The Daily Alaska empire., 1937-09-07
CIO-AFL Split Clouded
 LabOr's Holiday HoriSOn
By ALEXANDER R. GEORGE AP Feature Service Writer

Wlttl OA SeAhACN lubOi AACAScoo NhNAi
 war, now year old, raging on stead fly expanding fronts.
 Despite sporadic peace gestures,
 the American Federation of Labor
 and the Committee for Industrial
 Organization continue their struggle for supremacy with drives and counter drives to enroll working
 men and women in virtually every field of wage-earning activity. The split in the Federation over
 Industrial Unionism came just after
 Labor Day a year ago when the craft dominated executive council
 of the A. F. of L. suspended 10 un-
 ions affiliated with John L. Lewiss
 CIO for setting up rival organi- zation within the family of organ ized labor"
 Shaggy -Drowed Lewis character ized the suspension as an act of "crass stupidity dictated by person. al selfishness and fear" Craft un-
 ion chieftains, headed by Lewis's
 old friend, President William Green Of the Federation, contended that Lewis was willing to wreck the Fed
 erations in an attempt to further his unsuitable ambition
 Nevertheless, they left the door open" for Bad Boy" Lewis's return to the Federation fold. providing he
 disbanded his CIO. This he flatly refused to do.
 Then with the aid of war chest
 of millions of dollars and the battle
 cry company unions must go, , Lewis and his lieutenants moved onto the great fortresses of the open shop-automoiles and steel. Strength Nearly Even With the additional assistance of the collective bargaining guaran- tees of the Wagner labor act. they set out also to enroll hundreds of thousands of workers in textiles rubber, glass, oil and other mass
 production industries.
 At the time of suspension, the
 10 unions together with two other
 CIO affiliates the Typographical
 Union and the Hat and Cap Makers
 union-which have not been sus- pended from the Federation, had an aggregate membership of about 100000.
 Today the CIO claims an enroll
 ment around 100000 and the A. F. of L. says it's own membership totals 3,20Oo0O. For numerical strength in the future the advan-
 tage would seem to lie with CIO, be-
 cause its purpose is to enroll all
 workers in the mass industries,
 while the traditional A. F. of L. ob- jective has been to organize skilled
 workers in various craft unions. A. F. of LIS Counter Attack To meet this CIO threat, how ever, the Federation is now taking |steps to utilize the industrial type of organization wherever it will serve to bring in more members. It
 has started a counter attack on CIO organiza tion efforts among ag- ricultural and white collar workers, The two labor groups also are
 waging a battle for control of wa
 terfront workers on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. Lewis has invited city, county, state and Federal Gov ernment employees to join the CIO land both organizations are seeking to enroll retail store employees. The Federation recently launched an ambitious campaign to unionize 100000 workers in New York City,s food and drink emporiums.
 While Lewis and his colleagues
 exulted over winning CIO recog-
 milton in automobiles and "big steel" Green denounced the sit-
 down strike and "CIO violence as
 more harmful to labor than the acts or any hostile employers" Moderates Seek Peace Green ordered Central Labor
 bodies to purge themselves of CIO
 unions and leaders. The Fedora
 tion's month member ship dues were doubled to bring an
 additional $330,00O monthly to com
 pat the rebel Lewis" A. F. of l.. organizers hastened to assure en-
 pioyers there would be mo sit-
 downs or violations of contracts by
 our unions."
 Intermittent conciliation moves
 rom both sides and from friends oI labor outside the unions made
 ilttle or no progress. Moderate ele-
 ments in both groups continued
 10 nope, however, for some sort of
 armistice: It is expected that the
 feoeration at it's convention in
 Denver this fall may invite GIG
 10 hold a joint conference with the
 executive council.
 But some craft unionists urge fur. ther invasion of CIO territory ane
 amendment of the Wagner labo,
 disputes act ito provide protection
 for craft unions in all industries
 large or small"