Evening Star Newspaper, April 14, 1937, Page 11

Court Views Obstructions in Trade Affirms Federal Right to Control Labor Unions. BY DAVID LAWRENCE. EDERAL power to control labor unions is here. The Congress of the United States possesses such power and e Supreme Court of the United States by its latest decisions has affirmed it. Labor organizations as such have eome under Fed- . eral jurisdiction and “sit - down strikes can now be legislated out of existence by making them an “unfsir labor practice” along with the others enumerated in the Wagner act. What has hap- pened in the evo- lution of Ameri- can constitutional law is not that the basic mean- ing of the words “interstate com- merce” has changed at all from what it has been in the beginning of the republic. The idea that commerce 1s intercourse and communication, that 1t is the process of transporting goods across State lines has not been altered But what has been profoundly changed by America’s growth is the nature and scope of diments and obstructions to interstate commerce. Recognizes Obstructions, The Supreme Court of the United States in effect has taken judicial cognizance of such obstructions. During the weeks in early February when the Wagner act was being argued by counsel before the court, & strike of devastating proportions was going on in the General Motors plants scattered through Michigan and other States. It was engineered and | directed by a few men at the head of | 8 national labor union. They caused | men to sit down at their bench-s in | plants and thus prevent production | from being carried on. To all intents and purposes, a few labor leaders demonstrated how t production and act state commerce in a major i It was frankly conceded that labor’s purpose was to stop production shipment of goods. No argument advanced such as used to be made a quarter of a century ago that a strike merely stopped production and, there- fore, had no bearing on the fact that interstate shipme: s prevented. Today labor openly seeks to prevent intersiate commerce from being carried on till its demands are met, | and in the last few days the power of & national labor organization to stop | commerce has been exerted not merely between States in our own count: but is publicly threatened with respect, | to commerce across an international | boundary, namely, from Canada. Under Power of Congress. Under the circumstances it is the nationally organized labor unions which, until the Supreme Court spoke | this week, were subject only to the powers of individual States, but now these same national organizations be- come subject to the power of Con- gress Economic power wielded across State lines by a virtual monop- oly of a few leaders at last has been matched by the power of the United States Government. | It was therefore not merely the | large-scale national operations of in- dustries engaged in producing goods which brought about the affirmation of the power of Congress to deal| with serious labor disputes, but the | far-flung operations of national labor unions, which, by their success in interrupting interstate commerce, awakened a dormant power of Con- gress to deal with such interruptions. Once before—in Wilson vs. New— | the Supreme Court of the United States went to afirm a Federal eight-hou on the rail- roads, passed in 1916, and took into consideration that it was a factor in | & tie-up of Nation-wide transporta- tion systems. There is at bottom lit- tle difference today between the Su- preme Court of Chief Justice White's day and the Supreme Court of Chief Justice Hughes. Paralysis or threate ened paralysis of interstate commerce in a major industry is a matter for congressional action. Not Concerned With Abuse. It will be argued by employers that | the Supreme Court's decisions uphold- | David Lawrence. , | ing the Wagner labor act are dis- | turbing because this law permits, by | omission of penalties, an irresponsi- bility on the part of labor unions. This is because the Wagner act does | not specifically inhibit in any way the excesses of labor unions. But, | as the Supreme Court said on Mon- day, its concern was not with the abuse of a statute, but with the power of Congress to enact it in the first place. Thus a start In the direction of Federal regulation is wiser than no regulation at all | Some day the conservatives who are disappointed today will look back on Chief Justice Hughes' opinion in the Wagner cases and find it a bul- wark of the capitalistic system. For as “sit-down” strikes arouse public feeling, pressure will come to amend the Wagner labor act to prohibit ex- cesses. Experience wilt tend to make the law two sided instead of one sided. and while this may take time, the decisions themselves plainly Justify as much the regulation of the employes’ organizations as those of the employers. Nor is it to be forgotten that em- ployes who do not wish to belong to national labor unions can now be | protected against intimidation and | coercion by appealing directly to the | Labor Board and asking it to re- strain such acts. If the board feels its power is limited, appeal to the Supreme Court may be taken, and | there would seem to be no question | but that some day injunctions against | labor leaders who practice or en- courage acts of coercion will be up- held entirely apart from the omissions of the Wagner act. Strike May Be Limited. Likewise some day a limitation on the right to strike will become s matter of Federal statute with re- spect to industries engaged in inter- state commerce, just as today the rallroad labor act in effect contains limitations on the right to strike by requiring certain processes of media- tion and cooling before strikes can be called. America today is paralleling the experience of Great Britain in the last 15 years. Abroad the excesses of labor unions in a general strike which tied up England's | internal business led to limitations on the right to strike. The Wagner labor act specifically ’ News Behind the News Some Hold Labor Ruling Gives Government Limit- less Power—Danger Seen in Broad Authority. BY PAUL MALLON. NAP judges on the side lines seem to be giving the Supreme Court decision in the Wagner cases whatever opinion they happen to desire. There is a general tondency to accept the interpretation of the court minority in its decision, implying that almost limitless power was placed in the hands of the Federal Government, including *“control over purely local industry.” However, in courts as in politics these days, minorities do not count. Better lawyers here have noted that Chief Justice Hughes, in the majority opinion, referred repeatedly to the Schechter case decision in such a way as to stress that it is still in force. There seemed to be a clear distinction in his mind as to what business is local and what is national, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 14, 1937. THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, HE opinions of the writers on this page are their own, not necessarily The Star’s. Such opinions are presented in The Star’s effort to give all sides of questions of interest to its readers, although such opinions may be contradictory among themselves and directly opposed to The Star’s. To Thomas Mann, Exile Nobel Prize Winner May Be Barred From Germany, But Not Literature. BY DOROCTHY THOMPSON. “Thomas Mann, German author and Nobel Prize winner, arrived in tween you and Germany and Europe, and through Europe with all men and women still loyal to the spirit of the {1s a model what can be regulated federally and Mr. Hughes attempted to define his distinction, but as is the case in most court decisions, the definition was largely negative. court specifically reserved the right to handle each case separately as it comes along On the advice of counsel, the following suggestion may be of- fered to the confused man with a hot dog stand on the cornér: The foremost test of whether a business is in interstate commerce (and therefore subject to Federal regulation) is whether a strike of its employes would cause any in- terference with the flow of interstate commerce. it buys more than 50 per cent of its sells more than 50 per cent of its products in other States. If your business meets both of these tests, it is clearly in inter- state commerce and can be regu certainly as to collective bargaining and probably epen further. If it meets only one of the tests, Federal uthority. If it meets neither, it is probably beyond Federal jurisdiction. ‘This new theory replaces the old one holding that only the movement of goods across State lines is interstate commerce, but any manufacturing done before the actual movement starts or any selling done after the goods reaches its destination is not interstate commerce. Of course, no one will be able to classify each business until further test cases have fully explored the jud, to do now is to ask your lawyer * % If you ask the average well-informed authority on the Supreme Court hy” of its decision in the Wagner labor cases, you will be informed: “Chief Justice Hughes wanted to save the court.” Ezxpert trade estimates of the production lost by the C. I. O. strikes in the auto industry thus far certainly indicate that Mr. John Lewis has been interfering with interstate commerce. authoritative guess is that General Motors and Chrysler production was 300,000 cars below what it would have been if there had been the « no strike. The worst angles of the court decision being mentioned by many a good friend of President Roosevelt (but not publicly) are these: The National Labor Relations Bo: which it will need to use cautiously unless it wants to get into the dictatorial field of Messrs. Mussolini and Hitler. For all factual purposes, the individual business man or laborer in interstate commerce can be temporarily regulated arbitrarily by the board without much restraint except the conscience of the men on the board and the Federal sta NOW. WE cay O PLACRS., Supreme Court will not be able to has These two things are worrying more than one official. * % Another realistic danger lies behind the so-called A. P. decision. The alertness of some members of the new order against press criticism and newspaper opposition is engendering fear that the new powers may be Actually what the court said was that newsmen may not be fired for joining their labor union, but may be fired for incompetency or any other legitimate purpose. equally and fairly to newspapers supporting Mr. Roosevelt and those against used for more than labor purposes him, few complaints will be heard. But if the Labor Board starts summoning the books and papers and harassing only those publish administration, or who fail to support administration policies, there may be considerable complaint. What will undoubtedly obviate a! now has won not only authority but re (Copyright, 1 what cannot. Also the THIS IS A REALWEAPON @3¢ Another one is whether raw materials from other States and lated by the Federal Government, it may or may not be subject to gment of the court. The safest thing * % Cram’s ard appears to have been given powers tutes against corruption and collusion. Also, the men on the board are gen- erally known not as leaders but offi- cials whose national reputations are yet to be made A live danger also exists in the possibility that labor may get what is known outside the Supreme Court as “the swelled head.” If it seeks to use the board for the purpose of lording itself over employers and to run the business, there may be trouble which even the ndle. * *x If this rule is applied ers who happen to be against the 11 these dangers is that Mr. Roosevelt esponsibility, 7) says nothing in the act is to impair the “right to strike,” but Congress, | now being charged with the power to protect interstate commerce against | impediments, can at any time define what strike.” As remarked in these columns sev- eral weeks ago, the railroad labor act for adjustment of indus- trial troubles, and Congress has in- is meant by the “right to ,deed been told now that it has the power to apply this experiment na- tionally to all unions and employers involved in large-scale production, distribution and marketing of goods in interstate commerce. Regulation of virtually all condi- tions of a labor contract, such as wages and hours, still remains local | and subject only to local laws—State, | county or city—but regulation of na- tional labor organization activities in their relation to employers now is a | | Federal matter in so far as direct ne- !gmiation itself between these groups is required by law in the interest of | the innocent public, which suffers | when commerce is interrupted. Com- | pulsory negotiation has been affirmed "M a law-abiding device chosen by Congress to curtail the causes of | | labor disputes. Compulsory agree- | ment is something else again—un- | known in Britain, France and Amer- ica, but well known in Germany, | | Italy and Russia. It comes when | fascism comes. (Copyright, 1937.) NOW’S THE TIME TO At attractive Spring prices— New Deico Oil Barners equipped with the Thin-Mix Fuel Control cut oil costs to the bone Nolongerisautomatic heat reserved for the ) rich man slone. 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New York on Monday from Swit- zerland, where he has been living since the Hitler regime. He is the guest of the University in Erile of the New School for Social Research.” E ARE glad that you are here, Thomas Mann. No nation can exile you. Yours is a larger citizenship, in no mean country, Wherever men love reason, hate obscurantism, shun dark- ness, turn toward light, know grati- . tude, praise vir- tue, despise #§ meanness, kindle to sheer beauty; wherever minds fare sensitive, hearts generous and spirits free— there is your home. In wel- coming you, a country but hon- ors {itself. If you should B never see again the German landscape you have loved so well—that landscape, natural, Spring- like, almost ‘dewy, yet so formal, so humane—it will live behind your eye- balls, and because of you, exist for us. Exiled from that landscape, none can exile you from the culture which molded its fields, its shaped wood- lands, its lively, gracious cities, its dreamy towns. For you are of that culture, inalienably, and carry it with you wherever you go, moving in a| German air, limpid with light, vibrant with music, an air which all of Europe once could breathe. Secure in Time. The very ghosts who walk with you are more robust than the living. They | are secure in time: Wa Nietzsche, and the coloss: all Germans, but al of the West, carrie “Torch that flames from Marathon to Concord, its dangerous beauty binding three ages Into one time; the waves of civ- ilization and of barbarism have eclipsed but never quenched it.” All sharers, like yourself, in the great Western passion: the love of freedom. Let them cast you out of Germany! No one saw earlier or more clearly | than he coming blight. When Germany was strongest, most power- | ful, before the war when Euro trembled, you spotted the Dorothy Thompson. seeing the decline of the bo world | In 1927, at the height of the feverish | after-war prosperity, you laid the con- | flicts in the European mind in a mountain-top sanatorium, and showed us all the illness of FEurope in “The Magic Mountain.” Out of what have you been cast, Thomas Mann? Out of the German language? All its words are in your mouth, under your | hands, emerging in forms and colors and sounds to make us love a tongue defiled by others. They cannot cast you out of litera- ture. Let them burn Tadzio in Ber- lin. A wraith of smoke floats out across the borders, across the seas, drifts down in shapely form amongst the skyscrapers of New York, and there he stands again, his honey- colored hair bright about his temples, his smile winsome and shy, as alive as when he stepped from the Lido's waves in Venice. Despite the world's dark hocus- pocus Mario still defies the magician: despite gas masks for babies, some hearts still weep for childhood’s early sorrow. And if we look at Germany with pain instead of rage, it is be- cause we see Hans Castorp, “life’s | problem child.” stumbling through | no man’s land, with a rifle in his hand. | Inextricable is the relationship be- eols BUY AUTOMATIC HEAT | | DELCO OIL BURNER | Product of General Motors A. P. WOODSON CO. 1313 H ST. N.W. R. G. Dunne & Co. 600 M 8t. NE. Vienny J. R. Earight Co. s 708 Wisc. Ave. Gardiner D. District Electric Co. 1 2148 P 8t. N.W. " 828 10th Royal Heating Co. 807 15th St. N.W. T. J. Fannon & Sons Alexandria. Va. ME. 2315 J_H. Ruff Ce. J. C. Hard Rastsind 013 You 8t. N.W. L. . ok B Star Radio Co. 409 11th Se, N.W. John F. Flest Laurel. 1202 MONROE ST. N.E. Mariboro Electrical a:gve. ‘Supply Co. & Co. Ine. Marlboro, Md. . NW. o . T¢ 38R v N E. an 414 Washington-Balto. Blvd. Pinkett. Ine. St. National Majestio adio Co. 808 1ith 8t. N.W. Edward Volland. Ine, Md. 1316 oth Bt. N.W. R e e 7 canker, | scented decay, wrote “Buddenbrooks’ | m | “band w Western World. The worshipers of blood and soil cannot drain you of patriclan German chromosomes or obliterate German earth and Ger- man landscape from your pages. ‘When they admit again Geist—mind and spirit—to make a trilogy, they will again admit you. Between Two Worlds. Many share your exile, Thomas Mann, whose feet are still on home ground, whose houses are safe, whose language is spoken in the streets where they live. But they, like you, live between two worlds—between a present which they believe to be in dis- solution and a future which they hardly hope to live to see. If they have faith in the grandeur and dig- nity of that future, if they look ahead bravely and serenely, they feel them- selves kin of yours, though they speak English or French, or the racy, ironic idiom of the Americans, And of your future in history we have no doubt. Generations from now men may speculate about your perse- cutors, however the circle turns. But of you they will say: “His virtue was equal to his gifts He served with humbleness a most i nobility t (Copyright, 1937.) TIDAL BASIN SITE FOR MEMORIAL HIT Summit Park Unit Deplores Pro- posal as Slaugther of The Tho the proposed condemned by the S who the motion, and Mrs. L introduced proposed slaugt trees and the Tidal as contemplated under the memor plan “T cannot unde of destroyir of the Cap and the | clared to bulid a memc one if the money is appre The p also on recol ding Fort Dupont 8 good alternative site for the memorial s members also went on record | opposing an increase in and all di- version of the gasoline tax. A sep- arate motion disapproved any increase in realty taxes lutions requesting the Capital Co. to have & uniform color for street cars and asking the High- way Department for an oil or tar sur- facing of Austin street also were passed. Harvey Diehl declared that the preser lored cars look like | me: Considerable discussion was arous by the proposal to increase the driv- ers’ permit age from 16 to 18. After | some debate thé issue was referred to | a special committee of Harvey Diehl | and President William J. Smith. DR. BOWEN SPEAKER Will Address Anti-Cigarette Alli- | ance on Saturday. | Dr. W. Sinclair Bowen, president of the Anti-Cigarette Alliance of the District, will speak at a dinner meet- ing of that group at 6 p.m. Saturday at 1414 Sixteenth street. A motion picture and entertainment program will follow. " eouncil. This Changing World Britain Willing to Take Insults of Mussolini and Hitler to Keep Peace in Europe. BY CONSTANTINE BROWN. HE British government should have asked Ambassador Norman Davis, who is at present in London, what happens to the fellow who draws I and does not shoot. The sending of the superbattleship ifood to Bilbao to show the rebels that they cannot trifle with ships flying the union jack has been & mistake; from the psychological point of view it has been almost as bad &s the sending of the entire British fleet to the Mediterranean to prevent the conquest of Ethiopia by Mussolini's forces. L There has been the inevitable publicity when the Hood received orders to proceed to the beleaguered Loyalist port. This battle cruiser alone could have wiped out the whole rebel naval force, But Premier Baldwin got scared of the implications which any drastic measure taken by the British sailormen could have produced. The British cabinet is fully aware that Franco is being pushed to the fore by the Italians and the Germans and that when Franco talks like a fighting cock it is really Mussolini and Hitler who are speaking. Q * ok Kk @ The blockade of Bilbao, as long as Franco is not recognized as a belligerent by all the powers. is illegal from the international law point of view. The British and any other nation could without hesi- tation send mine-sweepers to clear the bay of mines and ignore the presence of the few out-of-date and ramshackle old warships which are enforcing the blockade on Pranco's behalf. But because the British cabinet knew that in acting drastically towards the rebels they would actually challenge the authoritarian states, the admiralty ordered the captain of the Hood to survey the scene and not go any further than protect British merchantmen outside the territorial waters of Spain. * K ox X ‘This reluctance of the British government to show a strong hand has further convinced Mussolini and Hitler that the British will swallow almost any insult and temporize rather than force any issue at a time when they still are far from being prepared for war. The next few weeks will show an increased activity on the part the Italians and the Germans in defiance of the non-intervention agree- ment which is as effective as the covenant of the League of Nations provided Madrid does not fall soon. Despite the victory of the rebel forces—mc the international brigade and the Russian airforce—there are indications that the rebels will make another effort soon to capture the Spanish Capital. Mussolini is smarting under the defeat of his blackshirts and, despite the repeated denials from all sources, there seems to be no doubt that large Italian reinforcements have reached the rebels in the course of the last 10 days. The Germans and the Italians are reported to have sent some of their newest bombing and pursuit planes to replace the erperi- mental machines which fought for Franco until recently. It ‘seems that there is a more uniform and cohesive air force at the present moment on the Spanish front than there has been since the begin- ning of the civil war. of * ok ok % the interests of the French and the the victory of the Loyalists, there is no 1ld give a sigh of relief if Franco were to Such a victory would remove the danc ation which would be forced by It the Lovalists were to be the victors. The British still believe that in the end they could handle Franco diplomatically and financially and have sent word to Paris not to be over-worried about a victory of the rebels. Anything seems to be good enough for Breat Britain for the time being, provided a general conflict can be avoided. * ox ox x London is seriously worried about the situation in the Middle East From Cairo to the Eastern borders of India there is a wave of discontent and a spirit of defiance to the Empire The Egyptian government is well controlled by the British, but the people are worked by Italian propaganda conducted this time not so much from Rome as from Arab Palestine is rest the h have been following an ecided policy favoring one the other the they seem to be defini! inclined in the favor of the Jews who are being equipped with modern machine guns and rifles and formed into a militia which ocould cope suc- cessfully with the Palestine Arabs. Ibn Saoud who is keeping an open eye on Palestine does not like this change of front and is likely to bring his troops closer to the Transjordanian and Palestine borders, * Kk Kk % In India where the India act drafted by Sir John Simon has been put into effect there is trouble. Not very serious for the time.being, but suffi- cient to worry the Whitehall and to have caused the cancellation of King George's visit for the usual coronation durbar Old man Ghandi has brought out his spinning wheel again and has joined the Indian extremists. Although he has lost a good deal of his pop larity he has enough strength to cause the British authorities headach His joining the extremists is considered as a cause for real trou! in the near future. And the British government does not want more trouble than it has at the present moment. Although the sympathies British are closely connected w do Paris and L o be victorious in the end immediate European confla intervention in Spain RS \\fk}\ Arabs. N Dr. Cornely to Speak. Dr. Paul B. Cornely of the Howard University School of Medicine will ad- dress the Washington Council of So- cial Workers on “Social Security and Physical Health” at a luncheon in the Phyllis Wheatley Y. W. C. A. at noon tomorr William C. Opey, Division of Child Welfare, is president of the Coronation Fireworks Fatal. HASTINGS, England, April 14 (%) Preparations for the coronation King George VI claimed their fi casualties today. man was killed and s injured while cons roses,” fireworks ma cting “bat e according oW tio STOP GRINVING LIKE A MONKEY, BOB—A RUNS NO JOKE TO ME/ nother gravely to |a method handed down for genera- Headline Folk and What They Do Cheryl Crawford At- tained Success During Depression. BY LEMUEL F. PARTON, OMAN theatrical producery arerare. Eva Le Gallienne, Peggy Fears,' Winifred Lenthan and a very few others make up the list. An added starter is Cheryl Crawford, leaving the directorate of the Group Theater, which she helped establish six years ago, to become an independent pro- ducer. Girl graduates, with a yen for the stage and the commencement season near, would do well to ponder the technique of Miss Crawford, a girl from Akron, Ohio, who made a success in the depression years Smith College, she was head of the dramatic ciety and directed Masefield’s play, "ThP Faithful.” She chose the stage | for a career he never had wante to be an actress, and her only t was in producing and directing In New York, she attended the Guild School of the Theater Guild. The black fog of the depression blacked out every avenue to the stage. A singularly energetic an ful young { woman, Miss Crawford decided to make her own theater h Lee Strasberg, | Harold Clurman and several b she got some back took a lot qf hopeful lads and lassies up to a Con- hed them in ac resour “the House of Conne Among their later plays were * . Till the Day I Dije” The Group Theater was a going concern Miss Crawford viewed a play as | something more than the sum of all its parts. She insisted that the syn= thesis wouldn't quite come through unless each actor had a clear concep- tion of the integrated effort. She saw | the theater as a separate art The infanta Eulalie de Bourbon | aunt of former King Alfonso of Spa | says the restoration to the th be little enough recor $10,000,000 Alfonso nas tossed vy for Gen. Franco. poigr ge. Di | World Fair of 1893, Ev gown attracted almost as tion as the n She wore it in F: the opening ball of the ex was made of 2,500,000 tk and weighed scribed as “sem ancestral jewels. It somehow got around the palace, shifted here was reported to have been k of Spain by lican government | She is a spry little 73-yes | with bobbed hair, the yo cleverest of Alfonso’ of several other books her peace with Alfonso. Madrid gove! about her been mislaid scr iver. [the jewel: h obliged 1 about the trunk. She initialed elf with brass tacks—“E. de B.." Eu e de Bourbon. 0'Neill Leases Estate KLAND. Cal April The Lux Way to Cut Down Runs I Lux stockings after every wearing to remove perspiration. 2 Turn stockings inside out—squeeze lukewarm Lux suds through them. 3 Rinse in lukewarm water. Squeeze water out—never twist or wring! Then shape and dry on bathroom Al rack—but not near heat. 4 Don'’t risk ordinary soaps (they may contain harmful alkali) or cake-soap rubbing. These weaken elasticity — then runs may start. 5 Lux contains no harmful alkali. It saves stocking elasticity—hence cuts down on costly runs. Saves Stocking Elasticity . . .