Evening star., 1937-09-06
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

BY all the signs of the political zodiac,
John L. Lewis has burned his bridges
with the Roosevelt administration. The
C. I. o. chieftains radio thrust at the
Presidents alleged ingratitude and un-
faithfulness to "labor's house" turns the
searchlight full tilt on the breach which
has been yaWning ever since the White
House refused to honor the campaign
debt the New Deal incurred in 1896.
Sensational and significant as is the
personal aspect of the Roosevelt Lewis
feud, its paramount Importance is the
definite hint that the bushy-browed labor
leader will not shrink from marching a
thiro party into the field in 1888 and
1910. His bid for farm alliance is no
less conspicuous. If Congress, under
administration spur, belatedly enacts the
recently sidetracked hours -and wages
legislation, the Lewisites might pull their
punch and refrain from an outright bolt
from the Roosevelt camp. Meanwhile,
as long as Bill Green's American Fedora
tion of Labor group does not leave the
reservation, New Dealers will feel that
c. I. o. revolt would not necessarily
be fatal to the Democratic cause either
in 1888 or 1910. For the moment, there
is plenty of blood on the face of the
moon and the skies are lurid with the
flash and fury of one OF the bitterest
political ructions of our time.
4 *
Labor day oratorical fireworks, with
spokesmen of rival groups taking to the
platform or the air, are expected to clear
or aggravate the atmosphere of strife
precipitated by Lewis frontal attack on
President Roosevelt. Ohio Gov. Davey,
Chicago Mayor Kelly and economic
royalists of the Tom Girdler ilk After
todays speeches pass into the record it
will be easier to assay the real import
of the c. I. o. declaration of war Lewis
laid meaningful emphasis on the state
ment that his organization now enrolls
3,7l8000 members, as compared to the
A. F. of L. $500, 900 recently claimed by
President Green. This, of course was
Lewis way of serving notice that his
crowd is now the majority branch of
organized labor and entitled to corre-
spending respect at the hands of polit-
ical parties and leaders, no matter how
highly placed.
Former Senator Jim Watson of Indi-
ana and John L. Lewis were dining near
each other the other day on the breeze
swept roof of Washington hotel few
hours before John L. trained his guns
on F. D. r. 1t recalled to observers that
after the presidential campaign of 1928
the HooSier Republican. then Senate
majority leader, did his best to prevail
upon President-elect Hoover to appoint
Lewis Secretary of Labor. Some of
Watson'S Democratic Senate colleagues
were ready to support the plan, but when
March, 1929, rolled around 1t developed
that Jim Davis still held a mortgage
on the job. Lewis, who was once active
in Republican politics, frequently cam
paigned in Indiana and elsewhere with
and for Watson.
\ X x
Reports that Bob La Toilette is Mr..
Roosevelt's present choice as the nominee
OF a 1910 fusion of Democratic New
Dealers and Progressives have set in
motion long train of speculation about
the Presidents real preferences in case
he puts away the third-term crown.
Some authorities, still trying to fathom
the mystery of Hugo L. Blacks eleva-
ton to the Supreme Court, think It's real
purpose was to groom him for the White
House succession. Justice Black will
have chance during the intervening
three years to enhance his reputation
as liberal, perhaps by shining in such
splendid isolation as to single him out
as the darling of the New Deal gods and
other true believers. Since his appoint
ment stunned the country, the view has
crystallised that It was made, among