The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-09-14
A. FL. May Discard
Even Tame Workers
Educational Bureau
By HARVEY O'CONNOR.

WASHINGTON, (FP) Sept. "a
Determined efforts will be made at
the Los Angeles convention of the
American Federation Of Labor to
scrap the Workers Education Bureau.
Ultra-conservative forces within the
Federation have declared that the
Bureau must walk the plank and they
believe they can swing a majority of
votes on the issue. The convention
opens the first week in October.
In an effort to save the bureau,
progressives are uniting with those
forces in the A. F. of L. which feel
that research and wider knowledge
of industry will help unions to main
tain their strength. They will be-
helped by certain Federation leaders
who, although they have never rel
ished cooperation with the bureau,
consented to have it taken under the
A. F. Of L. wing rather than to allow
it to pass into the unchallenged con-
troll of the radicals.
Organized in 1921
The bureau was started in 1921 as
an independent organization for the
furtherance of the workers education
movement which sprang up during
and after the war. New York pro-
gressives and radicals, affiliated with
various labor parties and needle
trades unions, were influential in its
councils In 1928 the Portland con-
vention of the A. F. Of L. ratified an
agreement with the bureau by which
it passed under official trade union
control. Dual and seeding unions
were denied representation and many
well know labor educators were in
formed that their activities within the
bureau would be curtailed or ended.
Present opposition rises from the
obscurantist and anti-intellectual for
ces within the Federation, aided by
those who believe the bureau is still
critical of many of the practises and
theories followed by some of the III
ternational unions. A long standing
tradition within the A. F. of L. against
"outside intellectuals," who hitherto
had been kept out of the trade union
movement, was strengthened when
the intellectuals were thought to be
slipping in through the Workers
Education Bureau.
Another group have scrutinized jeal-
ously every scrap of paper leaving the
bureaus office, expecting criticism
or antagonism toward trade union Of
ficials or practises. Efforts to
persuade the trade unions to study
their industries, to institute classes
and to stimulate the desire of craft
knowledge among their members have
been greeted with cordial response in
many bodies, with apathy in others
while some have looked askance at
asy interference with well established
points of view and customs.
Personal considerations are also
known to enter. The fact that James
H. Maurer, who organized the bureau
in 1921 and has since served as its
president, is now heading a trade
union delegation to the Soviet Union,
has left bad taste in the mouths of
many leaders and a minimum demand
that Maurer step out Immediately, if
the bureau is to be maintained.
Progressives intend TO put up
strong battle, and in coalition with
moderate forces, hope to squelch the
ultra-conservative designs. They will
point to the bureaus considerable
achievements in the field of workers
education. Seventy per cent Of the
total membership Of the A. F. Of L. is
now enrolled on a per capita basis
in the bureau. Last year the bureau
estimated that it had reached $4,000
workers in 300 centers. The bureau,
it is felt, is on the threshold Of in
tensive development.