"Eliza" v. "Overseer"

In a current series of articles on C. I. O., featured in Scripps-Howard newspapers, Benjamin Stolberg, leftist labor writer, described President David Dubinsky of the model International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union as a "shrewd politician, a hard bargainer, as tough as he is honest, and full of fun." Last week Mr. Dubinsky employed a number of these talents at the expense of John L. Lewis. Summoning the executive boards of all the Garment Workers' locals to convention in Manhattan--the first general assembly in six months--President Dubinsky put his position on C. I. O. squarely before his union.

The first crack in C. I. O.'s fac,ade appeared when the Garment Workers' official organ, Justice, laid the blame for the collapse of the A. F. of L.C. I. O. peace negotiations on John L. Lewis (TIME, Jan. 10). But the Dubinsky speech last week was the first time that one member of the C. I. O. high command has attacked another in open forum. Briefly and bluntly Mr. Dubinsky declared that the peace negotiators had arrived at a basis for settlement but that the formula was personally vetoed by John L. Lewis. "No one man," cried Mr. Dubinsky, "has a mortgage on the labor movement."

In theory David Dubinsky is one of C. I. O.'s "Big Three"--with John Lewis of the United Mine Workers and Sidney Hillman of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers. In practice there has been only a "Big Two.'' Suspicious of Mr. Dubinsky's continued friendliness with William Green and Matthew Woll of A. F. of L., Messrs. Lewis & Hillman simply ignored his counsel. Pushed in opposite directions by factions in his own union, torn between his high faith in the C. I. O. cause and his personal loyalty to A. F. of L. (he was the first Jew on the A. F. of L. executive council), David Dubinsky found himself trying to ride two horses at once. Time & again in C. I. O. conferences John Lewis had prodded him: "Make up your mind, Dave. Decide where you want to go."

Garment Workers cheered loudly last week when David Dubinsky told them: "We do not believe that our withdrawal from the C. I. O. would benefit the cause of unity and peace. . . . But it is our definite conviction that peace will ultimately have to be established in the labor movement. . . . The C. I. O. has passed its honeymoon period."

Since A. F. of L. would like nothing better than to split the powerful Garment Workers off from C. I. 0., William Green & Co. were discreetly jubilant. A few days later Max Zaritsky, another behind-the-scene peace man, lined up behind Mr. Dubinsky with some 35.000 C. I. O. United Hat, Cap and Millinery workers. John Lewis, emerging from a conference in Manhattan with a U. S. Steel official, was asked if he had anything to say. Said he: "Nothing in particular except that Mr. Dubinsky. whom I esteem highly, seems to be giving an imitation of Eliza crossing the ice and looking backward like Lot's wife. I think he ought to finally decide whether he is flesh or fowl or good red herring."

Back came Mr. Dubinsky: "Eliza crossing the ice may not have had a very pleasant journey but, as I recall, she had to make that trip getting away from a none-too-kind overseer."

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