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Arthur Goldberg well recognizes that there are dangers involved in such direct governmental intervention. "It is not healthy," he says, "for the economy or for the labor movement or for business to assume that the Government is going to step into every dispute and provide a method or a formula for settlement. If it were assumed in any given dispute that the parties could look to Washington, then the Government would be in every dispute." Goldberg's avowed policy is to take direct action only when labor and management remain widely split after exhausting all the established machinery of bargaining and mediation. Then, if he deems the dispute to be of "unique" national importance, he moves hard and fast. "All I can do is try," Goldberg says. "If I fail, I fail. But I would rather be blamed for failing than for not trying."
Close & Candid. So far, Goldberg has had few failures—and his successes have made him one of the most respected members of the New Frontier. Some management men distrust him because of his background as counsel for the A.F.L.C.I.O. and as a driving force behind nearly every major union gain in the past twelve years. Goldberg readily admits that he has not shed his sympathy for labor. "I'll be honest about it," he says. "It's obvious that any man takes to any job an essential set of attitudes. I have not brainwashed myself." But Arthur Goldberg, a supremely confident man who peers with owlish wisdom from behind horn-rimmed glasses, insists that he can still work with both management and labor with evenhanded justice: "Administrations are for all the people, and labor and management will both be making a mistake if they believe that the Kennedy Administration is going to be pro-labor."
In formulating his policies, Goldberg has been given pretty much of a free hand by President Kennedy, who was something of a labor specialist himself while in Congress. The President places great emphasis on the fact that a strong U.S. economy is crucial in the cold war—and that reasonably cooperative labor-management relationships are vital to the economy. "We want to do anything we can to get settlements in the public interest," the President said recently. "Our country's economic strength is so important right now —so dependent upon a proper balance of labor and management—that I think this action is justified."
In their own relationships, Kennedy and Goldberg are on close and candid terms. "In Cabinet meetings," says a ranking Administration colleague, "Arthur is one of the frankest men in speaking to the President. He simply says, 'Mr. President, if you go and do this or that, why here's what people will say about it.'" Says Jack Kennedy of his Secretary of Labor: "He's very able, very objective. He's a totally public-minded fellow. He's knowledgeable about labor and he's got plenty of guts."