The White Ceiling

In the month since a shotgun blast shattered his right arm, U.A.W. Chieftain Walter Reuther had been living in a quiet, antiseptic nightmare. In Detroit's new Grace Hospital he lay with the upper part of his body in a plaster cast, his bad arm held aloft by cords and pulleys. Occasionally he was given electric shocks to keep the arm from stiffening. He slept less than two hours in 24--his pain was continuous and doctors were afraid that sedatives might hamper his recovery.

He could do two things--stare at the white ceiling, and think. Last week Reuther told New York Post Reporter James A. Wechsler what he had been thinking about. He had grown certain that there was a real chance to unite all branches of U.S. organized labor.

Acute Pain. "I really think this thing shocked a lot of guys into realizing that unionism is more than a matter of nickels and dimes," he said, "and that personal interests and prejudices aren't as important as they seem." Sitting at the bedside, Jimmy Wechsler noted that Reuther's face was dead white, that he paused from time to time as the pain grew acute. The reporter remembered, nervously, that he had been instructed to leave after 15 minutes. But Reuther asked him to stay on because "this thing doesn't hurt so much when I talk."

Reuther recalled the things he had told his wife in the moments after he was shot. "I told her we knew a long time ago that the labor movement is no bed of roses, and that we had to expect something like this. I told her that I wanted her to promise she'd stay in this fight if they really had finished me. She agreed, and after that I felt all right . . ."

His first reaction to the shock had been fear that his two children might see his bleeding body sprawled on the kitchen floor. "Thank God they didn't," he said. He was convinced that he had been the victim of a professional killer.

"I'll Be Back." Reuther seemed disturbed by the course of national politics. He was afraid "a lot of decent guys" would vote for Henry Wallace if the Democrats renominated President Harry Truman. He said he thought it tragic that Truman had inherited the presidency "at a time when the world needs great leadership." He believed Supreme Court Justice William Douglas could be elected, that labor could back him with a vast campaign if he were nominated by the Democrats.

At week's end, convoyed by a guard of policemen and union members, Reuther left the hospital to begin weeks of painful convalescence at home. "I'll be back as soon as the doctor gives me the go-ahead," he said. "I'm going to fight a lot harder than I ever did before."

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