The Waterbury Democrat., 1937-07-14

Mad, But if You Think He's
 Failed and That He May
 Break With the President,
 Read This and Learn the
 Actual Facts Behind the
 Scenes.
 Washington, July 14 - Betting odds against @ real break between Roosevelt and John L. Lewis should be at least 20 to and probably longer.
 Each man butters the bread of the other and each likes butter on his bread. The chance of . bust up rests only on the pOssi- bility that Lewis isn't fully aware on which side his bread is but tered-in other words, the pOssi. bility that Lewis really Is as arrogant as he sometimes seems and will continue in that attitude.
 It all depends on how willy Lewis really is. He has let the word get out that leaders of the militant c. I. o. movement feel that Roose- welt has let them down and implied that the president may lose labor support. Specifically, Lewis is sore because Roosevelt didn't intervene more forcibly in the Little Steel" strike, because Roosevelt attributed a plague on both your houses" at- titude to the public, because Roose- welt allowed Secretary Perkins publicly to deplore sitdown strikes, and Secretary Roper to criticize c. I. O. inferentially by his references to violence.
 Has Lewis Hit Top
 All this comes to Lewis on top of an apparent defeat in the Little Steel" strike; an aroused public antipathy to c. I. O.; stiffening of A. F. of L. ranks, aided by decision of many employers to encourage A. F. of L. unions as against c. I. O.; a revolt among southern members of congress who - backed by many constituents-fear c. I. O. organiza- ton of Negroes, sharecroopers and other poorly-paid groups; @ few minor A. P. of L. jurisdictional elec- ton victories and general wide spread onslaught on Lewis and his movement.
 Some superficial observers even predict that all this means Lewis has hit his top and is on the wane. But background of previous tri- umphs and assurance of further administration support seem to place such assertions in the cate gory of wishful thinking. Mean while, however, Lewis is not his usual genial self. He growls. |
 Wanted Lewis to Win
 Roosevelt has been making cer- tain verbal concessions to critics of c. I. O. His plague on both your houses" was effective notice to Lewis that the president wouldn't call the heads of independent steel companies to the White House and demand peaceful settlement with the steel union. (One reason he de- cided against 1t was that he felt the chief result probably would be to give Tom Girdler sounding board for loud, vitriolic attacks on c. I. O. and perhaps himself) The A. P. of L., whose support Roosevelt also seeks, had been increasingly bitter at F. D. R.'s contributions to c. I. o. successes.
 The president definitely did not want to see c. I. o. lose the steel strike. He has done much behind the scenes to help Lewis win at least something out of it. and lit- tie, if anything, to handicap him. But the pressure from other groups upon which he depends for support became so strong that he decided he couldn't go the limit toward winning c. I. O.'s strike and must, in fact, hand out some mild reproof.
 Open Break Unlikely
 The Lewis technique is based on the theory that the best way to get the last possible ounce of admins tration aid is to glover, complain of mistreatment and mutter vague threats to the effect that his poli- tical machine and his followers will cut loose from the New Deal and form farmer labor party.
 Possibly this technique will be effective. Probably 1t will have no effect at all. It is certain, however, that Roosevelt will not indulge in an open break with Lewis unless Lewis loses his head, although the presi- ment must also play some ball with the A. F. of L.
 Lewis almost certainly won't lose his head. Although the United Mine Workers and allied unions contributed nearly a million dol- lars to last years democratic campaign, and delivered no one knows how many votes, Lewis will recall that Roosevelt was an es- sential factor in the General Motors victory, that his National Labor Relations Board has gone the full length of the law for la- bor, that he is promoting a wage hour bill and a Supreme Court which will be friendly to labor.
 Lewis will remember that Roose- welt encouraged the LaFollette inves- igation-valuable to c. I. O.; that he persuaded Governor Davey of Ohio temporarily to keep steel plants closed with his militia and that his n1inions vainly secured the country by telephone for men or in- terests which would bring pressure on defiant Little Steel" And other things.
 Many conservative citizens think that's about 100 per cent too much. | Copyright 1937, NEA Service, Incl AnslUers To