The Augusta Courier

Labor Bosses Plan To Destroy U. S. Government--Goldwater

Union Heads Plot Defeat Of All Men In Public Office Who Refuse To Take Orders

The labor union bosses plan to destroy the American system of government, according to Senator Barry M. Goldwater, of the State of Arizona.

Instead of using their power to work for better working conditions and a more comfortable way of life for their members, they plan to use their power to impose their particular brand of government on the American people, Goldwater said in a speech on the floor of the United States Senate.

Their brand of government is opposed to the traditional American system that has made this country great and prosperous.

Charging that they propose to purge all politicians who do not obey their bidding in the 1958 elections, Senator Goldwater said:

"Mr. President, the American system of government has proven to be the most effective system in all the annals of human history. The secret of its phenomenal success is the inherent safeguards which guarantee complete independence to our three coequal branches and the checks and balances which the Constitution imposes on each separate branch.

This system of checks and balances insures that no single branch of the Government—neither the legislative, the executive, nor the judicial—shall arrogate to itself unwarranted power over the other two.

This profoundly simple but completely effective system of checks and balances is not only basic to our governmental structure but interwoven throughout the American social fabric. The American people have never failed to assert themselves when concentrated power of any kind has threatened their basic freedoms.

In days long since past, vested interests in the business world sought to achieve power through financial manipulation and other devious maneuvers. Reflecting the will of the electorate, Congress took decisive action. Laws were passed which precluded the concentration of power in the hands of a minority.

Today we are faced with a similar situation. Unbridled power rests in the hands of a few ambitious men. It is incumbent upon the Senate at this time to act as decisively as it has in the past in a like situation.

There has been much talk, Mr. President, about a middle-of-the-road labor bill, a moderate labor bill, a labor bill which does not punish the unions being the only kind of legislation which will be fair and just. Strangely, in all this talk about the necessity of moderate legislation, I have heard little concern about the public interest, or about the rights of individual union members. I say that the primary objectives of any legislation affecting labor which is passed by this body should be the public interest and the rights of individual union members. There is no dearth of evidence attesting to the flagrant abuse which a certain small group of labor leaders have heaped upon the public. There is no dearth of evidence attesting to the wanton disregard of a certain few labor leaders for the fundamental rights of individual union members.

For nearly a year and a half the American public has been alternately shocked, revolted, and amazed at the revelations which were developed daily by the McClellan subcommittee. Without a doubt, the most shocking evidence to be brought out in these hearings was the activities of the leaders of the United Auto Workers union in the Kohler strike in Kohler, Wis., and the Perfect Circle strike in Hagerstown, Ind. Members of the McClellan subcommittee were treated during the course of these particular hearings to admissions by the top leadership of the UAW which would be unbelievable if not freely admitted to by the witnesses.

The staff of the Republican Policy Committee has prepared an analysis of the Kohler and Perfect Circle hearings. From the testimony of top UAW officials this analysis shows beyond any preadventure of doubt that the unchecked power enjoyed by the labor bosses has been responsible for one of the blackest chapters in American history.

The committee heard of fatal beatings, of the sadistic mutilation of animals, of mob violence, of wholesale smearing, and character assassination, of complete disregard for established law, and of the intimidation of entire communities by the labor bosses. This is not my partisan opinion. Mr. President: the facts are set forth in the hearings. The record has been established. This first section of the policy committee report to which I have alluded graphically illustrates the extent of the raw power and legal immunities enjoyed by the labor bosses today. The second part of the report shows what the labor bosses have done, are doing, and propose to do with this power. They have long since given up, it seems to me, the legitimate activity of laboring for better working conditions, higher pay and a more comfortable life for their multitude of members. They plan now to use their power in the political arena, not primarily to benefit labor, but to impose their particular brand of government on the American people. And, I might say parenthetically, their particular brand of government has no respect whatever for the checks and balances principle which in less than 200 years has given more freedom and greater dignity to the American people than has any other system ever devised.

Their particular brand of government, Mr. President, would undo in short order everything that the traditional American system has accomplished in the last century and a half.

Again, Mr. President, this is not merely my partisan opinion. This report cites chapter and verse of the evidence substantiating this claim. An actual court case is summarized in the second part of this report in which it was proved beyond a reasonable doubt that labor bosses, contrary to the will of their members, spent dues money in national elections to promote candidates which they could count on to do their bidding. It also shows that the plans of the labor bosses for the immediate future are ambitious indeed.

The report shows the purge list that the labor bosses have drawn up for the 1958 elections. Virtually every Republican Senator who is up for reelection this year will feel the full force of this unbridled power. I have no illusions whatever about the task which lies ahead of me. This is one of the reasons, Mr. President, that I want this report to be given the wide circulation it deserves. The American people should know the calibre, power, and the ruthlessness of the handful of men who are going to attempt to capture the 1958 elections. I ask unanimous consent, Mr. President, to have printed in the Record at this point in my remarks the Republican Policy Committee report to which I have been referring. I commend it to the attention of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle."