We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.
Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.
I
He ini Radio News Service
5/29/46
ARROGANCE SEEN IN PETRILLO' S FORCING LEA ACT TEST NOW
In view of what happened to Messrs. Whitney and Johnston at the hands of President Truman in the threatened railroad strike, the long pent-up public resentment against John L. Lewis, and the rising popular sentiment against dictatorial labor leaders gene re¬ ally, it was felt in Washington that James C. Petrillo, President of the American Federation of Musicians, was arrogantly flinging himself into the face of all this and had chosen a very poor time to test out the constitutionality of the Lea Act.
There was considerable speculation in the Capital as to wno Mr. Petrillo might have been referring to in the House and Senate when he said "upon advice of able and experienced legal counsel and the statements of learned lawyers in both Houses of Congress, proceeding in the firm and sincere belief that the Lea Act is in violation of the fundamental lawof the land, the Consti¬ tution of the United States. "
The vote was so overwhelming in favor of the Lea Eill in both the House and the Senate tnat the question arises as to who from there could have given Mr. Petrillo such advice. The only champion he had in the House was Representative Marcantonlo of the American Labor Party and practically the only one in the Senate was Glenn Taylor, of Ida.ho, the "Radio Singing Cowboy", one of only three Senators who voted against the Lea Bill. Not a single labor came to Petrillo' s rescue while the bill was being considered in either the House or the Senate.
It was a coincidence that at almost the same time that Mr. Petrillo was challenging the authority of Congress in Chicago Tuesday afternoon, Senator Burton K. Wheeler (D), of Montana, noted labor champion was calling on President Truman at the White House.
It was before Senator Wheeler's Committee that Mr.
Petrillo was haled several years. Senator Wheeler, who is up for re-election this year, is for the moment on the black list of the CIO, but nevertheless is believed to be one of Mr.. Truman's closest advisors. What he said to the President is not known, but just the day before a solemn warning he gave in the Senate to labor dictators is advice which could be very well taken to heart by Mr. Petrillo.
Senator Wneeler, Chairman of the Committee which approved the Anti-Petrillo Bill in the Senate, said:
"I do not believe there is a Member of the Senate who tnroughout the last 30 or 40 years has had any better record, so far as labor legislation is concerned, than I, because I defended all classes and all kinds of labor, both before I came to the Senate and afterward. But I think that some of the labor leaders in this country are to a large extent responsible for some of the conditions which exist at the present time. If they go too far, they are going to be held responsible for destroying the gains which labor has made in the United States.
9