National Affairs: Horse Trade

Last March William Green denounced Representative Howard Smith's Wagner Act amendments with great vigor. Last week he proposed a horse trade: if Howard Smith would accept four A. F. of L. amendments, the Federation would support the rest of the Smith Bill. Virginia's Smith gladly agreed, got a handsome vote (258-10-129) for the hybrid.

"Sold down the river," wailed Chairwoman Mary T. Norton of the House Labor Committee. But Bill Green could consider that he had not got the worst of the bargain. The Wagner Act's broad declaration of bargaining policy remained intact; Federation craft unions were protected against rulings by the National Labor Relations Board in favor of industrial unions. Howard Smith also kept most of what he wanted: permission for employers to talk (but not act) against unions; a new board, reduced in power and tied up in enough strings to choke it well-nigh to death. All that Green & Co. had to do now was to get the amendments through the Senate and past President Roosevelt.