The Evening Star (December 6, 1945)
GOP chiefs to meet in Chicago tomorrow to approve 1946 plans
By Gould Lincoln, Star staff correspondent
CHICAGO – Members of the Republican National Committee. arriving in Chicago today, were prepared to put a seal of approval on the “Republican program,” which emanated yesterday from Republican caucuses of the House and Senate. Committee sessions open tomorrow.
The comment of committeemen on the document, which was designed to be not only a guide to the party in Congress and the basis of Republican legislative proposals, but also a tentative platform on which Republicans can stand in the 1946 congressional campaigns, was generally favorable – in fact, that it was an admirable document.
The nearest approach to criticism was that the program was “sound but not too exciting.” Another comment was that it was conservative but not reactionary – that it was conservatively progressive.
Particular interest was shown in the foreign policy plank. This, in the main, places the Republicans squarely in support of a nonpartisan American foreign policy, favoring strong collaboration with other nations for the maintenance of peace. It goes along with the Truman foreign policies, but takes exception to the manner in which they are being handled by the administration.
In the field of domestic affairs, the Republican program breaks sharply with the policies of the Truman and Roosevelt administrations. This is not new. but a restatement of the Republican position, which has been strongly opposed to deficit spending, Government control of the everyday life of Americans, bureaucracy, class conflict – with all of which the Republicans have charged the Democratic administrations.
The labor relations plank, as was expected, laid particular emphasis on the need for mutual responsibility for the observance of contracts entered into through collective bargaining, on the part of both labor and capital. This principle has been strongly advanced by Sen. Vandenberg, R-Michigan, and other Republicans in Congress and it is entirely likely that a bill will be presented in Congress implementing it and providing penalties for violation of a contract so entered into, to be imposed on labor as well as management.
Contribution ban deleted
Progressive Republicans in the House, however, were able to have deleted from the program a declaration that no organization of labor or capital should be allowed to make political contributions in election campaigns. This was aimed particularly at the CIO’s Political Action Committee, and is a provision of the antistrike bill recently reported from the House Military Affairs Committee.
While the labor plank goes beyond the message which President Truman has just sent to Congress urging labor legislation in the matter of mutuality of responsibility for contracts, it is not anti-labor in tone and will be considered anti-labor only by representatives of organized labor who stand against any labor legislation at this time.
The Republicans dodged the universal military training issue in their program statement, neither supporting nor denouncing it. Indeed, the military preparedness plank might be interpreted by supporters of training as favorable to the cause.
This national defense plank reads, “We stand for a well-trained and fully equipped Army, Navy and Air Force, adequate to meet any emergency under future conditions of warfare. It must be supported by the most modern scientific research, a strong industrial system and reserves of trained men with weapons and equipment superior to those of any possible enemy.” The plank does not say how the reserves are to be “maintained.” It is a fact, however, that many Republican members of Congress in the past have expressed themselves as opposed to universal military training, which they have dubbed “peacetime conscription.” No specific proposal is made in relation to the atomic bomb.
At the outset of its declaration of principles and issues, the program says;
“Today’s major issue is between radicalism, regimentation, all-powerful bureaucracy, class exploitation deficit spending and machine politics, as against our belief in American freedom for the individual under just laws fairly administered for all. Preservation of local home rule, efficiency and pay-as-you-go economy in government and the protection of the American way of life against either Fascist or Communist trends.”
Backs labor’s bargaining
The program “reaffirms our belief in the right of labor to organize and bargain collectively with employers as one of the cornerstones of competitive enterprise. The process of such bargaining must be protected and strengthened if we are to have real jobs and prosperity for all. For that purpose, we believe that governmental decisions must not be substituted for free agreement, but governmental machinery to promote peaceful settlement of disputes should be improved.
“The desired end of bargaining between management and men is a contract. Once that contract is made, it should and must, be equally binding on both parties as to agreements made. Free collective bargaining and contracts resulting therefrom must not be nullified or destroyed by resort on either side to willful violence or unlawful destruction of property.”
The program is broad in its language and generalized in its purposes. It is calculated to create, therefore, relatively little controversy, within the Republican Party. No actual legislative proposals are made.
Takes stand on medical care
On the problems of full employment, balancing the federal budget and reducing taxes, the program is wholly general in its observations, while it commends generally agreed objectives. It opposes any “socialization of the medical profession” and proposes a minimum instead of a maximum of federal aid to states and local communities in the field of “subsistence, shelter and medical care.”
The foreign affairs plank, which is believed to have been written in large part by Sen. Vandenberg who has been a foremost spokesman of the Senate Republicans on this subject, places the Republicans squarely in support of the new United Nations Organization for peace.
The plank, however, strikes critically at secret diplomacy, either at home or abroad, and demands “open diplomacy and free communication throughout the world.”