Act of Labor

Should some Capitol cataclysm remove 14 such potent House committee chairmen as Ways & Means' Bob Doughton of North Carolina, Judiciary's Hatton Sumners of Texas, as many junior Congressmen would be upped by seniority. Southern leadership would be decimated, and the way of future measures like the recently enacted Wages-&-Hours Bill (see p. 9) would be greatly eased. Lacking the necessary cosmic powers, C. I. O. politicos last week proposed to accomplish the foregoing and more by an Act of Labor.

John L. Lewis' political implement, Labor's Non-Partisan League, published for the benefit of Labor voters a list of Congressmen coming up for renomination and re-election this year. Rated on this roster, chiefly by their votes on wage-hour control, were: A) aggressive friends of labor; B) passive friends of labor; C) borderliners whose fate might be decided by local circumstances; D) aggressive enemies of labor. Obviously this invitation to turn out the rascally Ds suited C.I.O.'s program of direct political action and tied in well with Administration strategy (see p. 7).

High among the Ds were the House Rules Committeemen (including Democrats Cox of Georgia, Clark of North Carolina, Smith of Virginia; Republicans Mapes of Michigan, McLean of New Jersey) who long delayed a vote on Wages-&-Hours. Others of the 39 House Ds:

Massachusetts' Joseph W. Martin Jr., who is on G. O. P. books to succeed retiring Minority Leader Bertrand Snell; Alabama's Henry B. Steagall (who, like Chairman Doughton, has already been renominated in his Democratic district); Texas' Martin Dies, Joseph J. Mansfield, Fritz Lanham; Maine's Ralph O. Brewster; Massachusetts' Allen T. Treadway; Michigan's Clare E. Hoffman. House As of course included such stalwart laborites as-Texas' Maverick, California's Voorhis, Wisconsin's Boileau, Illinois' Kent Keller, Iowa's and Harry Hopkins' Otha Wearin, who was recently defeated for the Democratic Senatorial nomination. Also blessed by the League was Maryland's Representative David J. Lewis, who hopes to replace D-Man Millard Tydings.

Neither Mr. Tydings nor any other Senator was specifically listed. From the League's Executive Vice President Eli Oliver, however, correspondents dragged enough to indicate that such friendly gentlemen as New York's Wagner will rate A, California's McAdoo with the Bs (although Franklin Roosevelt last week graded him A), George of Georgia and Clark of Missouri in the outer D.

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