Dennis Byrne rightly praises Harry S. Truman in his May 31 commentary, “Weeding out some of the GOP hopefuls,” for how he dealt with national emergencies in a “period when American freedoms ? were in danger of being destroyed by tyrants.”
Byrne cites President Truman’s “heartland quality of common sense.” But like other conservatives, he seems to forget that Truman tried–but failed–to preserve working men’s freedoms which had been won with so much sacrifice early in the 20th century.
Brave union organizers of miners and factory workers risked their lives for decades opposing the evils of company towns and the use of strikebreaking National Guardsmen. Yet–by greatly limiting unions’ organizing rights–the 1947 override of Truman’s Taft-Hartley veto had badly crippled unions by 1970.
That’s when the spread between the wealth of rich and poor began to widen to its current state. But the general public disdains unions. How ironic!
— Brad Bradford, Highland Park
