Evening star., 1937-09-04
Rate by Mail-Payable in Advance.
Other States and Canada.
Member Of the Associated Press.
Lewis Serves Notice.

Evidence that a rift has come between
the President and the head of the Com
mlttee for Industrial Organization was
furnished by direct implication of words
spoken last night over a wide radio
service by John L. Lewis, head of that
body. Those words were:
1T III behooves one who has supped
at labor's table and who has been shell
tered in labors house to curse with
equal fervor and fine impartiality both
labor and its adversaries when they be-
come locked in deadly embrace"
That passage in Mr Lewis speech has
been Immediately related to a statement
by the President at press conference
when he reported a talk between himself
and Charles P. Taft on the failure of a
mediation board headed by the latter to
bring peace between the C. l. O. and the
smaller steel companies, the President
saying: Charlie Taft and I agreed that
In the Nation as whole in regard to
the recent strike episodes the maiority
OF the people are saying Just one thing:
"A plague on both your houses"
This inferential description of the
President by Mr. Lewis as "one who has
supped at labor's table and who has
been sheltered in labors house" can only
be taken to refer to the political sup
port given in the recent election. It is
as though the chief of the C. I. o. had
said, explicitly, that the President had
betrayed his allies in the 1896 campaign
by failing to carry on in his executive
actions definitely and completely as the
partisan of that organization.
That Mr.. Lewiss radio talk was a war
cry is plain from the circumstances of its
delivery. Breaking a comparative 81
lence," as it has been described main
tanned SINCE the C. l. o. began it's ag-
gressive campaign in the motor indus
tries strike, it was notice that organ
lied labor, of the Lewis category at least,
will now become political force He
said:
Labor next year cannot avoid the
necessity of political assay of the works
and deeds of its so-called friends and its
political beneficiaries. 1t must deter
mine who are it's friends in the arena of
politics as elsewhere. 1t feels that its
cause is just and that its friends should
not view its struggle with neutral de-
tachment or intone constant criticism
of it's activities Those who chant their
praises Of democracy but who lose no
chance to drive their knives into labors
defenseess back must feel the weight
of labor's woe, even as its open adver-
saries must ever feel the thrust of labor's
power"
No clearer description of labor as
direct political factor-labor as repre-
sented by the head of the c. l. O.-could
be asked. To what extent this call to
arms will be answered remains to be
seen. In view of the completely antag-
onistic relations between the C. l. o. and
the American Federation of Labor, which
still remains major organization despite
the inroads made upon its membership
by the Lewis secession, it may be that
there will be no such united political
front in the name of labor AS that which
Mr.. Lewis envisages. Meantime, the
relations between Mr.. Lewis and the
President are strained to such point
that the future holds grave possibilities
for further disintegration.