President Truman's Economic Goal
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President Harry S. Truman's paramount goal in the beginning of his administration was to stabilize the economy by ending the boom-bust cycle that had brought the nation to the brink of chaos in the Great Depression (Truman, 1973, p. 305). From the beginning, he insisted that this could only be achieved if both labor and management exercised social responsibility. He did everything in his power to persuade both sides to do so. In November, 1945, he convened a labor-management conference to work out machinery for dealing with major labor disputes. On December 3, 1945, in a special message to Congress, he outlined a fact-finding program which would have established by impartial investigation how much money workers deserved to get, based on their productivity, and how much money the company could afford to pay, based on its profits. Truman specified that this was a program that should be used sparingly and only when the national interest required it. The company would be required to open its books to the fact-finding board, and for 30 days, while the board investigated, it would be unlawful to call a strike or a lockout. Both labor and management, however, denounced Truman's plan. Philip Murray, the head of the CIO, believed Truman was catering to management. George Meany, secretary-treasurer of the AFL, declared that his union would never accept legislation that compelled workers to work even for a minute against their will (Truman, 1973, p. 305). The General Motors Co
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ade Congress to pass the Employment Act of 1946. It was not precisely what Truman asked for--it did not give him enough money to move forcefully on behalf of a full employment policy--but the act created a Council of Economic Advisers to give the President the expertise he needed to keep employment at or near capacity. It marked a major step forward, beyond the Roosevelt Administration's policy. In a letter to John McCormack, the House majority leader, urging passage of the bill, Truman stated that it was time that the government stood for full employment and full production, rather than for unemployment and relief (Truman, 1973, p. 308).
Later in the year, another dispute between labor and management began with John L. Lewis and his United Mine Workers of America's renewed threat of a coal strike. An eventual battle between Lewis and Truman was inevitable (Donovan, 1977, p. 239). Truman had come from the Senate, where Lewis and his coal strikes, especially during the war, were condemned.
The problem arose when Lewis accused the government of breaking the contract under which the government had been operating the mines since their seizure during the spring strike. The Truman Administration proposed to Lewis that the union
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Approximate Word count = 1910
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)
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