The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1937-05-06
NOW
A COlun1niSt
In Rebuttdl
TO MAGAZINE
BY HELEN EssARY


inc, valid, blown-in-the-bottle error
of fact in this May issue and re-
porting it in typewriter letter
of literary merit acceptable to the
editors"
The challenge is accepted. The
point of literary merit may not be
evident ito the editors" But an
"error of fact" in the May FOR
TUNE in the article ut Happened
In Steel" is hereby recorded.
"It Happened In Steel" tells
1.-The Why, the How and the
When" Of the history-making
change in the policy of U. S. Steel.
Especially does the article dwell
on what happened between Myron
c. Taylor, chairman of the board
of U. S.. Steel, and John L. Lewis,
G. I. O.'s chairman.
Much is made of meeting in
the Mayflower Hotel between Mr..
Taylor and Mr.. Lewis.
In conspicuously placed box,
labeled "Rumors," FORTUNE
calls pure hokum" the story that
Mrs. Taylor had something to do
with bringing her husband and Mr..
Lewis together.
There are a number Of YER
Sions Of this yarn" says the maya
zine, "all spurious" They were
started, my interested eye discov-
ers, by a story printed "by Helen
Essary, who met Mrs. Taylor at
the White House. Mrs. Taylor
was full of her recent meeting
with John L. Lewis, and Mrs.
Essary later reported her CONVEX
sation in a somewhat garbled
form"
My report of the conversation
was correct. It was told by Mrs.
Taylor herself. I print it again,
in brief synopsis.
Mrs. Taylor saw John L. Lewis
in the Mayflower Hotel. She said
to her husband, who was with her
at the time, that there was a
man she wanted to meet.
Mr.. Taylor presented Mr.. Lewis
to his wife. The three had short
but memorable conversation
dotted with laughter. Mrs. Tay-
lor, in recalling the meeting, said
she was delighted with the labor
leader "He did not look like the
ogre I expected him to be-"
Several days after I printed this
story a mutual friend of Mr.. Lewis
and myself said to me:
John L. wonders where you
got the tale of his meeting with
Mrs. Taylor. 1t could have
come from only one of three
people, MIR. Taylor, Mrs. Taylor
or Mr.. Lewis"
Mrs. Taylor told the story, as
I said before.
FORTUNE protests that the in
situation that Mrs. Taylor had
something to do with bringing her
husband and Mr.. Lewis together
Is one of the Taylor-Lewis rumors
"that can be Sllnmarily dis
missed"
It says, however, that Mr.. Tay-
lor paid a surprise visit to the
Mayflower table where Mr.. Lewis
and Senator Joe Guffey were
lunching, and that later "Mr.
Lewis walked over to the Taylor
table himself"
Since Mrs. Taylor asked her
husband to introduce Mr.. Lewis
remember, she told the story her
self it is not illogical to suppose
that both the surprise visit and
Mr.. Lewis return call were the re.
suits of Mrs. Taylor's request.
Mr.. Lewis had not met Mr.. Tay.
lor until this luncheon hour. When
he and Senator Guffey were eat
ing. he looked across the dining
room and said to the Pennsyl.
vania Senator. isn't that Myron
Taylor over there?"
One detail of the conversation
between Mrs. Taylor and Mr.. Lewis
I thus toned down politely and in
VIGOROUSLY:
Mr.. Lewis" said Mrs. Taylor,
"you do not look like a Bolshevik!"
What Mrs. Taylor really said
was, why should my husband
treat with Bolsheviks?"
This attack Mr.. Lewis answered
adroitly and cheerfully and con.
WINGED Mrs. Taylor that he was a
charming and intelligent man.
Mrs. Taylor is a woman of brains
and wit. She is also beautiful and
persuasive.
Can even FORTUNE be positive
that she had no influence, con-
SciouS or unconscious, on the later
relations of the President of U. s,
Steel and the labor organizer?
Knowing Mrs. Taylor, I should
say that her cleverness, her appre.
citation of Mr.. Lewis character and
her husbands belief in his wife's
far-Seeing and sympathetic under.
standing of people, furthered the
unexpected settlement of the steel
strike so days after this encounter.
1t was in the cards that Mr..
Lewis and Mr.. Taylor shoull meet.
That they first met agreeably and
easily in the presence of faScinat-
ing woman fastened and made
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