National Affairs: Might Makes Right

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Afternoons, the Senate dozed through the filibuster fight, but in the mornings, in the big committee rooms on Capitol Hill, Senators worked away at writing bills. There, too, men who disagreed widened their disagreements.

At week's end, the Labor Committee was ready with the bill to repeal the Taft-Hartley Act. Like the filibuster battle, the measure reflected the Administration's stubborn scorn of compromise. After 3½ weeks of hearings and haggling, New Dealing Chairman Elbert D. Thomas reported it out exactly the way the White House had recommended. It drew the teeth of the Taft-Hartley Act and reinstated the Wagner Act with a few minor changes. Republicans in committee had tried to offer some amendments, but Thomas' Democratic majority had turned down every one, reporting the bill out on a straight 8-to-5 party vote. Vermont's mild George Aiken commented bitterly: "Might makes right." To Ohio's Robert A. Taft it was "the most highhanded" committee procedure he had ever seen.