National Affairs: Reversal

The National Labor Relations Board reversed its general counsel, Robert N. Denham, last week and ruled that top officers of the A.F.L. and the C.I.O. would not have to sign the anti-Communist oath of the Taft-Hartley Act.

Except for its timing, the ruling was not unexpected. It came on the second day of the American Federation of Labor’s convention in San Francisco, and it upset John L. Lewis’ plan to make defiance of the oath his personal battle cry. In Cincinnati, Senator Robert A. Taft said that the Board’s ruling was “certainly not in conflict with the intention of Congress.”