Evening star. [volume], August 20, 1948, Page A-9, Image 9

About Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972

Image provided by: Library of Congress, Washington, DC

                
Tobin's 'Closed Shop'
Stand Gives Dewey
Issue on a Platter
Such Agreements Seen
Violating Individual's
Right to Work
By David Lawrrncr
If any business m»n or If any Re
publican leader had made the state
ment that monopolies were a good
thing and that businesses with a
virtual monopoly had been supply-,
lng goods satisfactorily to the public
for many years and that this was
a good reason for repealing the anti
trust laws, the howl of protest that
would arise from the Democrats
would be loud and vigorous.
Yet the new Secretary of Labor,
Maurice J. Tobin, on taking office,
announces that the ‘‘closed shop"
agreements—which have been for
many years a monopoly for labor
unions and which now have been
forbidden by the Taft-Hartlev law
should be revived. He says this
should be done because ‘‘millions of
workers were getting along amicably
with employers under the closed
shop agreements arrived at by mu
tual consent.”
Anybody who knows anything
about how a “closed shop” agree
ment Is secured In the first Instance
knows there Isn't very much “con
sent” about it but usually a strike
or threat of strike and considerable
economic duress.
Violates Right to Work.
A “closed shop" violates the fun
damental rights of the individual—
his right to work wherever he
pleases. President Truman talks a
lot about civil rights, but the right
to work has never been protected
by any bill proposed by the Truman
administration. The only law ever
passed which tends in that direction
—and It is by no means adequate
for the purpose in the opinion o£
the majoflty of the House of
R^tresentatives who tried to
strengthen it. last year—is the pres
ent statute arrived at by compro
mise between the House and Senate
and vetoed originally by Mr.
Truman.
Under a "closed shop." a worker
must Join a union in order to get
a Job. Millions of Americans who
fought for their country in the last
war rame home to find jobs closed
to them unless they Joined unions.
There Is no fundamental doctrine
In human history which makes it
necessary for a man to give up his
right to bargain Individually for
his rate of pay or working condi
tions. On the contrary, in Nazi
Germany and in Russia, where
government, control of labor unions
ha* been the order, the individual
gives up his right to bargain and
must join with others and accept
government dictation no matter
what he may wish for i mself.
The present rule that the ma
jority of workers in a plant com
pels the minority to accept collec
tive bargaining is an interpretation
derived from something said by
Justice Roberts In the first Supreme
Court opinion upholding the Wag
ner law. He declared that, while
the majority may bargain in behalf
of the minority, It didn’t mean that
the individual was barred from
handling his grievances In his own
way. This has since been construed
to mean also that the employer
cannot, grant to any minority of in
dividuals any better wage rates than
he gives to the majority. This rule
aeainst. discrimination as between
groups is well founded.
But. when an attempt is made by
law, as in the Wagner Act, to deny
protection to the individual who
does not want to join a union, this
transgresses the rights of the citi
zen. When the Taft-Hartley law
prohibited the "closed shop” alto
gether, It meant that the workers
of America were emancipated from
their enslavement under the Wag
ner law. The "closed shop" has
never been explicitly ruled upon by
the Supreme Court.
Workers’ Right to Vote.
Today, under the T&ft-Hartley
Act. the workers in a plant have
the right by a majority vote to re
quire that anyone who has been
employed must Join a union after
.if> days. But at the same time the
union cannot dictate who shall or
shall not be employed In the first
instance. The decision ss to wheth
er s majority in s plant want s
Hosed shop must be marie in an
election by secret ballot of the em
ployes in that, plant. The union
bosses don't like this rule because
it eliminates duress and coercion.
So they are raising a hue and cry
about how "cumbersome'' the elec
tions are and how unnecessary,
since the workers usually vote for
"rinsed shops" anyway.
This is very much like arguing
that, there isn't much need for a
presidential election with all its ex
pense and time because all one
would need to go by was the results
of a Gallup poll. An informal ap
praisal of what the workers want,
especially when made by union
bosses with the power to withhold
Jobs from any dissenting workers, is
not the equivalent of an election by
secret ballot.
Tf Secretary Tobin's statement,
means that Mr. Truman is going to
campaign on a nlatform demanding
the return of the "closed shop" in
America, then Gov. Dewey has been
handed a big issue on a platter and
many millions of votes, too. from
Independent-minded Americans who
don't like monopoly or any other
bar to the right to work. It’s the
most important of all civil rights.
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This Changing World
Soviet Grab of Danube Emphasizes
Deterioration of East-West Relations
By Constantine Brown
The adoption at Belgrade of a
convention for the Danube River
which fastens Soviet Iron control
on this vital waterway of Europe
was to be ex
pected, by the
very character
of the majority
bloc which at
tended the con
ference, but it
leave* a sour
"taste in the
mouth which
emphasizes the
constant deteri
oration which
East-West rela
I tions are expe
riencing.
In spite of ev
1 ery desire and
Constantine Brfwa.
every effort on the part ol the
Western nations to find some
equitable formula for conciliation
with the Soviet Union and its
bloc of satellites, the result has
been less than nothing—it has been
negative. We proceed from one ag
gravating experience to another,!
with the thought, uppermost, in our
minds "How far can this thing go?",
We all know—too well—the fright - i
ful climax which throughout world
history has followed, with the in
evitability of death and taxes, in
the wake of increasing hostility be
tween great powers, just as we know
the tragic consequences which are
inevitable if inflation is permitted
to pursue its course to the end.
Talks Getting Nowhere.
Since July 31 the Western powers
have been engaged in Moscow in an
effort to find the basis for a settle
ment with the Russians. We have
had not the slightest encouraging
Indication that these fateful con
ferences will provide anything like
the over-all agreement which the
world needs betore it can go back
to constructive work. Nor is there
any indication that we will get
anywhere on the one immediate is
sue which brought about these talks
—the Berlin crisis.
The national energies of the
American people, meanwhile, are
being distracted from the one big
peacetime Job which they eventually '■
must face—the restoration of a full
| fledged peacetime economy to the
United State* and to the world.
Instead we have had to maintain
our defense establishment on a
semi-wartime basis—witn the ex
orbitant tax load which goes with
it—and now are being forced against
our will to enter upon a new selec
tive service program. The end is
still far from sight.
The American people are by their
very nature anti-militaristic and
look with tolerant suspicion on the
military services when dangers do
not lurk abroad. But the persisting
threats from behind the Iron Cur
tain, with the certainty that Red
hordes would sink their fangs into
our throat if we ever lower our
guard, may in the end convert the1
American people into a militaristic!
nation. Our deeply ingrained ejvil-1
ian traditions may wither and die if
we have to live in a world which!
respects only force and the threat
of force.
In short, we are being forced by
the double threat of Russian im
perialism and communism to adopt
many of measures to which Russia
has resorted in her accelerating
campaign for world domination,
rhus we must, in self-defense, di
vert a large part of our substance to
strengthening ourselves—and our
allies—militarily and economically.
We must, in self-defense, purge our
ranks of those in our midst who.
if they had a chance, would sell this
country out to a foreign power and
a foreign way of life. We may, in
self-defense, have to re-establish
numerous national controls—some,!
no doubt, on the totalitarian model
—in order to concentrate the Na
tion's vitality on the immediate task
in hand, national defense.
Must Face Decision*.
This is the infectious character of;
Soviet totalitarianism, and it is a
paradox that, desiring to put an end j
to all totalitarianism, we are forced i
nevertheless to make use of the
same devices which our potential
enemy is using to threaten us.
It would be far from prudent and
wise for us, hating totalitarianism
so deeply though we do, to refuse
to.take adequate defense measures
simply because they are identical
with similar offensive measures
taken by our opponent. Thus, we
cannot let our love for democracy
and freedom to pursue political
Ideals blind us to the enemies in
our midst who would use that very
same democracy and freedom to
destroy them. Democracy must, in
a sense, become totalitarian if it is
to survive in a world where many
traps have been set to destroy it.
All recent events—the bogged
down Moscow conferences, the dic
tatorial Belgrade conference, the
Soviet defiance of American laws
and American sense of justice in the
cases of the "deserting” school
'eacher, the increasing Soviet truc
ulence in Berlin—accentuate the
steadily declining state of political
relations between the two great blocs
of nations, and the urgency with
which we will have to face those de
cisions which will prepare us to
face sudden attack.
On the Record
Soviet Concept of Justice Revealed
By Vishinsky at Danube Conference
By Dorothy Thompson
An interesting sidelight on nearer
events—the case of Mrs. Kosenkina
and the contradictory evidence In
the hearings before the House Com
mittee on Un
American Activ
ities—w a s fur
nished by Mr.
Vishinsky at the
Danube Confer
ence in Belgrade.
The question
of Danube con
trol Involves pre
existing treaties
establish ing
rights never for
mally abrogated.
The British sug
Rested an
amendment to
the Soviet draft,
Dorothy Thompson.
which would provide that disputes
over the Danublan convention be
submitted to the International court
In The Hague.
In opposing this, Mr. Vishinsky,
revealed the Soviet and Communist
concept of justice—and no one1
should know it better than he, the'
presiding Judge at the great purge;
trials of a decade ago, which sent I
practically all the original Bol-1
shevlks together with thousands of
lesser victims to their doom. The
Hague tribunal, according to Mr.
Vishinsky. reflects the United Na-!
rions western majority and, there
fore. is prejudiced because, in his
view, legal rulings always are gov-!
erned by political considerations.
Nature nf Soviet Justice.
Mr. Vishinsky thereby rejected
the concept of impartial justice, and
■ revealed he had no notion of the
rule of law. Justice, in his mind,
exists to further the policies of the
! state and the party that rules the
state. The judge does not sit to rule
on evidence and determine the truth
or falsehood of charges: he is there
to support "political considerations"
and carry out foreordained sen
: fences. And this is, in fact, the na
ture of Soviet justice, and the justice
that rules in every Soviet satellite
state.
In this concept of Justice, the
facts about Mrs. Kosenkina's be
havior are important. "Politica!
' considerations” demand that Mrs.|
Kosenkina should be presented as
the victim of "White Russian kid
napers,” who attempted suicide to
escape American persecutors, tit;
is interesting that this was the
official reason given for Jan Ma
saryk's suicide: That he was driven
to it by the persecutory letters of
his Western friends!)
Soviet officials explained Mr.
Samarin's giving himself up to the
FBI on the ground that he was
mentally unbalanced due to a head
wound received in the war. In
vestigations failed to show signs of
a head wound, and no one thought
lo raise the question of why a men
ially unbalanced person should be
employed to teach the children of
Soviet diplomats.
Only One Royalty.
This brings ns to the question of
the value of any testimony offered
by Communists For the very con
cept of a moral obligation “to tell
;ihe truth, the whole truth, and
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*1* W. r.UK* PA. V«.
nothing but the truth” doe* not
exist in the Communist mind. There
is but one loyalty, and that is to
the "political considerations” of the
Communist Party. To lie, deceive,
bear false witness in the interests
of the party, even falsely to con
demn themselves—In their minds,
all these represent a higher revolu
tionary duty.
When, therefore, Communists
praise “civil rights,” they do not
mean what other champions of civil
rights mean. Communists do not
denounce oppressive-' laws, as such
They have not hesitated to denounce
"renegade” alien Communists to the
FBI as Communists, in order to get
them deported.
Communists pushed for the prose
cution of Trotskyists under the
Smith Act, which they denounce as
anti-civil rights legislation when ap
plied to themselves. They never
criticized the procedures of congres
sional hearings when these were di
rected against ‘ economic royalists";
nor did they ever defend the civil
rights of Americans accused of
fascism. And they invariably mobil
ize for their assistance those genuine
champions of civil rights whom
they would send to forced labor in
lynch-trials if they ever had the
power.
Since the lie is a prime weapon
in their armory against "bourgeois" ]
law, the ‘ lie detector '—if it Is re-1
liable—nowhere could be more ap
propriately used. And if it is as!
unreliable as those demurring to
submit to tt affirm, its use should
be abolished altogether. % j
iHeleased by the Bell 8yndic*te. Ine.) i
LOUIE —By Harry Hanan!
36 •• mmJUBBKLSSJ
Whistle Blown
Dewey Is First to Trespass in Move
To Silence Foreign Policy in Campaign
By Doris Fleeson
The extent to which the bi-par
tisan foreign policy can be kept out j
of the coming campaign depends!
ehtirely upon the self-restraint of!
President Tru
man and Gov.
Dewey.
The State De
partment acts as
the President's
sole agent in
this field. Spe
cifically, Assist
ant Secretary
of State Bohlen
is charged with
maintaining a
comprehen
sive liaison with
the Republican
foreign policy
leaders in Con
D*ria FImmb.
gress, senator Vandenberg and
Representative Eaton, and with
John Foster Dulles, who is expected
to be Secretary of State in a Dewey
administration.
Mr. Dulles has often represented
this country at international con
ferences and has just been ap
pointed a delegate to the United
Nations Assembly which meets in
Paris September 21.
Works Well, on Whole.
The national committees and pol
iticians of both parties insist that
they do not attempt to trespass
on these arrangements. On the
whole it appears that they do not
and that the arrangements work
very well. There are exceptions.
The President has been blamed
for heeding New York politicians in
Palestine matters. Senator Van
denberg has grumbled that the
administration too often offers the
Hill a fait accompli for their sig
natures. The Democrats have griped
that the ultimate compromise*
were too strongly Republican. But
everybody has gone along so that
during the special session Senator
Vandenberg was able to announce
with pride that all decisions of his
Toreign Relations Committee had
been unanimous throughout the
80th Congress.
Even in private conversations,
there has been remarkably little
back-biting. Mr. Dulles himself,
while always insisting the Republi
cans could handle matters more
competently, has approved the
broad policy and has said the unity
of foreign policy must not be inter
rupted.
____ k
AH hands were aware, however,
that they could not gag their prin
cipals. Because the President is so
very apt to "shoot from the hip”
on controversial matters, it had
rather been the expectation that
he might impulsively impair the
truce.
Dewey First Trespasser.
But Gov. Dewey now appears here
to be the first trespasser. To Ital
ian-Ainerican callers he made the
politically profitable statement that
he favored allowing Italy to ad
minister her former North African
colonies under a U. N. trusteeship.
This is precisely the supposedly se
cret United States proposal carried
to current big four conferences in
London.
Secretary of State Marshall aus
terely resisted the temptation to
comment. The President contained
himself, too, and stated only that
the matter could not be handled
politically, it was a matter for U. N.
if the big four were unable to reach
an agreement.
Elections are won and lost in the
great pivotal States where minority
votes can swing the result. The
Italians are one of the largest mi
norities in New York and the bid
ding for their support has always
been brisk.
Interested parties here blew the
whistle on Gov. Dewey. It is the
anxious hope of the State Depart
ment that it will not be necessary
to chide a candidate again.
Air Force Band to Give
'Old-Timers' Concert
The Air Force Band will give Its
annual "Old timers' ” concert at 8
p.m. Sunday on the steps of the
Capitol.
The program will comprise music
of the "Gay Nineties,” Including such
pieces as "The Whistler and His
Dog,” "On the Mall.” “Over the
Waves,” and "The Wedding of Heinle
and Katrinka." Guest soloists will
be "The Singing Squires,” Washing
ton barbershop quartet whd won sec
ond place in the Middle Atlantic
barbershop quartet competition in
Philadelphia recently.
Special guests at the concert will
be representatives of the Society of
! the Oldest Inhabitants and the Soc
iety for the Preservation and En
couragement of Barbershop Quartet
Singing in America, Inc.
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(2) The shaded, white sand beach is dedicated to property owners
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(3) This means the beach area will never be sold or commercialized.
(4) Prospective owners at Willows must be approved by the Board
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e
McLemore—
Tells of World's
Filthiest Street
By Henry McLemore
NEW DELHI, India.—The guide
book told me that I must aee.
Chandni Chowk, the principal thor-1
oughfare of old Delhi and for cen-:
tunes one oi
the (Treat, streets
of this part of
the world.
So 1 went to
Chandni Chowk
and it took me
nearly two
hours to walk
its three-quar
ters of a mile
length. There
may be other
streets in the
world which
can match it
for filth and
squalor and
Henry McLemore.
denseness of humanity, but I doubt
it. There is no such thing as
walking along Chandni Chowk.
You push and are pushed. A late
afternoon New York subway rush
is nothing compared to it.
Since the partition of India,
fully half a million refugees have
come to* Delhi, and most of them
have settled in and about Chandni
Chowk. There used to be just one
row of shops and houses on each
side of the street. Now there are
five and six rows, consisting of
anything that will keep out the
rain and the sun. Cardboard
houses. Straw huts. Shacks of
propped-up tin. And. here and
there, no house at all—just a mat
in the mud.
Flies Cover Babies.
To try to make a living the refu
gees sell anything. Here will be
a man with nothing more to sell
than a half dozen mangoes. There
will be a displaced woman offering
a pair of shoestrings. All about
run naked Jsabies, covered with
flies. Oh, tne flies! Millions of i
them. They cover the sweetmeats
and the drinks of the vendors.
They all but obscure the sun. There
is no use in attempting to brush
them off. Flick away 10 and 100
swoop down to crawl on and pes
ter you.
No car can negotiate Chandni
Chowk. No room. Herds of bul
locks, aimlessly shepherded by weary
attendants, roam the street at wili.
Water buffalo by the hundreds lum
ber along, flinching their skin from
the flies. Camels galumph along,
stopping now and then to put their
rabbit-twitching noses against your
face. Thousands of people—thou
sands and thousands of people—
choke the street. Every half block,
on each side, is a restaurant. What
restaurants! Most of them special
ize in strange-looking powders
served on the leaf of the betel nut.
The Indians buy a leaf, poke it in
1 their mouths, and chew. I am told
i that to the foreign taste buds it
is like swallowing an oak leaf freshly
! coated with turpentine.
To make the whole street in
congruous. back of the filthy
shacks of the refugees are shops
of the gold and silversmiths.
Chandni Chowk, in English, means
silver market. Nowhere in India
can one find finer workers in pre
cious metals. The delicacy of their
work is unbelievable. But one foot
from the entrance to a shop there
will be a buffalo, knee deep in mud,
gazing placidly at a refugee asleep
———————
I
¥ ---
on the ground, his head pillowed by .
oozy mud and his body covered with j
flies.
Chandi Chowk is a place where
one can buy a priceless ruby or
sapphire and, when leaving the
shop, stumble over a family which
does not have a home, a single
possession, and little hope of ever
gaining any one of them.
How the children exist is a
mystery. The life expectancy is
26 years, and that must- be an
optimistic estimate. Dirt. Disease.
Little or no medical care. No such
thing as orange juice, clean clothes,
vitamins, etc.
I wish I hadn’t gone to Chandni
Chowk.
It's liable to make a missionary
out of me.
And I just wasn't cut out for that
sort of thing.
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