One month later, Louden had worked out a deal where George Meany and other

AFL executives would sit down with the GOP leadership and work out an amicable

solution, but Taft and Hartley refused to meet with any union leaders. Meany,

according to Louden, regarded the House Labor Committee as "disgusting and

vicious," but hoped that the Senate would listen to his case. Meany confided in

Louden that any strict labor legislation passed by the Republicans would elicit a

Truman veto, making the President a martyr on behalf of organized labor and prevent

the unions and the Republicans from ever working together again. Louden noted that

Meany was partial to Dewey over Taft due to New York's positive record of labor

relations, but would be forced to support the Democrats if the laws passed were as

tough as the rhetoric coming from Capitol Hill.66 By September, Louden was toeing

the party line and producing literature that defended the Taft-Hartley Act, but noted

that such policy had been "handed to us from the Hill."67 The factional split divided

Republicans on the labor issue and Dewey's man in the RNC had been frozen out of

affecting policy change by the congressional Republicans.

 The strike wave was one major issue the GOP faced in the 80th Congress.

Another was the severe collapse in the nation's housing markets. The sudden

relocation of thousands of workers from rural districts to wartime industrial centers,

coupled with a crush of returning veterans, strained American housing capacity. The

need for raw materials to prosecute the war had prevented home builders from

constructing an adequate supply of homes and the economic rebuilding of Europe

further diminished available building supplies. The government had funded public

66 Donald Louden, Letter to Herbert Brownell, 7 February 1947. Copy in Dewey Papers, Folder 16
(Labor), Box 42, Series II, Dewey Papers; Donald Louden, Letter to Herbert Brownell, 6 March 1947.
Copy in Folder 16 (Labor), Box 42, Series II, Dewey Papers.

67 Donald Louden, Letter to Herbert Brownell, 5 September 1947. Copy in Folder 7 (Taft-Hartley Act),
Box 49, Series II, Dewey Papers.