The Herald

It was the boast of a bully, and Jimmy Hoffa blurted it right out for all to hear. "We may eventually have to do what labor unions do in Europe and call general strikes," he cried. "If Congress is stupid enough to pass a bill banning secondary boycotts we'll fix it . . ." He would paralyze the country, Mr. Hoffa made clear, by having all labor contracts expire on the same day.

The words were out of Hoffa's mouth before he could stop them. He threatened a nationwide strike -- and all the denials in the world won't "fix" that fact.

And, that "stupid" old Congress of ours might just surprise Mr. Hoffa and all his kind among the union bosses. Before it adjourns this summer, Congress might just put some real teeth into labor racket reform. We hope it does.

We hope Congress will protect workers, employers and the public against the secondary boycott -- that shameful squeeze play that injures an innocent party by choking off supply and transportation lines to any businessman who doesn't knuckle under to absolute union rule.

We hope Congress will put an end to blackmail picketing . . . the ugly practice of calling in outside picket gangs to force working people against their will into a union they don't want.

We hope Congress will give working men and women a real voice in the affairs of their unions. When a union acts, it should act for its membership, not for its leadership. It's astonishing but true that almost one out of every five work stoppages in 1958 were caused not because the workers wanted higher pay or better working conditions. They were caused by union leaders jockeying for power among themselves, or seeking to extend their rule into new territory.

We hope Congress cleans up these foul abuses, and if the top union brass doesn't like it, that will be just too bad. For the country is fed up with the tyrants and underworld characters who rule the rackets of organized labor. It's time now to put real teeth in the labor racket reform bill. It's time to enact a true labor reform law, so that a qualified man may work at his job in peace -- without coercion, without threats, without fear.

There is not much time for Congress to act. With adjournment coming up, some union bosses will use every ugly tactic in the book to prevent real labor reform legislation. They will threaten to withhold votes. They will put up a smokescreen of confusion. They will one day say they want labor reform, the next day cry "anti-law." If the union strategists can keep Congress off balance, they can hope to prevent any and all labor reform legislation! If they can keep Congress impotent this session, they will be one giant step closer to their ultimate aim: domination of the whole American economy by union bosses.

Now is the time for the Congress to show Mr. Hoffa that his threats and slurs cannot control the U. S. Government fill the office of President. He said Mr. Stevenson could not be counted out of the running for 1960.

Governor Lawrence, who is expected to lead the second largest delegation to the Democratic National Convention next year, indicated that he would like to be for Mr. Stevenson. But he refused to say whether the seventy-four-member Pennsylvania delegation would be committed in advance to the defeated standard-bearer of 1952 and 1956.