The Waterbury Democrat., 1937-01-28
BEHIND THE SCENES Sl
 WASHINGTON
RY RopMEY DUTcHER-
Democrat Washington Correspondent

Correspondent Was Lewis Wise in Putting
 the President on the SpOt'?
 Many Begin to Wonder as
 It Becomes Clear that He
 Stakes Future on Fate of
 Auto Drive, Where His
 Majority Position Is Doubt
 full.
 Washington, Jan. 28 = Even the friends and admirers of John L. Lewis are mixed up as to the wis., dom, implications and possible consequences of his call to President Roosevelt for help in the General Motors strike, accompanied as it was by pointed reference to Roose- velt's political obligations to organ ized labor.
 There can be no answer at this
 time. But there can be no ques- tion of the importance of the is-
 sue from several angles. For inc
 stance, if Lewis Is going to ex-
 hibit conspicuously bad judgment
 in time of crisis, development of the American labor movement is likely to be delayed. And if he makes mistakes which have dis astrOus consequences, his own leadership will be endangered as we'll as the future of his great
 industrial organization drive. It can be asserted confidently that Lewis felt he knew exactly what he was doing when he served notice of expecting Roosevelt help against 8 common enemy and also that the effect on the inner White House circle was something ap- preaching consternation. F. ID. R.'s Influence Felt Although this will be denied, Roosevelt had to all intents and purposes been intervening in the strike through long distance tele- phone conversations with Governor Frank Murphy of Michigan. The extent to which the president made recommendations to Murphy as to his handling of the situation cannot be revealed here, but the governors refusal to allow troops to be used against strikers or to permit local forces to try to eject sitdown strikers was an outstanding event in labor history.
 Some of Roosevelt's closest friends complain that Lewis should have come to the White House and said the same thing privately to the president, instead of pub-
 licly putting F. D. R. on Q spot.
 They have heard stories that had made remarks taking . "Iet the president come to me" atti- tude.
 The interesting thing is that there had been no communication about the strike between Roosevelt and Lewis, although the latter's group spent more time, money and effort on Roosevelt,s reelection than any other group did. Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins waded into the situation in an effort to settle it, but this was an effort to regain her prestige in the industry labor field and to outshine Assistant Secretary of Labor Ed McGrady, rather than 8 mission handed her by president.
 Strength or Weakness?
 It is open to argument, perhaps, whether the Lewis challenge to Roosevelt actually constituted an admission of weakness or a claim of strength.
 It has been obvious that the United Automobile Workers had signed up less than 2 majority of G. M. workers and that the Com- mittee for Industrial Organization had practically been forced to throw itself into the strike.
 Nevertheless c. I. o. leaders have been elated at membership gains made in the face of exten- sive labor espionage and other union busting tactics.
 On the other hand, the Lewis movement has tied up huge cor poration and dozens of its plants. About 135,000 men are out of work. That's hardly weak posi- ton and Lewis, in his startling statement = which was partly de- signed to buck up his forces = at least believed he was on safe fight ing ground. Any strike is gamble and the appearance of groups of loyal workers in opposition to the strike is giving Lewis plenty of con- cern.
 Future at Stake
 Some of the experts on labor strategy in the Lewis camp are con- vinced that he has taken strong position and that he chose a good time publicly to remind the presi- dent of debt to labor.
 It Is also true that Lewis was correct in saying Roosevelt,s po- litical pals in labor were fighting Roosevelt's economic royalist" cam paign enemies in the form of General Motors, since the strong influence in G. M. c. of a du Pont- Morgan group is well known, and the corporation has defied the Wag- ner labor relations act.
 Furthermore, the same school argues, Lewis and the c. I. o. will have won . big victory if they can come out of the present struggle with even 8 ioehold, on the in- dustry, which labor never had before.
 Even if only a very small per- centage of the total of strikers' demands Is won, these experts claim. definite urOgreag will have