Three for the Show

In the six weeks since the Democratic Congress passed the stiffest labor bill in history, the Senate-bred Democratic presidential hopefuls have seldom missed a chance to explain themselves to labor. Last week three of them (all voted for the bill) turned up at the United Automobile Workers annual convention in Atlantic City, but only one walked off with the house.

First down the ramp was Massachusetts' Jack Kennedy, who agreed that the compromise 1959 Labor-Management Act (TIME, Sept. 14) "contains many unfair and unsound and one-sided provisions," promised more favorable legislation, including a boost of minimum wages from $1 to $1.25 per hour in the next session. As for his own record, he had no regrets: "Jimmy Hoffa may not approve of me, but I do not apologize for having earned his hostility." The delegates gave Kennedy a rousing, standing ovation.

Missouri's Senator Stuart Symington stuck closely to one surefire issue--the steel strike. (The U.A.W. has given $1,000,000 to help the steel strikers.) Said Symington: "There was no national emergency with hundreds of thousands of people out of work, eating out of their savings, worrying about their future. The national emergency came after the great corporations had liquidated their inventories." Symington was greeted with warm applause.

Minnesota's Hubert Humphrey came onstage last to charm the delegates out of their chairs with a whiplash, give-'em-hell attack on the Eisenhower Administration's "inertia and catering to specially privileged Republicans." His speech drew 40 rounds of applause, and as it ended, 3,000 delegates roared and stomped their approval for twelve minutes. Clearly, Humphrey, the candidate who had been all but counted out by some of his fellow hopefuls, was way ahead with the U.A.W.

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