New Voices

What John L. Lewis and William Green do and say has for long been of deep concern to a large segment of the U. S. public. Last week it became apparent that the public will probably be just as concerned in future with the doings and sayings of a couple of other fellows: Sidney Hillman and David Dubinsky.

Last February, John Lewis, head of

C. I. 0., denounced his old friend Franklin

D. Roosevelt. Quick as a counterpunch, his textile workers, clothing workers, hosiery workers, Sidney Hillman of his executive board, defied him, plumped for a Third Term. John Lewis settled his chin in his neck and glared.

Besides wanting to see Franklin Roosevelt reelected, much of C. I. O. wants Labor peace. This was one of the subjects up for discussion when the C. I. O. executive board met last week in Washington. Members emerged to announce that they saw a ray of hope. Not so Lewis. "I wouldn't think so," said he. Mr. Lewis began to look like a man with a past.

Sick-abed, absent from the board meeting, was Mr. Hillman, recently lifted to prominence by his appointment to the Advisory Commission on National Defense.

Besides being a strong Roosevelt man, Mr. Hillman also wants peace in Labor's ranks. Mr. Hillman began to look like an up-&-coming man with a future.

On the other side of Labor's street, A. F. of L. President William Green was busy as a bird dog. His busyness: horse trading with the Smith Bill (see col. 2); wooing David Dubinsky's independent garment workers; giving an approving pat to A. F. of L. stagehands.

Mr. Green started his week in Louisville, where the stagehands (International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employes and Moving Picture Machine Operators) had convened. Among its bigwigs are, or were: Nick Dean (known to Chicago police as Nick Circella), Willie Bioff. Convicted once of assault with intent to murder, Nick has been arrested for robbery, stealing automobiles. After Columnist Westbrook Pegler's recent acrimonious cam paign, Willie Bioff was cast into jail to serve out an old sentence for pandering.

He faces a Federal charge of income-tax evasion when he gets out. Fumed Pegler, the whole union is "A vicious racket preying on the rank and file of American worked."

Mr. Greenpish-tushed Mr. Pegler, told I. A. T. S. E. it could be sure of his sup port,"everywhere, anywhere and all of the time." The union passed a resolution which said: "Be it firmly resolved . . .

[I. A. T. S. E.] does hereby reaffirm its belief in the honesty and integrity of Brother William Bioff. . . ." Dusting out of Louisville, Mr. Green rushed to New York City to beg the gar ment makers (International Ladies' Garment Workers Union) to come back into the A. F. of L. fold. President Dubinsky's terms for rejoining: i) elimination of the penny-a-month tax which A. F. of L.

levied on its members for a war chest in its battle with C. I. 0.; 2) surrender of the A. F. of L. hierarchy's right to expel member unions without a vote of the delegates; 3) clean-out of racketeers in A. F. of L.'s ranks. Mr. Green, with the smell of I. A. T. S. E. cigar smoke still in his clothes, considered, agreed to the first two, hedged on the third. At week's end, valiant Mr. Dubinsky led the garment workers back anyway, deciding apparently that he could fight for his third point better from within than from without. Said Pegler: "The garment workers . . . have begun a fight against . . . criminals in organized labor, and David Dubinsky will deserve credit for the eventual victory." Mr. Green was still popular enough to get kissed by lady delegates, but in A. F. of L. it was Mr. Dubinsky who was making the good news.

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