October 23, 1974

U.S. Labor-Socialist Government Near?

Conversion of the American two-party - political system into a one-party socialist-labor system advanced another giant step last week when the so called "political reform" bill was signed into law.

Hereafter, presidential campaigns are to be financed from the public treasury.  Tax payers are to foot the bill for candidates they may not support or for politics they may think unworthy.

Complicated reporting procedures supposedly are to limit the amount of money any candidate may spend on his campaign.

It is to laugh!

Secret memos detailing methods to get around the new law were circulated among political insiders even before the ink of the President's signature was dry.

Laughing loudest are the Democrats and their labor supporters.  They have effectively cut off Republican sources of big money while preserving the union cornucopia for liberal candidates.

The Watergate trauma destroyed President Nixon for campaign shenanigans practiced simultaneously by his opponents.

The milk lobbies blessed both sides of the aisle - Democrat Senators Hubert Humphrey, Teddy Kennedy and Henry Jackson in addition to President Nixon and Treasury Secretary John Connally.  Yet, only the Republicans suffered.

As a result of such one-sided harassment, the big contributors to the GOP have been frightened out of their civil right to support that party and those candidates sympathetic to their interest.

The double standard of ethics introduced into American politics by Franklin Delano Roosevelt has now been cemented into place as the tombstone of two-party government.

That tombstone now becomes the corner stone of one-party tyranny.

The veto-proof Congress long sought by labor leaders is close at hand.  Should effective opposition by Republicans be wiped out, as many now predict, special-interest legislation will tumble out of a labor-socialist Congress unchecked.

The middle-class taxpayers and the job-producing industrialists of the nation have been hog-tied, but the major labor unions have won monopolistic powers.

Labor leaders buy their candidates openly, confident no politician dares object.

Take, for example, a letter sent out July 25, 1974 by the Ohio AFL-CIO to all affiliated local unions.  It was signed by Milan Marsh, president, and Warren J.  Smith, secretary-treasurer:

"Governor Gilligan and his Administration have done a good job for us," says the letter.  "More must be done to achieve the social, economic and political justice our families deserve.

"Organized labor this year has several political goals.  We must spare no effort to reelect Governor Gilligan and other statewide candidates the Ohio AFL-CIO has endorsed.

"We must also try and retain in office a majority of friends in the Ohio House of Representatives. And this year, we have an excellent chance to also win control of the, Ohio Senate, the last bastion of strength of the anti-Union politicians.

"Winning elections costs money.  Therefore, we are asking that every Local Union affiliated with the Ohio AFL-CIO to pledge and contribute 25 cents per member to collect funds needed to help bring about these vital victories.  We are planning the most massive voter registration and get put-the-vote campaigns in our history.

"Since this political effort is directed to other than federal elections, and because it will be carried on directly with our own members, Union treasury money may be used to make your contributions."

I submit that a double standard which empowers one special interest at the expense of all others is dangerous.  The inherent greed of human nature eventually leads the master to work the servant to death.  In the end, all die.  This has been the recurring lesson of history when the appetite of a dominant class outruns the ability of the producers to satisfy.

It is interesting to note that in the same week that political restrictions were placed on every one but unionists, a report of union political spending should be made public.

Thus we learn that up to August labor has spent $2.6 million in the current election campaign for just the House and Senate races, with another $4.7 million earmarked for the closing months.

Of these many millions, only two Republicans received any labor money - $37,630 to Senator Richard S. Schweiker, the Pennsylvania Republican who condemned Nixon constantly from his seat on the Senate Watergate Committee, and $25,950 to Senator Jacob K. Javits, the New York Republican who early demanded Nixon's resignation.

The price of betrayal is a little more expensive than in Judas' time, but not much.

Ohio candidates led the nation in labor contributions through August, with $354,968 - according to the study by the National Information Center on Political Finance, an organization supported by the Citizens Research Foundation of Princeton, N.  J.

Senator Howard M.  Metzenbaum was the largest single Ohio recipient of union money with $168,700 for his primary race against John H.  Glenn.  But this loss was quickly forgotten by labor leaders who pumped $75,400 into Glenn's ensuing campaign through August.  The big money for Glenn won't be reported until after the election.

The hundred's of thousands of dollars spent by labor unions for John Joyce Gilliagan and other Ohio Democratic candidates likewise will not be known until after Nov.  6, but past experience indicates it will be in the neighborhood of a half-million dollars - and that's a nice neighborhood.

All this brings glee to the executive suites of the big labor temples, but George Meany and his colleagues would be well served to ponder the famous political epigram of Lord Acton: "Absolute power corrupts absolutely."

Author: Lindsey Williams