Evening Star Newspaper, July 7, 1936, Page 11

Labor Plank Contradicts President Refuses to Protect Working Man Against Coercion. BY DAVID LAWRENCE. N VIEW of the lebor warfare going on this Summer, and the strike threats on the horizon, an exami- nation of the differences between the Republican and New Deal plat- form planks on labor legislation dis- closes the very fundamentals of present-day disputes. President Roose- velt, it appears, has at one time used the exact language of the Republican plank. Basically, both platforms favor *collective bar- gaining” by rep- resentatives of of the workmen themselves. The catch comes in the three meth- ods by which the bargaining rep- Tesentatives are selected, whether the choice is influenced by employers and finally, whether rival employe organizations can influence, intimi- date or coerce workmen into joining one type of union in preference to another. The New Deal platform says: “We have written into the law of | the land the worker’s right to collec- tive bargairing and self-organizatiop free from the interference of em- ployers.” The Republican platform says: “We pledge ourselves to protect the right of labor to organize and to bargain col ively through repre- sentatives of its own choosing with- out intereference from any source.” Favors No One Union. President Roosevelt is & public statement on March 25, 1934, after a threatened strike in the automobile industry, had been averted, said: “The Government makes it clear that it favors no particular union or form of union or particular form of employe organization or representa- tion. The Govergment's only duty is to secure absolule and uninfluenced | freedom of choice without coercion, restraint, or intimidation from any source.” Thus Mr. Roosevelt himself first used the mous phrase “without coercion from any source,” which is even stronger than “without inter- ference from any source.” In any event, Mr Roosevelt did not consider the interference of only one | side, namely the employers, but took | into account the actualities of mod- ern labor disputes wherein warring factions of employes coerce or inter- fere with one another while the em- ployers often have no part in the strife. Such a situation exists in many an industry where shop unions occur. ‘These organizations of employes elect their own representatives for | collective bargaining, but they have no affiliation with outside unions in other companies or plants. A so- called national union will send its membership advocates to a plant and secure a nucleus of members. These members will begin missionary work inside the plant to get more members. Finally, when a substantial number of members has been attained, not necessarily a majority, a strike will be threatened and demands will be presented. David Lawrence. production at | is promptly interpreted as the result | News Behind the News S. E. C. Bank-Trustee Report May Be Revived. Shrewd Roosevelt “History-onics.” BY PAUL MALLON. = Securities Exchange Commission dropped s report into the bot- tomless hopper of Congress before the close, complaining about the way big banks are playing corporate trustee for bondholders. Ordinarily there is nothing less important than a commission report to Congress. It is printed snd promptly forgotien. Usually the printing causes a one-day ripple of interest. This one did not even cause that. Tt was lost in a whirl of more important things, such as the activities of Mr. Zioncheck. However, it may not remain lost indefinitely. The exchange commissioners are in their innermost workshop row composing a definite three- point program which will touch every bondholder in the country. * x * % If you had been under the table during their recent discus- sions, you would have heard the following three points mentioned as what they have in mind behind their report: (1) A fraud statute for commercial banks, making them responsible as real, rather than routine frustees; (2) fixed standards for indentures, and (3) a law preventing banks from doing the banking business of a corporation for whose bonds they are trustee. What started all this was evidence accumulated by the S. E. C. indicating that some danks had been more than careless in switch- ing the bond assets in their custody as trustees for corporations, What may end it is legislation at the next session of Congress along the three planned lines. Bankers may propose the corrective legisiation themaselves. * %k X % Nearly every speech President Roosevelt has made in the last 60 days has been a history lesson. He has covered Lincoln rather fully in Kentucky and elsewhere, Jefferson at Monticello, George Rogers Clark in Indiana, Sam Houston and the Alamo in Texas, the founding fathers and Jackson at Philadelphis. To an outsider, this may indicate only that Mr. Roosevelt has been studying history lately. He has, aided by several of his best collectors of speech-making material. *But to these and other insiders the newly developed historical interest of the President is something more than his acceptance of invitations to historical spots around the country would indicate. It is the smartest method of campaigning that they could think of in this interlude. The historical shell of each speech contained some campaign point which Mr. Roosevelt could not offer directly in an effective way. For - instance, his Jeffersonian “history- onics” enabled him to pay tribute to the Constitution and the Declara- tion of Independence which he is accused of defiling. Also such speeches enabled him not to talk about the recent tax bill and such subjects. «His associates gleefully expect the remainder of his campaign will be just as shrewd as the historical - beginning. Not often is the Government able to get outstanding men from any business field to come into the Government service. For that reason— and one other—old timers around the S. E. C. can still remember the outstandingest man they ever had. It happened months ago, but has been kept very much undercover. The S. E. C.-ers wanted au *xpert in a particular line of stock market activity. They searched the field and came back with a Mr. C—. Every one agreed he knew more about that line than anyone living. They per- suaded him to sacrifice himself for a small Government salary and brought him to Washington. He was sworn in with ceremony which in- cluded congratulations for every one concerned. A clerk was then dispatched to lead Mr. C— to his new office. Two minutes later in rushed the sleuth of the S. E. C., an- nouncing that he had just discovered the fizer for one of the worst market manipulators in Wall Street strolling into the office of a S. E. C. official. The sleuth was willing to lead every one to the office which the culprit entered, and did. He pointed to a well dressed figure behind a desk, and the top men recognized their most recently acquired and most outstanding expert, Mr. C——u-. Two hours later Mr. C—— was on his way back to New York. His was the shortest of all public careers. (Copyright. 1936.) HELLENIC GROUP MAY BUILD HERE District Delegates Favor Erection of Shrine in Capital. Appropriation of funds for erection of a national headquarters building Golfer Drives Into Nest. “Pulling” one's drive may net re- sults. So thinks James Hole of Bal- linluig, Scotland. He was playing on | the local golf course with John Henry, jr, and Allistair Stewart when he “pulled” his shot at the seventh tee. The ball was found in a partridge nest containing 17 eggs. It lay in the center of the setting, but not a | single egg was broken or cracked. SRR Wheat Growers Aided. subsidize wheat growers in England in | the last fiscal year. More than $34,500,000 was paid to | STAR, Liberals Seen Aiding Foes Too Much U. S. Tolerant of Aca- demic Principles Hos- tile to Convictions. BY DOROTHY THOMPSON. HAVE never been able to see why & quixotic passion to give assist- ance to its enemies should be re- ded as a special grace of the liberal spirit. The liberal world is being challenged today on every side. But instead of pulling itself together for robust defense, it appears bent on chivalrously committing suicide in the interest of its assassins. To a certain extent its own principles demand a generosity of conduct which no other political or social theories concede. It must grant free speech even to its op- ponents. There is nothing in the liberal philosophy whichsays that it must go out of its way to crown its enemies with the prestige of its ap- proval. That is no sign of liberalism. It is a sign of d cadence and a hopeless confu- sion of mind. I cannot, for instance, see any reason on earth why American universities should have sent delega- tions to the celebration of Heidelberg's 550th anniversary, unless to see how in three years five centuries can be destroyed. For the university as we conceive it no longer exists in Ger- many. Throughout our entire history our universities have fought for aca- demic fredom against the dominion of special groups and against the domination of the state. The fight has by no means always been success- ful and academic freedom has its martyrs here as elsewhere. But I think no one can deny that the ideal has been the most vital force in our institutions of higher learn- ing. The attempt to create the courageous and disinterested mind, which fearlessly examines all facts in an unceasing search for truth, founders on human prejudices and human limi- tations, but the ideal itself is most lofty and rigorous, and to it we owe the miraculous transformation of our universe. Until the war the whole civilized world gave allegiance to that conception; the student found it in Oxford And Harvard, in Heidelberg, in Bologna or in the Sorbonne; there was an international society of the edu- cated and the dedicated and, however many languages they spoke, they found a common means of spiritual communication. It was only this common means of spiritual communi- cation which made the international collaboration of men of letters and sclence possible. And it was this realization which led American alumni of Heidelberg and their friends to present to that university five years ago a statue of Athena, Goddess of Wisdom, bearing the motto, “To the Eternal Spirit.” To the German Spirit. Athena has been removed from the portals of that institution since Hitler came to power. In her place is the WASHINGTO! Dorothy Thompson. | swastika and the eagle, and the motto: “To the German Spirit.” And the German spirit of 1936 represents a re- volt from the unity of Western cul- ture and the subservience of letters, science and art to a totalitarian state in which a mystical racialism is com- bined with imperialistic nationalism. 1f Germany likes that sort of thing I suppose it is the sort of thing she likes. But why in heaven’s name should the D. C, TUESDAY, JULY 7, 193 universities of the rest of the world show that epirit deference? It is not necessary to interfere nor to fulminate; but why should one send delegates 3,000 miles to listen solemnly to and -|help to publicize the expression of ideas which lay an ax at the roots of all our concepts of academic freedom? ‘Why ask us to rehearse the obsequies of our own world? After all, Toscanini said the last word on the subject very early in the Hitler regime. Bayreuth invited the great conductor and great friend of German music to lead the orchestra at the festival. But Toscanini saw, with the simple clarity of a fundamentslly honest mind, that there was no pos- sible collaboration between the world of art to which he was dedicated snd the one which had been created in Germany. And he refused with the dignified and unanswerable statement, “I am wounded in my feelings as an artist and as & man.” Are those who love and believe in freedom not supposed to have feelings? Are they less becoming to the acad- emician than to the artist? The Nazis' philosophy is clear enough. They have not hidden it. Prof. Krieck and Bern« hard Rust took advantage of the Held- elberg celebration to restate it. Prof. Krieck sald emphatically, “We do not recognize truth for truth’s sake, nor sclence for science’s sake. The science of a nation is the expression of its total life, bound by the necessities, di- rections and purpose of that national life. We seek a science that forms the human character in accordance with our racial and political task.” That is clear enough and they are free to seek that science if they can find it. But why then are we there? How can we collaborate internationally for so purely nationalistic an aim? Registering Tolerance. Why did they want us there? To seek illumination? To listen to and publicize in German newspapers the idea of academic freedom? Obviously not. They wanted us there to increase the prestige of the government. They wanted us there for the same reason they wanted us at the Olympic games and the International Conference of Penologists. We ought to have learned from that meeting what the technique of international conferences in Nazi Germany is. It was padded with an overwhelming preponderance of Ger- man delegates who then passed resolu- tions supporting the existing system of German justice, and the people of Germany were informed through the tireless propaganda machine that Western civilization does nothing of the kind and truth was thus con- founded. Precisely the same result will be achieved by the Heidelberg celebration. Whether we intended to do 80 or not, we shall have been put in the position of registering tolerance, if not approval, of academic practices hostile to our most cherished jrin- ciples. And therewith we shall dis- courage even more profoundly the German scholars, who, in a demoral- ized world, still try to keep alive the principles to which they were origin- ally dedicated. Those principles still gleam shyly through the columns of the learned publications, their expres- sion veiled but sometimes pathetically eloquent. Collaboration between indi- vidual scholars may still go on and doubtless will with every possible hon- est encouragement. But the celebration was political ballyhoo and as in all public meetings in Germany today the real wirepuller was Dr. Goebbels. Oxford and Cam- j bridge displayed ordinary common accessories. (Copyright, 1836. New York Tritune, Inc.) _ Dr. Humphreys to Speak. A lecture on “The Fury of the Heavens” will be delivered by Dr. Wil- liam J. Humphreys, former chief meteorological physicist of the United States Weather Bureau, before the Bureau of Standards section of the Federation of Architects, Engineers, Chemists and Technicians Thursday at 4:15 p.m. in the lecture room of the bureau chemistry building. sense. They declined politely to be | This Changing World Monday’s Riot at Arc de Triomphe Merely Rehearsal for the 14th of July. BY CONSTANTINE BROWN. N NORMAL times the troubles at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris-would have been considered as very serious. Today the governmnt talks about them as mere incidents. A few hundred broken heads are mere incidents compared to what may happen in France within the next few weeks. Last Monday's riots were a renearsal for the 14th of July, when the opponents of the Elum government intend to give a real show. The 14th of July is the equiva- lent of our 4th of July. It's France's greatest national holiday. The French people celebrate the destruc- tion of the dreaded fortress-prison of Bastille by the exasperated Parisian population. It was the milestone in France's freedom from the tyranny of the absolute mon- archisms. Normally there are firecrackers and public dances. This year 1f the members of the rightist parties have their own way, it will be darricades, pistol shots and more broken heads. Those who want the Marseillaise kept as the national anthem will clash with those who want it replaced by the Internationale, Blum does not quite care which of the two remains France’s natlonal anthem. All he wants is to stay in power long enough to put into force certain social reforms which he has promised the French people. He expects, with reason, the big industrialists to foment trouble for his government. He accuses them of financing the easy-going Croix de Feu, the war veterans and the other patriotic associations with a view to bring about a social revolution. He does not believe that the Communists are trying to get hold of the government to the detriment of the other parties. Blum and his followers claim that the little bourgeoisie in France 18 100 per cent behind the government, and that the big boys—bankers and industrialists—are shouting communism every time a government endeav- ors to improve the social status of the French working classes. ‘There is no doubt that originally the small bourgeoisie was behind the Blum administration. It is they who brought him to power. But with the rising cost of living and she decrease in the purchasing value of the franc that bourgeoisie is slowly turning against him. All that is needed to bring about & dificult situation in Prance is a determined push on the part of the rightist parties. And these parties do Ponr e I K™ not worry about who will succeed the present leftist government. Those things do not come into consider- ation when revolutions are being prepared. All they want is to get rid of the present crowd. A successor can be easily found—they think, e s e e ‘The League of Nations session has ended with a bang. Weak and useless as the League was, it has always maintained in the past a great deal of dignity. The end of the last session was worthy of any fish market in Marseille or other such center. Italian newspaper men insulted the dignified former Emperor of Ethiopia, who was telling the League solemnly, exactly where it got off. Then a Czechoslovak newspaper man, who believed that the end of the League meant the end of his country, shot himself in the assembly hall. “Quite & mess,” exclaimed one of the more dignified members of the Assembly. Finally Dr. Greiser, the representative of the Free City of Danzig, after telling & few well- chosen and unparliamentary words to the representatives of the 52 na- tions, added insult to injury by thumbing his nose to the representatives of the press. This gesture was totally unfamiliar to League members. But the childish demonstrations of the representative of Danzig was ignored by the League. Piguratively, Japan and Italy have been doing this for the last four years, LR Y Next year our panama hats will no longer come from Equador. will come from Japan and will be much cheaper. The panama straw is grown from a seed which ezxists only in South America. Equador has practically @ monopoly of it. It is strictly prohibited to export the seed. But that did not worry the Tokio government. Japanese agents spent little time in the South American republic and managed to steal enough seeds to take them to Japan where they will be the nucleus of a new and remunerative industry. In fairness to the Japanese it must be said that another great power did the same thing many years ago with rubber, which was grown ex- clusively in Brazil. The embargo existed there as it exists today in Equador. British agents managed to get out of the country roots, which were transplanted in the Malay Islands. Now the Malays are the chief source of rubber production for the Empire. They Headline Folk and What They Do Helen Hayes Following Victorian Tradition as Antiquarian. BY LEMUEL F. PARTON. N THE lsst memorable chapter of his biography of Queen Victoria Strachey tells how the old Queen became an antiquarian, hoarding ancient knick-knacks untfl her boudoir fairly bulged with them. Helen Hayes, playing Victoria Regina for this long while now, has the same idea, although it probably doesn’t grow out of the inspired hypnosis of her role. Now that the matter of her having accepted a peanut from Charles MacAr- thur has been cleared up by a Chicago court, she can resume the life of her own. which _ an unusually grae cious countryside allows her to live. That means that she'll be shopping for antiques at a quaint old cross- roads place, which will not be Helen Hayes here identified or Iocated, as folks up and down the road let each other alone. and there's | no call to stir up mobs to spoil Miss Hayes' happy pastime. I saw her just the other day pawing through an array of needlework, lustre vases, samplers and English “fairings,” as bright and eager as Maggie Shand fixing up her flat when she and John went to Lon- | don. The interesting thing was that, although the place was full of people ;o one was paying any attention to er. There are indications that America may vet become safe for celebrity. When Mrs. Roosevelt buzzes around everywhere, also intent on living her own life, people pretend they don't se= her. A few months ago I saw her | enter the crowded dining room of a { New York hotel, alone, and join a group of friends at a table. Nobedy | watched her even out of the tafl of his eye. That's the Victoria Regina 1lradnmn‘ too. The English populace |is schooled in seemly disregard of royalty when it wants to be let alone, | If we progress for enough in the Brit- ish sy¥stem, we may get the Lindberghs back. Our mass behavior sometimes makes a more depressing story than that of the movie stars. As to Miss Hayes. she lives in & nice old-fashioned house, not a mansion set back from the road a ways, and | stores her antiques, as busy as a squir- rel with a hard Winter conling on. In | the theater she has been known as the “lucky lady,” hut once her luck | failed. She drew a pat royal flush in | & poker game and there was only $23 |in the pot. She was Helen Brown | when she made her stage debut in | Washington at the age of 7. Hayes is | her mother’s maiden name. When she isn't collecting antiques, reading or working in her garden, she likes to play the harmonica. | American athletes need $150,000 more to get to Berlin and participate | in the games. Avery Brundage, chair- |man of the United States Olympic | Committee, says the money must be | found within 10 days or the boys won't sail. Mr. Brundage, heavy-set, vigor- ous Chicago business man and former SPECIAL 3-DAY DEMONSTRATION here, in keeping with other National Capital shrines, was recommended in | & resolution adopted last night by the third district delegates of the Ameri- | can Hellenic Educational Progressive | Association at the closing meeting of their two-day convention at the Wil- lard Hotel. This is the largest Greek organization in the United States. ! The resolution will be sent the national convention of the organiza- tion next month in St. Paul, Minn., for approval. No sum was mentioned, that part to be settled by the national convention. The structure, if ap- proved, will be of Greek design, it was said. Orphanages Recommended. Establishment of two orphanages, i one in Gastonia, N. C,, and the other | M . at an undesignated location in Florida, 2 m e also was recommended by the third district delegates, which represented = Eooo0seniem .. North Carolina, Maryland, Virginia, Delaware and the District of Co- lumbia. C. G. Paris of Quantico, Va., was elected governor of the district; Angelo Schiadaresse of Baltimore, lieutenant governor; Dr. Harry Sem- becos of Washington, secretary; Steve Changaris, Durham, N. C., treasurer, and Dick Kassolis, Newport News, Va., marshal. The next third district convention will be held next July in Norfolk, it was decided. Besi Wishes to Roosevelt. A telegram expressing best wishes was sent Brother Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who is a member of the New York City chapter. COME SEE THIS AMAZING CAR of the superior bargaining skill of the group or faction which success- fully presented its demands. If a strike does occur the minority put | out their pickets and hegin to inter- fere with those workers who insist | on working. The pickets and often strong-arm men watch the workers as they go to and from a plant, call them *scabs” and often visit their home | neighborhoods to continue this form of intimidation. These tactics are not unusual and | are a part of the membership drives of national unions. To protect the | worker in his right to work, employ- | ers have insisted that the collective bargaining laws should be worded so as to prevent coercion “from any source.” The answer to this usually made is | that such wording will be used to get | court injunctions against labor un-| fons. The labor viewpoint ig that the common law protects the working man and that he thereforc needs no pro-| tection specifically in the statute against the tactics of overzealous fel- low employes. If that be true, then the mention of “employers” is equally unnecessary. Certainly if the law is ever tested in the Supreme Court of the United States this inequality of protection may be a factor in invali- dating the national labor relations act, which contains almost the exact| phraseology of the New Deal platform plank on this point. There is no authority in the Fed- eral Government to regulate employer and employe relations, according to many decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States, but a legislative back: RAILROAD FOR ALLTHE FAMILY «+.and no other Travel- way offers so much COMFORT for Coach ' ...and so well engineered that it has a dozen other vital features found only in more expensive cars! declaration in favor of collective bar- gaining has in itself no objection and has merit as forwarding the cause of democracy in the ranks of labor. Plank Direct Reversal. The New Deal plank is a direct re- versal of the position taken by Mr. Roosevelt, not only in his public state- ment of March, 1934, but of the pro- visions of the automobile code which he promulgated on August 26, 1933, as & part of the national industrial re- covery act. That code said: “Employes shall be free from inter- ference, restraint or coercion of em- ployers of labor or their agents in the designation of such representatives or in other concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining.” At that time, and in connection with the code, Donald Richberg, gen- eral counsel for the N. R. A, issued a statement as follows: “The recovery act and its admin- istrators do not contemplate that any particular labor organization should be enthroned by Government flat or by Government aid and invested with power to control destinies of any in- dustry or all industries. The guiding principle is written in the statute that employes shall have the right to or- ganize or bargain collectively through representatives of their own choos- ing.” Now it is claimed by national labor union spokesmen that the shop, or plant, unions are often creatures of the employer and that officers are paid out of company funds. Doubtless in some cases this is true, but there are’ other cases wherein the men in a shop | in the sessions. Wilbur H. Royster of Raleigh, N. C,, was chairman of the convention; George Papanicolas, vice chairman, and George Peratino, secretary. So- terlos Nicholson, prominent Wash- ington delegate, took an active part The convention of the eighth dis- trict of the Sons of Pericles was held in conjunction with the Ahepa meeting. — have complete control of their bar- gaining representatives and do not object to the payment by the com- pany for time lost by bargaining rep- resentatives when engaged in bargain- ing activities. This after all is something which the working men can judge for them- selves, because employer influence is not difficult for fellow workmen to detect in whatever form it arises. The chief difference between the Repub- lican and New Deal planks on labor amounts to this: The New Deal plank refuses to pro- tect working men against the coercion or intimidation of- representatives of outside unions or strong-arm tactics by pickets in the event of strikes. Strikers are taken care of on relief rolls so that industrial warfare is in effect subsidized by the Governrment. The Republican plank insists on collective bargaining and the right'to self-organization, but declares in fa- vor of protecting all working men and their families from interferences or coergion from any source when work- ing men want to continue work. (Coprright, 1936.) ‘. Save 44° on every dollar Enjoy Air-Conditioned Comfort B & O’s Individual Seat Coaches are specially-de- signed for your comfort. 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