F. D. R.'s Dilemma

Time & again since the defense program got under way, Washington has promised to protect the rights of Labor. The National Defense Advisory Commission set forth a fixed policy in the letting of contracts: "All work carried on as part of the defense program should comply with Federal statutory provisions affecting labor. . . ." The War & Navy Departments agreed, and Labor's great friend Franklin Roosevelt advised manufacturers not to forget it.

Last week promises and practical realities met head on, leaving Mr. Roosevelt dangling on the horns of a dilemma.

Start of the trouble was a long-standing feud between Eugene Grace's Bethlehem Steel Corp. (which has a well-known record of antiunionism) and C. I. O.'s Steel Workers Organizing Committee. S. W. O. C. listed eleven grievances against Bethlehem. One of them was that Bethlehem stubbornly refused to comply with an order issued by the National Labor Relations Board to disband an alleged "company union." Ominously S. W. O. C. voted its officers full power to take any action necessary if Bethlehem did not hurry up and comply. C. I. O. head John L. Lewis pointed out that Bethlehem had more than $1.000,000,000 worth of Government contracts. What about Mr. Roosevelt's promises to Labor?

The Defense Commission asked Attorney General Jackson for his legal opinion. To Mr. Jackson it was "too clear to admit of controversy" that all Government agencies were bound by NLRB decisions, until the courts saw fit to reverse those decisions.

The opinion mollified S. W. O. C. and John Lewis, spread joy among Labor. In other quarters it was a bombshell. NLRB had cracked down not only on Bethlehem but on many another firm which subsequently had been awarded defense contracts. Was a part of the defense program going to be held up until the courts ironed out NLRB decisions? Congressmen roared that the Jackson ruling sabotaged the whole defense program. Cried New York's Representative Taber: "If a Republican had delivered such a ruling he would have been called a 'fifth columnist' by the gentleman in the White House." Snorted Pundit Walter Lippmann: "To roast pigs we must burn down a barn; to strengthen the Wagner Act we must weaken the National Defense."

Next day, Mr. Jackson hastened to add that he did not believe contracts already made would be affected. He followed that one up by adding that his opinion had been misconstrued, declared: ". . . [I] have not been asked for any opinion as to whether violators should or should not be awarded contracts." It was merely, said he enigmatically, a ruling on an administrative matter.

In the midst of the hullabaloo, unofficial word came from the Defense Commission that National Defense requirements would be held paramount to all other considerations.

C. I. 0., chagrined, debated what to do next at Bethlehem. Mr. Roosevelt had to decide whether to jeopardize his Labor support or his politically potent defense program--or whether there was some other way out. At week's end he still kept dilemma-mum.

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