very anoma zations in our economy, The actual role So when we start comparing, with a Week 2 years to find out about it. But I lous situation. When we considered the of unions in the ·united States should, pat on the back for the one and a pat on am glad the editor of Business Week has question originally we had the case of the in turn, be viewed in the light of condi the back for the other, and a kick forthe found out about it. Redwood strike in California. The strike tions existing in many other countries. one and a kick for the other, let us not Mr. LONG. Mr. President, will the had been in progress for 2 years. The and also in the light of conditions that forget that we are not patting on· the Senator yield? men had struck, and they had been grad- 8443: 5-30513 844385--30518 10 11 by -veterans who came who owns stock in a company is never class B, and non-voting stock. There integrity and equality of unions, as well ually replaced anizations, in back and settled in the community, until around. He does not even know who the are no preferred stocltholders or bond as employers and their org workers had been replaced. manager is. The stockholder is operat holders. · Let us not· compare a union the collective-bargaining process. is the all but a few American ex Various elections were held. The strik ing a garage, or he owns a drug store, with a corporation. Corporation law outstanding fact in the carried the or a farm, or has a job at the local utility yers ha-ve been able to figure out more periment, under present-day large-scale ers always came pack and "mainte votes, although company. But he never loses his right "gadget~" to dC;ny People who own the and complex enterprises, in the election by half a dozen soCiety. both the strikers and those who replaced to vote. He has a property interest in company the right to say anything about nance of a free and democratic them vot:ed. So, although the strikers the corpo11ation. the policy than a Philadelphia lawyer Let me emphasize that point. A union had jobs elsewhere, one man with a When the union is a certified bargain could figure out in a hundred years. is a very fundamental part of our sys picket sign remained in front of the ing agent, and when there is a legitimate In the case of a union, when a person tem for .preserving a free economy·, in a place, and, so far as anyone could judge, economic dispute, the workers who hav \Qins, he is in. If he ·does not show up day when business is big. We n eed big that strike could continue for the next been on the job have a property int.ere ,() vote, the situation is no differen~ than business for big production. Sometimes 10 years, although all the workers had in their job. That is their life. It is it was in the last national election. Some I think that merely shouting against big been replaced, and most of them had their bread and butter. As the distin people did not show up to vote .last No business is failing to see some of the moved out of the neighborhood.· guished Senator from Ohio says, realiz vember, as they were expected · to do. economic facts. The question is , How That was the question we had before ing the error of the Taft-Hartley law, They have no one to blame but them shall the public have an opportunity to us. Who should vote under those cir which has been pointed out only recent selves. They could have voted, but they get some of the fruits of this production? cumstances? The Taft-Hartley Act pro ly, certain amendments have been of~ did not vote. In tJ'l.ose areas where they How shall we prevent concentration of vided that only the replacements could fered. Great damage h as already taken cannot vote, we are making frantic ef economic power which would grind into vote, and that those who were no longer place. Surely there was no need for it. forts to see that they do vote. the dust the little people who are weak entitled to reinstatement were not en It is a very basic illustration of the vice · Mr. MORSE. Mr. President, will the in their individual power? titled to vote. Under the Supreme of legislation based upon isolated situ.: Senator yield? One answer is for the G::>vernment to Court's own ruling they could not vote ations. II the proponents of the Taft Mr. HUMPHREY. I yield. take over. That is .what has happened in an election as employees. Hartley Act had not been in such a hurry Mr. MORSE. Does the Senator mean in Russia. There are no strikes in I think on the whole that argument and had listened to reason, and had to imply that if they had voted the re R-Ussia. There is collective bargaining was _iustified. As pointed out in the Busi_ listened to those who had been in the sult would have been different? under government edict, but not free ness Week editorial, that was based upon field of labor -management relationships Mr. HUMPHREY. I do mean to imply collective· bargaining. one section of the act. Under the amend all their lives, they would never have that. I think the majority would have Another answer· is to have the kind ments which I have presented, we remove put such a p rovision in the Taft-Hartley been everi greater. · of system which we have i~~ the United that provision and return to the provi~ Act in the first place. In the spirit of a What I was trying t.o point out was that States, which says that the best answer sions .of the Wagner Act in .that respect. good. clergyman, I rejoice that som,eone there has been a tendency to compare to the concentration of economic power Therefore, so far as any argument can has repented of his sins and returned to a union with a corporation. is to permit those who work with that be based upon that section, the argument the fold, at least partially. He is at least No, Mr. President, a union is just what economic power to join together so as to is removed by the amendments which we in the vestibule. it purports to be. It is an independent achieve a balance in equity. I b elieve are now offering. I think· the argument Why do workers join unions.? T (.;j Jrganization of free individuals, all of in that system. of the- editor of Business Week .is also b!.sic answer to that question is to b \.., whom have the same rights and priv to look at conditions in in. the fact that the liberty of the We have only removed by the amendment which strikes found ileges, coming together for purposes of iron-curtain countries to realize the out that provision. It was regarded as a individual worker can be maintained their own benefit, and for the formula disadvanta-ges of subordinating of group action. Free grave very minor matter. It was passed over only by means tion of thefr own policies. In a corpora unions to governmental control. And it without very serious .consideration by th~ and independent unionism, under the tion the situation is entirely different. more exten is absolutely must be recognized that the committee. Certainly fr'om the point of American economic system, People invest in a corporation for profit. sive is the authority and responsibility of view of argument, the argument can. be essential if the individual worker is to Some have something to say about it. equality the Government over the processes and made that by adding that provision to maintain anything approaching Some do not. Some get more profit than terms of collective bargaining the greater four other provisions in the act, it can in his relations with his employer. Free others. Some get the first "take," some responsibility is, further must be the authority and be made a weapon for the destruction of and independent unionism get the last "take," and some simply get of Government not only over unions, but unions. While it is a rather tenuous more, essential to the individual worker "taken". A union is not like a corpora over the employers of the members of argument, I can see the logical argument if he is to express his views and protect tion. unions. his interests in the vital field of public that could be made, and I thought we In our system of private enterprise unfortu about vot opinion and public policy. Unions, as in a more or less Another possibility, which ought to remove the provision a:s it has developed nately has been actually experienced to ing, and we do remove it in our amend representative institutions in the eco democratic way, the central fact of labor nomic field, are closely analogous to rep- bar a limited extent in the United States, is ments. management relations is collective control of unions by their employers . . resentative institutions in the political . Industrial government, in the the Mr. HUMPHREY. I am very grateful gaining . It is ·not necessary, even i"f there were to the Senator from Ohio for his expla field. The individual citizen votes for sense of participation by workers as well Members cf Congress for the purpose of time, to go into the history of company nation with reference to that particular as employers, is primarily to be found in in the United having them represent him in the for of collec unions and company towns question. I think the ·explanation points the procedures and processes States. Fortunately, they were never up,the fact that we have seen the error mulation and enactment of laws. ·Mem tive bargaining. In the economic field bers of unions necessarily delegate to firmly established in the United States of our way in the Taft-Hartley law, It the scope, limits, and end results of de and fortu their officials the representative function govern except in very limited areas points out, first of all, the fact that under mocracy in the field of industrial nately they are now both on the wane. strikers and of formulating collective agreements. ment are to be found primarily in the the Wagner Act both the needs to be emphasized, Mr. the replacements were allowed to vote. I think the analogy is clear. Once a terms and the administration of collec What The Wagner Act was based on good person is a member of a union, he has tive agreements. President, and kept in mind alike by American capitalist doctrine. The man the right to vote. There is no class A, Collective bargaining is, of com se, not workers, employers, aild those Qf us who charged with the responsibility of 844365--305113 the only function of unions. But the are 844385-30518 12 13 formulating public policy, is that free and you are going to bargain in the way I of'the'Tennessee Valley Authority, which . commonly called .social-welfare legisla- .. democratic enterprise has no alterna tell you to bargain." To my mind, that appears at the conclusion of the speech tion, the labor movement must be-given tive to the maintenance of free and vig will mark the end of free labor and free Of Mr. HUMPHREY.) credit . for having worked for those orous unionism. It is only in .that .way management in this country. Mr. HUMPHREY. As I have related, things; and it did not always do so mere- · that the integrity and success of volun The question of the place of unions in Mr. President, unions were created out ly for wages. tary collective bargaining can be main our economy involves one of the oldest of the needs of people who were working I make bold to assert tha:t sometime tained. And employers above all should and inost vital of American traditions. for their livelihood,-and who could not American busine'ss had better find out recognize-and let me say that many of I refer to the right of free association. cepe with their economic problems as that the people of America do not live them do recognize-that the alternative That right has been legally recognized individuals. Although many of us recog by bread alone. Some of us are inter in our modern society to voluntary and and protected in the case of unions of nize ·unions as an important force in our ested in education for our childreri, effective collective bargaining is not so workers more recently than in the case f.f l.(Onomy, some do not approach them decent living standards, and decent.social called individual ·bargaining, nor is it associations generally. The continu \1 .fith a sympathetic attitude, as though standards. As I said to one of my very control of enterprise by employers. The maintenance of the right of free and they are true representatives of the aspi good· and distinguished friends in a busi alternative is necessarily a far greater equal association for employers and rations of the working people in the ness deal, "Be for something, for a extension of public authority and respon farmers and for citizens, irrespective of United States. Some of us are sometimes change. We know what ycu are against. sibility over enterprise than has been their economic connections, is, in fact, inclined to become impatient with these Be for something, do not come around, necessary in the past. This is the view, involved in the present controversy. working people because their interests being for it, 2 years after everybody else as we have seen, of outstanding and im The denial or the impairment of free seem to be pushed by their representa is for it, because you do not get credit partial authorities in the field of labor and equal association of workers in tives to a degree which mal{es it uncom for it then." The first tlemands of labor management relations. unions will sooner or later imperil the fortable to people whose aim is to main unions were as much for union secur:ity, In other words, there are three rights of other groups to maintain free tain the economic status quo. recognition of group action, status in the choices: First, free-collective bargaining dom of association. There are many explanations of the community, and free education for the between free management and free I take it that there are some persons reason for the labor-management c:m children, as they were for raises in wages. labor; or, second, individual bargaining, who would like to destroy the United fiict. A former Member of Congress, Of course, we must admit that, especially which merely means taking orders; it States Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Representative Hartley, has explained among the low paid, the financial in ·means that a man might go to the Stand President, · we may disagree with the this conflict in his book, published, I be terest is an important one. ard Oil Co. and might say, "I want a job United States Chamber of Commerce on lieve, last year, by saying simply, "Man - Our economy is so complex.that mem at so much an hour," and the company's occasion; but I would never vote . for a agement wants to make all the money it bers of economic groups must form or representative would say, "I will not pay law to destroy it or limit its freedom of can; labor wants to make all the ganizations to represent them. Farm you that much," so then the individual action. American business institutions mo~ey it can. The result is," says ers,-employers, wage workers, small-busi has to say, "Then I will bargain with have the right to join together for pur Mr. Ha·rtley, "labor-management con ness men, all feel the. need for organizing you." That does not make much sense, poses of formulating policy and decision. fiict, strife, and strikes." This is too to attain their objectives. of course. The choice, then, is between Each one of us must make up his min'd much of a simplification of the prob The American Medical Association or free-collective bargaining between free either to be in favor of freedom or to l-em, but it is a view which is popular at ganizes to obtain its objectives. I ask, management and free labor; or, second, opposed to freedom; we cannot be a li ~he present time. Historically, unions why do we not pass laws about the AMA? · individual bargaining-and, as a matter bit in favor of freedom. nave been interested in much more than Why do we not pass laws about the bar of fact, very few persons would be in . Mr. THOMAS of Utah. Mr. President, the selfish fight, if one .will call it that, associations? Because, ·Mr. President, clined to attempt that, so for all practi will the Senator yield? for money for their members. The first those distinguished professional people cal purposes we may disregard it; or, Mr. HUMPHREY. I yieid to the Sen demands of labor unions were as much have the right to join tog·ether; and when third, a much greater extension of public ator from Utah. for union security, recognition of group we start segregating every little group, authority and public responsibility over Mr. THOMAS of utah. If we tried to action, status in the community, and free and pass.ing a special law because we do both management and labor than have outlaw such an organizg,tion as the education for their children, as they were not fike some of the things that some of for raises in wages. . their officers do, we are theri going to existed in t~e past. United States Chamber of Commerce, would not it be like trying to outlaw the I should like merely to point out, Mr. be so busy passing laws against every So I think the choice can be narrowed comic papers or some of the other things President, that some of the same type of little organization that we shall not get down to this: Do .you want free-collec which are a part of our life and which folk who today have fought bitterly for anything else done.' tive bargaining or do you want Govern the people rather enjoy, but never take the retention of the Taft-Hartley Act-! 'Mr. LONG. · Mr. President,' will the ment-controlled, Government-regulated, seriously? say some, not all-are the same kind of Senator. yield? · and Government-dominated collective Mr. HUMPHREY. I shall accept the folk, if you please, who fought against . Mr. HUMPHREY. I yield 'to the Sen bargaining-in other words, not merely statement of the distinguished chair public education. It is to the eternal ator from Louisiana. to have the head of the camel under the man of the committee. I must say to credit of the great trade-unions and their . Mr.' LONG. The Senator asks, why do tent, but to have all the camel in the my good friend and colleague that ·at members that in the early history of the we not pass laws relating to bar associa tent. Mr. President, do our people want times I have taken the Chamber of Com Nation they went forth and did battle for tions? I would point out to the Senator to have the Government of the United merce quite seriously. The new presi the right of an educational opportunity that we attorneys have one of the strong States draw up . a labor policy which dent of it is a very good personal friend for the children of America. That is a est closed shops in America. Anyone who brings the respective parties to the door of mine, and I think a great deal of him. little more than certain other groups can will investigate will find that we have of conciliation, or do they want the I frequently disagree with him, but I claim. In regard to those things which laws on the statute books of every State Government to draw up a policy which think the right to disagree is one of the have elevated the general living and cul in Amerie;a. We prescribe an examina not only takes the respective parties to luxuries we have in this country. tural standards of our people, such as tion which everyone must take who wants the door of conciliation, but kicks open (At this point Mr. HUMPHREY yielded public health measures, workmen's com to practice before the courts, before he the door and brings the parties to the to Mr. KEFAUVER, who made a statement .Pensation laws, child-maternal care, so can stand in court to plead a case for table, lttld says to them, "Look, fellows; rela.tive to Gordon R. Clapp, Chairman piftl s.ecurity, and all sorts of legislation anyone except himself. 844385-30518 844385--30518 14 15 Mr. HUMPHREY. I am economic structure, dealt with very happy as if he condition." The individual worker knows than the union can to have the observations of my were not human. get for them: I pay friend, that his voice is being heard. Other them better than the union pays them. the able and distinguished Senator from If" the trade-union existed· simply as wise, his voice would never be heard. a means for workers to get more money, They have shorter hours than the union Louisana. I am not an attorney, and I The trade-union of today can be ex is hesitate one would think that unions would not requesting. They' have a p ension to make any remarks which plained better by describing it as I have· fund; they are given turkeys at Christ could in any way be interpreted as not exist where workers were well off. Some done, as the sole medium for meeting the of them are well off. Why is it that mas, Easter bunnies at Easter, and fire being friendly to that great and noble aspirations of workers in all fields. crackers on the' Fourth of July." pt:ofession. What I was pointing out some of them are the most well off? With advanced technology, a trade Why is it that the railroad brotherhoods, Let me remind you, Mr. President, that was that there is no·e.ffort on the part of union meets ·the psychological needs of there have the Congress of the United which have fairly good standards, a,nd been times in the history of States to pass workers for a voice in the decisions which this world when nations were ruled by laws against what the distinguished Sen which have operated over a long perio l;!ave to be made concerning their day of time, are well off? Ask a good con great and benevolent kings who were ator has said is a closed shop. I have to-day working conditions. The unions more never looked at it ductor. Ask a member of the Brother noble in their generosity, more in that way. I am glad fit their pattern of organization to that gracious, and more kindly, possibly, than to have that opinion; it is very edifying. hood· of Railroad Trainmen if they want of the economy in which they operate. their union. They are better off than any democracy has ever been; but he Until the New Deal period began, the We have big unions only because they who giveth can take away, organization some of the others who have not be~n and the one of workers into groups to have to deal with big managements. Mr. who may be kindly on Wednesday may meet their economic needs was either long organized. Ask them if they wa,nt President, we do. not go around putting their union. Try to take it away, haVe dyspepsia on Thursday, and be not frowned upon or, at best, not protected. angrievance, if he wants to 11ave than have the perfection of the phi shall not be economic slaves." houses. If we do not want big unions losophy of Plato. Even the well-treated But the stigma of that experience is on it, and be heard. The distinguished · in this country, let us not have 60,000 ,000 head of the Conciliation slave prefers freedom to security; and it them, and they resent it. We hear it Szrvice-and I persons available for gainful employ is to the credit of said that they should forget it. do not think I am breaking any rule by the people of the United I know ment; let us not have b ~g industry. In States they should. We telling the Senate about this-told that this is a fact which faces us. should forget some of m stead ·of complaining about it, why not It was an employer, not a union, who the conflicts between the North and the that if there were no other excuse for develop a pattern by which they can made the statement: South, between the big city and the rural trade-unions, they were necessary on the work together?" area. But we are people, not gods, and basis. that they provide an outlet for No; lab or doesn't want paternalism. members The lone laborer · in a steel mill Grown men and women don 't want to be we remember some of those things. We to have their story told. The theoretically bribed by philanthropists. • • In are working people in this great, complex society could barfi(ain as to wages, with the hope that we can hours, and working conditions, with his their private lives they want the free right erase them from our memories. must have their story told. They must of self -expreGsion. have a chance to "tell employer. He might have to go to Once the Wagner Act was passed, its the boss off" once Florida to find him, but he could bargain enemies directed their efforts toward in a while, or we will have a Nation of Unfortunately, trade-union activities, psychotics and with him. But we know. as a matter of by their very nature, attract attention reestablishing the pre-New Deal freedom neurotics. We all like fact, that under that type of bargaining under which employers and employees to "tell off" people once in a while Why chiefly when they take a negative turn. the employer would merely determine, If from fifty to one hundred thousand had the right to form organizations do our constituents come to visit us oc on his own, while the employers had the right to casionally? They back us up into a cor the job conditions and rates collective agreements are signed each destroy employees' ner and tell us of pay for the worker. The individual year, the large majority of these would organizations by the things we need to be told. therefore is forced by the organization use of the means which I shall discuss It is a very good thing. Freedom of ex not make the headlines. The strikes do a little later. pression is of his employer, to form a trade-union to make the headlines. Without fear of They wanted to go back a meanipgjess thing unless represent him. to the good old days, the pre-New Deal the medium of expression is provided. In this respect the trade successful contradiction, I say that more An union is a reflection of the type of money was lost because of unemploy days of freedom. Freedom for what? individual worker employed in an oil democracy I have often thought about it. Freedom field or in a mine is not going to see the we have in our political and ment during the depression than has to go into business, freedom to get a boss of the economic life. ever been lost because of strikes. Let job, company, but under union Even assuming that an individual freedom. It is ·something like ism, hi& representative, can see the boss. employer is un those who were so concerned about being free to have a fight selfish and kind to his employees-and strikers think of what was happening to with Joe Louis. His representative says, ''There are at there are hundreds That is not freedom; it is pure nonsense, least a hundred workers who are com of such employers the country. The Republic was starting foolishness, arid suicide. such an attitude does not constitute a to rock and quake all over. Thos~ same That is the plaining about such and such-tlleY are substitute for kind of freedom that some persons· talk complaining about t.he general condition this democracy. · Many people wer!') not concerned about the about. The individual worker of gooci employers have come to the com problem of unemployment, or what was only the air in the plant, or about the fact mittee a pawn, merely another parcel of the that the washrooms and made statements to this should be done about ·it. We could have are not in proper effect: "I have always been· good to my paid off our whole national ·debt, or at 844325-30518 . workers. I give them better conditions least that of World War II, in what we 844385-3051!1 17 16 rather than private enterprise. Both of heard a word about a labor union. That lost in gainful employment in ·the 1933 cratic union, one of the finest examples them should be ·able to operate freely, was surely true, if it is not true today; crisis if we could have had all the peo · of trade-unionism in · the world. Yet but the trade-union, by its very nature, 10 years ago or 15 years · ago . . If those ple back to work. That was a real prob that union, because of the Taft-Ha.rtley cannot be considered as an equal part children heard anything they heard it, lem, a problem of real dimensions. law, is supporting a strike of its members ner devoid of any need for protective if you please, not on the basis of fact, In the first place, managements gen in. Chicago to the tune of many millions standards. It is the trade-union, there but on the basis of opinion and rumor. erally have more of an opportunity to of dollars spent out of its treasury. The fore, which requires that the Govern We have taught history in America come before the public in a favorable wages lost will never be regained by the ment guarantee to it its right to repre all right, and I am sure that my dis light. Everyone knows, for example, employees. It is fair to assume, there sent its members in the collective bar tinguished colleague, the chairman of what the new cars look like; we see them fore, that much more was involved in the gaining process. the committee, the Senator from Utah every day, we recognize them as they pass decision to call this strilte than mere Mr. THOMAS of Utah. Mr. President, [Mr. THOMAS], as one of the great before us in the streets. We recognize monetary consideration. These em -:Will the Senator yield to me to suggest teachers of the country, has recognized them by their names, which are associa ployees must have b2en interested in the absence of a quorum? · and recognizes this fact much more ted, in our minds, with. management. ultimate security, and, further, in the Mr. HUMPHREY. I yield for that than does the Senator from Minnesota. All of us have seen the ad:vertisements of right to exist as an organization; if not, purpose. But in ·teaching history in the elemen the new Chrysler, for instance, the new at any moment they want to, through Mr. THOMAS of Utah. I suggest the tary and secondary schools, in the pub Ford, the new Dodge, the new Cadillac. their organization, they. can give up the absence of a quorum. lic and private and parochial schools of The name Chrysler, when we see it in strike and return humbly to their em The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. MuR America in the past, we have ignored print or hear it over the radio, strikes ployment. But they are not going to RAY In the chair). The Secretary will the · real history of the people of a favorable response, or at the worst, a give up. They are Americans. This is call the roll. · America. neutral response. Even if we cannot af the union which just before the passage · The roll was called, and t.he following We have spent a great deal of time ford the car we do not hate it. Now, in of the Taft-Hartley bill was held to be Senators answered to their names: reading the history of the country's the next 6 months negotiations will take the best in the land, and it has literally Aiken H!ckenlooper Morse battles. We have spent a great deal of Anderson Hoey Mundt place between the union which has or been ruined, crushed, destroyed, because ·Brewster Holland Murray time reading the history of the powerful ganized the employees of the Chrysler of the provisions of the Taft-Hartley law. Bi-ldges Humphrey Myers men of industry.. But I submit that Corp. and the management of the I wonder how many young Americans Butler Hunt O'Mahoney those of us who have been in the field of Capehart Ives Russell corporation. If these new negotiations know about the International Ty-po Chapman Johnson, Tex. Saltonstall education can say that with very few are successfully concluded, as we hope graphical Union, its laws and constitu Chavez Kefauver Schoeppel exceptions the great rank and file of the they will be, there will be a notice to that tion, the caliber of its membership. I Connally Kern Smith, Mnlne American children in school have not wonder if as many know about that as Cordon Kerr Sparkman effect in the newspapers, and after 1 day Donnell K!Jgore Taft heard the )listor;v of farmers and the incident will be forgotten. If, how know, let us say, about one of the· great Ellender Langer Thomas, Okla. workers. They have heard of the battle ever, these negotiations are not success. newspapers of this country, for instance, Ferguson Lodge Thomas. Utah of Gettysburg. They have heard of the ful, the union will be at a disadvantage. the Chicago Tribune, the New Yorl: George McFarland Thye G.!llette McGrath Tydings battle of Bunker Hill. They have read For it is the union which declares the Times, the Washington Post, the Wash Graham McKellar Vandenberg ab.out the ba.ttles of the war of 1812 and strike. Even in cases where impartial ington Star, the Times-Herald, or an Green: McMahon W!JJ!ams of the Mexican. War. But they have observers might agree that management other newspaper. ( Gurney Magnuson Young· Hayden May bank never really studied the great strivings was wrong, the fact that the union de It is this feeling on the part of· em Hendrfckson M11Jikln and the great desires of the American clares the strike puts the onus of the ployees-the feeling that makes 'them people, the little people who were the strike upon the employees. . stick together· even· in the face of serious The PRESIDING OFFICER dissolution of the tic enterprises extending from mm~ng Union activities. suffered a decline witb machinery, trade-unions began to give mine workers' union, an the Worl;:ingmen's d even agriculture to manufacturu:~g the panic of 1817, which ushered in peri more attention to the problem of secur Benevolent Association. A number of and transportation, to trade and publ! ~ odic business d ep1 essions and times of ing the 8-hour day in order that the miners refused to go utilities, an prospe back to work and d even to services and r ecre rity similar to those of recent workers might be able to enjoy the bene resorted to violence against mine owners ational facilities. Workers have n atu years. When business conditions im fits of a higher standard of living. The in answer to wage reduction rally and inevita pro s a nd dis bly attempted to adapt ved t rade-union activity increased. National Labor Union, established in charges for union activity. The em themselves to these conditions by resort In 1825, Boston carpenters s': ruck to se 1866, pressed for an 8-hour day for Fed ployers hired a Pinkerton to the cure spy to obtain traditional and characteristic the 10-hour day, and were met b y eral employees in the hope that such a ·information as to the activities of the American method of fl ee association. the objections of the employers that a law would make it easier to obtain an Molly Maguires, as the Mr. ·workers' group President, I believe that a brief shorter workday would lead to idleness 8-hour day elsewhere. The Congress en was known. Eventually 24 Molly Ma survey of the history and development and vice, that the stril;:e was run by out "._Gted an 8-hour day for Federal employ- guires were conVicte of uriio sid d and 10 were ex ns will contribute to an u nder e agitators, and that the employer& ')s in 1868; and in 1872, President Grant ecuted for murder. ·The episode indi standing of their present vital role In would suspend operations rather than prohibited by proclamation any wage cates the extremes to which our society give in workers have That role, .as I have indi to the union. In case there be decreases in putting the law into effect. been driven in the past ·in order to resist cated is closely connected with our basic any doubt as to the year in which that However, the 8-hour day for workers in injustice. traditions occurred and way of life, and the main , Mr. President, it was. 1825, not industry remained to be achieved at a The great railroad strikes of 1877 were tenance of free and vigorous unionism 1948 or 1949. later period. brought on by continu is a During the 1820's ed wage reduc vital part of the mair.tenance of that and early 1830's The Knights of Labor represented the tions in the midst of depression condi way of life in a system of free association labor unions were active in pressing for first large-scale labor organization in tions. legislation and free enterprise. in the various States which America, whose membership at the peak I m ight interject h ere, Mr. President, It appears that the first unions to would abolish imprisonment for debt, es exceeded 700,000 workers. The early it seems as though we tablish fre his h ave a great deal maintain a continuous existence were e universal public educatiop, tory·of the Knights of Labor reflects an of depression. Practically every tim·e we the shoemakers in Philadelphia, organ mechanics' lien laws, and fair division of interest in social reform, rather have trouble th than in pertaining to workers, there ized in 1792, and the printers of New e pubic lands. Thus, at an early stage immediate gains in wages and hours. Mr. is a depression. The plain, hum York in the country's hi ble folk City, organized in 1794. story, trade unions President, that is what I have tried to of this land, the farmers and the work During the period immediately before were seeking to better the lot of the com emphasize repeatedly in my remarks, ers, are the first and mon m an by securing to feel the impact of after the turn of the nineteenth for him the prom namzly, that not only has the desire the panics and all the depressions. century, shipbuilders, ised blessings of the new world printer~, cord . for monetary gafn be'en the incentive State· and wainers, and tailors formed upwns and The years 1833-37 witnessed the de Fede!'al trnops were· called of the labor union movement, but fre out to suppress the strikes, which ex werit on strike for wage increases. The velopment of labor unions among hith quently it has been the necessity for so early organizations erto unorganized workers, such as weav tended from Pennsylvania to San Fran of labor unions were cial reform, through political or labor cisco. A perm paralle~ed by the formation of ers, plasterers, cigarmakers, seam anent consequence of employ movement action. those strikes ers' associations which attempted to ob stre:;Jes, and milliners, and in newly set was the enactment of con tled cities like Pittsburgh, However, the organization was soon spiracy laws, the hostility of the courts tain nonunion labor, and frequently re Cincinnati, compelled to give sorted to the courts and St. Louis. The first Nati9n-wiqe attention to the strik to labor, the demand for additional under the aegis of ing railwaymen employed in the Gould armories, the criminal conspiracy doctrine. body of trade unions was formed in 1834. and the reorganiZ:> tiOn of the It consisted of the city c owned lines, and ~n 1885, the Knights militia; t he latter arising out of the fact The attitude of the courts was hostile entral trades' w;ere successful tc the organization councils, and it had a:.; its principal ob in their efforts to restore tiiat, iri _roany ins ta~c.es, th,e militia could and activities of the a "wage cut apd to secure the reinstate:. not be newly formed l abor unions. Bztween jective securing the 10-hour day. How- relied upon to _fire upon the strik m'ent of locked-out employees: Instruc- ers--.:their own neighbors . .. · 844385-3J[. l[J 844385-30518 20 21 With the revival of business in 18·79, to submit the issues to arbitration as re .-In 1905. a .rival-union was organized in everything they ever got tLZL t_was good, the national unions, such as the molders, quested by the workers. The strike was opposition to the American Federation of . they had to fight and die .for. In indus-. the locomotive engineers, the bricklay soon . supported by railroad employees Labor. The Industrial Workers of the try after industry, industries which are ers and masons, and the railway con throughout the country. World advocated opposition to capitalism looked upon as respectable, fine. indus ductors, looked toward the formation of The Federal Government, in coopera by means of aggressive strikes. Its lead tries, those having to tio with forests a federation of trade-unions which would tion with the General Managers' Asso ership consisted, in part, of officials of and mines, shipping and railroad trans concern itself with pure trade-unionism ciation of the railroads, instituted pro the Western Federation of Miners Who portation, textiles, steel, whatever the based on wage-and-hour consciousness. ceedings under the law prohibiting ob had been exposed to the violence em line may be, there is hardly to be· found Its primary objective would be the fur structions to the mail and invoking the ployed by mine operators in opposing one but what workers died for the right therance of trade-union agreements de new Sherman Antitrust Act which had unionism. Consequently the new union of a decent living. If anybody · thinks signed to obtain immediate economic been enacted for the purpose of outlawY" o:J.id not have to go far to copy the ready he is going to cripple the unions, Mr. benefits for the membership. Its meth ing combinations in restraint of tradet :xa:mple of employer violence. I think President, believe me, he will have ods would be those of collective bargain The Attorney General obtained a sweep we all remember the IWW, which also trouble on his hands, because it was out ing, and where they failed the methods ing injunction prohibiting all persons capitalized on the failure of. the A. F. of of the unions that the workers gained would be the strike, boycott, and picket from interfering with the business of L. effectively to interest itself in the dignity as American citizens. line. The far-flung political and social the railroads entering Chicago. The At plight bf agricultural labor, textile work The Sherman Antitrust Act received activities of the Knights of Labor were torney General then proceeded to obtain ers, lumber workers, and other badly ex -~ further application at the hands of the regarded as detrimental to the interests indictments against the officers of the plaited sections of the working popula courts in the . case of Loewe v. Lawlor of the craft-conscious worker. In order union, charging them with interfering tion. Although the IWW gained public .(208 U. S. 274, 1908), the famous Dan to achieve these objectives, the American with the mail and hindering Interstate attention by the use of spectacular meth commerce. bury Hatters case. The Supreme Court Federation of Labor was organized in The leaders of the strike ods, as in the Lawrence textile strike of declared that the acts of labor unions, 1886 and the national unions were made were eventually sent to jail for contempt 1912 and iii the free-speech fight of 1909 if they involved restraint of commerce the basic units in the new organization. of court, and the strike was brought to to 1912, at no time did its membership among the States, were covered an unsuccessful conclusion. The Sher by the In the 1880's the drive for the 8-hour exceed 100,000 workers. Sherman Act. It held -further that Con day was resumed by the predecessor of man Antitrust Act had been perverted I know of no greater testimonial to to serve gress clearly intended that the Sherman the American Federation of Labor-that the cause of the big business the honor, the integrity, and the democ Act should be applicable 'to combinations is, the Federation of Trades and Labor which it had been intended to restrain. racy of American workers than to point That is why the workers of labor as well as those of capital. The Unions-Jzy the Knights of Labor, and detest a govern out that every time an aggressive, violent final judgment against the officers and later by the American Federation of ment injunction. They have suffered by type of unionism has been offered to the cruel rule of members of the union amounted to Labor itself. By the 1890's the 8-hour the tyranny of govern them, they have rejected it. I know of $252,000, and only the fact the trade day became prevalent in the bUilding ment, and there is plenty of background no .better testimonial to the American unions raised to substantiate their funds to pay the judgment trades, but it was not ilntil the decade case. workers than to· say that today the saved the members of the union the loss of World War I that 8 hours became The persistent refusal of most employ greatest bulwark against any type of of their homes and other ·property. I the standard for a large proportion of ers to recognize the legitimate existence subversive element, Fascist or Commu- should like to have the sum of $252 ,000, the American workers. of trade-unions continued to bring abou~ .ist, is -the free trade-union movement under the Sherman Antitrust Act, com In 1892 a number of strikes took place major strikes with resulting loss of lives Jf America. They have done more to pared with some of the "peanut" fines of in the steel industry, including the strike and property. In 1902 the anthracite rid the country of. the "commies" than a ·few thousand· dollars paid by big at Homestead, Pa., which developed into coal strike f.ollowed refusal of the oper all the agencies of Government com business. ·· - ators bined. a pitched battle between strikers and even to discuss the wage-and-hour Labor, Mr. President, is ·a bit fearful Pinkerton detectives hired by the Car issues with the United Mine Workers Lacking the stable base afforded-by -a . when the Government negie Union. Possibly we policy of collective bargaining;. and in- . ' begins · to legis Steel Co. Most of those strikes will now understand late in labor-management relations, be were unsuccessful and they virtually why Mr. Lewis does some of the things sistent upon a revolutionary goal, the he does. IWW became .unimportant cause the history, on the part of the eliminated unionization in the plan.ts of Men are victims, and some in the Ameri Government, is one of punitive the larger steel companies. times let me say products, of their en can labor scene after 1918. aspects. vironment and The years 1909 and It is one which has borne unfairly upon Mr. President, and Members of the of their experiences. The 1910 saw strikes in . the brow a·nd the back of labor. · Senate, it is this background of vicious coal operators refused even to · discuss the garment industry arising out of un ness, antagonism and bitterness that still wage-and-hour issues with the United sanitary sweatshops, extremely low Thi,s decision · stirred labor _to secure colors the labor-management picture in Mine Workers Union. The strike was wages, and job insecurity. The settle exemption fr:om the operation of the America. When one looks at it with a ·terminated by the appointment of an ar ment of those strikes laid the founda Sherman Act, arid Samuel Gompers sense of objectivity and, let me say, with bitration commission satisfactory to both tion for a system of grievance and hailed the Clayton Antit~ust Act' as the a sense of humanity, I think it is under sides. It marked the first time in our arbitration machinery which has since answer to the Rroblem. He called it standable that there are still people in history when a President of the United become a model for orderly, peaceful ad- · labor's Magna Carta. In otl:ier · words, the ranks of labor who smarted under States played an active part in securing justment of disputes arising out of col-· labor ·was no longer to be considered as the whiplash and under the vindictive the settlement of a strike. Though the lective-bargaining agreements. a commodity, no longer to be considered ness of the law, in the days not too far union was not recognized by the opera It will be seen, Mr. President, that the as a part Qf a cprporation. We decided in the past. tors, 'the award of the Presidential com workers identified their lives and their that, as a matter of public policy, labor The railroads were once more the mission provided for a wage increase and security with their union. It is not good was not a commodity, but was fl esh, scene of a major strike when, in 1894, a grievance procedure. . enough now for people to come by, and blood, soul, created iri the tmage of its the American Railway Union led the By the way, I may say the injunction say, . "Well, employers will be good. Maker. However, t~ courts were to con workers of the Pullman Co. in protest was not used. A Presidential commis They are good." The workers . have. tinue to place int~rpretations upon the against wage cuts and the discharge of sion, such as is authorized under the spoken. They look back into the pages lawful and peaceful activities of unions union members. The .company refused Thomas bill, was used. of their history, and they find that which left them with the same legal dis- 8443£5-30518 844385-30518 22 23 abilities and restraints that had existed interstate commerce. However, it took .growth in organization during the war ment, and the courts. This was the_year prior to the passage of the Act. the threat of a major war and the con years. after the war, and I do not recall that · In the latter part of the nineteenth tinued intervention of the President, td In 1918 the AFL began an organiza the mine owners were losing any money century employers began to use the bring the railroad managers to accept ·tion drive in the -steel industry in an ef during the war. yellow-dog contract as a condition of the provisions of the law in the form of fort to aid the workers to raise their -low The Attorney General of the United employment by which a worker promised a signed agreement with the railroad ·wages· and to wipe out the 12-hour day. States obtained an •injunction in the not to join a trade union so long as he brotherhoods. When in 1917 the Fed The companies affected embarked upon ·Federal district court of Indiana. _Here remained an employee of the concern. eral Government took over the operation aggressive antiunion activities, discharg we again hear of. an injunction. ' When In Coppage v. Kansas (236 U.S. 1 <1915)) of the railroads, a railroad wage com ing union men, and prohibiting union ever there is a dispute, let the Attorney and Hitchman v. Mitchell <245 U. S. 229 mission was appointed to investigate meetings in the company-controlled -- General get an injunction. He· obtained ( 1917)) the Supreme Court ruled that wage disputes. This body functione~ towns . . The United States Steel Corp., :this injunction on the plea that the ar yellow-dog contracts were consistent effectively in preventing strikes during . through Judge Gary, announced its in . mistice did not end -the wartime emer- with the fourteenth amendment and that the war years. tention to refuse to deal with unions. gency, and that until the treaty of peace any law or attempt by unions to abolish In March 1918, the National War La The strike which ·ensued involved 300,- was concluded, the Lever Act, providing them would be depriving persons of their bor Board was created with tripartite 000 or more workers and affected steel · for Federal control .of fuel, was in force, property without due process of law. The representation. No strik_es or lock-outs _production in every region of the coun and that, in effect, the strike was one use of yellow-dog contracts became com were to take pla-ce during the war. The try. Direct clashes be_tween strikers and against the Government. mon in an increasing number of Amer right of workers to organize into trade private guards were frequent, especially Mr. President;- I wish to note that in ican industries and in such districts as unions and to bargain collectively was when attempts were made to suppress this instance the GJvernment did not West Virginia and Kentucky the courts affirmed and was not to be interfered meetings. In other words, they em own tbe mines, the Government had became· the principal aids Of antiunion with by employers in any manner. The ployed private militiamen. Imagine, not taken over the mines, and these men coal operators in their fight ·against right of employers to organize in order Mr. President, having private armies in were not Government employees. They organization. to bargain collectively was also affirmed. the United _States of America. That is were employees working for a private Mr: President, it is patently clear why The union' shop and union standards · what we had in this country, a situation company, the profits going into a private unions do not trust the process of in were to be continued where they existed. comparable to that under the war lords company's treasury. Yet the Govern junction and, at times, even the processes These principles were in one respect re of China. ment stepped in with an injunction 'a'nd of courts. They have suffered. It is garded as unsatisfactory to union work Throughout the strike the press gave said to the workers, "You must continue not theory with them. Laws passed spe ers, for unions were not to attempt to much space to the employer's position to lose real wages. You will not be given cifically to restrain monopoly, big busi bring about a union shop where the open ~nd pursued a :::tudied policy of alienat a real opportunity to adjudicate your ness, were pushed down upon the brow shop was in existence. ing public sympathy away from the case, either in the courts, by arbitration, and the back of labor. Courts which In applying its policies, the War La strikers. The strike ended in failure in through negotiation, or mediation." were supposed to be impartial, judicial, bor Board sought to prevent both em the early part of 1920, and the steel in Henry David, in his chapters on the fair, and equitable, interpreted law after ployers and unions from engaging'in ac dustry remained an open shop until the American labor movement-Labor Prob law to bear down upon the working tivities which would disturb- productio advent of the Congress of Industrial Or- lems in America, published by Farrar people, underwriting, legalizing, yellow in essential war industries. In th ' . ganizations in 1937. Why were they & Rinehart, New York, 1940-well de dog contracts. Is it any wonder, then , Western Union and Postal Telegraph ,striking? 'l;'hey did not want to work scribes the American plan of the twen that miners in West Virginia and in case, the Government took over the tele 12 hours a day in the heat of the steel ties. Now we are getting close to home, Kentucky take a strong position with graph and telephone systems in order to furnaces. and this is what this distinguished citi reference to labor legislation? show its determination to carry out its Think of it, Mr. President, In one of zen had to say: The injunctive process was used to policies, even in the face of the opposi the great industries of this country there At the close of the Y/ar the antiunion cam prevent attempts, however peaceful, to tion of the great corporations. The was no really effective union organiza paign which began in 1920 was disguised as organize workers who had been compelled Smith and Wesson case indicated that tit'm until 1937. Why? Because of guns, a drive for the American plan. by economic circumstances to agree not the Government would not permit ag because of blacklisting, because of every antiunion activity that could be em After every war there is a little anti to belong to a union. gressive antiunion activities to be car union campaign. That is a traditional The pe_riod of the First World War ried on in war industries. In the case ployed-beating workers up, hiring pri- was of considerable significance for of the Bridgeport machinists it displayed -vate armies, spies, guards. Is it any won step which no cine can dispute. I read American labor unions. Membership al no hesitation about bringing pressure to der that the steel workers are a little bit further : concerned-with regard to labor-manage Its objective was the open shop, but it most doubled in the period 1915-20, to bear upon employees who struck against made its plea in terms of American prin r'each a high of more than 5,000,000 an award by which they had agreed to ment law? They suffered under the im ciples and the inalienable right of every workers; important labor legislation was abide. pact of injunctions. They know that worker to enter any trade and to accept enacted; organized labor was repre Unions held considerable representa Government can be cruel as well as can employment under conditions satisfactory sented on Government war agencies; and tion on Government boards during the be an employer. They learned the hard to himself without the interceEsion of a there was a vigorous effort made to or war. In addition to the National War way. They did not go to school. They union. -did not read it in textbooks. They lived ganize mass-production industries. Labor Board, union representatives were That sounds very familiar. In 1916 the railroad unions threatened to be found on the Emergency Construc and died with it. -- The miners had suffered a continuous Conservative farmers' ·organizations and to strike for the 8-hotir day.- Upon the tion Board, the Fuel Administration th.e American Bankers' Association came to intervention of the beloved ·and distin Board, the Food Administration Board, decrease in real wages during the war the· aid of the 'employers promoting the gUished President Wilson the strike was and the War Industries Board. This fa -years. When they attempted, in 1-919, American plan for the abolition of the un averted and the Cdngress passed the vorable attitude of Government toward to use their only effective weapon-the American closed shop. In New York State Adamson Act which provided for the labor, together with the labor shortage strike-to raise their wage standards, alone·there were at least 50 active open-shop establishment of the 8-hour day for induced by the war and the rapid rise in they were niet by the combined forces associations, and Massachusetts had 18 such workers engaged in operating trains in prices, stimulated the tremendous of .the employers, the Federal Govern- organizations in eight cities. The State man- 844385-30518 844385-30518 25 24 7 (a), which guaranteed the right of em I propose to examine in some detail ufacturers' associations were extremely ac to fight the ·closed shop, helped to make the campaign for the American plan a success. ployees · to organize into unions of their the nature of these antilabor activities tive in the campaign, which included em own choosing and to 'bargain collectively of employers because I believe that the ployers' associations in various industries The most strenuous opposition to the em with employers, that trade ~ unionism· in and local chambers of commerce, to put the ployers' efforts were encountered·in the build objective of those who wish to retain the open shop into effect. In Illinois, where ing trades. Here the well-organized unions the United States began to revive. With Taft-Hartley law is to· reestablish the there were 46 open-shop associations, the succeeded in numerous instances in resist it came a tremendous influx of new mem relative strengths of labor and manage Manufacturers•· Association in October 1920, ing the employers' .attack. In m any cities bers into the ranks of unions. ment to the degree where we may have oiTcred aid to any employer fighting for the of the country; however, strikes to maintain Mr. President, there is a strange . again such antilabor activities. ·· open shop. · union conditions were defeated, and building operations were resumed under open-shop parallel. As the real wealth of this coun I think it is a matter of common·his- Unionism came practically with the condit ions. try went down, unions went down. As . tory which is not too well known, because the burglars, the speculators, the it is not spoken about too much, but the Declaration of Independence. It was Under constant pressure from the. there much sooner than the Massachu finaglers, had their way, unions and chairman of our committee, the distin open-shop drive following the end of ; working people were destroyed. Finally guished Senator from Utah [Mr. setts industry group or association of the First World War, organized labor in m.anufacturers. · the country came tumbling down almost THOMAS], pointed it out, that after the the United States did not make much into economic collapse, and unions with Wagner Act had been passed, and the In J anuary 1921; 22 State m anufacturers' h eadway during the so-called prosper - associations meeting in conference in Chic it. Since 1933 , the unions, under section President had signed it, and ·it was placed cago officially adopted the name "AmericaD;. ous era of the twenties, and it suffer·ed 7 ta) have been given a chance to reor on the books, 69 corporation attorneys plan." For a number of years the reaft ~ r the ravages of the prolonged depression ganize again; and have a legal status. advised the employers that the act was the employers carried on an aggress!ve ' and the mass unemployment that fol The Norris-LaGuardia Act was passed, unconstitutional and not to obey it. They struggle against unionism, which resulted lowed the stock-marl{et .debacle in 1929. so that the injunction process could not said, from 1935 to 1937, it was unconsti in tlie defeat of many strikes and destroyed Every young American has had painted be flung in their faces. From that day tutional, and that employers should not ·m:l!ny trade-unions. The campaign was aided to him that great period in American the country began to move forward and obey it. Mr. President, I may be able to by the turn in ·business conditions which history, from 1920 to 1929, the period of find an attorney who will advise me that occurred in 1920, and which, by 1921, h all upward. The unions began to grow in normalcy, the period of prosperity. membership and in strength and some other laws are also unconstitu r esulted in widespread unemployment in What was happening? We need not go industrial centers. security. tional; but I wonder what would happen over that again. This country was be to me if I would take his advice and not Mr. President, do we remember the ing ditched, dammed, and drained; a Employers and Employers' pay my income taxes. I wonder what recession- of 1921 and what happened? little money was being made in the stock Organizations · would happen to me if I failed to abide . Little businessmen were liquidated. market by a few, the unions were de Having discussed the nature of unions, by the rules and laws of cities, counties, Workers were unemployed. Wages kept stroyed, farmers were liquidated, small and States. -Those who followed that tumbling. Farm prices were destroyed. business men · were destroyed ·by the and the historical background of our at . advice got by with it for a while. Believe Mortgages were foreclosed. Farmers thousands, banks failed all over the titude toward labor relations, let us now me, that is something which still smarts were liquidated. But while all this was couritry. It was a great period. ' It is turn to a discussion of employers and and still hurts in the flesh and the mind going on, 22 State manufacturers' as strange about these great periods. They their organizations. Historically, as I of labor. sociations joined in conference for the seem to be great to a handfui ·of peopl ; have developed before, employers op More than 10 years .ago -the Senate "American plan." who are not so great. posed unions in various ways, overtly and Labor Committee did some pioneer work What was the American plan? I Mr. President, I speak with some feel covertly, directly and indirectly. Al in the field of investigating employers' think perhaps we might take a look at ing about that period because the kind ways, however, the purpose was the same, antilabor activities-that was just 10 U. It appears to me as if it was a plan of people the junior Senator from Min to see to it that control of the business years ago, so we are now getting right to rob the American people. There were nesota knew, the kind of people ·who enterprise rested solely in the hands of up to date-by establishing a subcom more bankruptcies than we ever dreamed worked and pr9<;1uced, were liquidated the employer. The activities of the mittee under the chairmanship of Sena of. In 1921 and 1922 farm income was in the great American plan of the 22 unions, of course, have been directed to tor LaFollette with whom·was associated down 60 percent, wages were off 50 per- manufacturers' associations. Some of an increasing participation in the deter the present chairman of our committee, . cent, unions were destroyed, but big busi them were riot in, unions. They were mination of the conditions of their em the distinguished Senator from Utah ness was getting bigger and fatter every ground up, and they were ground up ployment. Even after the passage of [Mr. THOMAS]. This subcommittee in day. That is why some of us feel a little by some of the same forces which today the Nprris-LaGuardia Act, the NRA, vestigated the union-busting- methodol keenly about this matter. We are think have just repainted the old job, just re and. the Wagner Act, these antilabor ogy of the time: It is, of' course, impossi ing about people who owned corner drug painted the surface, and are now going activities continued. Thm character ble to go through the ·7-s· 'thick volumes stores who were liquidated; we are think around through the country, as they be changed, but their purposes have ever published by the Senate Labor Commit ing about people who lost their farms come richer and more monopolistic and been t~e same. tee, reviewing· the evidence put before it. in the land swindle, about people who more noncompetitive and more exploit By the way, the Norris-LaGuardia Act I shall take just a few of the high lights lost their life savings in the bank fail ing by the hour, saying, "Of course we was passed in 1932, passed by a Republi and review them briefly with the hope ures. I did not see the 22 rich manu believe in unions; we believe in free can Congress, signed by a Republican that they will impress you as deeply as facturers' associations joining together to enterprise; we believe in a free economy." President, and the records of the con they have this new Member of your body, save the people from those disasters, or By 1932 the total membership of the gressional debates indicate just what we and perhaps recall to those of you who the National Association of Manufac American Federation of Labor stood at are talking about on the floor of the Sen- were here when these revelations were turers,. or any other such organization approximately 2,500,000, as · contrasted - ate in 1949; that is, the evil of injunction, made the type of atmosphere which I coming to their aid. Oh, no, they were with the high mark of slightly over the tyranny of government, the tyranny do not wish to see encouraged again in not concerned about that.- They had 4,000,000 in 1920. · It declined further to of giving people special privilege .with the United States. joined together to beat down the unions. about 2,100,000 in 1933. government backing-to be enjoyed pro- Strikebreaking services were per I read further: It was not until a~ter the enactment . -miscuously in connection with labor formed on almost an open basis prior to The' growth of lnilitant employers' asso of the National Industrial 'Recovery Act management disputes. the Wagner Act, and even after the Wag- ciations, the principal purpose of which was in the spring of 1933. ·including section 844385-Sc5fGJ 844385-30518 26 27 ner Act. Here is the type of offer made Generally, spying activities were con not be brief in connection with some For such acts the union might well be by a strikebreaking service to an em ducted through the device of secretly thing that has such a long, nasty history. sued. ployer. Now we are getting down to the sending agents into unions to report on The strike services which the committee· Mr. MURRAY. Mr. President, will the LaFollette committee reports to the the activities of union officers and to has examined fall Into three categories. The Senator yield? · Congress of the United States, made identify union members. Through such first is . the provision. of so-~alled strike Mr. HUMPHREY. I yield. . just 10 years ago. I quote from a com devices, also, the policies of unions and breakers, who are commonly understood to Mr. MURRAY. Is it not true that at mittee report the type of offer made by the internal discussions would be re be persons who temporarily replace striking that time there were in the country . or a strikebreaking service to an employer: ported upon. In this way, the employer workers . . · · ganizations which advertised themselves Your letter of July 28 !s received. With figuratively sat on both sides of the bar In some Industries such temporary re to industry as being in a position to sup reference to ·your inquiry about my exper gaining table, having information as to placements have been, in the past, compe . be workmen. In most cases, · ply men of that character who would ience and what I am prepared to do in case the views and plans o·f his employees';j tent and skilled qualified to enter the unions? In many . of disturbance, etc. however, strikebreakers are not qualified representatives. \ employees. The agencies engaged in the instances they became officials of the First, I w!ll say that if we are employed and became the strongest advo before any union or organization is formed Sometimes even this type of control •business of providing such replacements unions, by the employees, there ·will be no strike and over employee activities was not suffi h ave even advertised that their function was cates of strikes and of rough action on no disturbance. This does not say there will cient. In those cases, the strikebreaking simply to provide industrial shock troops the part of the workers . . In one instance be no unions formed, but it does say that agencies arranged to have their spies with which to break strikes and cause I know of in Montana, such a man was we will control the actLvities of the union and elected as officers of the unions. Here, strikers to return to work. employed by the mining corporations, direct its poLicies·, provided we are allowed a literally, the employer sat on both sides . That was 10 years ago, in America. I and he became one of the high officials free hand by our clients. of the bargaining table. The employer the re of the union. He prepared a new con formed and continue with the quotation from Second, !f a union is already could thus order ill-advised strikes and port of the Senate subcommittee: stitution and bylaws for the union, which no strike is on or expected to be declared and so extreme that, of within _30 . or 60 days, although we are not other actions designed to weaken the The second category of strike services !s were so radical !n the same position as we would be in the unions. the provision of guards or watchmen. The course, they aroused the resentment of above case, · we could-and I believe with The record . is clear, Mr. President. ostensible purpose of utilizing such guards, the people of th.e community. They success-carry on an intrigue which would These are not words· that have not been who are gener.ally armed, is the protection could see how extreme the workers were result in factions, disagreements, resigna of the strikebreakers, the loyal workers, or becoming. Such activity was a fraud considered. These are words that come the plant property. Guards provided by the tions of officers, anc\ general decrease in the the r ecords of the United States perpetrated by industry, as the Senator membership. from agencies must be distinguished from reg Senate. ular plant police and the local police force has explained. From what we know how, we might The low moral quality of spying activi of the community. Usually they are strang Mr. HUMPHREY. Exactly. I am very be able to advise this employer that it ties is indicated by the extent to which ·ers to the controversy anp. the locality in glad to have the interruption of the dis would be better to recognize his union strikebreaking agencies would go in or which they serve. In many cases these tinguished Senator from Montana, and better for his business, and perhaps bet guards have been deputized as local police his practical observation with respect der to recruit spies. There is an in officers. An analysis of the commercial ter for his consCience. But prior to the triguing discussion in the Senate com to what I have been trying to describe. strike services reveals that men who offer me ·say to my colleague from Mon-. Wagner Act, and~ unfortunately, even mittee reports of the process by which Let themselves as guards in strikes form a more · tana, our companion and colleague on for some time subsequent to its enact an innocent worker is . caught and 'con- l or less distinct occupational group, and can ment, this was the fashion of the time. ( be designated as strikeguards. . the Senate committee, that the tactics verted into a labor spy. and There were other means used to break industrial disputes !n this which were used in strikebreaking This process is called "hooking" or The history of spying are almost identical with the tac- the hold unions might have upon em "roping." The innocent man is hooked country indicates that the almost Inevitable ployees. The company union was such a effect of employing outsiders of either of tics used by the Communists. . by having a representative of a strike is to Labor remembers those things, Mr. device. A Brookings Institution report breaking agency call at his home. The these classes, in an industrial dispute, states that- produce resentment, bitterness, violence, and President. Some members of the labor hooker represents himself as a Govern bloodshed. Nor is this surprising. The pur movement still carry scars. Even some The evidence shows conclusively that the ment agent or a delegate from a group pose for which such persons are offered by great majority of the plans (company Members of Congress know what it is to of stockholders interested in the .com those who malte a business of selling their have suffered from this sort of nefarious unions) were favored and fostered by the services and the objective for which they are companies in order to forestall outside pany. He offers compensation for the activity. unimportant piece of in hired is to weaken or destroy the organiza unionization. receipt of some tions which workmen have built up for their I continue to read ·from the report of demands Parallel to the tactics of smashing formation. Gradually the own protection. the subcommittee: · unions directly, was the use of indus made upon the innocent employee come· The third category of strike services is. the At the outset it may appear difficult to closer and closer to the requirement to furnishing of persons to mingle with strik~ unaerstand how these three strike services, trial spies to report on the self-organiza disguised as tion activities of employees. Detective spy on his fellow workers. The job was ing employees, or townspeople, so diverse in function, can be offered by the if the worker needed strikers, strilm sympathizers, or salesmen, as same agency. If things were what they seem agencies which supplied guards, and remunerative; the case may be. In the trade these persons in the field of industrial warfare, the func strikebreakers, generally also operated money, he might succumb. If he refused are design a ted as strike. missionarie.s or street tion of the strikebreaker would be to work espionage services. More than 200 of to act as a spy, he would be threatened operators. Unlike the strikeb-reaker or the efficiently and to operate the plant; the such agencies operated . during the with exposure. strikeguard, the connection between the mis function of the strilte guard would be to ex 1930's-200 private, hoodlum outfits, 200 Those are familiar tactics of people sionary and the .employer is always concealed. ercise a restricted degree of police power with the authority and moderation required in private strikebreaking firms, 200 private who are immoral. After its investiga I can assure the Senate that this mis groups that could organize a private tense strike situations; while the function of tion, the Senate subcommittee made a sionary is not doing the Lord's work. be to anybody who wanted it almost the word-of-mouth propaganqist would army for report oh strikebreaking services and While the missionary's ostensible function present the employers' side of the strike. at any time. !s to act as word-of-mouth propagandist As they exist, however, these three types of· In addition to the private agencies espionage against representatives of em ployees. Here is a short quotation from . against. the strik!), he is often found in the strike personnel have one purpose: to break conducting such espionage, employers' ranlts of the .strikers, UI:ging or committing strikes. Like in.dustrial espionage, these associations also furnished spying serv the report of the Senate subcommittee. acts of violence. · strike services .are weapons for the employer ices to their fellow members. The quotation is not so short. We can- 844ass-ao5la 8443S5-3051G 28 29 in his battle against the recognition of or tention to the character and effect of indus chapter-an almost unbelievable .chap This appeal was us1,1ally mad~ In the ganizations of his employees. Thus, united trial munitions. ter-in American economic life.' .form of petitions, frEquently circulated in its inquiry Into various in purpose, these services can be most profit The committee, I continue to read: by an anonymous group, in an effort to ably organized and o:trered by agencies or as strikes and their violent episodes, gathered break the back of the strike. After some sociations specializing in the practices of much Information concerning the industrial The comm!ttee;s data on the· purchase of trial and error in this field of strike antiuniouism. use of weapons and munitions. The commit the more common firearms are necessarily tee's report on strikebreaking services made less complete than its·!nforma;tioh concern breaking activity, a famous device was Strikebreaking tactics alone were not mention of the participation of certain de ing the sale of machine guns, which Is now hit upon. I wish to refresh the memory sufficient, Mr. President. They fre tective agencies In the traffic In newer forms subject to Federal regulation, and the trade of some of my colleagues. The device quently had to be backed up by the use of Industrial weapons, as well as their use, in gas weapons, which are pu~veyed by a lim was called the Mohawk Valley formula. of force. And for this use of force new and the report on private police systems ited number of concerns, practically all of It is described. very effectively in a ·de techniques were in order. We did not dwelt at length on the use of arms by cer which the committee was able to investigate cision of the National Labor Relations tain of the police systems discussed. Thes in detail. Nevertheless a study of the records finding the Remington Rand Co. wait until World War II to perfect new o{ the Board reports did not, however, treat arm~ of selected employers, concerning the pur- guilty of unfair labor practices against techniques of attack. The LaFollette used In industrial relations as a subject in •'chase cf revolvers, rifles, and shotguns, Indi should . lil~e to committee studies found evidence gf the themselves. cates that purchases of such weapons in its employees. I to read use of virtually all types of firearms In the earlier stages of lts Inquiry, the quantities above the necessary minimum re you the details of this Mohawk Valley except Army field guns. They kept out committee learned that there existed an qulred to equip plant watchmen and to guard formula so that. you will h ave before the heavy artillery. Tear gas and elec established business of supplying weapons valuables, was inspired by the fear of strikes you a picture of what , happens when trically charged wires were used in in especially adapted for use In industrial dis or labo:· disputes. employers ·can feel free to engage in time large in putes. The weapons furnished for such use · The committee's investlgatlon" disclosed antilabor activities against unions; it is dustrial disputes. At one were principally the various forms of tear dustrial employers spent more than half not only that industrial munitions were pur a picture which should be before the and sickening gases, with equipment such as chased by employers at critical periods In the a million dollars in purchasing equip grenades, shells, and guns for discharging Senate at all times in the debate now course of thelr relations with their em under way: ment to be used in emergencies when them. Submachine guns are also supplied pioyees but also that such purchases bore their employees made an attempt to for such use, though to a lesser extent. · mar'ked correlation to the labor policies of First. When a strike is threatened, label organize. Employers were purchasing When held by public authorities for use in such employers. Almost invariably those em the union leaders as "agitators" to discredit more than $500,000 worth of guns, tear the exigencies of riotous situations, the pos ployers who have assumed an attitude of hos them with the public and their own follow gas, bullets. and machine guns-for session of such weapons is, of course, legiti tility to · ·bargain1ng with so-called outside . ers. In the plant , conduct a forced balloting what purpose? Because workers were mate and proper- unions have been discovered to be the largest under the direction of foremen In an at purch asers of Industrial munitions. Con tempt to ascertain the strength of the union preparing, through their union, to ask By proper police authorities-police and to m ake possible misrepresentation of for a little more mcmey. This was only public, not by some versely, the establishme~t of co'rdial relations authorities of the · based on the principles of collective bargain the strikers as a small minority Imposing 10 or 11 years ago. Chemical compa private constabulary. ing seems to appease the appetite .for arms, their will upon the majority. - At the same nies made large profits from the sale of I read further: and terminate the purchases of such weapons. time, disseminate propaganda, by means of industrial munitions. Because such weapons are, however, de press releases, advertisements, and the activ I wish to quote in a little detail from signed and adapted for .use by public au Mr. President, in addition to the use of Ities of "missionaries," such propaganda the report of the LaFollette committee thority In the exercise of police power In strikebreaking a,gencies and various falsely stating the issues involved in the , forms of violence against employees strike so that the strikers appear to be mak on this subject. I almost apologize for ing arbitrary demands, and the real issues, taking so much of the time of the Sen ~~~d~~~~:ss~~nc!~~ g;~~~~:r~~~~~~e~~r~~:! > guilty of attempting to organize-tre problems of far-reaching significance. The such as the employer's refusal to bargain we can really consider mendous guilt is said to b:) involved; they h ate. But before committee found that gas weapons are widely collectively, are obscured. Concurrently wit the question of labor-management law are free Americans, but are to· b~ consid these moves, by exerting .economic pressure purchased by employers and frequently used gt:ilty of attempting to organize a we must know the background and the by them In Industrial disputes, and that sun ered ·through threats .to move the plant, align history of the labor-management pat machine guns have, to a lesser extent, been union-employers h·ad a novel method the influential. members of the community tern in America. We cannot dream up so purchased and so used. for uti!iz;ng the community as a strike into a cohesive group opposed to the strike. breaking device. "Citiz::ms' committees" Included in this group, usually designated a law in some nebulous environment, or A study of the purchase of such weapons a "citizens' committee," are representatives in a vacuum. we · have to know what by employers revealed that both machine were formed in many localities to make in a disinter 'of the bankers, real-estate owners, and busi the forces and the pressures were over and submach!ne guns and gas weapons are it appear that the public, nessmen, 1. e., those most sensitive to any a long period of time. Perhaps some of bought most frequently either In ant!c!pa ested scrt of way, desired to end a strike. threat of removal of the plant because of and friends t!on of or during labor disputes. Extending After an investigation that usually lasted its e:trect upon ·property values and purchas our distinguished colleagues to cover all kinds of weapons or associates have not read the history of its inquiry only until leaflets could be piinted and ing power fiowing·from. pay valls. purchased by certain employers, the com , Second. When the strike is called raise high labor-management relationships in this mittee found the same correlation existing, distributed, the citizens' committee would employer was the banner of "law and order," thereby caus country. in many cases, between the purchase of other . declare . publicly that the ing the community to mass legal and police I am quoting from the records of the types of firearms, and the ammunition there right and that the employees should re weapons against a wholly imagined violence Congress of the United States. I quote for, and developments in the labor-relations turn to work at the conditions prescribed and to forget that tliose of its members who from the record of the committee of situation of the purchaser. by employers. Although ostensibly ded are employees have equal rights with the which the distinguished former Senator In other words, when it looked · as if icated to the preservation of law and other members of the community. LaFollette, of Wisconsin, was chairman: order, citizens' committees were used as Third. Call a "mass meeting" of the citi there was going to be a strike or when it zens to coordin.ate public sentiment against The ut!l!zat!on of any or all antiunion looked as if a union was forming, there a strikebreaking device. Many such .firnis to the strike and to strengthen the power of the services, such as espionage, strike guards, or always seemed to be a strange correla committees employed publicity citizens' committee, which organization, thus private policemen, involves the ultimate use tion between the growth of the union, the write . advertisements attacking the supported, w!ll both aid the employer in of force. In the consideration of such serv possibility of some collective-bargaining strike, and they urged vigon;ms action exerting pressure u pon the local au t horities ices the committee soon became aware of against strikers, against their picket and itself sponsor vigilante activities. employed to implement such discussion over wages and hours, and the certain means lines, and against their organizations. . Bring about the formation of a a policy. Chief among these was the use of sales of tear-gas bombs, machine guns, Fourth ~arge armed polic~ force to intimidate the firearms and chemical munitions. Thus, the submachine guns, pistols, rifles, and am The public was also used .as a device ~o e.rt a psychological effect committee found it necessary to turn its at• munition. Mr. President, that is a sad to appeal to strikers to go back to work. strikers and ex 844385-30518 844385-30518 30 31 upon the cit~ens . This force is built up by moment and having the employees march utilizing local police, State polwe, if the Into the· plant grounds in a massed group Act was .passed. Let us go. back to the ignated as the desk of the distinguished Governor cooperates, vigilantes, and special protected by squads of armed pollee, so as .early period of the New Deal and imagine statesman and Senator who unfortun deputies, the deputies being c11osen It pos to give to the opening a dramatic and ex ourselves in 1933 with a depression ately is· ill · and unable to be \Vith us, the sible from other neighborhoods, so that there aggerated quality and thus heighten its ~e staring us in the face, and with business senior Senator from the_ State of New will be no personal relationships to Induce moralizing etrect. Along with the openmg and labor both sadly in need of economic York. , flag raising, sympathy for the strikers. coach the depu provide a spectacle-speeches measures to· alleviate_ the depression. Let us examine this act, Mr. Presid2nt, ties and vigilantes on the law of unlawful and praises for the employees, citizens, and that, their vanity The National Industrial Recpvery Act ·which, in an important sense, ~arked a assembly, Inciting to riot, disorderly conduct, local authorities, so imaginative charac etc., so that, unhampered by any thought touched, they will feel responsible for the was passed and its turning point in the relationship of. the that the strikers may also possess some continued success of the scheme and will ter resulted in the economic spurt needed . Government to labor and management. rights, they will be ready and anxious to u_se Increase their etrorts to Induce additional by all elements in our economy. As part In the early daYs. as I have indicated, their newly acquired authority to the llm1t. employees to return to work. . of the NRA program, workers for the the Government had been openly op Fifth. And perhaps most important, E1ghth. Capitalize on the demoralizatiOn first time-other than for a brief period posed to defense of workers' rights to heighten the demoralizing etrect of the above of the strikers by continuing the show of po ·in World War !-were given some meas loped a citizen's organize. Later on there deve measures-all designed to convince the llee force and the pressure of the :ure of protection in their right to or neutral attitude under which strikers that their cause Is hopeles.s-by a committee, both to insure that those em sort of ed will continue at ganize. Employees were given the right employees had the right to join unions back-to-work movement, operated by a pup ployees who h ave return colleCtively pet assoclation of so-called Joyal employees work and to force the remaining strikers to to organize and to bargain but employers had the parallel right to secretly organized by the employer. Have capitulate. If necessary, turn the locality under section 7 (a) of the NIRA, and fire employees who joined unions. This this association wage a publicity campaign into a warlike camp through the declara employees could not be required to join equality of rights naturally resulted in in its own name and coordinate such caiT,l tion of a state of emergency tantamount to company unions.- But this was found to discouragement of union organization. paign with the work of the "missionaries" martial law and barricade it from the outside be insufficient because there was not It was clear to the Congress that equality circulating among the strllters and vlsitmg world so that nothing may Interfere with the enough of the power of the Government the formula, thereby of rights was not enough; that the work their homes. This back-to-work movement successful conclusion of b8hind the guaranty of the right to or freedom to has these results: It causes the public to be driving home to th.e union leaders the futil ers not only should have the ranlq; in ganize fre'ely. Before this act was in ·join organizations, but that the freedom lieve that the strikers are in the . minor! ty Ity of further etrort~ to hold their . and that most of the employees desire to re tact. effect for very long the Weirton Steel Co must be. protected from interferenc2 by turn to work, thereby winning sympathy for Ninth. Close the publicity barrage, which defied the Board created to enforce sec employers. In a sense, therefore, the the employer and an endorsement of his ac day by day during the entire period h as in tion 7 (a). Before long, too, the Budd Wagner Act was truly one-sided in the tivities to such an extent that the public Is creased the demoralization worked by all of Manufacturing Co. refused to abide by same way that the hunting laws are one willing to pay the huge costs, direct and in these measures, on the theme that the plant a decision of the Board. By the begin game from that the strilcers sided which protect wild direct, resulting from the heavy forces ot Is In full operation and ning of 1934 section 7 (a) was not too hunters' guns, but do not provide simi police. This back-to-work movement also were merely a minority attempting to inter ing meaningful. The reason for this was lar protection of the hunters from the enables the employer, when the plant Is later fere with the right to work, thus Induc was a lack of statutory opened, to operate It with strikebreakers if the public to place a moral stamp of approval clear; there wild game. The S8nator from New York n ecessary and to continue to refuse to bar upon the above measur es. With this, the . power in the phraseology of section 7 (a). [Mr. WAGNER], in an address at Yale gain collectively with the strikers. In addi campaign is over-the employer llas b: olccn Any employer violating the law could be University in 1937, described in interest tion, the back-to-work movement permits the strike. punished only by withdrawing the right ing fashion this aspect of the law which the employer to keep a constant check on The Wagner Act ' of that company to use the "Blue Eagle" bears his name. I quote from the Sen the strength of the union through the num insignia of compliance with the NRA. ator's address at Yale University : ber of applications received from employees Mr. President, I come now to the por It was clear that something more had ready to break ranks and· return to work, tion of my remarks in which I deal di If an uninitiated person were to e};amine to be done. An attempt was made to the act in a vacuum· or on the planet Mars, such number being kept a secret from the ·rectly with the Wagner Act. correct some of the deficiencies, ·but in public and the other employees, so that the activities he would be overwhelmed by the ostensible A review of these anti-labor May 1935 the NRA was declared un justice of this criticism. doubts and fears created by such secrecy will of employees leads us logically to a dis in turn induce stiJI others to make applica constitutional and we were temporarily But when the act is placed in the factual cussion of the act which succeeded in in the pre-New Deal conditions of context of a complete and functioning social tions. lly in ·- back Sixth. When a sufficient number of appli changing this picture so drastica industrial relations. Within 40 days af system, the criticism becomes absolutely cations are on hand, fix a date for an open the 12 years it was in operation. Some declar meaningless. No one would assail a traffic ter the Supreme Court's decision the speed at which ing of the plant through the device of having people may wonder how it was that we ing the NRA unconstitutional, which Jaw because it regulates such opening requested by the back-to-work got the Wagner Act. It was because of automobiles run and not the speed at which with the citizens' Congress had passed and President people walk. No one would attack the law association. Together what I have been reciting today on the had signed the act that was _committee, prepare for such opening by ely, because of Roosevelt of domestic relations because the obligations floor of the Senate, nam to become the cornerstone of labor re imposed upon parent toward child are not m aking provision for a peak army of police injustice, inequity, unfairness, because by roping eli the areas surrounding the lations policy for the Government for the same as those imposed upon child toward plan t, by securing arms and ammunition, we in America should not tolerate such the years to come. parent. No one feels that the Securities and American it places etc. The purpose of the opening of the p~ant things, because basically the That was just 40 days after NRA was Exchange Act is Iniquitous because Is threefold: To see It enough employees are people are fair-minded, and they are un duties upon brokers but not upon buyers. declared unconstitutional. The act I sane test of a particular law Is ready to return to work; to induce still others willing to have the sins of the few be National La The only ef refer to was known as the whether the restrictions which It Imposes are to return as a result of the demoralizing come the basis for a national policy. bor Relations Act, more commonly known feet produced by the opening of the plant The things I have mentioned this af in themselves fair, and whether, when added and the return of some of their number; and as the Wagner Act. I may say that for to the sum total of social controls, the par ternoon undoubtedly may be taken as ·ses of my discussion this after ticular Jaw promotes or retards a just rela lastly, even if the maneuver falls to Induce practices of the purpo to return, to examples of the iniquitous out by using the ti_ons~ip among the respective forces in a sufficient number of persons pop noon I have started persuade the public through pictures and a handful of people out of the total desk of the distinguished Senator from modern economic society. news releases that the opening was neverthe ulation, but a handful of people, Mr. New York [Mr. WAGNERl. I felt it appro. No reference to the f!lcts would Indicate less successful. President who have great power. In that the National Labor Relations Act creates priate that {n the defense of sound labor relationship atrically, 1933, und~r section 7 (a), thin~s became an unbalanced equation in the Seventh. Stage the opening the management relations I should speak employer and worker. Certainly the propitious and then the Wagner between throwing open the gates at the a little different, from the phtce in the Senate which is des- employer-h ad the right to bargain collectively 844385-30518 t:44386-305lil 33 32 ing in favor of representation by some offer. They suggested that er;nployers through the corporate form and through two things were done. First, we added union; did not need to obey the law. There are Nation-wide trade associations. Certainly, to the right to self-organize specific de' · The forces opposed to the enactment all sorts of grades of legal morals, but, In dealing with labor, and In all other busi scriptions of employer practices which stop when to me, probably the worst thing a lawyer had the privilege or_ selecting ·of the Wagner Act did not ness affairs, he interfered with those rights. We said, 'the act was passed. A group of self can do is to say, "Do not obey the law, his own spokesman by majority rule . . ·labor No working group has ever challenged the generally, that it was an unfair appointed and self-annointed labor ex because we will take care of you." If that employer's right to use the collectlve-bar: practice for emplo:•ers to interfere with perts, calling themselves the National were generally done, what kind of Gov gainlng procedure in dealing with his em the rights enunciated in the act, and Lawyers' Committee, and associated with ernment would we have? We would have plOyees, his competitors, and the general . specifically, that it was an unfair labor the American Liberty League, examined no Government at all. We would have public. The simple truth is that the correla practice to interfere with those rights this law and came to the conclusion that something very close to aRarchy. By tive rights which labor is accorded under the by forming or assisting company unions, it was unconstitutional. having one case of John Jones, another act h ave all been enjoyed by industry for a by discharging employees or discrimi case of Peter Smith, another case of a century or more. No one asked them to do that. Ac nating against them in an:; other way cording to the Constitution, courts are different name, in another place, and so .Of course, Mr. President, just as the for joining labor organizations or for appointed by the President and the forth, the boards which were established Wagner Act was considered to be equita testifying in connection with a proceed Justices are confirmed by the Senate for were so harassed in attempting to handle ble for the situation that existed at that ing under this act, or by refusing-' to the purpose of deciding as to the consti the various cases that they almost be time, in view of the background which bargain with a duly selected representa tutionality of laws passed by the Con came exhausted. In all the history of· the has been discussed here, so we of the ma tive of a group of employees. Second, gress. But the National Lawyers' Com~ United States, in all the various efforts jority of the committee, feel that the the act provided a means by which em mittee wanted to be helpful. So they made to overcome an activity which the Wagner Act now must be reevaluated ployees. could select representatives. . It set themselves up as a court. They were Government had attempted to establish, in terms of modern problems and ex provided for the collective bargain_ing not content with nine members. There never was there such a fight for liberty perience, and a series of amendments election~ as a device for the selection of was a large group of them. They de as that which was made in those days. have been offered to the act. representatives of employees for pur ~ clared that the law was unconstitutional. The question was supposed to be argued It should be crystal clear, Mr. Presi poses of collective bargaining. They even went to the extent of writing and decided in the courts, but the courts dent, that those of us who support the Then-, to give meaning to these pro a legal brief of 127 printed pages to prove were as much harassed as was the Board Thomas bill, even with the four amend visions of the act, the law established this contentioh. They made a magnani itself. ments which ·have been offered by some · an agency, the National Labor Relations mous gesture. They offered, to anyone I thank the Senator from Minnesota members of the committee and by other Board, to administer this act and to who was charged with an unfair labor for yielding to me. Senators who have joined with them, arrange for enforcement of its decisions practice under the Wagner Act, free use Mr. HUMPHREY. Mr. President, I believe that .the issue still is whether we through the courts of the United States of 'this legal brief. The result was that ·am deeply appreciative of the assistance want free collective bargaining or Gov of America. This was a simple law; it more employers were encouraged to vio of the distinguished Senator from Utah ernment-controlled, regulated, and man was a law that did not give power to, as late the law. Not only did they have in explaining what happened in the early aged bargaining. The amendments are much as it re:noved pressures from, em- their early animus to back them up, but days of the Wagner Act. The Senator offered, a~ the distinguished chairman ployees and their organizations. · they had million-dollar legal talent to from Utah is very familiar with the legal of .the committee said, within the spirit I repeat that, Mr. President. It· wa ' help them in continuing their activities. contests iri connection with the early ap of the Thomas bill; because they are a law that did not give power to, as . The Board was prevented by court in plication of the act. I again state that within the realm of free play between much as it removed pressures from, em junctions from carrying on its activities through the studied experience of men employer and employee. · ployees and their organizat.ions. Tr-~di for the better part of a full 2-year period. such as the distinguished Senator from The Wagner Act, important though it tionally, liberty is supposed to be the For it was not until the Supreme Court, Utah we gain a proper perspective of the was, was simple in objective, clear in absence of restraint. The National La on April 12, 1937, declared the. Wagner pattern of labor-management relation intent. It announced to the ·country bor Relations Act of 1935 was in the tra Act constitutional, that the act could ships. The observations of the distin that the Government was no longer neu ditional concept . of American liberty really begin to be enforced. For 2 years guished Senator are very pertinent in tral in the field of collective bargaining. absence of restraint-a fundamental after the act was passed the Board was this debate and discussion. It would no longer look disinterestedly part of our political philosophy, I think, harassed day and night with court in Court unions Mr. President, once the Supreme upon employees' attempts to join if we still believe in liberty . . junctions. threw out the legal arguments prepared and upon employers' ability to discharge Mr. THOMAS of Utah. Mr. President, League t alent, the real employees who did join unions. The It was natural to assume that remov:al by the Liberty of these pressures would result in an.in will the Senator yield? history of the Wagner Act began. That Government declared that this neutral-. workers. Mr. HUMPHREY. I yield to the dis se, by the way, the policy was to be discarded; instead, crease in free organization of was not the only ca ity When employers no longer.have the right tinguished Senator from Utah. Liberty League lost. I think they lost we were to enter upon an era in which may . no l.l.-1:r. THOMAS of Utah. Ordinarily in time openly declared its view to spy on their employees and the election of 1936, too. From that the Government longer participate in any other of these our country when there is widespread on, the decisions of the Board were sup that collective bargaining was preferable discussion concerning the constitution This has been . activities which I have described and ported by the courts to a degree un to individual bar15aining. ation,. it ality_of a law, it is generally decided to of our country. the policy' of the Government ever since which discourage union organiz precedented iri the history is natural to expect an increase of union try a test case. Everyone is satisfied with 1935, and even the Taft-Hartley law it, and it goes up as one case. But that Many were the evidences of how suc gives lip service to that policy. Now activity and a resultant increas.e in union cessful the act was operating. One of membership. This was not a ba,d sign; was not what was done in 1937 and 1938. under the Wagt:er Act, the Government Different cases were presented to prac the purposes of the act was to make it went further than a pious declaration it was a good sign. So we find trade in the country, which easier for employees to organize without membership increasing fourfold tically every court of intent, and stated that collective bar union harassed the administration of Justice. interference by their employers. In 1937, gaining was so desirable that the' Gov under the Wagner Act. More than The Senator has pointed out how the the year in which the act was decl!J.red ernment would proteCt those people who 7,000,000 employees voted in elections organization of lawyers offered their constitutional, 60 percent of the workers decided to govern their labor-manage conducted by the National Labor Rela services. It was even stronger than an involved -in strikes were involved in dis- with 80 percent of. them vet- ment relat~onship in such a fashion. So, tionsBoard, 844385---30518 844385--30518 34 35 putes which included the issue of union 1948, the top line being from 1918 to 1921. That is what I rations' profits were only $8,700,000,000. recognition. have tried to do in the They will notice that, first of all, there discussion this afternoon. Then we come to 1946. By the way, up By 1946 collective bargaining was the was a smaller percentage of the total rule rather than Further, we must look d eeply into the to 1945, the corporations made a total the exception. Although working force out on strike in 1945 to m atter of community and social r elation of $60,000,000,000 strikes were numerous net profit, after taxes, in that year-a 1948 as compared to 1918 to 1921, and ships, beyond the matters of dollars and after reserves, after plant replacement, natural occurrence in view of the post they will notice that, as compared with cents. Nowhere, as I recall, has the com after business war situation-only mittee thrifts. After all these 12 percent of the the third postwar year after World War or any of its wltnesses brought to things there were workers mind the important function th about $60,000,00.0,000 of involved in strikes were involved I, the workers today, in the third post at Amen profits, and in disputes relating to union can trade-unionism h as already achieved. all during that time the recognition. war year, have fewer strikes in propor American workers were on the While discussing the subject of strikes, tion Through their unions the workers of America job pro to the number of workers. That is, have attained ducing. Union after union let me make it clear that, serious as they the number their rightful status in the was deco of workers involved in strikes community-they have become an equal part rated for heroic service to the country, are as a reflection of industrial stresses is smaller than it was in 1918 to 1921. of the community-equal and with management, and I know very few of the industrial strains, or industrial tension, strikes These are proportionate figures. It is equal with the farmer. They are, through workers who ended in 1946 were relatively up h aving a seat on no more serious perfectly understandable that there were their unions, represented on Government the Stock Exchange. I know than after the First boards and commissions very few World War. We were not as many workers employed in 1918 , on r adio programs of them who ended up by buying passing through a period of reconversion. to 1921. and religious and patriotic occasions, on local for committees and community councils. They themselves $50,000 or $60,000 homes. Prices were rising rapidly, the whole cost The record is resplendent with the As a matter of living was ri have achieved social equality-real de of fact, the record reveals sing rapidlY, and we could testimony given by the Secretary of La that the workers have spent have expected nothing else. In mocracy. almost all fact, a bor, which was included in the report But it is with the econ.omic aspect of the their war bonds already. smaller proportion of the work force was of the majority of the committee. From labor-relations picture that I want to deal involved in strikes in 1945 and Then comes 1946. Corporation profits 1946 than page 5 of the report I read: right now for I think we have lost sight of after in 1919, the year after the it here. taxes in that year were $12,800,- First World Significantly, the incidence of strikes in Let us look back to that immediate 000,000. War. postwar of labor friction and disputes and Then we cut oft' price control. 1946 was by comparison well below that of In 1947 corporation profits were Mr. President, I b:r:ought along with the comparable postwar year 1919. In 1919, see what exactly the economy looked like at $18,- me charts which have been prepared by 20.8 percent o'f all employed workers were in that time. 100,000,000. volved in work stoppages. In 1948 corporation profits after competent labor · economists. The first In 1946 14.5 per In other words, Mr. President, we can taxes one shows the "Trends in work stoppages cent of all employed workers were involved were $20,800,000,000. in work stoppages. The existence of a not talk about the number of strikes and following World War I and World War II. simply leave the discussion there. We Add them all up and we have a total stronger union m ovement and the stabilizing of $106,700,000,000 Number of strikes and workers involved." influence of the· Wagner Act on labor-man must talk about the number of labor dis net profits for corpo The second chart shows the "Number agement relations, which in 1946 had not putes in relationship to the rest of the rations in 8 years. of workers involved in strikes in propor been amended by the Labor Management economy. What was happening in We had a labor-management emer tion to total employed." Relations Act, served to encourage the peace America? What was happening in the gency in the coal industry soon after the It was pointed out in the majority re ful settlement of differences, even under first year after World War II? Many war. I think every Member of the Sen port difficult conditions. of the Senate Committee on Labor things were happening. F~mili es had ate remembers that situation in the coal and Public Welfare that actually after Problems of transition from W!J> r to peace • been broken industry. Let us investigate the coal caused a relatively high incidence of strikes up, workers had gone from World War II the number of strikes one side of the country to the other. industry as carefully as .we have looked dropped rapidly as compare in 1946, just as they did in 1919. Oppor d with what tunities for earnings from overtime work h ad Thousands and. millions of people went into the union. happened after World War I. The black largely evaporated; peacetime jobs in many from one end of the country to the other, In hard coal, an industry that had line on the chart is the line of World War instances were at pay scales below tP,ose of whole c·ommunities were upset, there gone 8 years without profits, after-taxes II. From the high peak in the first post wartime, and living costs rose rapidly with were people going into communities and profits leaped from $6,000,000 in 1940 to war year, starting in 1945-46, it goes the lifting of price controis. . During the people going out of them. All of that $16,000,000 in . 1944, $9,000 ,000 in 1945, down sharply by 1946 into the beginning period between June 1946 and June 1947 has to be put into and $14,000,000 in 1946. The profits the Bureau of Labor Statistics the picture, and the for of the second postwar year, and down consumers' economic facts have to be put into the each of the years from 1941 through 1947 even more in price index rose from 133.3 to· 157.1, or 17.8 the third postwar year. percent, picture. I re11,d further: far exceeded the profits in the boom It is perfectly obvious while aver age hourly earnings, ex from a look at clusive of overtime, increased from $1.05 to Let me quote from the report of the eco year of 1929, when the mine owners did this chart, that the curve indicating the $1.17, or 11.4 percent. nomic.report of the President transmitted t o not have any unions around. period from 1918 to 1921 does not show the Congress in January 1949. We could go on In soft coal, the picture was even more such a precipitous decline. The strikes and on discussing the spectacula economies, but I think it would be Let us take a look and see what hap r. In an industry that earned went on up in the first postwar year, and well $9,000 ,000 in 1929, profit to place in the RECORD something which pened in the economic picture. This is s averaged over did not decline rapidly between 1918 and $88 000 000 in each of the 7 years I said in an address placed in the RECORD the record of corporate profits after from 1921. 194i to' 1947, after taxes, Mr. President. What is important some time ago. I said: taxes: is the number of In coal workers involved in strikes. in proportion The question of labor-management rela Corporate profits, after taxes, in 1940, and petroleum industries, cor to the total number employed. tions does not exist in a v acuum. To un were $6,400,000,000. . porations were earning the fantastic We find derstand profits that in 1918 to 1921 approximately from the bills we are discussing-the In 1941 the profits were $9,400 ,000,000, of 14 percent on investment in Taft-Hartley Act and the bill that wm re 1947 which 21 to 22 percent of the working forces after taxes, and after reserves had been leaped to 23.2 percent in the place it, the Thomas Act-we must deal with first' quarter of 1948, 20 percent in the wereJnvolved in strikes. In 1945 to 1948 it in relation set aside. to the whole economy and the In 1942 corporate profits, after t axes, second quarter, and which started to go we find about 14 percent, at the peak, in entire community. To understand these volved in labor disputes. were $9,400,000,000 again. down badly to 18 percent in the third laws we must keep in mind ·the whole his quarter. Those are Senators will notice the heavy, tory In 1943 taey were $10,000,000,000. the corporation dark of American trade-unionism and the. earnings after taxes-15 lines, indicating the period from 1945 whole picture of In 1944 they were $10,800,000 ,000. to 20 cents a to American business. year for every dollar invested 844385----30518 In 1945, the last year of the war, con in these ditions were becoming bad. The corpo- million-dollar industries. Certainly, we 844385-30'sis 36 37 had a coal strike. Yes, and there was following the war, and remind them fur wants to buy a house pays 5 percent; but the New Deal. Everything was insured. some background for it, too. ther that at that time profits in the auto a corporation can Other industries obtain money for 2 A man could put his money in the bank were making similar industry broke all records in terms of percent. The working man of the coun profhs. Lumber and wood products percentage profit and be sure to get it out. He could in on investment. try is willing to take a chance at a job. vest in the earned 19.2 percent on investment the What I have said ab'out stock market and be reason the auto in He does not say to the plant manager, ably sure of not being swindled. third quarter of 1948, and nearly 25 per dustry was also true of steel. "Are you going to give cent on investment me a job for 3 Why did not certain people like the in the first quarter of In the period of labor disputes in years?" He does not say, "Are you going last year. Iron and steel earned 15 per 1945 and 1946, we find a strange cor Wagner Act? i:t was because they did to guarantee me employment for 5 years? not write the rUles. They cent, and automobiles earned over 21 relation, just as we find it between If not, I only benefited percent will not buy a new pair of over from the rules written by the people on investment. That is not bad, disease and slums, just as we find a re alls. How can I invest . Mr. President-21 percent lationship in overalls unless Why do not certain people like the Fair on an invest between strikes and profits I am sure that I am going to be on the ment. right down the line; just as we find a Deal? It is because they cannot give job for 5 years?" He cannot go to the us a raw deal under What was happening to wages during relationship between depression and un Reconstruction the rules of the Fair this time? Finance Corporation and Deal. The political question in Amer From 1945 to 1946, when employment and the break-down of obtain a loan to buy profits shot up 47 percent, average a new car, or an ica is, Who is going to run the United week union organizations. The Eightieth old car, so that he may drive to work. ly wages in manufacturing actually Congress, which looked for a States-the 300 top corporations or the solution to There is a great deal of talk about people? dropped more than 1 percent. Of course, labor-management troubles of 1945 and The people have been doing lack of confidence. The people who lack pretty well. They we are supposed to be happy about that. 1946, did nothing to get at the real causes. confidence seem to have sensed The next year profits are those who have always in some way or other, despite a certain rose again, this While the incomes of our citizens began lacked confidence when time 41 percent, and weekly to they could not lack of printed information, that they wages spread apart more and more and have their way. They are not happy over limped a sickly 12 percent. In other wealth began to concentrate once more, are perfectly capable of self-government. words, the fact that in the year 1948 they made Those who criticized from 1946 to 1947, when indus while real profits rose and real wages only 13 percent the Wagner Act trial profits went up from more than they made were generally represented by the groups $12,800,000,000 dropped, the Republicans decided that in 1947. They thought that the to $18,100,00'J,OOO, which was a the increase which lost power. Before 1935 workers 41 per workers were becoming too strong. of between 41 and 45 percent ought to cent net increase, the workers were doing It was not only the Republicans who in the United States were generally not simply continue every year. There happens to bargaining on equal plane fine, they were having a big time, came to that decision, but also some be a saturation with their they were getting rich--'-they point. That is why I say employers. The Wagner Act gave them received a Members on this side of the aisle. This that when we study labor law we must 12-percent increase. That was not net. contrary analysis brought on the Taft such a position of equality. Justice No, study it in relation to the economic facts Holmes once said that it is that was merely a 12-percent in Hartley Act, brought on the Knutson of our time. necessary "to crease. If there was anything establish that equality of position be net in tax-cut bill. Parenthetically I might What are the economic facts today? what they received they were lucky, for remind Senators that neither tween * * * parties in which liber Mr. Hart Farm prices are going down. More than ty tunate. ley nor Mr. Knutson are with us today in of contract begins." It is such an three and a half million American work equality of position The next year, that is from 1947 to the Congress. ers that the Wagner Act 1948, profits rose are unemployed. But the quarterly gave employees, and it is precisely 13 percent. They could While the Taft-Hartley bill made ; report for the that not go much higher. Corporate pr.ofits second quarter of 1919 equality of position which was criticized union organizing harder, the same group indicates that American corporate busi after taxes went from $18,1 00,000,000 in was cracking down on the unorganized by those who wished to destroy the Wag- 1947 ness will make $18,000,000,000 net profit ner Act. · to $20,800,000,000 in 1948. The worker by refusing to raise minimum this profits went up only year. It was $17,930,000,000 on the 13 percent, Senators wages to anywhere near a sensible level. basis of the last quarterly Was there a need to amend the Wag must understand, from 1947 to 1948. report. Hard ner Act? As soon as In other words, Mr. President, there times? I am worried about those folks. the act was de Profits went up 41 percent from 1946 to has been a pattern in this country, a clared constitutional a new tack was 1947, and they went up It was natural for the Wagner Act to taken 47 percent from pattern which I think Joes not augur be criticizsd, becau-se by the unsuccessfUl Liberty League 1945 to 1946. But things were beginning it did interfere entourage. They coUld well for the future. There has been a with the freedom which some employers no longer claim to slow down a little bit after 1947, when lack of concern over the basic element that the Act was unconstitutional, so profits were had felt in their efforts to destroy unions $18,100,000,000, and they of our prosperity-the welfare of the in they attempted to amend the act so that went up only 13 percent in 1948, the past. Those who criticized the it could to $20,- individual citizen and his purchasing act before our congressional not perform its historic task of 800,000,000, power. committees removing the chains which The man who is today doing his generally represented groups which had bound the What happened to wages in that year? job-the truck driver, the man working American worker in solitary confine Wages went up only lost power through the growth of collec 10 percent. So all in the plant, the man who brings home tive bargaining. ment. As late as 1946 one member of the time profits ha7e gone up by a total $35, $40, or $50 a week-is the man who the National Labor Relations Board elo of over 100 percent, I can understand why certain people wages have gone up keeps the corner drug store and the would quently described the reasons why the by a total of between 25 and be critical of the Wagner Act. Of act had 30 percent. corner grocery store going. He is the course, they were critical to he retained. He said, remind Mr. President, that is a part of the of the Wagner ing us of the pre-Wagner man on whom the economy is based. Act, because the Wagner Act started Act evils: economic background. Those were very There t.o Under ordinary circumstances, has been a great lack of consid spread the power around. That is the a law which prosperous surroundings for manage eration for his economic well being, has been as completely interpreted by tbou ment, question over which the political battle sands of decfsions and approved and probably reminded them of W ~ are always talking about what we by the Fed the open-shop in this country has been fought. The eral courts in hundreds of additional de days of the twenties, and are going to do about investment capital. political it is my contention that they battle in America is' over the cisions, would have nothing more serious to felt their There is plenty of it lying around. If issue as face ahead than refinements oats and began the campaign against to who is to have power and con of procedure and some of those who are talking so much trol in America-privilege or the people. exploration of borderline situations. How labor that resUlted in the Taft-Hartley about it would invest some of their capi ever, this cannot be the fate of the National Act. That is what the fight was about. That . tal, they could do something about it. was the Labor Relations Act. A governmental agency I should like to fight over the New Deal. The resJ?Onsible remind Senators of Investment capital can be obtained at rich became for the prevention of de·ep-rooted the lengthy strikes in 'the richer than ever before. and cherished practices inevitably will auto industries cheap rates of interest. A man who They could not even 844385-30518 J.ose money under arouse opposition. The Wagner Act had at- 844385-30518 38 39 through representatives of their a strong group of Amer fact that the Board member who made collectively LONG tempted to control own choosing !s all that the act deals with. . The PRESIDING OFFICER hiring hall, which has been found so The Taft-Hartley Act and the Taft on our fundamental concepts of justice sired. successful in some industries, can no Amendments and morality-are not illumined by that The real thrust of Taft-Hartley, its longer be agreed to. It tells them that kind of mathematical formula. We do true objective, was not to .redress a the closed shop, developed historically . Mr. President, the able Senator from not measure justice-we dispense or real or fancied unbalance created in by some of the oldest and most respon Ohio has stated that the. substitutes for withhold it in toto. We do not com 1935, but, rather; to rob the American sible unions as a protective device and the Thomas bill, which he has advanced promise morality-we practice or scoff it. worker and his union of every major as insurance to employers of an ade on behalf of himself and two of our Re The question we face is one of principle legal victory laboriously achieved in the quate and competent. labor force, . can publican minority colleagues on the not figures and statistics. preceding 50 years. The National Asso- no longer be enforced by the parties Labor and Public Welfare Committee, 844325-30518 844385-30518 44 45 the newspa was not anx Even more important, it gives the em -which had existed between s~t. 1 contempt action, and 2 damage 'Ci:ation of 'Manufacturers the union prior that . to 1935-. It nostalgically ployer unfettered freedom to hire in ·Per and the typographical smts. Yet this is the same union ious t6 ·return say, it gives to the Taft-Hartley Act: , the finest union and effectively attained a return open market, which is to to 2 years ago was hailed as desirzd the full opportunity the Chicago Tribune entered Into is the same union that to the dark ages of industrial history antilabor employers In 1852, in the world; this shops with antiunion ·work contractual relationships with the Chicago of labor-management peace when there was a master who imperi to man their has con had a record ers able and anxious to undermine union Typographical Union, No. 16, which second to none, the same union which ously commanded and a servant Who until this day, without interruption very thought conditions and the union itself. tinued was l?oked upon as one of the most re meekly obeyed, when the the of so much as an hour. • ·• • we regret was unspeakably The. Taft amendments make only a matter of great. pride sponsible ~nd on~ of the most honorable 'of a labor organization that this record, as 'Yet fact of a trade-union slightest concessions to union security. to us as well as to the union, has now been and effective umons in the world. evil and when the an·employer can which has condemned and punished as a crim Under the amendments Interrupted. • • • un~er the Ta;ft-Hartley Act, was openings and the under discussion in the promotion inal conspiracy. notify the union of job When the law was as Its. theoretical purpose can refer qualified applicants for · Congress, as our readers will recall, we ad of umon-management peace and the im L3t me briefly document that asser union shop. We not employment. That does not mean that vised against outlawing the closed provement of relations between employer tioL The Wagner Act of 1935 did among other reasons, because we That was the employer needs to employ them. did so, an~ employ~e and the development of an abolish the labor injunction. the dis know that the closed shop worked well In for labor after 50 years of con Und2r the Taft amendments, worked well for a half amiCable, fnendly atmosphere abolished in 1932, elec our plant and had we find that agitation and political support credited union-shop authorization century or more. management relation.ships, tinuous and unions union has been sub by both major parties. tion would be eliminated Congress did not take our advice. ~he typographical require the dis that the present dif to 18 charges, 9 The Wagner Act did not grant to labor would be permitted to · The Tribune hopes Jected, _as I ~a~e sai_d, Tl:at basic right charge of employees for engaging in ficulties will be resolved speedily. COll'_lplamts, 1 InJUnctiOn suit, 1 contempt the right to boycott. with has been only after years of distress wildcat strikes or for being affiliated should like also to actiOn, and 2 damage suits, and was achieved Still retained, Mr. President, I in 8 strikes, and has litigation, culminating in the wide th3 Communist Party. from the hearings before the sub forced to participate ing the absolute prohibition of quote to spend more than $11 _ spread acceptance by the judiciary that however, is committee of the Committee on Edu been compelled , like other the closed shop and the provisions for of Rep 000,0~0 to resist the attacks upon its working men and women those cation and Labor of the House . have a natural de-authorization elections and Mr. John O'Keefe secunty. groups in our society, security laws resentatives, where the to the aid of their fellows making State antiunion the Chicago Newspaper Pub~ Too many have failed to recognize right to come Federal law. s_ecretary to security to the to refuse to contribute to their own paramount to the Association, testified on Decem iml?ortance of union and the predictions made by oppo llshers stable labor relations. ultimate destruction or injury. One of ber 22, 1947. Representative Kersten mamte'?ance of Taft-Hartley Ac~ at the time . the Taft-Hartley Act The closed shop was not the liberal nents of the was asking the questions. I quote the The Impact of in 1935; it of its passage was that the outlawing of an~ the Taft amendments on union se gift of a generous Congress long estab following from the testimony: those of many years stand the closed shop would disrupt great cunt_Y, is further aggravated by was an institution union Mr. KERSTEN. Up until now and for a constructive value, an lished and voluntarily maintained had a closed-shop agree PrOVIsions which permit more restrictive ing and proved have been many years past you the Faderal whose legality was almost security agreements which ment, didn't you? State laws to prevail over institution to management .and that employers universally accepted long before 1935. mutually beneficial Mr. O 'KEEFE. Yes; We did. · statute.. Th~ r_esult is labor for many years.· This predictio KERSTEN. How did that feature work umons m mterstate industries are And so, too, with other provisions of Mr. and has been borne out in several importan out 1n your previous contracts, so far as your governed by conflicting rules in the dif~ Taft-Hartley. It is clear that the essen in of the contract was A rights industries, particularly the printing closed-shop provision fere~t _s~ates where they operate. tial effort was not to equalize closed shop has been the concerned? applicable to the Congress in dustry. The It multiplicity of standards rendered unequal by in this industrY. for almost 100 Mr. O'KEEFE. We never even discussed and unions is hardly the legal props of practice there for years and it has re: these employers 1935, but to destroy Typograph~cal It had been labor relations. and to restore years. The International ma!ned there. cond_ucive to stability in American trade-unionism which had. attained full growth wher; American industry complete and un Union, Mr. KERSTEN. Did you have any real diffi Part_ICularly the old condition of even long before the ITU) Its processing firms lo inequality. long before 1935, culty with It, so far as your union (the has Its plants and conscionable Wagner ACt, is universally recognized as is concerned? cated all over the Nation, and when Union Security a. model, responsible union. In fact, Mr. Mr. O'KEEFE. We did not • • • as a gr~at in_dustry is negotiating with large of the Reader's of fact most of the Chicago pub of production entirely pro President, in an issue ~atter umons I'; ~he same type The Taft-Hartley Act about 2 years ago, this union l!shers, or all of the Chicago publishers, I IS of the utmqst importance between an em Digest of a closed process, It hibits an agreement was painted not only as the model union would say, would prefer to continue there be a uniformity of standards. and a union for a closed shop. shop if It were legal. that ployer of the Nation, but as a model for all If ~e are to h;we a labor policy which is union can obtain even what the Mr. KERSTEN. The reason for that Is that Before a unions all over the world. Its democ long-term natiOnal in scope, rather than 48 differ act calls a union shop it must be au this particular union has been a racy was upheld and was proclaimed; that has a certain amount of ent labor policies, it behooves us to sup thoriz:d to do so by a majority of all the both 1nst1tut1on to regu was and its efficiency and effectiveness, tradition behind It, a considerable amount plant any Stat~ laws_which seek employees eligible to vote. This to the employee, and under thos~ agree out by the to the employer and and It is a responsible union, late o~ P_rohibit umon security very capably and well pointed The majority re conditions a closed shop has worked out so industries in a man Senato:r from Illi are well documented. ments m mterstate distingu!shed junior of the Joint Committee on Labor far as the Chicago publishers are concerned with whatever policy last week. The port right? ' ner inconsistent nois [Mr. DOUGLAS] Management Relations stated: ls that may establish. Either Congress illusory than O 'KEEFE. Yes; it has. we union shop affords more Typographical Union has Mr. a uniform Federal policy Under the Taft-Hartley The International ~haul~ establish real security. long enjoyed public confidence by Its record experience of the International m this admittedly Federal field or we union can require the discharge main The Act the of winning gains for its membsrs while Typographical Union under the Taft should leave the entire matter of labor a worker only for failure to pay dues. relations with employers. of taining peaceful Hartley Act is the ou~standing example legislation to the States-either one or It has no defense against'the infiltration Taft stooges, spies, While it is not my custom to quote the of the disruptive effects of the the other. of subversives, disrupters, prohibition. The gangsters-names and Chicago Tribune, I feel compelled to Hartley closed-shop Mr. President, a word about the tactics provocateurs, 22, 1947, union has been subjected to legislate have all too often been Used refer to its editorial of November typographical employed by those who seek titles which relations 9 complain.ts, !injunction of existence. Many against the labor movement. 'which describes the peaceful to 18 charges, the closed shop out 844385-30518 844385-30518 47 46 the principle of.the right to work is men voted for, is adEQuate t-aJking the loudest about tl:tat which the of them-not all-parade as the high who today are based u pon a productive, solvent, pros union security. . It is an absolute guard individual, un-, the right of 'every American to work. Men h ad the right to of course, the minded defenders of the sermonize perous economy. of union security, and, and cloak themselves The truth is that those who . There wt,s plenty of "the en voted for it is rather organized worker, to work" really are work in 1932 f ~ ct that the m the noble, attractive slogan of "the on the sacred "right right t o work," but there were no jobs on its support than in its opposition, I with sacred right ·to starv~. in right to work." I say; Mr. President, thinking of the which to work. Men have the right to should suppose. revoltingly The truth is that the very unions who people find e to that I know of nothing more in work in 1949, and yet 3, 700,000 Mr. HUMPHREY. I should lik the American scene exhaust their energy and ingenuity hich to work. So really what to one of -the au sanctimonious on are accused of ·no jobs on w make the observation One look behind the cloak will maintaining work are getting down to is t his : Here is a Taft-Hartley Act that the today. practices and sometimes we thors of the show that these pretenders to such feather-bedding slogan which has been u sed against the evidence was replete, and the authors solicitude for the unprotected even worse. ns by the very same people who wn about it before it was touching when the unions asked unio should have kno worker are the sarrie forces who have bit Mr. President, fought the 40-hour week, who fought ever written into the act, that 98.2 per and sometimes blocked for a 40-hour week, in order to spread payment for overtime, were crystal clear terly resisted proponents of the· F,ime-and-a-half cent of the elections ry social or legislative move111ent de the work, these great o fough t the elimination of child labor, at the w orkers wanted, and eve were not in favor of it. wh proof of wh signed to impr9ve the lot of the Ameri right to work who fought fair labor standards, and, Mr. h ad the authors of the act listened to small-business When the unions say, "Because of n fought the of the can worker, farmer, and a 30- President, who in fact eve labor instead of listening t o some mechanization, we ought to have cial-·security program. we would not man. available to so people t hey listened to, us carefully analyze the full signifi hour week, so jobs may be edecessor in this body was one of ry governmental ex Let ople," the proponents My pr have had unnecessa cance of that slogan, "the right to work." the American pe the leading champions of the "right to connected with these long to work say, "Well, that goes penditures What does the "right to work" really of the right work" principle. On May 12, 1947, in the elections, where 84 percent of the voters so noisily pro too far, that is too extensive;· we cannot of provisions ion mean? Are those who does course of d ebate on behalf who were eligible to vote voted for un sirability prepared to go the go that far." So, the right to work -Hartley Act designed to elim urity. claim its de much. Likewise of t he Taft sec way? Are they prepared to lay not seem to mean very inate union securit y, he stated: President will the whole ·have fought for the right Mr. TAFT. M r. wn a great national policy not on_Iy when unions iden t, I t hink th at t h at i s t he real nator yield further? ' do f for overtime as a pen Mr . Pres Se of the right to work but of jobs on which of time-and-a-hal magna carta- Mr. HUMPHREY. I yield. on alty, which is a type of penalty payment to work? Are they prei>ared to call to work- Mr. TAFT. I quite agr ee. I h ave various State so as to spread out the work for full-time Referring to the right act the Congress or on the en and women . never disagreed with that. But the to ·guarantee that every ·employees, there has been bitter resist for t he American working m of the S en legislatures t t o the whole basis of compulsory was a compromise, and most e-bodied citizen shall have a job-a ance. I objec of the Senators felt abl President, will the membersh ip, but I think t h e . bill- ators, or a majority job of his own choosing?· . Mr. LONG. Mr. n ought to vote on that ques at that point yield for a ey bill- t?at the me Everyone of course will admit that full Senator Namely, the Taft-Hartl tiOn themselves, and I yielded to that employment is a worthy national objec question? Is largely going to eliminate compulsory rsuasion. However, the Senator I sup PRESIDENT. Does the union leadership is pe tive, but I wonder whether those who The viCE membership unless the pose is familiar with the fact that under are will Senator from Minnesota yield to the so geed t hat a m ajor ity of all the employees talk about "the right to work" a the regulations of the State laws, and right to work· without Senator from Louisiana? want it and will get out and vote for it in eme ing to have the . Obviously the union lead under the Wagner Act itself, the Supr because of race, color, or Mr. HUMPHREY. I yield. secret election by a vote discrimination Senator ers-and I heard one of them the other night Court of the United States they willing to adopt a full Mr. LONG. I wonder if the this pro that Stat~ creed '? Are sed to m ake his major argument against as I recall, of 8 to 1 h eld bill on the part of the Con has seen some of the methods u re that a majority of were per employment I know in vision-are quite su laws prohibiting union shops national policy which wi]] see pr.omote the "right to work"? t h e employees are not going to want it Wagner Act. Is gress as a who were fectly legal under the to it that every individual in the Nation my own State legislature people and I agree w ith them. So this provision, not that a fact? to worll: at a job of actually financing the "right to work" bill in m y o pinion, is far m ore t he m agna carta Sen does have the right omen t h an Mr. HUMPHREY. The junior sing, at wages which provide and seeking its enactment did not testify of American working men and w very familiar his own choo in resent so-called W agner Act. ator from Minnesota is h a decent standard of living? before the committee. They brought is the p Wagner Act there him wit in effect they with that. Under the Unless that is accomplished, the phrase pool-hall .loafer& who said The statistics of the National Labor ation pertaining to State find jobs, and could not get was no legisl "the right to work" is meaningless and were tryingto Relations Board, Mr. President, demon laws. Where there is an absence of leg fact is that "the jobs. At the same time, all over the my predecessor had never Court empty. The obvious out "help strate that islation, of course the Supreme to work" is meaningless aq.d is State there w ere hanging more wrong than when he made States' action prevail. right jobs which these been rules that the empty, without a. job on \Yhieh to work. wanted" signs offering the above statement. These statistics Court has also ruled take. When we really get But the Supreme rri ~jor drive of almost every labor men would not that in the secret elections referred conclusive con s titu~ The they do not take show and it is clear and organization in this country is to obtain to the facts, the reason to, unions won 98.2 percent of the elec that in the field of interstate available is because the tional law, jobs for its present and future members, the jobs that are tions, and 84 percent of the eligible vot commerce the Federal Government can rush of employers to jpbs do not pay enough. The jobs they of the union shop per are doing in the to resist the blind the workers ers voted in favor legislate. What we in on quick profits by wholesale dis want are in places where mitted by the act. is to legislate, within a cash union and obtained Thomas bill charges, artificial cut-backs in produc have organized a Mr. TAFT. Mr. President, will the field which is constitutional, which be that keep profits better conditions. They want a union Supreme tion, and other d evices ssible Senator yield? longs to the Congress. The down. We are going man's job, which h as b een made po . Does the right of the Con up and wages in order to The VICE PRESIDENT Court will uphold the some of that now. There are by men who have paid dues from Minnesota yield to the slate in that particular field. through g conditions. Senator gress to legi 3,700,000 Americans who want the tight obtain good workin Senator from Ohio? Mr. TAFT. Is the Senator also fa want job on Mr. HUMPHREY. I do recognize tliat yield. taken to work. I mean they a · from Mr. HUMPHREY. I miliar with the general attitude .which makes the right to the observation of the Senator course, our contention . Justice Brandeis and which to wor:k, it, and refers Mr. TAFT. Of for example, by Mr meaningful. These Americans Louisiana is one of real mer been that the union security Frankfurter, particularly as work which has prevailed in has always Mr. Justice have been laid off, tlieir names t aken off to a s ituation furnished by the act, the union shop reflected in the decision by Mr. Justice any States. I think we need to know the industrial pay rolls, by some of those m 844385-30518 844385-30518 48 49 laws Mr. DOUGLAS. Mr. President, will Frankfurter, in upholding the State of labor said, "If you can find us a law I think it is· apropos, Mr. President, to prohibiting the closed shop? . the Senator yield? law I yield. that is worse, we will make it the say that. the wolf changes its fur, but Mr. HUMPHREY. 'The junior Sen Mr. HUMPHREY. That is what the Taft I submit that Mr. DOUGLAS. Is the Senator from of the land." it never changes its mind. ator froni Minnesota is familiar with the Hartley Act said. We say we are going we can change some of the titles, but comments of the late Justice Brandeis Minnesota aware that some time after he to legislate in a field in which we should the same old principle and the same old and of Justice Frankfurter. He is also Justice Brandeis wrote this statement to be impartiai arbitrator for the legislate, and not permit workers philosophy are there. The Taft-Hartley • fully familiar ·with the fact that the acted as the of a law which is that of the pre-Norris the Women's Clothing Industry in New York placed under the impact Act philosophy Congress of the United States has is given respectability, if we can call it LaGuardia era, the philosophy of bitter right, under the Constitution of the City, arid in that capacity he obtained the and the em that, by the Taft-Hartley Act, by saying ness, of injunction, of inequity, the phi United States, to legislate in the field of consent of both the union by former ployers to a preferential union sho to the State legislatures, "Pass the most losophy which Was repudiated interstate commerce, and he is not going of legislation you can Hoover and repudiated by the or the public namely, that the union would first refe iniquitous piece President to permit either himself find, if you can do worse than we did Congress in 1932; a philosophy repu to be deluded into believing that because candidates for employment to the em would t8.ke them, arid ;which is a job in itself, and we will mak~ diated by both the Republican and Demo the Supreme Court, under the Wagner ployer, and he them got only after the submission of union it the law of the land." That is not a cratic Parties, until one of Act, upheld State laws, under this bill that friendly rela with the Taft-Hartley Act by or that that members to the employer had been ex principle which promotes hocked in the same thing will be done, I think it clearly sets forth some strange ·quirl{. Both political par should be the principle. Without any hausted and the firm still needed em tionships. permitted to the attitude which was prevalent when ties were opposed to government by in express affirmation on the part of the ployees, were employers keeper take nonunion employees? Is he fur the Taft-Hartley Act was placed upon junction, until 1947, and then the Federal Congress, the Supreme Court up the NAM, walked back in, of State laws. ther familiar with the fact that this the books. of the keys, held the constitutionality · opened the doors, and took over. Distinguished lawyers in this body know union preferential shop, over a period Injunctions has become virtually a closed Nothing is more demonstrably certain that, and they should not delude the of time, Mr. President, I desire now to refer to 1932 deliber shop, and that Brandeis was its father? controversial issue than that the Congress in American people. that very great and eratively terminated the power of the Mr. TAFT. I do not quite understand Mr. HUMPHREY. I am very appreci known as the injunction. ative for that historical observation. in labor Government to obtain labor injunctions. the Senator's statement on that point. In 1932 the lise of injunctions purposeful action by Con delude the Only recently the National Plar1ning was, at least so it was thought Why this Mr. HUMPHREY. To disputes gress? For the all sufficient-the excel American people into believing that un Commission, which represents industry effectively laid to rest by the Norris-La~ and labor, in a New York Times article the Supreme lent-reason that some of the most out der the Wagner Act the same thing was Guardia Act. As stated by the labor injunction under the Taft issued in the month of February, which case of Milk Wagon Drivers rageous abuses of · done as has been done Court in the were perpetrated in cases instituted by Hartley Act. was introduced in evidence in the hear Union against Lake Valley Farm Prod ings, pointed out that the pattern of the culmination of a the Government. Mr. TAFT. What I wanted to point ucts, that act was the good doctrine for many closed shop in the garment industry was bitter political, social, and economic con- This shoUld be out was that while the Wagner Act au folks. There are always people worry shop, it took no posi a model pattern in the United States, and .. troversy extending over half a century. thoriz~ the closed as a means of ing for fear the Government is going to tion whatever-- that it should be restored · I~ _ ~947 that controversy was-quite good, sound labor-management relat~o recklessly-fully regiment us, there are always people Mr. HUMPHREY. As we have ma \ unnecessarily and quite the Government is ship. ..revived by the Taft-Hartley Act. In worrying for fear tured through experience, we say we · Mr. LONG. 1\IIr. President, will. the going to socialize us. I know of no bet a position, for the same other words, that great mandate on the should take Senator yield for a question? to the working peo ter way of being socialized than having reason that we have a national policy on part of the Congress 'to us. We are Mr. HUMPHREY. I yield. ple of America, the Norris-LaGuardia an injunction applied social security, a national policy on fair Mr. LONG. I certainly hope that really under the control of the Govern a national policy in Act, passed under the administration ·of labor standards, neither the Senator nor anyone else is been thrown ment then. reference to the control of narcotics, a a Republican President, has confused regarding the right of Congress aside. One of the authors of that act Those who are worrying about the national policy with reference to taxes. in the field of the closed shop, Government going to socialize somebody distinguished Senator to legislate was George W. Norris, the great, vener I may say to the insofar as it affects interstate commerce. who worked because it is going to help 1;he farmer from Ohio that, in the absence of Fed able saint of the Midwest, Certainly if the Taft-Hartley law can say so hard in this Chamber, and the other with a little price support, are the same eral law for the control of narcotics, a closed shop, even would deliberately put the The reason a State cannot have was that great humanitarian, that great p~ople who State laws would be upheld. State wants it, then the Thomas H. American worker behind the eight ball the Wagner Act did not legislate if the mayor of New York City, Fiorella why go in the opposit~ direction and court injunction, which is not only because at that particu bill can LaGuardia. They had the kind of a of a in this field w.as provide that if a State does not want it, needs- a step toward socialization, but which is lar time it was felt it was not necessary; Philosophy which this country it must have it an~way. What is good Taft-Hartley a contemptible type of legal totalitarian but the record of today proves it is - not the philosophy of the for the goose is g.:Jod for the gander; if it faw, but the philosophy of understand ism, forcing a man to work against his necessary. in one way, it works in the other and of peace. will. from works ing, of friendship, Mr. TAFT. Does the Senator way. I do not see that there is any rea President, that the Taft my colleagues a strange para agree with the following con I know, Mr. I present Minnesota son why it cannot t~ done. Ha.;rtley apologists will take exception to dox: The great defenders of the free way clusion of Mr. Brandeis, quoted by Mr. Mr. HUMPHREY. I am very grateful have repeatedly to deny in January of this that statement. They of life are the ~ery first ones Justice Frankfurter to the Senator from Louisiana. asserted a vast distinction between the freedom to individuals who want to live. year: Not only was there prohibition aga_inst pre-Norris-LaGuardia and the post The great defenders of free economy, who The objections, legal, economic; and social, the closed shop, but it was provided that injunction. They say that who want people to against the closed shop are so strong, and Taft-Hartley want competition, any State law which was. more restric Norris-LaGuardia put an end to private have a. chance to express themselves, 'are the ideas of the closed shop so antagonistic the law to the American spirit, that the insistence tive, more arbitrary, would be. employer injunctions but did ·not touch the very first to argue for the right of the upon it has been a serious obstacle to union insof~.r as labor-management relation Government injunctions, and that Taft Government to get an injunction to hold progres.s. ships were co11cerned_. This great f~:iepd Hartley continues the same scheme. But a man in his place against his will. 844385-30516 they are wrong, woefully wrong. What kind of consistency is that? It is 844385-30518 51 50 Qn argued year in and year out for the lied upon by Congress in enacting the the right to secure an injunction under the consistency of the selfish to have Norris-LaGuardia right of the Congress. t? den~ the courts Act. those circumstances? their selfish way. . He wrote-see his work entitled "Law Mr. HUMPHREY. I shall be very glad The first important labor- injunctiOn the power to issue InJUnctiOns on the · part of the Government against em- and Politics," at page 218: to give the Senator from Ohio my obser in this country was the notorious Debs Never in American history has an appeal by vations on that subject. Not being an injunction-the one ployees. b't obtained b~ the - Perhaps the Goverment to the courts • • • been attorney, but just one of those who Government in the Pullman no injunction was more l - received with such widespread stnke . of terly assailed condemnation has been interested in the field of ad 1894. That injunction, as Mr. Jus~Ice during the sa~e debates as the injunction-granted to Attorney Gen than that issued by Judge Wilkerson, on ministrative law, and being also one who Brandeis describes it in Truax agamst eral Dau gherty at Chicago. Criticism does is the request of Attorney General pau~h not abate with time nor with interested in the Constitution, I would Corrigan, precipitated "storms of . pro reflection. make this observation. test" over the perversion of an eqUitable erty, during the railway shopmen s stn~e The simple truth is that Harry M. Daugher of 1922. Representative ty • • • with the complicity of Judge Mr. TAFT. Mr. President, will the remedy in a manner that "endang~red LaGuardia for ex.ample, stated: Wilkerson, has set himself above_the Consti Senator again yield? the personal liberty of wage ear~ers . . Let me tution. • • • What's the Constitution Mr. HUMPHREY. Yes, I yield. The clamor for relief almost tell you how that was obtained~ between Immedi this is not . friends-even though one of them Mr. TAFT. The Senator from Minne ately hearsay, not from what some h appens to be the Attorney found political support. By 1896 body else tells me, General of the sota has shown such wide lmowledge of but from the in~1de United States and the other a Federal the Democratic Party denounced labor story as told by Harry Daugherty hlm judge. the cases he has cited, and of the various injunctions as a highly dangerous form ~elf . • • • Daugherty says in his book: Small wonder, Mr. President, legal principles he has discussed, that I of oppression. in the Just 12 year~ later, be "After looking around for a judge, Judge face of that background, in the face of the thought' he was a lawyer. ginning in 1908, the Republican Party, Willcerson was finally accepted. He was congressional debates, out of the city, but came back. to Chicago . and in the face of Mr. HUMPHREY. I may say to the . too, advocated the elimina~io~ of. the the plain language of the statute, that the distinguished Senator abuses inherent in labor InJUnctiOnS. 1 • • • ·was most. fortunate in gettmg from Ohio that I Wilkerson. Supreme Court, in a per curiam decision, am gratified by his That is a normal timetable of Repub- He had long been in ~he serv1ce compliment. I did of the Government as distnct · attor in the case of United States v. American take basic courses in constitutional law, lican backwardness. . ney • • • He agreed with me on. every Federation of Musicians (318 U. S. 741), and I wish some of my professors were A flood of le gislative proposals was m poi~ '- and granted the temporary injunction unanimously ruled here troduced that the Norris-La today to see how well their pupil is and discussed in Congress. !'>s >:'thout a mir ute's delay." Guardia Act barred the Government from doing. [Laughter.] Justice Brandeis observed, "These le~IS obtaining labor lative proposals That is justice, Mr. President, that is injunctions in disputes Referring to the question asked by the occupied the attentiOn between private employers and employ of congress during every session but one wonderful justice, the Attorney G 3neral Senator from Ohio: ·Does the President in the 20 of the TJnited States finding a friendlY ees. have inherent powers to obtain injunc years between 1894 and 1914." What gives me serious pause At long last, in 1914, judge; and, without a minute's delay, is the cal tions? I am not a member of the Su Congress ~nacted lous manner in which the foregoing his the Cla~rton Act, which was descnbed by they agreed to do what? To_ deny the preme Court. I have not been asked to workers the right even to stnke. T~at tory lias been forgotten or perverted. rule on this subject as a member of the President Wilson as "a veritable en_Ian~ What gives cipation of the workingmen is not a matter of hearsay, as the dis me equally serious reflection judiciary. So rather than try to distort of Amenca, and concern, Mr. President, and was hailed by Samuel Gompers. as tinguished L:'l.Guardia said, it is a mat is that this the meaning of the Constitution, I may "the industrial ter of record, the printed word of, th story, which is written in the pages of say that I think the right to use the in magna carta upon which American history, the working people will rear former Attorney General him1:elf. has not been told, as it junction, or the inability to use the in their con should have been told, again and struction of industrial freedom." But Mr. DOUGLAS. Mr. President, will again junction, should be a matter of congres the hopes th_us enge)1dercd the Senator from Minnesota yield? to the American people. sional legislation. In other words, I do proved wholly They have been illusory. They were completely frus Mr. HUMPHREY. I yield to the Sen led to believe that the not want to have invested in anyone a ator from Illinois. injunction is a fair and equitable tool of sort of power which may be in the air trated by the interpretation placed by government. the Mr. DOUGLAS. Is it not a fact tl_lat They have been led to be somewhere, but with respect to which courts on the Clayton Act. . lieve that injunctions Inevitably, the failure _of the Clayton in the Wilkerson injunction the unw_n which oftentimes Congress has not legislated. I am op officials were prohibited have been termed "temporary" are really Act to accomplish its plam purposes r~ from commum posed to the injunction , and I am so temporary, being in effect for 2 or 3 newed, w.ith even greater force, the a~I cating with their members? opposed to It I want Congress to reenact Mr. HUMPHREY days, or a day. But the record is replete tation against injunctions in ~abor ?IS . The injunc~ion the Norris-LaGuardia Act, and then we putes. Beginning wit_h the was so sweeping· that for all practical with facts indicating that injunctions will know there is no power of injunction. ~Ixty-sixth were neither fair congress, numerous bills seekmg t? _off purposes it put the union.s in~o . com nor were they the equi We can not always be sure that as are set the crippling effects plete, total silence a~d I!IactlVlty. I table tools of government, nor were they sult of what occurs on a certain day in of the decisiOns brief of the Supreme Court were introduced. dare s~y hardly any inJunctiOn has been in their duration. November a great humanitarian Presi· These eventuated in the Norris-LaGuar so sweeping. That is why labor f~ars Mr. TAFT. Mr. President, will the dent will always be in the White House. d!a Act of 1932. And throughout that injunctions. This is not 3: theoretical Senator yield? It may happen sometime that we will discussion, to be The PRESIDING OFFICER p3riod, up to and including the Congres conducted m the class- (Mr. HUNT be brought back to the point where we sional debates and committee room. This is a part of the life of labor in the chair). Does the Sen·ator from were some years ago- and I take Sen reports on ing men. Minnesota Norris-LaGuardia, the injunc~ion against They know what it means to yield to the S3nator from ators back to 1932, lest there be any Debs obtained by the Government con have suffered from the injunction, Ohio? doubt as to the meaning of my observa tinued in the words of one representa whether it is obtained from an em Mr. HUMPHREY. I yield. tion-and therefore the junior Senator tive a~tive in the debate as "t~e cause ployer going to the district court, or by Mr. TAFT. What is the Senator's view from Minnesota says frankly that the job celebre from which sprang the agitation Government. on the question, which has been debated of this Congress should not be that of Even stronger, here to destroy the power of the . ~e~eral Mr. President, was the already, as to the President's inher thinking about whether or not the Presi courts to issue such-Iabor-mJunc- published criticism of Professor, now Mr. ent right to secure an injunction without dent has the right to use the injunctive jUstice Frankfurter, a· statute in connection tions." . who is recognized with what he process, whether he ought to have it, or Let us not delude ourselves; the Con as one 'of the leading_authorities on the deems to be a national emergency? Does whether it is implied or inherent. Let us gress thr.ough the many years, from 1894 labor injunction, and who was heavily re- the Senator think the Government has not worry about that. Let us simply out- 844385-30518 844385-30 ~ 18 52 53 That only for the employer, not only ating the business. Let us not permit ~ailed, I ?all it public skulduggery, sions had been Used in an urrexpected law, not section amounts to. for . the Attorney General, but for the . the issue to be beclouded. Under IS what It manner. all his agents, the power of 10 (l) and section 10 (j) of the Taft I read further from page 37 of the Mr. President, I desire to make some President and of the report: injunction, and that wi.ll .save us a great Hartley Act the Government g~neral observations on the historic sig injunctions for the emer deal of trouole. That is not a radical sug United States obtained This record of experience under nificance of the_injunction and the les new. I the employer against the worker. gency provisions of the Labor Management from injunct-ions after the gestion. That is not "something made son learned Republican doc Mr. TAFT. Mr. President, will the Relations Act, confirms the appraisal away from the Norris-La want to return to good William M. Lelserson, long recognized breaki~g Act. S ~nator yield? . . by Dr. Guardia Act, and going back to pre trine, to the Norris-LaGuardia , .. _ as one of the leading authorities In this Mr. President, will the Mr. HUMPHREY:. I yfeld just Norris-LaGuardia conditions. Mr. TAFT. the Senator· is field, that "the emergency procedures again yield? Mr. TAFT. Of course, • • • having no relation There is little hope for constructive Senator between thetwo situa went haywire, Mr. HUMPHREY. I yield. not distinguishing to the realties of what happens at this point ?rogress if we are thus to ignore the Senator then, would tions. Iri a national emergency tlie Taft In the labor-relations picture." Important lessons learned with such dif Mr. TAFT. The Government amend the Norrris-LaGuardia Hartley Act simply gave the ficulty ~nly . Y.esterday. . Particularly have us secure an injunction in the Mr. TAFT. Mr. President, will the Act to make it perfectly clear that it the right to whe~, as m th1s mstance, the lesson con-· public interest, with no relation to the Senator yield? applies to the Government as well as to I yield. cretized and reaffirmed the fundamental private employer. Is not that a correct Mr. HUMPHREY. revolutionary fathers that private employers. Am I to understand then tenet of our I may say to the statement? Mr. TAFT. t:vrany flourishes where courts "of jus Mr. HUMPHREY. . I would say it was that the Senator from Minnesota not distinguished Senator from Ohio that I Mr. HUMPHREY tiCe do the bidding or give preference to a statement, but I would not say it was only wants to. repeal the Taft-Hartley can hardly concur in what he has said. labor the petitions of the executive. correct. I will say it was not correct Act ·on the subJect of injunctions in amendments Apparently he has not listened to the he also wishes It is true that the Taft because, first of all, what is basic-ally emergency disputes, but the peculiarly offensive dissertation I have given. perfectly clear by statute, by would eliminate The Senator read from the public interest? The Government to make it one-sided mandatory injunction Mr. TAFT. ships in the case of the Norris-LaGuardia and but in that case the Su was not operating the reenactment section 10 (l). That is an ad- the coal case, strike or· Act, that the President has no inherent u~der preme Court avoided that question, and of the Pacific longshoremen's . mitted improvement. It is one of those in the case of the Atlantic longshore power to seek an injunction in the ab based the right of government injunc the Gov thin!!"s for which we are very grateful. in men's strike. The Government said in sence of seizure of operations by irritating de tion on the fact that the employees Senator's posi B~t It 1:11erely removes an at that time eff3ct that a national emergency existed e:nment? Is that the perpetuating an odious prac volved were techni_cally emer tiOn? t~Il Wh1Ie of the government, which was in b::~th cases, and the national tice. There was no mandate on the At employees were made use· of in Mr. HUMPHREY. That is the Sena operating the coal mines. But it seemed gency provisions to~ney Gen~rll;l to apply for the Debs and legal behalf of the employers, supposedly in t~r's positi~n. and, of course, the Senator . The Attorney to me there was a very considerable have others concur Wilkerson mJunctions opinion as to whether behalf of the public interest. Slnce none w~ll be_delighted to discretion, as is provided doubt under that under the He will be delighted to have Gen~ra} had Government was barred by the Nor of the strikes were settled With him. for m the Taft amendments. Experi the Act I do not see· how the reenact1:11ent of the Norris-LaGuardia ris-LaGuardia Act. .Taft-Hartley ence ~o ?ate_uJ?der the Taft-Hartley Act's public interest was protected. Act, Which can well be done without too inspire Mr. HUMPHREY. I should like to the Taft permissive mJunctions does not I r3fer the Members of the Senate ·to much confusion, by repealing abuse will not be state my point of view to the Senator the· back to basic confidence that the Act page 37 of Report No. 99 of H~rtl~y law and getting repeated. from Ohio. The Norris-LaGuardia rst session, on of labor-management law the right of Eigl1ty-first Congress, fi prmCJples this because the Senator denies to the Government Relations Act ·of Wit? reference to what we have b.een I mention It denies the right of in the National Labor from Ohio has an amendment which injunction. where the following appears: speakmg of, I should like to quote from junction for an employer. It outlaws 1949, ~auld do away with section 10 (!.). Sec H. Davis, former Chairman .of the the hearings of the Committee on Labor se of injunctions. Six of the Su William tiOn 10 (!) was so patently unfair, that the u National War Labor · Board and an ac and Public Welfare, part II, February preme Court justices expressly stated in field, anyone_ would want to do away with it. knowledged impartial authority in this 4, 5, and 7, 1949, where the distinguished injunction the Mine Workers case, the one referred before the committee on February. Mr. ~t provided for a mandatory testified Senator from Ohio had this to say to practices on to by the Senator from Ohio, that the 7, 1949, that: Davis: m the case of unfair labor apply where is absolutely of the employee. There was Norris-VtGuardia Act did "The record on this subject question had the part in pointed out, there has not Senator TAFT. Mr. Davis, that in the case of the Government sought an injunction clear. As I have Interrupt you to re no mandatory injunction under the Taft-Hartley law. in n~t been raised, I just part of the a private dispute. This happened to be, been a case anxious to try to limit this unfair labor practices on the a settlement h as been reached dur mmd you. I was as the S3nator pointed out, a situation which just as much as possible. In other e~ployer. If the employee did some Ing the cooling-off period under an Injunc thing work imme where the Government could seize, own, was nci wo;ds, I feel that the Inconvenience of the tJ:ung, the courts went, to tion, because In the coal case there It, and 1 and operate, in which event the employees was a strike. In stnke was no reason for declining diately. If the employer did something cooling-off period, there as It could become the employees o.f the Govern it did not settle them. tried to malce It just as narrow the case went to the bottom of the list' the other three cases agree with you that of the United St;1tes. But I may ecause men are not encouraged be, and I must say that I and 2 :vears later we might hear about it: ment Well, why? B In cases beyond what 1 there, the junior Senator reasonable and to reach an agreed it has been used That Is a 50-50 proposition-one horse say that even to be thought It should be used ln. says, if there is to be settlement when they are uncjer order of and one rabbit. from Minnesota I thought It was just a fundamental kind I want it written into the law the court to work for a private employer, It has been stated that the amendment seizure, The evidence of thing, like a rallroad strllre which would o( the workers will be whether they want to or not. down. been offered is a conciliatory what the rights a good way to get a close everything which has seizure. I warit no Houdini prin shows that that is not compromise. I say that under cooling-off period." national ~~endment-a ciples 'iri legislation. I want to know That refers to the use of the It Is nothing but a fraud. Why? Be what the legislation means. I say to the distinguished Senator from eme~gency provisions of the Taft-Hartley cause that which is mandatory under the Ohio that when they are under the Act m ways which may be called public Act will become discretion Let us not confuse the issue. Under distinguished Taft-Hartley injunction was order of a court to work for . a private interest ways. EVen the ary. Surely the evidence has convinced the Taft-Hartley law the felt that the provi- when the Government was employer, whether it .be called in the Senator from Ohio all of us that what may be discretionary not used only be theoretically, or, let me say, in fact oper- public interest or whatever it may 844385-30518 844385-30518 54 55 can be just as mandatory as even· the Two wrongs do not make a right. The ator from Minnesota has prepared an he can be fined, perhaps, and can be put prescribed mandatory provisions. argument is, in effect, that since we· have exhaustive study on the subject of sec in jail, but that does not result in the At the outset under the Taft-Hartley wronged-labor, the way to make it good is ondary boycotts. I am within two para mining of ·coal. Act, General Counsel Denham solemnly to wrong the employer. Then twice as graphs of reaching that point. Mr. HUMPHREY. That is correct, and announced that he considered the vast many people would be unhappy. So far I shall continue by referring to what the ultimate result is to implant bitter authority vested in him by section 10 (j); only two injunctions have been sought the Senate commit tee.had to say in ref ness in the hearts of many of the Amer which is the discretionary injunction, to against .employers, as compared with· erence to the Norris-LaGuardia Act. I ican people. Today there are large num~ be "a very sacred trust." He said that 41 against unions. quote from the Senate committee report: bers of them who have in their hearts a he would use it sparingly, and only More important, however, is the fact The suspension of strike activitle~, even bitterness against ·the judicial process "where either a large segment of the that in the very nature of things in temporarily, may defeat the strike for all and the rule of law, as a result of that sit practical purposes and foredoom Its resump uation. public welfare is in danger or where life junctions operate more oppressively ' tion, evim if the injunction is later lifted and property are seriously and in reality against unions than against employers·. (S. Rept. 1060, 71st Cong., 2d sess., p. 201) '. wi'ftrt~H~:!,~ ?fy%\~~- Mr. President, threatened or where there is a principle The reason is quite obvious. Injunc 1 involved that will result in substantial tions deprive unions of the only weapons Let us not maintain the h ~ted and Mr. HUMPHREY. I yjeld. and widespread irreparable damage or they have in labor disputes-the strike, hateful injunction as a weapon in Amer Mr. THOMAS of Utah. I think the injury of more than a merely· private the picket, and the '!awful boycott. It ican industrial conflicts. In the exceed Senator from Minnesota is about to take nature." ' is axiomatic that in most instances a ingly apt language of Mr. Justice Frank up the subject of secondary boycotts; is These are very high-sounding words; strike temporarily delayed will be com furter in 31 Columbia Law Review, page he not? but let us ccmsider some of the pressing pletely defeated because of the delay. 385, we find this statement referring .to Mr. HUMPHREY. That is correct. issues which led the general counsel to The public has been told repeatedly the injunction: Mr. THOMAS of Ut'ah. I wonder use this "sacred trust." One case in- that, after all, these injunctions are only n does not work. It neither mines coal, whether the Senator from Minesota will valved the retail meat departments of temporary, and that the men can go back n or moves trains, nor m_akes clothing, As ap yield, to permit me to suggest the ab adjustor of Industrial conflict the injunction sence of a quorum, so that other Sena only 11 A. & P. stores out of the 5,000 and-fight for their rights. Mr. President, h as been an utter failure. It has been used stores which comprise the national chain: a strike is a ·weapon for economic pur tors may h ear this important part of his as a short cut-but it h as not cut anything, speech. Look at the situation. With 11 meat poses, to gain an end or an objective. except to cut off labor from confidence in the markets on strike out of 5,000 great super An injunction against a strike would be rule of law and of the courts as its impartial M'r. HUMPHREY. Mr. President, I markets, the general counsel feels that !il{e an injunction against a field com organs. No disinterested student of Amer am very grateful to the Senator from it is a case calling for the exercise of mander who is trying to get the advan ican indust~;y, or of American Jaw, can have Utah for that suggestion. I think he is a his "sacred trust," and that it is a press- tage of a quick strategic forward move the slightest doubt that, beginning with the little more optimistic than I am as to the ing issue calling for resort to the powers ment. He would be told, "Wait a minute; Debs case, the use of labor injunctions has, number of Senators who will remain in predominantly, been a cumulative influence the Chamber to hear my remarks. How of the injunction. we are going to take about 3 months off, for discord in our national life. The "sacred trust" was resorted to in until we get our troops lined up, and then ever, I yield, with the understanding that the International Typographical Union we will have a good war." That sentence-that the injunction I do not lose the flo or. case, on the ground that there would-be Mr. TAFT. Mr. President, will the has "cut off labor from confidence in the The PRESIDING OFFICER. The paralysis in the newspaper industry, Senator yield? rule of law and of the courts as its impar clerk will call the roll. although newspapers printed by substi- Mr. HUMPHREY. I yield. tial organs"-is most important, for I The legislative clerk Proceeded to call tute methods had continued to reach Mr. TAFT. Does riot the Senator dis- submit that in these days of doubt and the roll, and called Mr. AIKEN's name. uncertainty, the courts of the United Mr. TAFT. Mr. President, I object. readers in the Chica~go area throughout tinguish between stri!{eS which are not the period of the strike. covered by any · of the cases which the States must stand lily white iri their jus~ Mr. LONG. Mr. President, a point of Another of the great public welfare sena,tor has cited, and secondary boy tice and their equity. Profound students order. cases involved the operations of a small cotts against third parties, who are not. who have studied the record find that, The PRESIDING OFFICER. The motor carrier doing a negligible volume involved in the dispute? Every case instead of that, the ordinary people of Senator will state it. the United States, if such practices con Mr. LONG: The call of the roll has of interstate work. In a companion cas·e which the senator has been citing has already been begun. there had been a temporary cessation of been a case of a secondary boycott, in tinue, will be led to believe that the rule deliveries to-the shipping dock of a single which the injunCtion is not against a of law is not fair and that the courts are Mr. HUMPHREY. Mr. President, let not impartial. me say that I feel very well today; and store in the multiple Montgomery Ward strike, but against interference with' a Mr. · LONG. Mr. President, will the if the Senator who made the suggestion chain. The Government of the United third party, with whom the ·strikers have of the absence of a quorum will withdraw States was called in because there was a no direct relationship. Senator yield? Mr. HUMPHREY. I yield. the suggestion, I shall be very happy to stoppage at the shipping dock of a single Mr. HUMPHREY. I wish ·my meJital proceed, because those who need the in store in the great Montgomery Ward processes worked in such a way that I Mr. LONG. Does not that fairly well illustrate the old adage that you can lead formation are here, and we should con chain. could dissociate- what is. actually hap-, . a horse to water, but you cannot ma!{e tinue the proceedings. Not one of these cases involved danger· pening in a strike with what is happen bim drink? In other words, you can put to "a large segment of the public wei- ing in the rest of the community. If Mr. TAFT. Mr. President, my posi fare" or "substantial and widespread there is a little strike which involves the a man in a coal mine, but you cannot tion is that this bill has now been before irreparable damage or injury of tnore public welfare •. it is made to appear that make him mine coal. So if a man is the Senate for some 8 days. Apparently than a merely private nature." it involves the whole Nation. The Sen- made to go into a coal mine, and if he those who are in favor of the bill' have then acts in a rather lackadaisical way, occupied the floor practically all of that Nor is it any answer to say that under ator from Ohio must admit that the the Taft amendments injunctions will boycott is a fundamental part of the eco 844385- 30513 be equally available against employers. nomic dispute pattern. Experience "to date indicates that they R:J.ther than deal with this subject by will be sought far more frequently ' way of extemporan·eous, spontaneous, against unions than against employers. and sporadic statements, the junior Sen- 844385--,'30518 56 57 time, with the exception of 40 minutes, keep the Senator from Minnesota from I believe. · I do not know that they are talking as much. as he pleases, he had without attempting to distinguish be fabricated houses who refused to deal filibustering against a vote on the bill; better think again, because there are tween those which are justifiable and with the carpenters' union. The car but I feel that the rule as to the number six or eight amendments pending to this those which are not. When I say "justi penters picketed the contractor and of times a Senator may speak in l day on measure, and the Senator from Minne fiable," I mean what I regard as justi placed his name on the unfair list. In the same subject should be enforced, and sota ·can speak on.each one of them if fiable. In addition to this indiscrimi addition, a single union carpenter left that therefore if a quorum call is had he wishes to do so, and thus could con nate prohibition, the act further provides the employment of the contractor. now, and if thereafter the Senator from sume about 12 days of speaking ·time, if for triple penalties against those unions The decision of the Board, and. the in Minesota is recognized again-as I have he would like to do so. which engage in such forms of union junction which was issued in anticipa no doubt he will be, and I have no ob Mr. HUMPHREY. Mr. President, I activity: First, the union is guilty of tion ofit, held that an employer who aids jection to his being recognized when the am glad to continue speaking. I think an unfair labor · practice; second, the another to undermine a union's condi quorum call is over-that will be the sec we are now in a frame of mind to discuss ( ~ Board must petition the court for injunc tions is immune from peaceful pressures ond time he will have spoken on this secondary boycotts. I say that in a dis tive relief pending the Board's final ad of the union. subject today. Certainly we should not, cussion of the length of the one in whiQh judication of such cases; and third, the All that was here invoived was a simple, by a series of quorum calls, permit a I have been engaging, it is not easy to union is subject to damage suit by any peaceful refusal by workers to handle a Senator to speak a number of times on analyze and discuss 100 mistakes of the person injured by a secondary boycott. product which they rightfully believed the same subject on the same day. Taft-Hartley law without spending·some The Taft amendments retain all of the threatened their welfare and their un The PRESIDING OFFICER. In view time on them. If we were to discuss Taft-Hartley ·Act's prohibitions on sec ion. Yet this, under Taft-Hartley, was of the objection, does the Senator from something which was commonly agreed ondary boycotts with the narrow excep held to be unlawful subject to the severe Utah withdraw his suggestion of the ab to by all, of course, that would not take tion that a· secondary boycott is, in penalties I have described . sence of a quorum? much time. . limited circumstances, permitted against In reaching its conclusion, the Board Mr. THOMAS of Utah. Mr. President, But, Mr. President, after all, the mat work transferred from a struck plant. was forced to the startling holding that I should like to say just a word, and I ter of time could well be referred to. I As already indicated, the Taft amend the free-speech provision of the Taft think I am entitled to that. It has been was trying to refer to the Taft-Hartley ments eliminate the mandatory injunc Hartley bill, about which so many elo my understanding all the time that a law in connection with the Interna tion in boycott cases; but provide for quent statements have been made, does Senator who speaks at some length may tional Typographical Union case, where injunction at the discretion of the Board. not protect the freedom of the organized have one quorum call, and that does not there was a temporary injunction which The ~ffect of this broad pr0hibition of worker to speak by way of picket or in any way interfere with the rules. · went into effect on March 27, 1948, and secondary boycotts has been drastically otherwise. The incredible philosophy of I agree with all that has been said. still is in effect. So, evidently, time has to curb resort by unions to legitimate the Taft-Hartley Act appears to be that The debate has proceeded for quite a long not been given too much consideration economic sanctions. As of February 1, the Constitution protects the free speech time and many Senators have not been in connection with the Taft-Hartley Act. 1949, injunctions had been sought in 33 only of our propertied citizens. in the Chamber during all this time. i am now endeavoring to present a cases involving the secondary-boycott Another interesting phase of this de But there has been no filibustering, as complete discussic.n of some of the im~ provisions of the Taft-Hartley Act. This cision is the holding that the quitting of everyone knows; and not an ungermane portant points of that piece ·of legisla- is but a small percentage, however, of the work by a single carpenter is a concerted sentence has been uttered, as everyone tion. number of cases in which secondary activity prohibited by the act. knows. Secondary Boycotts boycott charges have been made and in I recognize, Mr. President, that there My purpose in suggesting the absence which the possibility of the issuance of I shall refer now to secondary boy are certain secondary boycotts which of a quorum was, not to cause delay, but an injunction · caused unions to discon are unjustifiable. Employers and the to be fair to those who are attempting cotts. I realize that subject is a highly tinue legitimate secondary activities. controversial one. I also realize that public should be protected against these to explain the bill and are attempting In other words, the threat of the in types of activities. The Thomas bill, to give the reasons why the Taft-Hartley this matter must be brought out into the junction was as effective as the injunc open. I do not pose as having the an accordingly, makes it an unfair labor law should be repealed. tion. The threat of the injunction was practice for a union to cause or attempt However, if the Senator from Minne swers to all these problems. In tbis por used·in many instances where there was tion of my remarks I am endeavoring to to cause employees to engage in a second sota does not wish to be interrupted, I a legal right to undertake a boycott, but ary boycott or a strike for the following shall be very glad to withdraw my sug place this problem before the Senate and rather than ·run again into the arm of purposes: to ask Senators for their fair and honest gestion of the absence of a quorum. the law, ·and be placed in public view as First. To compel an employer to bar Mr. TAFT. Mr. President, my only consideration of it, because all too often breaking the ·Jaw, the union abstained · the matter of secondary boycotts has gain with one union: objection is based on the theory that the from the practice, and the injunction (a) If another has been certified by result of agreeing to the unanimous been brushed aside as if it were a com was not issued. plete evil. The Thomas bill deals with the Board, or consent request-whatever it was ··one of the few boycott cases which (b) If the employer is required by an which was made would be to set aside that subject, as we all realiz~. Mr. !;las finally been decided by the Board il order of the Board to bargain with an the rule which would make the next President, this discussion of secondary lustrates all the evils of the secondary boycotts is presented for the pU:i:pose of other union, or speech of the Senator· from Minnesota boycott provisions of the Taft-Hartley (C) If the employer has a COntract his second speech today. Certainly I having the subject brought up and con Act'. That has been one of the real prob with another union and a question of have no objection to having one quorum sidered on the floor of the.Senate, so that lems under the act, in getting around to representation cannot appropriately be call; but if we are going to go on to we may see whether the approach which a aecision. The injunction 'is used. The raised under the act. three quorum calls, I .think the same has been made to it in the Taft-Hartley whole thing is in line with the hope that Second. To compel an employer to as speaker should not be permitted to con Act is the proper approach in the pub!lc· the Board will decide as in the ·ITU case; sign particular work tasks contrary to an tinue indefinitely. interest and for the welfare of the par bUt no decision. Finally we have one, award issued by the Board under that Mr. LONG. Mr. President, I should ticipating parties. and I refer to the Wadsworth Build section of the bill· relating to the deter like to state at this point that if the Sen The Taft-Hartley Act sweepingly pro ing Col" case. mination of jurisdictional disputes. ator from Ohio thinks he is going to hibits all forms of secondary boycotts, In this cas·e a building contractor used · But, Mr. President, the Thomas bill 844385-30518 the products of a manufacturer of pre- scrupulously a·toids the blanket prohibi- 844385-30518 58 . 59 so in the face of the competition tio~ of all secondary boycotts. It does mediately terminate the conflict and· not do In the Thornhill case the Court stated: learned and distinguished bring victory for human rights. The of the fourth, · the unfair employer. The health of the present generation and so, because the to preserve the gains they Senator from Utah is familiar with our temper of the times was not· such as to Thus, in order of those as yet unborn may depend on these called upon its fel single factory industrial history. and with the realities allow so easy a victory; the views of the had made, the union matters and t.he practices in a en low members in New York and elsewhere m ay h ave economic repercussions upon a of our free-enterprise economy, . Supreme Court were still too deeply whole region. that the trenched on the side of business and not to install or work on the unfair print The fact is, Mr. President, ing presses. boycott is a vital necessity in any com profits. And in the Swing case the entire Court Mr. President, will to o~er The two outstanding cases of that pe Mr. KNOWLAND. agreed that- · petitive society that pretends the Senator yield? opportunity for advancement to 1ts riod were the Bedford Stone Co. case and Int erdependence of economic interests of working citizens. In the earliest.begin the Duplex Printing Co. case. Mr. HUMPHREY. I shall continue all engaged in the same industry has become nings of trade-unionism in t}1is country, I suggest, Mr. President, these are the with my remarks, and yield at the con a commonplace. it was realiz2d that a gain in wages and cases that are literally the foundation clusion of the discussion of the case to which I am referring. In the language of some of our out working conditions meant only ba?k· cases in this fi eld of boycott. '-' , then, Mr. HUMPHREY yielded standing Supreme Court justices ruptcy for the employer and loss of JObs (At this point In the Duplex case there were three . the Taft-Hartley Act, by outlawing all for his employees if their joint product to Mr. KNOWLAND, and debate ensued, union firms, there was one nonunion who en , was ·boycotts and subjecting those had to compete on the same market with which, on request of Mr. HUMPHREY firm. Working conditions were not in injunctions, to cease conclusion of gage in them to the products of cheap labor and sub-· ordered to be printed at the· volved in the case, nor were wages. and desist orders by the Board, and to standard working conditions. The op his s peech.) . Whether the conditions were substand suits iri the Federal the Bedford extensive damage eration of a substandard plant means r.:r. HUMPHREY. In ard or above standard was not the issue. courts, has ignored a commonplace, has that the fair and humane employer de case members of a small union refused to What did Justices Brandeis and Holmes the healtn een produced shown a careless disregard for sirous of maintaining decent working work on stone which had b say in their great dissenting opinion? of the present generation, has destroyed standards must, out of pressure of com at quarries where their fellow members of the Court of any national of the Court, Once again the majority the necessary objective petition, either be forced out of business were on strike. A majority found this to be an unlawful boycott, and labor organization, and has created an or abandon his fair and humane prac in plain defiance o.f the express and spe and Holmes for imposing restraints upon Act, held once again Justices Brandeis instrument tices. Unrestricted competition among cific language of the Clayton svoke out in sharp and compellingly per labor which reminds one of involuntary employers on wage costs leads inevitably that that refusal constituted an unlawful c.:asive dissent. They said: servitude. lowest wage secondary boycott. But Justices Holmes to the establishment of the May not all with a common interest join Mr. President, will evailing wage in any given in and Brandeis wrote a stirring and pro Mr. KNOWLAND. as the pr in refusing to expend their labor upon articles the Senator yield for an inquiry at that v.oc~tive They said: dustry, and leads, also, to the continuous dissent. whose very production constitutes an attack point? lowering of wages to the point of bare Members of the Journeymen: Stone Cutters· upon their standard of living and the insti survival. Association could not work anywhere on tution which they are convinced supports Mr. HUMPHREY. I do not have much These stark, immutable, economic facts stone which h ad been cut at the quarries by it? · " • • Courts, with better apprecia more to read, and then I shall gladly are in flagrant conflict with the great "men working In opposition" to it without tion of the facts of indust r y, recognized the yield to the Senator from California, the rights '\Vhich democ aiding and abetting tile enemy. Observance unity of interest throughout the union, and Senator from New York, and to any other concepts of human by each member of the provision of their. to work on materials which racy and America symbolize. I ~ that, in refusing Senator who wishes to continue to debate constitution, which forbids such action, was threatened it, the u nion was only refusing to on this issue. In this crucial conflict between prop essential to his own self-protection. It was aid in destroying itself. human rights, those who are on demanded 'of each by loyalty to the organ I say, Mr. President, that the legiti erty and the rna- ' the side of humanity suffered many set ization and to his fellows. If, ori the indis The persistenc" on the part of mate boy,cott must be restored if we are the courts then puted facts of this case, refusal to work can jority of the Court to perpetuate a repu not to invite economic chaos. Let us not, backs, largely because the just resent alined themselves with property inter be enjoined, Congress created by the Sherman diated doctrine aroused as the Taft-Hartley Act does, encourage regarded law and the Clayton Act an instrument for ment of the country. In 1932 Congress large-scale migrations to low-wage areas. ests. For many years the courts imposing restraints upon labor which re· ardia skill and energy as being simply responded with the Norris-LaGu Let us not revive the ugly misery of the human minds one· of involuntary servitude. completely adopted the rea an additional item of production costs Act, which sweatshop. Let us not intensify the evil to all I want to repeat the measured lan soning and philosophy of the Holmes of the runaway shop. All this, and and therefore gave full protection This time the victory who insisted upon main guage of these two great Justices: Brandeis dissents. worse, will surely occur with the advent manufacturers was complete-at least until June 23, taining their costs at the lowest possible Con g ~ ess· created. • • • an instru of the first sizable recession unless we do 19~7. No longer did the Supreme Court level. But these judicial rulings were ment • • • which reminds one of invol and simple justice untary servitude. have difficulty in recognizing and enforc what history, logic, grossly offensive to the moral sense of right of workers to mandate; unless we return to the Ameri first political ing the elementary America, which found its I repeat it because organized labor has protect their status and conditions by re can worker the basic right of the legiti expression in 1914 when the Congress de been criticized for describing Taft nonunion goods. The mate boycott. eing fusing to work on clared that "the labor of a human b Hartley as a "slave-labor Jaw," because, Court's repudiation of the old doctrine is not an article or commodity of com among many other things, it imposes the complete and unqualified. Damage Suits the was merce." same restraints that were imposed by In the Apex case the Court declared : The Taft-Hartley Act, in addition to congressional declaration meant The Bedford decision. An elimination of competition based on its indiscriminate prohibition of second that it would no longer be the policy of The Duplex case involved this typical dltierences in labor standards is the objective ary boycotts, provides for suits in Federal the Government to encourage a system situation: Of the four printing-press of any national labor organization. courts for damages resulting from boy- which rested on the exploitation of hu manufacturers in the country, three were 844385-30518 man beings; that working men and wo organized and one was nonunion. When men could and should resist the destruc the contracts with the three organized tive competition of cheap labor. employers expired the union WRS in But the mere declaration by Congress formed that their employers would prefer in the Clayton Act of 1914 did not im- to maintain union standards but could 844385-30510 60 61 Senator from Minnesota's position was dependence of conciliation . services. cotts and breach of cont-ract. These suits tions Act, a particularly incongruous place for them in view of· the policy ex on the matter of conciliation service; Among these distinguished Senators is may be brought without regard to the we have had a question about capable and able to diversity of pressed in its first· section of "encourag and, since my friend, the very amount in controversy or it, I will read it instead of having it Senator from Oregon [Mr. MoRsE] . the citizenship of the parties. ing the practice and procedure of col lective ·bargaining." merely printed in the RECORD. During debate last week- he said inde Doubts have been expressed by some of some em the After all, Mr. President, the labor pendence was required because the lawyers who appeared before Conciliation Service still felt that these services would the constitutionality of management relationship is essentially ployers committee as to mediation services be partial if performed through the De ma!{ing a breach of a labor agreement a human relationship, an exceedingly The conciliation or difficult and complicated one. Success of the Government, Mr. President, raise partment . of Labor.·_ He emphasized, subject to suit in Federal courts, regard Taft his conviction that none of the di ful adjustments in human relations can another point of issue under the however, less of the amount involved or the these services officials of the Department of Labor are citizenship of the parties in seldom be imposed from the outside. Hartley Act. Until 1947 versity of in the Department of Labor. They partial and, if I interpret his remarks volved. Not being a lawyer, I shall not Usually, the very opposite is true. Ex were ternal interference in the form .of com. had .been there for 30 to 40 years. So correctly, that they are impartial public attempt to discuss this phase-. But there from servants of highest competence. At the reasons to pulsive -laws or orders is the surest way far as I have been able to ascertain are more than sufficient other testimony before the same time, he has called for proof that se provisions. As Mr. Wil of preventing mature, thoroughgoing ad sifting the recent object to the Senate Committee on Labor and Public the present service has been anything E:. Davis said in his testimony justments. The only realistic and work liam Welfare, this Service has functioned ef but impartial in any of its operations. before the committee: able rules are those that labor and man agement have, themselves, voluntari-ly fectively in the Department of Labor As I understand him, it appears to me I do not know whether it is unconstitu this entire period. that the able Senator from Oregon feels tional or n ot. I think it ·is wholly unneces devised and accepted. That is what we during mean by collective bargaining; we mean As all of us know, however, the Con that the record of the 2 years is suf sary and I am against it. I think it is uncon the continuation stitutional. I am sure it is un-American. labor and managament sitting down to ciliation Service was nevertheless wiped ficiently good to justify and it is unnecessary, and altogether, in my gether to evaluate their joint experience out by the Taft-Hartley Act and recre of the Conciliation Service as an inde opinion, in a vengeful spirit. and, with the application of reason and ated as an independent agency of ·the pendent agency. I know that the Sena . tor from Oregon wants an impartial I c an think of no provision which has good will, working out together their Government joint problems. The Taft-Hartley law I may say, Mr. President, that this agency, and if I could have revealed to less place in a labor-relations statute me any facts which would cause me to encour completely violates those elementary was done despite the-labor-management than one which facilitates and which believe that the Conciliation Service as and management to lao!{ to the principles. It imposes· lawyers, the conferences which had been held, ages labor principle the Conciliation a part of the Department of Labor would courts to settle their grievances. Sound Labor Board, and the Federal courts as approved in what I b elieve to be unwelcome guests Service being a part of the Department become a partial or a biased agency, I labor relations require that employers few too, would join with him in declaring for faith with their employees. at every collective-bargaining table. It of Labor. That was one of the live in good on which labor and management its independence; but in vi ew of what Lawsuits obviously are not a means of takes from the persons most intimately things affected, the actual parties to the rela agreed upon. They agreed that it would the labor-management conference pro achieving such industrial relations. This Service claimed-and in view of what the Hoover stated by an authority in tionship, every opportunity to exercise be best to leave the Conciliation lias been well Department of Labor. But the Commission has already stated, it is my this field, and I should like to quote him: their own ingenuity in meeting their in the a word, it complete- , Taft-Hartley Act mad; it an independent considered judgment that we would be It would be unfortunate if there should own difficulties. In ' ~ ly demolishes the natural, organic de agency. This was done, then, presum wise to strengthen the Department of develop any strong tendency to look to the Labor by returning to it the Conciliation Federal courts to settle questions concern velopment which is collective bargain-· ably, because some employers and some application of in its place what is, of my distinguished colleagues consid Service. ing the interpreta:tion and 'ing, and substitutes , will the collective-bargaining agreements. A collec at best, a dangerous form of paternal ered the Conciliation Service a partial Mr. TAFT. Mr. President tive agreement is most worlcable when It is istic statism. agency of Government-partial toward Senator yield? treated as a constitutional instrument or Mr.- President, the next portion of my labor because the Service was in the De• Mr. HUMPHREY. I yield. basic statute charging an administrativ~ au Conciliation partment of Labor and responsible to a Mr. TAFT. Did the Senator say that t!lority with the day-to-day application of remarks pertain to the Service. I realize that the Senator·f.rom Cabinet officer, the Secretary of Labor. the Hoover Commission recommended general aims. The determination of dis Conciliation Service be returned more a Oregon has offered an amendment t-o Yet to my knowledge there was no re that the putes arising during this process is to the Department of Labor? matter of creating new law than of constru disassociate the Conciliation Service liable evidence-no concrete facts-no ing the provisions of a tightly drawn docu from the Department of Labor. But I history of abuse or mismanagement to Mr. HUMPHREY. I said that after 2 ment. Few judges are equipped for this task believe, in order to conserve time, I shall support this legislative action. years ·of independent operation of the by experience or insight; in addition, they ask that this portion of my rlimarks be Now, after 2 years of independent op Mediation Service, the Commission on would be hampered by the restriCtions and as a printed eration of the n1ediation service, the Organization of the Executive Branch of gal d octrine and court proce incorporated in the RECORD delays of le Commission on Orga~1ization of the Ex the Government, the Hoover Commis dure. Wider voluntary u se of arbitration statement in the context of my address. The PRESIDING OFFICER.- The ecutive Branch of the Government, the sion, has, after prolonged and detailed offers a more promising method of settling good such disputes. (Cox, Some Aspects of the Senator underntands, of course, that it so-called Hoover Commission, has, after study, established with the greatest Labor-Managem ent Relations Act, 1947; - 51 will be printed in small type. prolonged and detailed study, estab sense a fundamental principle that inde Harv. L. Rev. 1274305.) Mr. HUlVIPHREY. I understand. lished with the greatest good sense a pendent agencies of the Government The FRESIDING OFFICER. Without fundamental principle that independent should be sheltered within major execu The Thomas bill proceeds on the basis should be reporting to the Presi the en objection, it is s o ordered .. agencies of the Government tive departments suggested by Mr.· Cox, namely sheltered within major executive depart dent through the appropriate Cabinet couragement of the parties to resort to Mr. TAFT. Do· I correctly understand that the Senator is in agreement with ments reporting to the President through officer. peaceful negotiations and arbitration to the appropriate Cabinet officer. - Mr. TAFT. The Senator has not an settle disputes. The Taft amendments, the amendment offered by the Senator from Oregon? In spite of this sound recommenda swered my question. I asked the Senator on the other hand.. retain these punitive distinguished Mem_bers of the whether he said the Hoover Commission e them -Mr. HUMPHREY. I was just getting tion, some legalistic provisions but wo1;1ld plac Senate continue to advocate the in- recommended that the Conciliation in title I as the National Labor Rela- ready to inform Senators what the junior 844385-30518 844385-30510 63 62 There has been a lot of talk, Mr. Presi of the present independent agency, than Conclusion Service be returned to the Department dent, about what employers think con Mr. President, I now come ~o· my con- of Labor. does the Senator from Oregon with re cerning the impartiality of the Depart-: Mr. HUMPHREY. I repeat, that after spect to the Department of Labor. We clusions. · ment of Labor. This is presented as the . First. The Taft-Hartley law was de long and detailed study, the Hoover Com are, however, directly and seriously con crux of the argument by the able Sena cerned on the merits with the question Signed to meet a . danger that did not mission has established with the greatest tor from Oregon. He has expressed the exist. The Wagner · Act was successful· good sense the fundamental principle of how to run our Government in the opinion that there is something special best possible manner in the public in~ it was operating satisfactorily; no basi~ that independent agencies of the Gov about conciliation_ which requires pri need for change was needed. .· ernment should be sheltered . within terest. It is an obvious principle of or mary consideration to be given not to the major .executive departments reporting ganization, Mr. Pres~dent, that functions Second. The Taft-Hartley law did not true fac.ts of the situation but to the mis produce the results its authors claimed to the President through the appropriate must be grouped under responsible lead conception of some groups. I submit, ers who in turn -are directly responsible for it. It did not create industrial peace Cabinet officer. I am happy to present M_r. President, with all respect for the It did not put labor and management that part of the Hoover Commission Re to the Chief Executive. If we scatter Senator from Oregon, for whom I have on ~n equal footing. It did not prevent port for tre RECORD: and divide these functions and create tl:le highest respect, that misconceptions many leaders, we will, and in many c"ases natiOnal emergencies, nor did it settle The question ·has been raised as to the provide an unsound basis for legislation. any. It did not even prevent pro-Com restoration of the Federal Mediation and already have, placed impossible burdens I am· sure, and I believe that the facts of direction, coordination and guidance munists from receiving collective bar Conciliation Service to the Department, and wi~l bear me out, that some employers placing in the Department, for housekeeping upon the President. gaining recognition, as witness the fact thmk that the Wage and· Hour Division that an open Communist can disavow purposes, the National Mediation Eoard, Last fall we had a maritimf strike in and the Bureau of Labor Statistics should which deals with labor disputes involving rail which one of the chief obstacles to peace his party affiliations one day and file affi and air carriers, and the National Labor Re not be in the Department of Labor be ful settlement was a l~uestion of so davits permittil1g him to come before the lations Board. cause these employers regard the Depart National Labor Relations Board the next The Congress-is engaged in revising labor called clock overtime under the Fair ment of Labor as a partial agency. It Labor Standards Act, administered in day. policies which will affect some of these agen ma_y be that some of the Senators equally Third. The, Taft-Hartley law did suc• cies. The Commission can make no recom the Department of Labor. The Director beheve that because these agencies serve mendations as to their organization until of Mediation and Conciliation asked the caed in creating industrial relatio-ns or affect·employers every step should be chaos. Relationships satisfactory for these questions are settled. Secretary of Labor to arrange for such taken to allay the fears of these employ GENERAL COMMENT assurances to the parties as would ef ~any years were destroyed. Some sat~ ers by creating additional independent Isfactory relationships were able to con In general, it can be said that the Depart fectively settle this issue. These as agencies. I do not, and I-am confident ment of Labor has lost much of its signifi surances were given and as a result the tin~e by under-the-table deals for tacit that a majority of the Senators do not avmdance of the law. cance and should have restored to it the strike was settled. The Secretary of share this view. It was, however, this many agencies -we have here recommended. Labor is not responsible to the Director Fourth. For ·the first time in our peace This would make for greater efficiency in the very·philosophy, this untoward deference time history the Government has been of Mediation and Conciliation and the to the thoughts of employers, which Government. Director is not responsible to the S.ecre embroiled in the substance of collective c~used the Eightieth Congress to strip bargaining. , As I have indicated, the Mr.'TAFT. Is it the Senator's opinion tary. Here was an important wage issue theDepartment of Labor of its functions that they departed from this funda in the labor field in which two , ind.e place of the Governll)ent in the collective and funds. bargaining process is to create a favor mental principle in cases where they felt pendent agencies of the G:Jvernment 1 I know the Senator from Oregon is there should be independent action? were involved, and yet neither could le able atmosphere and to protect the rights sincere when he says on this floor that of the parties rather than to tell those Mr. HUMPHREY. I think the Sena gally command the cooperation of the he is a friend of the Department of La tor from Ohio is familiar with the fact other. parties what they may agree to and what bor and wishes to see its functions re they may not agree to. that they did not depart from it. Our objective, Mr. President, is to pre built. He says, however, that this should Mr. TAFT. My recollection is that vent such situations from arising in our not be done · through reestablishing the The failure :is obvious. Our duty is they did. For that reason I asked -the Government to the embarrassment ·of Conciliation Service in the Department plain. We must go back to the funda Senator from Minnesota. officials and to the detriment of the pub of Labor. There are other Senators, per mentals of the Wagner Act with the hope Mr. HUMPHREY. The Senator from lic interest. It is our sin::ere desire to haps, who, when the issue arises, may that the atmosphere of free collective Minnesota was very careful to point out improve the services of Government take a similar stand with respect to other bargaining can be reestablished without that the fundamental principle has been through proper organization. The Con functions sought to be more effectively having suffered any permanent damage established. · ciliation Service needed and utilized dis-charged through the Department of from the irresponsible experiment of the · past 2 years. The U_pited States Conciliation Serv w)lile it was in the Department of Labor Labor. If we take counsel of such reser ice was abolished as an arm of the De the various services and facilities which vations, Mr. President, solely upon the Yes, Mr. President, let us go back to partment of Labor without any proof the Department of Labor possesses in the basis of what employers may think, I the fundamentals of the Wagner Act whatever of partiality. It was given an field of Government labor functions. very much fear that the public interest which included the tenets of the Norris independent status in complete disre These include, to cite some exam-ples., alone will suffer. LaGuardia Act. Then we can eliminate gard for established principles of gov information. and assistance on labor laws, . For these sound reasons, Mr. President, from the picture the unfair and inequit ernmental administration. It appears statistical research, employment and ap I am convinced in the merits of the need able tool of the injunction which all too to me that the more agencies we can put prenticeship problems, and on the em to carry out the specific provisions of·the often has been used in an ex-parte b:wk under department heads, the bet ployment of women. These services be Democratic platform by restoring the manner. ter government we shall have in terms come immediate!y ·available for the pre Conciliation Service to the Department Labor ·relations under the Wagner Act of proper governmental functioning. vention or settlement of disputes where of Labor. were better handled . by far than they The Thomas bill would reestablish the the Conciliation Service is in the Dzpart Conciliation Service in the Department ment of Labor. Where the dispute is to 844385-30518 of Labor squarely upon the grounds of be settled by an independent agency, governmental efficiency. We make no however, all of these services are avail more contention of partiality on the part able at sufferance. 844385-30518 6i 65 are at present, or than they would be I have often thought about how dark is under the Taft amendments. the picture. Here we are in this.country Mr. HUMPHREY. It seemed to work duces wealth. I am convinced most To those who unduly fear that unions boasting about our great production very much that way. I am just point people think as I do in that respect. will ·hurt our economy-as they have and we have great production-boasting ing out that there was no such great Mr. President, I am one who believes never done before-! ·reply by quoting about the tremendous amount of steel, national catastrophe as necessitated this that this Nation is as strong-not as the from a book which is the basic economic and the automobiles, refrigerators, tele abrupt departure from the pattern of Chase National Bank, not as the stock text of the prophet of free enterprise, phones, clothing, and everything else we labor-managementships, literally scut market, not even as the great powerful Adam Smith. In book I, chapter 8, of produce, and while we are boasting about tling the basic law of this land, and mov corporations, but the Nation is . only as The Wealth of Natfons. Smith, writing our production, while our national econ ing pell-mell into something else. strong as the productivity, the intelli in the year our independence was estab omy goes well over the $200,000,000,000 I appeal to the American people, and . gence, the health, and the education of lished, stated: mark, while profits skyrocket, while the ask them if the same people who were its people-and, I repeat, of its people. We rarely hear • • of the combi- country is busy at work, one would think beating the tom-toms for the Taft-Hart I believe that if we put more emphasis n ations of masters, though frequently of when he reads the newspapers, at times, ley Act were not the very same people upon the human element we will take those of workmen. But whoever imagines, or hears some m. the orators who .are who were making their millions and bil care of the financial element. upon this account, that masters rarely com proponents of the Taft-Hartley Act, that lions,. the same people who forced the Mr. President, it is people who today bine, is as ignorant of the world as of the every worker in America was on strike. discontinuance of any type of price con- are rebuilding Europe. Many of its subject. Masters are always and everywhere I think the record is pretty clear, in a . trol, at the very time when inflation was buildings were blown all to pieces. Many in a sort of tacit, but constant and uniform nation which has had the production we threatening. I ask if they were not the of its banks were destroyed. Many of combination, not to raise the wages of labor very same people who have had very • • • To violate this combination is have enjoyed since 1940, in a nation its railroads were destroyed. But if there everywhere a most unpopular action, and a which has had the record of production much their own way in the economic pic- are people left who are free, and if they sort of reproach to a master among his we have had since 1945, the end of the ture from 1946 to 1948. · can become happy people, they will re neighbors and equals. • • • Masters too war, that American workers have been Mr. President, the time has come for build the destroyed railroads, they will sometimes enter into particular combinations hard at work. The fact is that in the a consideration of these things, and I rebuild the destroyed buildings and fac to sink the wages of labor. • • • days when the workers were supposed to think it is a little bit overdue. tories. The free people will do that. Such combinations, however, are fre be abusing their power, in 1946, corpo What is necessary in order to build a "Mr. President, too many times in this quently resisted by a contrary defensive com sound labor relations policy, in addition bination of the workmen, who sometimes, rate wealth in this country had net profits country we have been fooled by the too, without any provocation of this kind, which were unprecedented up to that to reinstating the spirit of the Wagner golden glow of the painted domes of combine of their own accord to raise the time, far beyond anything ever known. Act, is fairly simple: We must give the high privilege. Too many times we have price of their labor. Their usual pretenses As I pointed out through the charts I working people in the United States a been fooled into believin~ that because are sometimes the high price of provisions; used on Friday, the number of strikes, standard of living which they deserve in so many people were wealthy the people sometimes the great profit which their mas percentagewise, after World War II, was view of our productive capacity. The of the country were strong. I remember ters make by their works. But whether their less than after World War I. I have Taft-Hartley law was passed because in 1929 we were told that everything was combinations be offensive or defensive, they before me now a chart of real net weekly there were many strfkes in 1946 after in good condition. Why were we told are always abundantly heard of. In order to price -control bring the point to a speedy decision, they earnings of workers, and they are down was repealed. I want to that? Because conditions were good in have always recourse to the loudest clamor, from 1944 and down from 1945. add, that the profits then were the great Wall Street. Because conditions were and sometimes to the most shocking vio The point is that during the war the est in the history of the country. good with the coupon clippers. Because lence, and outrage. They are desperate, and American worker did not make riches. For the life of me I cannot see why conditions were good on the stock mar act • • • (to) • • • frighten their When the war was over many of them so many plain ordinary people were de ket; But conditions were not good back masters into an immediate compliance with were dismissed temporarily, many of nied the information, or, let me say, in the Dakotas or Montana. Conditions their demands. · them had to spend their life's savings, were not concerned with the information were not good in Ohio or in Tennessee or The masters upon these occasions are just as to what was happening in the eco as clamorous upon the other side and never which had been invested in war bonds. in Louisiana. cease to call aloud for the assistance of the Wages never did catch up with prices, nomic life of America. Concentration What happened to the people? Well, civil magistrate, and the rigorous execution and the workers got restless. . But big of business? We have never known one thing that happened, Mr. President, of those laws which have been enacted with business said, "We have done quite well anything lfke it, Mr. President. We have was that the union movement had liter so much severity against combinations of during the war. Perhaps we can have had mergers, interlocking directorates, ally been destroyed. The number of • • • laborers and journeymen. a show-down." That was because never bigger and bigger business, and all the members of the unions had been reduced One of the great authorities I have in the history of this country had so time that the bigger and bigger business from 5,000.,000 in 1919 to less than 2,000,- cited before, Dr. William M. Leiserson, much money been made by so few as has been coming somebody has been say 000 in 1930. With the destruction of the after citing the paragraphs I have read, was made from 1940 to 1946. Never in ing, "Hay, look at the big union. Don't union movement ·wages went down. It warned us against changing the Wagner the history of the world was so much look at the big business, look at that big was not prices that went down, but wages Act. He said: money made by so few. Never in the ·union." That is r, clever· game, and it went down. These are facts. Farm in Like Adam Smith, however, we must not history of the world had so few com is called the diversionary attack. come went down. Mortgages increased. be misled by the clamor of those who have panies controlled the economic destiny Mr. President. it is the opinion of the Interest rates remained high. A hand been masters. The pic·ture is not as dark as of so many. junior Senator from Minnesota that the ful· of people took a lot of people to the they paint it. No employer has gone to jail Mr. LONG. Mr. President, will the welfare of this country is pretty much cleaners. That is the record. for violating the Labor Relations Act, but Senator yield? dependent upon the purchasing power of It was not necessary for that to have workers are still going to jail for their ·un Mr. HUMPHREY. I yield. the American people. I like to try to happened. I submit that a strong farm fair labor practices, for disorderly conduct put in connection with strikes, for mass picket Mr. LONG. Was not that an ideal first things first. People come before movement and a strong labor movement ing, as well as for the violence they resort to time to come·along with the Ruml plan, capital. I think that a people which is at at that time could have combated the in desperate efforts to bring their disputes to and forget about three-fourths of a work, a people that will buy, a people powerful vested interests in this country. a speedy decision. year's taxes? that is productive, a people . that pro And now we are on the move. But, Mr. 844385-30518 duces efficiently, is a people which pro- President, the same folks who attacked 844385-30518 I
67 66 then, to raise was going the other day, it is when the people Would it not be better, America's economic resources the labor movement in 1946 were attack said wage, for. example, to 75 vested, privileged posi 1947. are of! guard that we can best judge the minimum on by those in ing the cooperative movement by cents an hour so as to give some measure than at any time before in Ameri were. next .on them, not when. they are on guard. . tions The farmers' cooperatives people. of security to the underprivileged, with can history. I make that statement Already the tom-toms are start" America needs to speak for her of us the list. which comes out whose economic freedom none without fear of successful contradiction. ing to beat out that familiar old rhythm: She needs the spoken word Congress which the lips, but from the is secure? The same T:-vo wrongs do not make a right. "The farmers also have gotten too st"ro~g not merely from to enact the Taft-Hartley example of her experiences. found the time Busmess deserves a fair profit. It de now." The farmers have producers' co living did not find time to learn what was to mar I conclude by asking, Would not a law serves an opportunity to enjoy economic operatives. They jdin together happening to the cost of living. It did possible a fair They do not let the labor-relations policy be better directed conditions which make ket their products. !lot find time to learn what was happen when I speak of business I on the grain exchange clean therri toward raising real wages back to their a profit. But people artificially In? to those who were working under speak of the kind of people whom I have up any more. So some day it is neces earlier level rather than or fifty cents an on the rights of· the mmimum wage of forty known in business-those who made sary to watch out for these cooperatives, clamping down The same Congress which saw fit get that people who struck in retaliation against hour. this country, those in the grocery stores, too. But they did not quite to reduce ~axes. on the high, the mighty, stores. President, because the economic blows they suffered in 1946 ? the drugstores, and the clothing done 2 years ago, Mr. and the .ncb did not find time to raise who made America. is a pretty rugged individual. Certainly they struck in 1946. Some em They are the ones the farmer people the level of the unorganized workers. is suffering He was at one time left almost ragged. ployers tried to tell the American shed over the Little business in America 5 cents an hour I have seen many tears every day. The big boys Now he is rugged. He fought back. that if they had to pay workers, I will believe some more and more labor would be · bankrupt. They unorganized tried to pit little business ap-ainst Those engaged in the farm and the more they of the talk I hear about love for the un have standing shoulder to were guilty of a deliberate falsehood. ·In labor. They have tried to tell the little movement are organized workers when the Congress in fighting for its rights right now. 1946 net profits after taxes were $12,800,- which businessman, like the little contractor shoulder after ~ees fit to enact a minimum wage is the union. Mr. President, who are these high and 000,000; in 1947, $17,300,000,000, If any Mem California, that his enemy net IS fit for a human being. who his enemy mighty ·people who think there is any taxes; in 1948, almost $21,000,000,000 can tell me how he can ~omeday ~e will find out who . ~er of Congress Will wake up to discover that thing in this country besides those after taxes llVe on 50 cents an hour, I want to see IS. He produce; the men who work in the Mr. KILGORE. Mr. President, will when he wants to borrow money he really hlm, but soon. When big shops, in the factories, on the farms? the Senator yield? a part of a must pay 4-percent interest. . All these questions are money, it gets They are the producers. Business can Mr. HUMPHREY. I yield. We should not consider business wa.nts to borrow the Senator seen smgle pattern. That is a 2-percent not continue unless people have purchas Mr. KILGORE. Has legislat_ion piece by piece, and say, "Is it for 2 percent. ing power. Their rights are basic rights, the news item recently placed in the Let us find out handicap at the start. The little-busi to the effect not ~his a fine bill?" up and find out that are fundamental rights, and come even Appendix of the RECORD, stands up alongside other things. ness man will wake on top, had applied to the how It important customets he ever before the privileges of · those that General Motors What about the effect of the Taft the only those in the higher bracl{ets. Securities and Exchange Commission for labor? What about had were those who worked in overalls. a $20,000,- Hartley Act upon corporation direc I repeat, this Nation is only as strong the privilege of distributing do not have homes in which There are not enough its a $20,000,000 sto'ck those who k_eep every store in America busy, as its working people, its farmers, 000 cash bonus plus ,to live? What about the slums? What tors to craftsmen, its skilled workers, whose boys bonus among its directors and top opportu '!'hat IS our philosophy. That is the (~ about the lack of educational Act was and girls need homes, need pork chops, executives? go all the way down the Phil_osophy to which the Wagner very happy nity? We could philosophy that the need clothes. They are the people who Mr. HUMPHREY. I am line with such questions. dedwated-the niake America strong. If we ever forget to receive that information. I know that behind ~mcrican people have the right to organ f I believe that the philosophy their ·that and attempt to enact punitive legis there are those who have all sorts o Act was quite clear. Ize to protect themselves, to lift have line. I recall the Taft-Hartley to equalize the situa lation against them, then we shall information along that Apparently there was one group in o_wn ~tandar_ds, and lost our American heritage. that when I was a student, 1 ye.ar be be really "taken tiOn m the light of economic realities. York America which had to I appeal to Senators today to remem fore the City National Bank of New That was labor. Why? Be The question of obtaining a satisfac that it had dis care of." is ber that when we consider labor-man closed its doors, I read ?ause her leaders had been honored dur tory labor-relations policy, therefore, agement relationships we are not con tributed millions of dollars in bonuses for beautiful and wonderful broader than the question of the Labor little later 'it mg the war the sidering them merely within the borders among its directors. A cooperation. Because her· leaders and Relations Act itself. I have gone to the United· States. The eyes of the cleaned the American people out of mil produced fabulous large cities of America and have looked of after all, her rank and file had world are fixed upon us. The people of lions of dollars of deposits; but, of war material. Because her over the slum areas. . I have said to my had their ·fun. quantities other countries want to know whether the directors sons and daughters had been faithful self, "I wonder who lives there." I find this great America is concerned about What I am trying to point out is that loyal. Because labor had helped to who live there work am arid and that many of those people or about the golden calf. I the way to preserve a free economy bUild America. I refer to the working They may work in one of we literally 'erve in factories. one of those who believe that · a free-enterprise system is to pres P~ople who emerged from that period s, or in an auto throughout the to the electrical factorie improve our situ·ation the opportunity for men and women With. a few little series E war bonds, When I look at the kind win the battle for men's minds that the war still mobile factory. world and earn a living. We have found that workmg people who, after the workers and their when we recognize ·that plain, ordinary preserved children of thei~ in of hovels in which opportunity can best be h ad eight or nine , I say to myself, "Is it people everywhere are interested in our living with them in the same little families must live through organizations of their own-co laws they want to strike humanitarian accomplishments. associa house, because there was a housing any wonder that operatives, unions, and trade It may be a relief. It Sometimes I think that ·what we need State levels. shortage. once in awhile? tions at local, district, and be a pleasure." in America is a little greater sense of hu to 'preserve What was going on during that time may common, hu We ai:e talking about trying of war was in the Senate, mility, a sense of ordinary, which makes ·it was that while the whiplash I ask my colleagues We are watched for the . · the kind of economy placed on the backs of labor in woult: you like to live in some of the mane decency. American people· to be being How little things we do. ·As the distinguished possibie for the 1946 and 1947, more exploitation of filthy, degraded, slum areas of America? self-respeG_~ing. · Senator from Illinois [Mr. DouGLAs] self-sustaining and 844385-30518 844385-30518 I
68 Mr. President, who. live in the slums? citizenry that is contented and happy . Do the authors of the Taft-Hartley Act and realizes that ·the community is in live in the slums? Not on your life, Mr. terested in the individual. But cer President. The people who live in the tainly when the individual worker sees, slums are the-ones upon whom the Taft for example, that under the law he is Hartley Act bears mos1i·heJl,vily. faced with jail because of his opposition Now we are getting around to doing a to an unfair labor practice, or that his little something about the slums, late as union is going to be sued because some it is, but we are grateful for the oppor one in the union may have done some tunity just the same. We are getting thing he should not have done, when he around to doing something about better finds out that the union which helped educational opportunities, and perhaps a him get his job and is making a little little later we shall be able to do some provision for him in the way of a wel thing about improving health opportuni fare fund, is going to be penalized, I ties and health care. All those things submit that he will not be happy until will work for a better and more h ealthy that law is removed from the statute America. books. Labor legislation does ·not determine I do not know whether we shall get · the pattern of labor-management rela around to doing that at this time, but I tionships, Mr. President. In that con submit that the processes of democracy nection labor legislation is but one fac are as relentless and ever-flowing as tor. Good will between employers and the tide itself; and just as surely as we employees is another factor. A good are here in the Senate Chamber today, community that is interested in the lives if we fail to do our duty in 1949, there of its children and fathers and mothers will be some of us who will be back here is another important· factor, a vital part to do our duty in 1951, and I would not of good labor-management . relations. be surprised if there were new faces here We can have all the law we want to then, because the American people, the have to tell the American people, "You working people of this country, the peo cannot do this, that, or the other," but ple who h ave been oppressed by this law, if .we keep then: living in slums, if we are determined that they are going to deny to a man the right to send h is chil legislation a remove this kind of punitive dren to a good school, and if we deny and are deter shall not be from the statute books, m an health protection, we going to have some any kind of law which wlll mined that they are able to enact processes of gov- m ake for industrial peace in this Nation. thing to say about the we want law observ . ernment, because this country is their Mr. President, . ance. Law observance comes from a country, as well as it is yours and mine 844385-30518_ 0
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