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1 CAROLYN R. YU7RJK - ASSOCIATE EDITOR J
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I THURSDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1970 NUMBER 49
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SENATOR
SAM IRVIN
☆ SAYS *
WASHINGTON - - For more tinn a year now, a Mil
been pending in the Senate to make it an unfair labor prac
tice for labor unions to levy a fine against a person for re
fusing to engage in a concerted activity such as a strike.
While this bill, wMch was introduced by me and Senator
Paul Fannin of Arizona, has been languishing in the Commit
tee on Labor and Public Welfare, some unions have contimEd
to impose such fines and other economic sanctions against
their members, which is contrary to principle of individii al
freedom in this nation.
To my mind, these fines constitute a direct abridgement
of the individual right not to engage in concerted activities
which is guaranteed by the Taft Hartley Act.
However, the U. S. Supreme Court ruled a few years ago
in a decision involving the Allis-Chalmers Company that la
bor unions could go into state courts in order to collect these
outrageous fines.
That ruling by the highest court in the land has had the
effect of making legal the woart kind of coercion by labor
unions over their individual members, hi a case involv in g
television performers, such compulsion took the form of fines
amounting to SIB,OOO per person.
During a recent case decided by the National Labor Rela
tions Board, which has more or less been on the side of Mg
unions for the past decade, a worker was fined SSOO for cross
ing a picket line during a four-week strike.
The union sued in a California court to collect the fine
and was awarded a judgment of $528 including costs against
the worker. During the time he crossed the picket line, the
member earned a net of ssll.
Under the Taft-Haitley Act, a union member clearly is
given the right not to engage in concerted activities such as
strikes. To my mind, the Supreme Court should have read
the Taft-Haitley Act exactly as it Js written and outlawed the
use of union fines.
However, the Supreme Court ruled in the Allis- Chalmers
case that fines are internal union affairs and thus are not go
verned by Ihe provisions of Taft-Hartley.
Under this interpretation, labor unions are free to coerce
their members into almost any type of activity which can be
construed as legitimate to the interests of the organization.
If an employee chooses to join a union, apparently he now
abdicates his constitutional right to free speech, his right to
peaceably assemble, his right to work, his right not to eigag!
in concerted activities.
The .■member becomes nothing more than a pawn to be
used as the officials of the labor union see fit. This is tyran
ny in its wonrt form.
lam hopeful that the Senate will soon see fit to pass my
and Senator Fannin's bill, to make these union fines antmfrir
labor practice. By doing this, it will re-establish the right of
the man who labors by the sweat of hfc brow to make a living
and to enjoy the rights guaranteed him by the labor laws and
by the United States Constitution. Freedom demands no less.
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Bradley E. Ragan (center) Receives Checks From Sale Os Shares In Brad Ragan,lnc.
Ragan, Inc. Is
’Pacesetter’
Bradley E. Ragan, president
and founder of Brad Ragan,he.
recently received checks total
ling $4,830,000 from the in
vestment banking firm of Horn
blower & Weeks-HemphiHN>y(
thus formally completing . -the
350,000 share initial public
offering of its stock. The checks
were presented to Mr. Ragan
by Raymond Z. Fahs, Jr., a
vice president of Homblower.
Part of the proceeds will be
used to repay debt incurred by
the Company to help finance
growth. Another portion will
be used to expand the
"off-the-road" tire retreading
and replacement business. The
balance of the funds received
by the Company' will be ap -
plied to working capitaL
Brad Ragan, he. operates
"off-the-road" tire retrea ding
and replacement centers in
eleven Eastern and Midwestern
states, wMch retread,by means
of the Company's patented
"BAND-LUG" process, large
"off-the-road" tires commonly
used on earth-moving and other
heavy equipment. The Com
pany also operates a chain of
tire and appliance stores loca
ted primarily in North Carolina
and is the largest independent
domestic distributor of tires,
batteries and accessories ma
nufactured by The Goodyear
Tire & Rubber Company.
Brad Ragan's retreading and
replacement operations have
been the pacesetter in recent
years, due chiefly to the BAND
UJG process which was deve -
loped by the Company in 1966.
This process has been found to
offer important advantages over
conventional fire- retreading
methods.
Notice
«
If you haven't already
brought your gift to "Operation
Santa Claus" thajaycees will
have boxes for them in the |
downtown stores until Dec. 5.
VIEWPOINT
By Jesse Helms
AGNEW CRITICS HAVE STOPPED LAUGHING
Vice President Agnew’s visit to Raleigh last month has re
vived memories of his last trip to our community almost
exactly two years ago. There is the temptation to murmur
the cliche that things have changed in the interim—and they
have. Mr. Agnew was a candidate when he came in 1968,
a virtual unknown, a pleasant man whom his opponents
sought to characterize as a joke.
One recalls, for example, that the slick Madison Avenue
advertising experts hired by Mr. Agnew’s critics produced a
television announcement two years ago which was sponsor
ed on stations throughout the country. It consisted of a text
reading, simply, “Agnew for Vice President.” The sound
track consisted only of giggles and guffaws. Yes, sir, they
said then, Spiro Agnew was a joke.
Mr. Agnew’s critics no longer laugh. They see him—and
fear him —as a tough, competent man who has won the ad
miration of the country. Not only has Mr. Agnew been
speaking the minds of millions of Americans, he has done it
with the necessary courage and finesse to revive the art of
political oratory. Those who oppose him most vigorously
confess a private admiration not only for what he says, but
the way he says it.
History is therefore obliged to record him as the country’s
most memorable Vice President. For one thing, he has
brought a vast measure of enjoyment to politics. Everywhere
in the country, Raleigh included, audiences delight in his
stinging alliteration. For once, here is a political figure who
can pour it on, with unusual rhetoric, plunging his syllables
home with unmistakable directness and sincerity. The gen
tleman says what he means, and means what he says.
It can never be suggested that Mr. Agnew has trotted
around the country with a gunny sack of cliches. Audiences
don’t yawn behind tbeir hands when he speaks of Fulbright
and Ted Kennedy, calling them “hopeless, hysterical hypo
chondriacs of history.” The woods are full of politicians who
have complained about the deterioration of education as a
result of campus violence, but only Mr. Agnew has nailed
college administrators for having “a paralyzing, permissive
philosophy (pervading) every policy.”
Spiro Agnew’s greatest appeal is that he knows where he
stands. And he stands there, firmly and fearlessly, regardless«
of the geog-aphy around him. He talks of “nattering nabobs
of negativism” and he comes through loud and clear in Los
Angeles as well as Atlanta. And they understand in both
Tacoma and Richmond that an “effete snob” is something the
country can very well do without.
Mr. Agnew has demonstrated to the satisfaction of the
country that he likes nothing better than to tangle with his
enemies. He has proved, on occasion after occasion, that he
is their intellectual superior. Not anytime soon may we again
expect to see student liberals agree to a public confrontation
with him.
We may, of course, continue to see boorish, crude conduct
by those who oppose Mr. Agnew. They may shout their ob
scenities in cowardly gangs, or attempt to disrupt his speech
es with choruses of group epithets. If so, it will be—as it
has already been—a self-defeating gesture. It will be a mark
of their own inadequacy.
So, those who like their politics strong and straightfor
ward welcome Mr. Agnew, regardless of party affiliation. He
has, as we say, restored an almost lost dimension to politics;
he has revived the art of political oratory. And, in the process,
he has told tiro people what's wrong with their country. It was
good to have him back amongst us.—AMERICAN. WAY
FEATURES