Monday, Oct. 28, 1935
Five Rounds
Just as the 55th annual convention of the American Federation of Labor was drawing to a close in Atlantic City last week, Vice President John Llewellyn Lewis rose to press the rubber workers' plea for an industrial union charter. Also to his feet sprang William L. Hutcheson, A. F. of L. vice president and head of the carpenters' union, to raise a point of order on the ground that the convention had already agreed to deny such charters. "Is the delegate impugning my motives?" thundered the beefy, bull-necked leader of 400,000 United Mine Workers. Belligerently Mr. Lewis stomped down the aisle to Mr. Hutcheson, tapped him menacingly on the shoulder, shouted something about "mighty small potatoes." Bystanders heard Mr. Hutcheson call Mr. Lewis a fighting phrase. Miner Lewis smacked his fist into the Hutcheson face. Carpenter Hutcheson countered with an ineffective right. Thereupon, Miner Lewis sent him sprawling to the floor amid the wreckage of a table.
Such was the climax of the most exciting convention battle the A. F. of L. ever saw. Year after year a stand-up match had been predicted between progressive John L. Lewis and the conservative boss rule of placid President William Green and his omnipotent majority on the executive council. This year at last both factions stepped openly into the ring for the first time. Of the five rounds fought, John L. Lewis won two, lost two, tied one. This record, however, did not indicate the full extent to which the contest had increased Miner Lewis' stature in the eyes of many a liberal U. S. Laborite.
Won. To U. S. Communists, John Lewis is no more than a slick labor politician. But Miner Lewis has worked in Illinois coal pits, has his own ideas about the Labor Front. Disgusted was he, therefore, when the executive council, controlled by Green & Co., gobbled at the bait offered by the American Legion, proposed to alter A. F. of L.'s constitution, outlaw Communist members (TIME, Oct. 21). At a Federation convention the 525 delegates cast some 30,000 votes. Of these the miners control some 4,000. Leader Lewis picked up another 7,000 from unions like David Dubinsky's International Ladies' Garment Workers, demonstrated so thoroughly that the Red hunt amendment could not get the two-thirds majority needed for passage that when it was brought out on the convention floor most of the sting had been removed. As passed, it provided that Communists might be members and fulfill all functions of the A. F. of L. except as delegates to state and city tribunes.
Miner Lewis' second victory was also one for liberalism. Because he comes about as close to Toryism as a trade unionist can, Matthew Woll, A. F. of L.'s dapper, dressy third vice president, has seemed to Miner Lewis to be the weakest link in the executive committee's conservative chain. Accordingly, Miner Lewis last week set out to embarrass this native of tiny Luxemburg, law graduate of tiny Lake Forest University, president of the tiny photo-engravers' union, by introducing a resolution prohibiting an A. F. of L. officer from belonging to the National Civic Federation. The N. C. F. is a cabal of windy reactionaries who see the world through Red glasses. Mr. Woll is its acting president, and, said Mr. Lewis, "I am sick of looking at newspapers on Monday morning and trying to figure out whether Mr. Woll's statements were made in behalf of the National Civic Federation or the American Federation of Labor." Mr. Lewis' resolution was sent to committee, but a few hours after its introduction Mr. Woll withdrew from N. C. F.
Lost. If the A. F. of L. were to reorganize its hundreds of jealous craft unions into comprehensive associations of workers within single industries, most economists agree that Labor would be enormously benefited. Another result would be to throw a horde of petty A. F. of L. bosses out of work. That does not bother Miner Lewis, since his U. M. W. embraces all workers in the coal industry. For several years forward-looking A. F. of L. convention delegates have been trying to get the craft v. industrial union issue on the floor, but not until Miner Lewis added it to his assorted causes last week was a show-down made possible.
The resolutions committee had sent out a majority report again favoring the safe-&-sane proposal adopted by the convention last year in San Francisco. This permitted chartering industrial unions of "mass-production employes," but in the same breath practically nullified that permission by pledging zealous protection of the jurisdictional claims of craft unions within those industries. The Lewis faction came forth with a minority resolution flatly demanding unrestricted industrial union charters. For this Miner Lewis shouted himself hoarse during a seven-hour debate, did not conceal his disappointment when voted down 18,025-to-10,924.
Revising his tactics, Miner Lewis next day set out to get an industrial unionist elected to the vice-presidency vacated by Major George L. Berry, oldtime typographer recently appointed to rule what is left of the Blue Eagle's roost. Again Mr. Lewis tasted defeat when a craft unionist won the place 17,370-to-11,693.
Tie. Still out of step with Green & Co., Mr. Lewis had also taken on the fight of Plasterer Michael John McDonough to regain the presidency of the Federation's Building Trades Department, which Green & Co. had awarded to Carpenter James William Williams. Again Mr. Lewis found himself opposing the man he finally floored, for Carpenter Williams is the stooge of Carpenter Hutcheson. The matter was temporarily adjusted, under the tactful guidance of Vice President George M. Harrison, big, youngish head of the railway clerks union, by awarding the presidency to neither man, putting the disagreement to committee arbitration.
Other Business of the convention included adoption of resolutions to:
>Boycott the 1936 Olympic Games at Berlin because "upon the crooked cross of Naziism the very teachings of Jesus Christ are being crucified."
>Brand Italy as an "outlaw nation."
>Deplore the use of national guardsmen following the Terre Haute, Ind. general strike.
>Meet next year at Tampa, Fla.
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