"Our Hope, Our Strength"

On behalf of the A. F. of L. teamsters', chauffeurs' and stablemen's union, last week hoary President Daniel J. Tobin presented James Aloysius Farley with a check for $1,000 to be used by the Democratic Party "as a mark of appreciation of what the Roosevelt Administration has accomplished for Labor." Labor's gift to the Democratic Party came at an odd time, for Mr. Tobin's boss, William Green, and Mr. Farley's boss, Franklin Roosevelt, had come politely but perilously near the parting of the ways.

When Section 7a was written into the National Industrial Recovery Act two years ago, observers agreed that A. F. of L., whose membership had declined 38% since its peak in 1920, had been handed something very handsome on a silver platter. What neither William Green nor his lieutenants foresaw was that in guaranteeing all workers the right to organize, the Federal Government could not guarantee to organize them for A. F. of L. The A. F. of L. would have to show a little ability on its own account. Despite the fact that A. F. of L. elaborately pretended to quasi-official status in its enrollment drive, of the 46,000 workers involved in the National Labor Relations Board's first 102 plant elections, less than 20,000 chose to be represented by the Federation. More significantly, only 10% of all employes in manufacturing have so far taken out A. F. of L. cards. One explanation is that the Federation, long dedicated to regimentation along craft lines, is out of step with modern industrial organization. Another is that the Federation is psychologically handicapped by the pacific nature of plant elections. Just as an army gets more recruits in time of war, a labor union gets more in time of strike. For the past year the Federation has worried, and the more it worried the more urgently the Federation sought Government assistance. And the more importunate the Federation became, the more reluctant the Government seemed to be to give aid, until finally, over the renewal of the code for the great automobile industry, the President and A. F. of L. definitely breached.

Motorland. Trouble had been brewing all last month, as Dr. Leo Wolman's Automobile Labor Board conducted plant elections throughout motorland. Last week in Detroit, 7,067 Chrysler employes balloted for candidates to represent them in collective bargaining with the management. Exactly 200 favored A. F. of I candidates. The result corresponded with those in other elections in motorland, in which to date 60,000 workers have voted. Less than 5% have supported A. F. of L. Not more than 9% have signified attachment to company unions. Bulk, 78%, have voted for unaffiliated representatives. The returns were bitter news for A. F. of L.

When the Wolman Board was formed, the Federation hoped that Dr. Wolman and A. F. of L.-Man Richard L. Byrd (Labor's voice on the Board) would help it organize the automobile industry. Instead, Messrs. Wolman, Byrd and the manufacturers' representative worked solidly together, played scrupulously fair with all hands in preparing the elections. Seeing how badly things were going, last month A. F. of L. repudiated the Wolman Board, ordered its members not to take part in the elections. Apparently this order was not obeyed, since 90% of those eligible to vote have voted.

Humiliated by these elections, the A. F. of L. roared its protest when President Roosevelt renewed the Automobile Code, extending it to the legal date of NRA's expiration, June 16. The President did not consult the A. F. of L., did not stipulate a 30-hr. week, did not abolish the hated merit clause. But what galled the Federation most was that, in renewing the Code, the President provided that the Wolman Board should continue to be binding on the industry.*

Richberg Flayed. Most venomous denouncer of the New Deal was burly John Llewellyn Lewis, from the bituminous fields of Illinois. He did not denounce the President of the U. S. himself for signing the renewal, but he did savagely attack the President's closest adviser, Donald Richberg, Director of the National Emergency Council and "Assistant President." Miner Lewis began by declaring: "Richberg was not only recreant to his obligations as a public servant, but a traitor to organized labor when he made that recommendation. For Richberg, I express my personal contempt !"/- Warming to his work, he later called Director Richberg a Benedict Arnold, labeled him as deceitful, treacherous, hypocritical.

All organized labor singled out Richberg for vituperation. Even William Green with unwonted pugnacity declared: "The sooner Richberg resigns the better. . . . So far as Labor is concerned he will always be under fire."

Richberg's Rescue. When Hugh Johnson was his whipping boy, Franklin Roosevelt let him fight their public brawls unassisted. But after his right-hand-man had been publicly abused for nearly a week, the President came to Donald Richberg's rescue. This he did last week by making public two letters.

One was to Counsel Charlton Ogburn of A. F. of L., who had previously complained about the automotive elections. "The result of these elections," was President Roosevelt's sharp reply, "must be to provide for the first time conclusive evidence of how and by whom the employes desire to be represented."

The President also took occasion to make public his reply to a resolution passed at the San Francisco convention last October urging him to dismiss NIRB Chairman S. Clay Williams for anti-labor acts supposedly committed when he was president of R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. "Dear Bill," the President patiently began in his answer to Mr. Green, "I think it is perhaps best that I should not reply officially to the resolution. . . . There is no need for any controversy over the resolution or in regard to a number of inaccuracies of fact and conclusion in the resolution. As you know, I appointed Clay Williams after real consideration of all the public and private interests affected . . . . Since his appointment he has rendered a devoted, impartial service which has fully justified his selection. I think that as time goes on the Federation will agree with me on all of this."

It was this letter that served as the "cease firing" signal to the fortnight's affray. Obviously the President could not afford to fall out irrevocably with organized labor. Obviously organized labor neither dared nor desired to affront the man in the White House. So pious "Bill" Green summoned the reporters, told them: "Roosevelt is our hope and our strength. We want to go over to the White House and discuss all Labor problems and show our faith in him."

Few days later "Bill" Green & friends trooped into the White House for a heart-to-heart. "Permit me to say," announced President Roosevelt when it was over, "that we are seeking to promote peace, co-operation and understanding."

-*Their Code renewed, motormakers turned in a production figure for January 1935 of 306,000 cars and trucks--87% above the same month last year and a January figure surpassed only twice (1926, 1929) in history.

/-John Lewis' animosity toward Donald Richberg goes back to the bitter personal situation of last September when Richberg supplanted Hugh Samuel Johnson in NRA. In his windy memoirs, currently running in the Saturday Evening Post, Johnson reveals that Lewis, one of his few great friends in Labor, at that time wired him from a sickbed: IF I HAD BEEN THERE THIS WOULD NEVER HAVE HAPPENED. Thus Laborite Lewis now finds himself personally allied with Johnson, driven out of NRA largely by Labor's fire, and leagued against Richberg, the man Labor originally helped boost into NRA.

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