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Letter to the Associate General Counsel, National Labor Relations Board, Concerning a Meeting in Senator Taft's Office.

September 14, 1948

[ Released September 14, 1948. Dated August 20, 1948 ]

Dear Mr. Findling:

I read your letter of August nineteenth regarding the meeting in Senator Taft's office with the publishers and the Chicago newspapermen with a lot of interest.

It seems to me that it is entirely improper for any Senator, no matter what his politics or his rank in the Senate may be, to attempt to put the heat on one of the Executive Departments.

In my conference with the National Labor Relations Board on its organization, I informed the members of that Board and the Counsel that they constituted a part of the Executive Branch of the Government and, since the Chief Executive did not expect to interfere in their internal affairs, he expected that they would be immune to pressure from the Legislative Branch of the Government.

I sincerely hope that the Counselors of the National Labor Relations Board will bear this admonition in mind in the transaction of public business.

Sincerely yours,

HARRY S. TRUMAN

[Honorable David P. Findling, Associate General Counsel, National Labor Relations Board, Washington 25, D.C.]

Note: In his letter, dated August 19 and released with the President's reply, Mr. Findling reported on a meeting held in Senator Robert A. Taft's office on July 28, 1948. He stated that Senator Taft had called the meeting to discuss the enforcement of the injunction decree issued under the Labor-Management Relations Act in the dispute between the Typographical Union and newspaper publishers. Mr. Findling added that the Senator declared that he was greatly disturbed by reports that there was a breakdown of enforcement machinery in this case and that the union was violating the injunction. Senator Taft felt that it was the most important case that had arisen under the new act and that it was the Government's business to see that the injunction was obeyed and the act enforced.

Mr. Findling stated that he told Senator Taft that he was in no position to discuss the matter; that the National Labor Relations Board had sent staff investigators to various cities all over the country and that they were in the process of preparing a written report correlating the data they had obtained. Mr. Findling added that the Senator then excused himself from the meeting which continued for a short time without him. The meeting closed with the understanding that after the National Labor Relations Board had analyzed the findings of the investigators they might wish to discuss the situation with the publishers' attorneys in Washington.

Harry S Truman, Letter to the Associate General Counsel, National Labor Relations Board, Concerning a Meeting in Senator Taft's Office. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/232796

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