Peace, It Would Be Wonderful

Ever since C.I.O. split off from A.F. of L. in 1935, labor statesmen have wondered how to put labor's Humpty Dumpty together again. The latest attempt: a joint committee to iron out jurisdictional disputes. Last week came a candid editorial by Daniel J. Tobin, head of the A.F. of L. teamsters' union and member of the committee. Teamster Tobin, his patience petering, told how the patching job was going:

"Membership on this committee has been nothing but a lot of headaches for me. . . . I am losing all hope of an understanding or agreement being reached. . . .

"Individual selfishness, a great desire on both sides for its full 16 ounces of its pound of flesh, and the desire to wrangle over small matters to the injury of the great multitude of workers, in my judgment, will make it impossible to reach an understanding. . . .

"Some men on both sides are so hungry for officership and so timid about hurting the feelings of some other leaders whom they know are in the wrong--that they will not help to bring about an agreement. . . .

"We have just enough men on both sides who look at today and fail to look for tomorrow, and who are anxious to make a mountain out of a molehill.

"Lawmakers and politicians and other enemies are most certainly taking every advantage of us, because and only because of the division of labor--a division that should never have been, and a division that now should and could be eliminated if leaders of labor sincerely and unselfishly desired it."

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