Evening star., 1937-06-06
D|CKMAN ELECTED
UNION PRESIDENT
Popular Washingtonian Is
Made Typographical Head
In Spirited Campaign.
BY JAMES IRVING.

BY JAMES IRVING.
The election last month Of John B.
hickman sr., as president Of Columbia
Union should bring a
Message Of hope to every elderly man
'ho feels that he is being pushed
nto the shelf of inactivity because
: advanced years.
Dickman, now 78, was elected head
I the printers union after a spirited
ampaign, in which he was opposed
J several men many years younger
ian himself. Which goes to show,
ccording to Dickman's friends, that
lis isn't, after all, entirely a young
ans world, but that there is still
)om at the top for the man of expe-
once and ability in spite of advanced
oars.
Dickman has been active in union
fairS in the District of Columbia
more than half a century, and
ls been president of the local print
S on several previous occasions
his time he was virtually called out
, retirement to again become their
ader.
Participating in his election were
:inters on all the Washington news
apers, who have set the type for
undreds of columns of arguments
70 and con on the Supreme Court
organization bill, and who joined
lth their fellow members in the
overnment Printing Office and COM
ercial shops in recalling Dickman to
tive service.
However, spokesmen for the print
5 assert the controversy in Congress
er what the age of the Supreme
ourt justices ought to be had no
airing on Dickman's election. He
is simply chosen, they say, because
his excellent record of past per-
rmance, and it was felt that man
his experience and ability was
2eded at this time.
The late Maj. Gen. Joseph T. Dick
an, who is credited with having
opped the Germans at the second
tile Of the Marne during the World
ar and who was the first COM
ander of the Army of Occupation in
Tmany, was the Washington print
S brother
Dickman was born in Dayton, Ohio,
d came to Washington in 1880, Sc
ring position in the Government
hitting Office. He retired from that
ice in 1924. However his record of
rvice in the G. P. o. wasn't con-
luous, he said because in the early
vs. 1t was the custom to clean out"
Printing Office at the change of
litical administrations of the Coy
nment.
Dickman's first experience as a
preventative of the Washington
.inters occurred in 1886, when he
Is elected delegate to the Pitts
!rgh convention of the 1nterna-
)nal Typographical Union. At that
ne organized labor was greatly ex-
ed over activities of the knights
: Labor, which was agitating the
an Of one big union of all workers
The question of merging the typo
aphical union with the knights OF
abor was the predominating ques-
IN before the 1885 convention of the
inters, and Dickman militantly op-
Ssed the proposition. From that
ne on he has always been a firm
lever in craft unions.
without craft unions there would
no organized labor in the United
,ates, and that is my firm convic-
on,' he says. However, I have
Yer opposed the organization OF any
CUP Of workers, and as chairman
the Grievance Committee of the
entral Labor Union, I gave just as
lch attention to organizing the hod-
rrier as did skilled workmen."
During his long career Dickman
S witnessed many important his
rical events in the making, one of
llch was the revolution of the
hitting industry, when the typeset-
lg machine was introduced to take
place of the old tedious method of
nd composition.
The first typesetting machines were
tailed in Washington in 1885, Dick
IN said, in the composing room of
e Post-Critic. Dickman was presi-
Mt of the local printers union at
. time, and one of the greatest con-
>versies ever to face the printers