"Say A Prayer"

At an A.F.L.-C.I.O. dinner in Washington, longtime United Steelworkers President David McDonald broke down and wept. Later, he asked well-wishers to "say a prayer for me."

McDonald had finally agreed to refrain from contesting the February Steelworkers presidential election that he lost to Secretary-Treasurer I. W. Abel by 10,142 votes out of 607,678 cast. In that election there were charges of wholesale fraud from both sides--and evidence that both sides were right.

McDonald's withdrawal came as a loyalist's hand-up to the cause of organized labor, whose ability to handle its own affairs had been cast into doubt not only by the steel-union squabble but by an Electrical Workers election that saw President James Carey stepping down only after the Labor Department found that his followers had stolen votes by the carload.

Obviously, McDonald had finally been convinced that if labor is to achieve all its hopes--including repeal of Taft-Hartley's 14(b)--it must first show that it is responsible not only to the public, but to itself.

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