The Evening Star (February 13, 1946)
Lawrence: Outlook for Republicans in fall bright
By David Lawrence
WASHINGTON – President Truman may or may not choose to run in 1948 – the left-wingers are already trying to persuade him not to be a candidate – but November 1946 is much nearer and the whole House of Representatives and one-third of the United States Senate will be up for election.
If the Republicans have any sense left, they will not waste time making campaign speeches or soliciting campaign funds. All they need to do is call attention to what is happening in Congress and then wait for the votes to be counted and they will find that in the Democratic strongholds of Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and New York and elsewhere the shift to the opposite party will be amazing.
For the public is sick and tired of the Democratic Party’s indifference to the need for some legislation to prevent strikes. The Democratic leadership in the Senate is stalling on the matter of labor legislation. The House has acted promptly, though it will be noted that the Republican Party made that step possible.
Wave of irresponsibility
The country is suffering from a wave of irresponsibility on the part of certain employers and employe organizations.
Vital facilities are tied up either by refusing the reasonable demands of labor or by labor’s insistence on demands that are unreasonable. It seems incredible that democracy, which rests on the principle of the consent of the governed, should be unable to exercise its judgment and bring about the passage of legislation to limit strikes, especially in fields closely related to the public safety.
But, judging from the behavior of the Democratic Party, which controls the Senate, there is no alternative available to the American people except to vote out of office the party in power or to make their contemplated action so plain ahead of time that it will have a stimulating effect on the Democrats who control the committee where all labor legislation is now buried and bids fair to remain buried unless the public bestirs itself.
The alliance between the labor union politicians and the Democratic Party in the Senate is so strong that the chances of dislodging the committee majorities which hold the balance of power there depend on the election of Republicans to those committees.
People can have redress
If the public wants a continuance of economic anarchy and wishes to see the situation disintegrate still further, it can remain indifferent to the real power of the Senate. For, when a president is weak or incompetent, the people can have redress through the Congress if they insist upon it.
Mr. Truman has the influence to force early action in the Senate on his labor proposals and it should not need the prodding of a president to stir the Senate to action. The newspaper headlines reveal what economic damage the strikes are doing. Whether one believes that the managements are recalcitrant or that the unions are pressing their demands too far, the fact remains that some means of settling labor disputes by orderly processes has not been provided and the responsibility for keeping new labor legislation off the statute books for ten years rests solely with the Democratic Party in Congress.
Whatever be the faults of the Republican Party – and they are many – it does present at this moment the only alternative to a continuance of economic unrest and the development of a nationwide depression. The labor leaders are so much misled by what political power they have accumulated in the past that they do not realize they are committing suicide and doing more in a few weeks to injure the rightful causes of labor and to imperil the true rights of the workers than all the reactionaries and extremists among employers have been able to accomplish in many years of effort.