Mr. Truman's Nightmare
Nobody ever thought of Mr. Truman as a powerful Democratic candidate for the 1948 Presidential election. But few observers would have forecast that he was the man to wreck what chances the Demo- crats have at the Congressional elections in November, 1946. Yet that is what his recent demarche in the treacherous field of labour legisla- tion seems to have done. His proposals for a temporary measure to give the President powers to declare certain strikes criminal acts and to fight them with very drastic penalties has been emasculated by the Senate; but a permanent measure, the Case Bill, which is equally unacceptable to the unions, has now been presented to him by Congress for signature. Thus he gets the worst of several worlds —abuse from the unions and a rebuff from the Senate for an anti- labour measure which he failed to get through, and the choice of more unpopularity with the unions or more unpopularity with Con- gress according to whether he passes the Case Bill or turns it down. There is no longer much possibility that the Democrats .will get, next November, the labour vote which President Roosevelt always managed to swing in his favour. The only question now is whether that vote will go to the Republicans or to the eternally unrealised possibility of American politics—a third, or labour party. What- ever happens then, the immediate state of affairs is bad for every- body. The dangerous antagonism between employers and unions is growing worse. Production is hampered and wage rates are going up so fast that inflation in the United States is a reality. Shipments of food and other goods to the outside world are checked by each strike and may be cut off altogether by a stoppage at the docks on June 15th. Mr. Truman is living through a Vice-President's night- mare.
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