Who's a Liar?

It was a grand night for George Meany, president of the A.F.L.-C.I.O. On his 68th birthday most of the boys on the 29-man Executive Council, winding up a four-day meeting in Chicago, were throwing him a party. They all sang Happy Birthday, and nobody joined in more lustily than the Automobile Workers' Walter Reuther. Indeed, Meany and Reuther seemed as ebulliently friendly as if they had just signed up management for a 35-hour coffee break. But the fact was that Meany and Reuther, who hate each other's insides.

had just gone through a name-calling session that symbolized the continuing and deeply rooted conflict between the merged A.F.L. and C.I.O.

The clash came in Meany's room at the Sheraton-Chicago Hotel. Reuther had requested the meeting, and at 4 p.m. he showed up in the company of Dave Dubinsky of the ladies' garment workers' union and Al Hayes of the machinists'.

Purpose of the meeting: to discuss why Meany still refused to seat Ralph Helstein, president of the C.I.O.'s packinghouse workers' union, on the A.F.L.-C.I.O.

Executive Council. Helstein was the unanimous choice of the C.I.O.'s leaders to fill the seat vacated several months ago by a retiring C.I.O. man. But Meany had vetoed the choice, arguing that Helstein's union had in years past been tinged with Communist membership.

Now, in Meany's room, the argument continued. It went, according to the ear-witnesses, something like this:

Meany: Find someone other than Helstein to name to the council.

Reuther: You have no right to veto the choice of the C.I.O. group. The Communist allegations about Helstein's union were cleared up long ago. Besides, you permit Maurice Hutcheson [president of the A.F.L.'s carpenters union] to sit on the council even though he has been convicted of contempt of Congress.

Meany: You deliberately picked Helstein to embarrass me and put me on the spot.

Reuther: I did not. Helstein's selection was made freely and openly. Meany: I don't believe you.

Reuther: Are you calling me a liar?

Meany: I think you're deliberately lying.

Reuther: Now George. We've differed

in the past, but if we are to work together

we've got to respect each other's integrity.

Meany: You're threatening me. Walter.

You're threatening to resign.

Reuther: No, I'm not; I don't intend to resign, but we've got to come to an understanding.

At this point, Dave Dubinsky piped in with the suggestion that the two gladiators hold off and let their differences simmer until the next council meeting, scheduled for Washington in November. Thus the question of Helstein's nomination and Meany's veto was left riding. To newsmen next day Meany called reports of the argument "unscientific fiction . . . I don't think I ever called Reuther a liar. There are times that you say to a person that you think a statement they have made is not correct . . ."

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