THE WEEK

The recent AFL-CIO convention disposes of one widely-cherished illusion: that organized labor can be counted on, in the pinch, for responsible economic statesmanship. This is the pinch. Virtually everyone is agreed that a critical economic year is ahead of us, and that during that year it is vital to hold the price line. The nation needed assurances that labor was prepared to go along by postponing fresh wage increase demands until a shaky economy stabilizes, and sufficient savings begin to work their way back into capital expansion. Labor let the country down— by confining its program to this or that variant of the theme laid down by Sam Gompers: More.

Secretary of Labor James P. Mitchell is doing his best to rob the Republican Party of its most promising issue, which is that of labor-law reform. At the AFL-CIO convention he outlined a mild proposal for more complete reports on union finances and the disposition of welfare funds, but said nothing about the need for mitigating the unions’ monopolistic power to fix both wages and, indirectly, prices over wide segments of industry, or of the unions’ continuing circumvention of laws intended to regulate political activities. The unions greeted Mr. Mitchell’s proposal with vast relief. They had been fearing what they deserve.

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The recent AFL-CIO convention disposes of one widely-cherished illusion: that organized labor can be counted on, in the pinch, for responsible economic statesmanship. This is the pinch. Virtually everyone is agreed that a critical economic year is ahead of us, and that during that year it is vital to hold the price line. The nation needed assurances that labor was prepared to go along by postponing fresh wage increase demands until a shaky economy stabilizes, and sufficient savings begin to work their way back into capital expansion. Labor let the country down— by confining its program to this or that variant of the theme laid down by Sam Gompers: More.

Secretary of Labor James P. Mitchell is doing his best to rob the Republican Party of its most promising issue, which is that of labor-law reform. At the AFL-CIO convention he outlined a mild proposal for more complete reports on union finances and the disposition of welfare funds, but said nothing about the need for mitigating the unions’ monopolistic power to fix both wages and, indirectly, prices over wide segments of industry, or of the unions’ continuing circumvention of laws intended to regulate political activities. The unions greeted Mr. Mitchell’s proposal with vast relief. They had been fearing what they deserve.