The Waterbury Democrat., 1935-11-26
BY RODNEY BUTCHER Democrat Washington
 Corresponderit

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 Washington. Nov. 26.-A year from now there may be two Amer ican Federations of Labor, one of them operating under another name.
 Destination of confidential re- ports from labor leaders, certain government observers, and cOrre- spondents who were at the Atlatl- tic City convention shows clearly that the battle between the indus- trial unioniSts and the controlling conservative craft unionists was but a prelude to what will happen ip 1886.
 The important thing to remem- Der is that the insurgents polled nearly 40 per cent of the conven- ton vote, whereas never before, on the issue of industrial unionisnn, had minority boiled even 10 per cent.
 Already there are two important labor movements A. E. L. and the J. L. L., the latter meaning the big following, actual and potential, of President John L. Lewis of the United Mine Workers.
 Most labor students concede that the Lewis group is destined to tramp forward as development of machinery continues to displace skilled workers.
 Showdown Next Fall
 The question now is whether iri- dustrial unionism will grow inside or outside the A. F. of L.
 The battle of Atlantic City will continue through the year. Next fall Lewis and his allies will be in the position of trying to get a majority or, actually threatening secession. And secession might come either through a walkout from the federation or an attempt by the old line leaders to throw out the insurgents Gin the belief that their salvation lay in split.
 It's doubtful whether the insur- gents can get g majority, because the craft unions are thoroughly and rightly frightened by the pos sibility that their own organizations woiRld be destroyed whenever in- dustrial unionism gained an upper hand in the federation.
 The split between the factions in the convention vote was about 18,- 600 to 10,500, and men who have checked the possibilities figure the minority can't get more than 2000 additional votes in the coming year except by organizing big industrial unions-which the A. F. of L. ma chine opposes.
 Many Look to Lewis
 The group which looks to Lewis for leadership includes workers in cement; steel, rubber, automobile, radio, coke, aluminium, and all fed- eral unions which want aid in or- ganizing, plus several unions out- side the A. F. of L., such as the Camden shipyard workers.
 Lewis, Sidney Hillman of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers, and other like-minded leaders will aid such unions all they can, re- gardless of the wishes of the A. F. of L. executive councils majority just as the miners and clothing workers recently helped the Cam den shipyard strikers.
 It will be best to watch closely the convention of the United Mine Workers here in January. Lewis is likely to make more of 1t than an ordinary convention of an inter- national union. The political inl- plications of events in the labor field probably will become more ob- vious than ever.
 Amendment Live Issue
 Few know it, but the admins tration scent Assistant Secretary of Labor Ed Mccarthy to the conven- ton for one day to intimate that Roosevelt would be glad to see the federation come out for a constitu- tional amendment which would per- init social-economic and labor leg islation.
 Nearly two-thirds of the execu- tive councils members are repub- hcans. So the amendment propos- al was carefully buTied-until Lew.