The Daily Record

Secretary Durkin Has Tough Job

BY Alan Adams United Press Staff Correspondent

WASHINGTON (UP) - Secretary of Labor Martin P. Durkin has had a frustrating time as the lonesome Democrat in a Republican cabinet. His efforts to win labor-backed changes in the Taft-Hartley Act have been blocked by administration and congressional officials. His plans to strengthen Labor Department operations appear doomed to defeat as Congress whittles away on the department budget. Appointments of three assistant secretaries have taken nearly six months to come through the White House.

"CAN'T FIND LOCK"

An observer, noting the stalemate in the programs stressed by the one-time plumber, remarked. "He has a key to the cabinet, but he can't seem to find the lock."

When President Eisenhower picked Durkin from the ranks of organized labor, Sen. Robert A. Taft described the selection as "incredible." Taft said he couldn't understand why Durkin, who had supported the opposition party in the last election, should be given a policy-making job in the Republican cabinet.

The Taft-Hartley issue shows the difficulties of Durkin's situation. As president of the AFL Plumbing and Pipefitting Union, Durkin had fought for outright repeal of the labor-management law. This position was contrary to the administration's program for limited amendments - a position Durkin agreed to support when he took over as labor secretary.

But with a lifetime background in the labor movement, Durkin has been unable to go along with the few changes suggested by other federal officials and is plugging for amendments that would drastically alter the act in line with the stand taken by labor leaders.

The secretary's attempt to enhance the influence of the Labor Department was an original idea and defeat on this score could not be laid at Durkin's door. Under the Democrats, the department had lost appropriations and authority for the past five years.

This year, Congress started to take further cuts in the $32,303,500 operating budget of the department for fiscal 1954. The House lopped off $5,419,000 from this figure, but the Senate restored nearly all the funds after Durkin claimed that the trimming "threatened" his department's operations. The final result was expected to be a compromise.

MUCH RED TAPE

Durkin and Undersecretary Lloyd A. Mashburn, another AFL leader, had been the only two officials appointed to the department until the White House decided on further nominations last week. The lack of a full policy staff has kept the two men tied down with reams of paper work and filling heavy speaking engagements that would normally be handled by assistant secretaries.

The second line of officials in the department is the same group that served under the Democratic administration and Durkin has not made any replacements.

Durkin has made only two minor policy moves during his term. In both cases the rulings were interpreted as favoring industry rather than labor one, when he called for a rehearing on his predecessor's order boosting minimum wages on government contracts in the woolen textile industry; the other when he exempted certain employees in the canning industry from overtime provisions of the wage-hour law at the request of the Defense Department.