Labour Gloomily Admits Setbacks

Wanganui Chronicle, 10 November 1950, Page 5

Labour Gloomily Admits Setbacks

WASHINGTON. Nov. 8 (Reed. 6 pm).—Organised Labour’s political forces which poured more money and energy into the Congressoional election campaign than in any previous off-year race, gloomily acknowledged big setbacks today.

Many union leaders declined to comment publicly, but in both the American Federation of Labour and the Congress of Industrial Organisations camps, there w?r, a ready admission that victories by Senators Robert Taft (Republican. Ohio) and Eugene Milliken (Republican, Colorado), plus defeats of such Senate Democrats as Senators Scott Lucas, of Illinois, Elbert Thomas, of Utah, and Francis Myers, of Pennsylvania, would hurt organised Labour’s aims generally Senator Thomas has been chairman of the Senate Labour Committee and one of Labour’s most sympathetic members. A big blow was Senator Taft’s onesided victory over Mr Joseph Ferguson, in Ohio, where Labour groups were concentrated as never before to send Taft down to defeat. Prices on the New York Stock Exchange jumped one to two dollars a share todav on news of Republican gains. Some snecial issues went up as much as five dollars a share. It was a sharp contrast to the day after the last national election in 1948, when prices tumbled following Mr Truman’s victory.