Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-06-03
MISS ABBOTT URGED
FOR DAVIS PLACE
Fight Between G. O. P. Lead
erS and Labor Over Cabi- :
net Post Is Seen.
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

Before long President Howe. will be
faced with the problem Of selecting
successor for James j. Davis as Secre-
tary of Labor. The Republican nomi-
nee for the United States senatorship
from Pennsylvania has not yet indicated
when he will resign from the cabinet,
but 1t will be some time during the
Summer. Mr.. Davis desires to COM
plete his final annual Department OF
Labor report before quitting Office. But
behind the scenes the fight over his
successorship is already on.
It is expected before many moons to
develop into a struggle between Repub-
lican political leaders and leaders Of
organized labor. The politicians are
said to be anxious to have the Presi-
dent name Secretary of Labor who,
while acceptable to labor organizations,
will not be actively identified with any
of them. Labor, on the other hand,
will leave no stone unturned to per-
suade Mr.. Hoover that the place, as of
yore, belongs by right to some one un-
mistakably associated with the labor
movement, though, naturally, 1t is not
expected that the President will go
outside OF Republican labor men.
In Place Nine Years.
The only campaign in connection
with the Labor portfolio so far publicly
launched is the one now being pro-
NOTED by women's organizations on be-
half of Miss Grace Abbott, veteran. chief
Of the Children's Bureau in the De-
partment Of Labor. Miss Abbott's nine
years in that position have given her a
Nationwide acquaintance among labor
folks of both sexes, and her supporters
contend that she would be highly ac-
csptable Secretary of Labor among the
classes chiefly interested in that cabi-
net official and his official activities.
One Of the outstanding State labor
officials in the country at present is a
woman, Miss Frances Perkins of New
YORK, Democrat. She was appointed
labor commissioner by Gov Roosevelt
when men ne took ONCE year ago and al
ready has made a sterling record. A
Bostonian of aristocratic lineage, a COL
lege woman and a sociologist by profess
sion, Miss Perkins has been on the in
duStrlal and humanitarian firing line
Tor nearly quarter of century. AL
ready it is being said at Albany that
she is the best commissioner of labor
the Empire State has ever had. She is
member OF the governors cabinet
When Mr.. Davis was perpetuated as
Secretary of Labor in the Hoover cabi-
net in 1929, his reappointment came as
a considerable surprise. It was definitely
understood that the President had an
other appointment in mind. The expla-
nation of Davis retention in his third
cabinet was that Mr.. Hoover found labor
leaders unable to agree upon anybody,
whereupon he decided to keep Jim"
Davis.
DOak Was Mentioned Then.
The man most conspicuously men
toned as his successor at that time was
William N. Doak of West Virginia, who
had been chairman of the labor division
OF the Republican national committee
during the Hoover presidential campaign
He is an ardent Republican and lives
in Washington as editor of the Train
mems Journal. He has been a brake
man and conductor in his day. Doak
was the only outstanding national labor
leader who abStained from supporting
La Toilette in 1924.
Three other well known labor leaders
who are likely to come into the picture
along with Doak, now that the portfolio
Is open again, are John L. Lewis Of In
| diana, president of the United Mine
Workers Of America: William L. Hutche-
son, president of the Carpenters Union
and always an outstanding figure at
American Federation of Labor conven-
tions and John p. Frey of Ohio, Secre-
tary of the Metal Trades Department of
the American Federation of Labor, who
is one of the leaders of the Molders'
Union. Mrssrs. Lewis, Hutchinson and
Frey, like Miss Abbott, are Republicans,
although the latter first came into the
Department of Labor during the Wilson
administration.