Message to the 72d Annual Convention of the American Federation of Labor in St. Louis.

[Text read by the Vice President]

TO THE 72d Annual Convention of the American Federation of Labor, I send my sincere good wishes. In this expression, I am certain that all Americans heartfully join.

We Americans are proud of our trade unions. Their history of honorable achievement, spanning more than a half century, testifies to the wisdom and strength of free labor. The reward of that history for labor--in partnership with resourceful capital, enlightened management and inventive genius--has been the attainment of the highest standard of living man has ever achieved.

This triumph has meant much more than the amassing of worldly goods and their generous distribution through our whole society. It has meant proof that free men can know the blessings of both abundance and justice--beyond all boasts or dreams of slave economies. And it has meant, in time of desperate peril to our nation, the strength enabling free men everywhere to beat back the assaults of totalitarian aggression.

From the ranks of labor have come other contributions to the nation. These have been things of the spirit: the selfless devotion of working men and women and their leaders to the whole public welfare--reasoned respect for the rights and needs of others--deep love of country, inspiring a patriotism no less meaningful in mine and factory than on the battlefield.

I state these facts not as sentimental tributes but as the basic and unshakable convictions of this Administration. They are neither lightly spoken nor loosely held. They are principles governing our understanding of labor and the making of every decision concerning labor.

I had the honor of appearing before your convention last year before my election as President. I said then that I believed that all slanted, partisan appeals to the men and women of labor--any design to make of them a kind of political bloc--was an affront to the dignity of labor and a disservice to the unity of America. I believe that still.

I also gave you a pledge. It was in these words: "To the limit my judgment can discern, you will always get both justice and fairness from me . . . I will always try to be a true friend of labor." And that is no less true today.

There is nothing remarkable about this. It is the sense and sentiment of every thoughtful American. So, while judgments on labor problems may frankly and forcefully differ on specific ways and means at specific times, they are honest judgments held by men of good will as to what will best serve labor's interests. Such differences are healthy and constructive so long as the final goals are always kept in view--a vigorous and free trade union movement, a healthy and thriving industry, and the betterment of all the people.

I know that your convention will, in this spirit, deliberate on many critical issues before you.

Of this deliberation, a great part will focus on changes in the Labor-Management Relations Act, 1947, generally known as the Taft-Hartley Act.

This legislation affects virtually every sector of our economic life. Its discussion is too serious to be governed by passion and invective, rather than cool reason and common sense. Epithets of "anti-labor" or "anti-industry" and the like are worse than empty. They are utterly obsolete in a climate of opinion and understanding that realizes the folly of class hostility.

The issues at stake are not the possessions of a class or group. They are not the partisan property of any political party. They belong to the whole of America--and so must the hearts and minds resolving them.

I frankly repeat the estimate of the Taft-Hartley Act which I have stated often in the past. And even though the past six years have revealed a number of defects which should be corrected, I believe that its enactment was a substantial contribution to the quest for sounder labor-management relations. I believe that the experience under the Act has confirmed its essential soundness.

These defects have been under critical study by this Administration. The objectives of this study have been and continue to be these:

(1) to remedy defects which cause concern on the part of working men and women over possible results or uses of the Act to their detriment;

(2) to insure administration of the Act in the manner that is efficient, speedy, and impartial;

(3) to allow freedom for the healthy growth of trade unions, while respecting the legitimate rights of individual workers, their employers, and the general public;

(4) to work to the end that there be less rather than more Government interference in labor-management affairs.

These are distinct, dearly defined purposes. I believe them worthy of the confident support of all thoughtful Americans.

These purposes have governed our actions from the outset. Shortly after the new Administration took office, and after a series of preliminary conferences, you will recall that I entrusted this study of the Taft-Hartley Act to an informal committee, consisting of Executive officials and Legislative leaders who had an intimate knowledge of the Act and its operation. This committee immediately went to work--holding the most detailed discussions week after week.

In the work of this committee, the wealth of knowledge and experience of the Honorable Martin Durkin, then Secretary of Labor, was an asset of great value. Losing the benefit of that knowledge and experience was considered unfortunate by me and by every member of the committee. We all regretted the necessity he felt of returning to private life.

While this committee has not as yet completed its task and submitted its recommendations to me, it has, since the start of its deliberations, considered many specific proposals for amendment of the Act, and is in substantial accord on a heartening number of these. Its deliberations are continuing, and you can be assured that its members from time to time will seek the counsel of your leaders. It will make its recommendations to me before the end of the year. These recommendations--together with such others as I may receive--will have my most careful study. I shall send my own suggestions to the Congress at the opening of its session in January.

I think I fully appreciate the importance of all of this deliberation to American labor--and to America itself. The progress already made has been great and looks toward the fulfillment, at the coming session of Congress, of the pledges we made last year.

I venture one further thought. Serious as is the particular piece of legislation dominating the thoughts of your convention, it manifestly is but a part of the great problems facing American labor today.

These problems reach from the humblest home and smallest workshop in our land to the most distant areas of this troubled earth. The nourishing of the spirit of freedom in our land--its churches, its universities, its unions, its every public forum; the arming of our defenses; the stimulation of healthy world trade; the vigilant guarding of civil rights; the firm development of a government of integrity and clear purpose--all these are the vital concerns of our free unions who themselves can only live in freedom, or die with it.

I know that this awareness is within you all.

I know that American labor, now as in the past, will grasp these great issues as essentially its own, and with greatness of heart and strength of mind, meet them with the wisdom which has already put free men everywhere forever in its debt.

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER