Evening star., 1936-07-12
Lewis-Creen Row
and the Election
BY OVEN L. SCOTT.

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People know that John Lewis long has
been president of the United Mine Work.
ers of America. They ere aware that
he is heading a union organization drive
that Is aimed at unionization Of the open
shop steel industry. They realize that
what he is doing threatens strikes and
a disruption of the old-line American
labor movement.
But people are less well aware Of the
objectives of this labor leader. They
wonder about political aspirations that
may lie in the back of his mind. There
is questioning concerning his influence
at the White House, his power over
labor.
Actually, no individual other than the
President Of the United States has more
power to shape the course Of American
business in the next few months than
has Mr.. Lewis.
On his decisions can turn the question
of peace or strife in the country's key
mass production industries.
All of his life Lewis is found to have
been the lone wolf of the labor move
ment.
He entered the world as the son of an
Iowa coal miner, and as a boy went
into the mines to work. There was no
denying his strong personality and f1ght-
ing ways, with the consequence that he
moved ahead rapidly in union affairs.
He served as an organizer. as auditor
for the United Mine Workers, as first
vice president of that union and since
1919 as its president.
Interspersed in that career have been
fights with local union officials, with
Samuel Gompers, father of the American
Federation of Labor; with rivals in his
own organization. and now with the
American Federation of Labor itself and
its president, William Green.
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Lewis was a Republican in his per-
sonal politics until 1882. He supported
Harding in 1920, Coolidge in 1924 and
Hoover in 1928. He was candidate for
the Secretaryship Of Labor in the Coolidge
and Hoover cabinets but lost out. His
swing to Roosevelt in 1882 came after
President Hoover had refused to sup
port the principle of what later became
the Guffey coal act.
But the growth of John Lewis into
national figure dates from N. r. A. So
does the growth of the movement he
now heads. AS part Of its price for
dropping demand for a 30-hour-week,
organized labor obtained from Congress
a statement of principle in the national
recovery act assuring workers the right
to organize and to bargain collectively.
free from interference. This meant the
right to organize unions.
William Green referred to this section
of the law as the Magma Charta of labor.
He had visions of 100000 workers in
the A. F. of L. instead Of the 2,500, 900
who held memberships when N. r. A.
came into being.
The life of N R. A. did see some growth
in the general run of A. F. of l.. craft
unions. But that growth soon was halted
when two-dozen crafts began to fight
over the question of which one was to
receive the cash dues of new members.
officials spent their time arguing over
whether a worker in the automobile or
steel or rubber industry was a mechanic,
a machinist, carpenter, an electrician.
a steam filter or just plain hod-carrier.
On the decision depended which craft
would get his monthly contribution, and
nothing was more important than that
particular matter.
Workers tired of the pickering and
quit the unions in droves, some of them
to set up organizations independent Of
the old-line A. F. of L. craft units.
But John Lewis had a different propo-
sition. His miners union included every
body having any connection with coal
mining, whether he was steam-fitter,
a mule skinner or an electrician. When
N. r. A. started to function he saw his
opportunity. and by series of moves
increased the membership of the United
Mine Workers to include just about
every coal miner in the country.
In dealing with employers, Lewis spoke
for the hundreds of thousands of men.
He represented them in collective bar
gaining. There were no separate craft
unions making their own specialized
demands.
These tactics brought results. The
miners treasury now is building. Some
other unions, including the needle trades,
operated on the same basis and also
showed results and today possess full
treasures and large memberships.
Now a group of these industry-wide
unions-one big union for each industry
are banding together. pooling resources
in an effort to extend their sway over
the steel industry, the automobile in
dustry, the rubber industry and the
textile industry.
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The importance of this move?
First, it represents an effort to. or
ganize the masses of American work.
ingmen-something that never has been
done in the past. The A. r. of L. Is
largely loose federation Of skilled crafts.
Second, it means the start Of pro-
gram designed to throw labor into
politics on q class basis. In the back
of the minds Of the leaders Of the present
movement is creation of q farmer labor
party in 1910.
Third. it involves almost certain strife
in the most vital and strongest Amer
lean industries. A showdown struggle
may be delayed beyond the turn Of this
year, but both sides are getting set for
the sort of battle this country has been
spared for many years.
John Lewis and his followers have
made up their minds that American
workers can do most for themselves by
massing their power, both for collective
bargaining with organized employers and
for political action.
They are gambling on the chance that
the present is the time to give their
theory try-out.
An election lies ahead President