FREE TRADE UNIONS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26713, 6 March 1948, Page 7

FREE TRADE UNIONS

COUNTER TO COMMUNIST INFILTRATION “AMERICA’S STRONGEST ASSET” N.Z.P.A.—Copyright Rec. 10.45 p.m. NEW YORK, Mar. 4. Free trade unions were described by Mr William Green, president ot the American Federation of Labour, in a speech to-night as the strongest bulwark against the infiltration of Communist totalitarianism into America. He spoke at a dinner celebrating the thirty-fifth anniversary of the Department of Labour’s elevation to Cabinet status. “ Repressive and oppressive antiLabour legislation, and the impairment of the American standard of living are the surest ways of fostering and encouraging Communism in the United States,” said Mr Green. “ Soviet Russia has extended her domain oyer Eastern Europe and taken over Czechoslovakia, largely because the, labour forces were driven by oppression into Communism’s arms.- The same process is rapidly developing m several key countries of Western Europe.” President Truman, in a message to the guests, said additional social legislation, especially an increase, in the minimum hourly wage, was imperative in the light of the nation s rapidly changing economy. He added that the minimum hourly wage had been outmoded during the war and made almost insignificant by inflationary trends since the end of price controls.