The Waterbury Democrat., 1940-11-30

haired consummate actor, boomed triumphantly through all the ora torical skirmishes and press head lines. Sidney Hillman, the soft spoken tactician won the battle for control.
 During the first three days, Lewis held all the trump cards plus the spotlight. Although he had promised to resign, he was bent on retaining a firm grip on the CIO helm. To this end he had packed the committees with left wing henchmen and rigged the convention machinery so that he was boss of the show.
 With the stage carefully set, Lewis set out to provoke the Hill- man-led Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers, the core of the opposition, to bolt the conven- ton. That would have left the numerically stronger opposition helpless and barred the election of Phil Murray, who refused to take the CIO presidency unless assured of free hand.t With Murray out of the way, the left-wingers could have either drafted" Lewis or elected complaisant stooge.
 This was the precarious situa- tion when Hillman rushed to Att lantic City and took personal com- mand Of the battle. Thursday af- ternoon, after a long night of con- ferring, he took the platform. Hillman didn't make a speech. He is not stump spieler. He talked, in the same quiet, conversational tones he uses when seated at his deAk.
 There were no fireworks and no histrionics, but there was lot of unanswerable logic.
 SAVED CIO FROM
 SPLIT
 When Hillman finished, Lewis had lost the battle. The opposition unions, which Lewis had cowed with scorching rhetoric and the packed committees, took the of- fensive behind Hillman. The noisy but weak left wing caved in. Mur- ray got the assurances he de- manded and 24 hours later, Lewis, grooming fearful swan song, sur rendered the gavel.
 The upset of John L. Lewis was not the only feather in Hill-
 mans cap. Equally great a tri-
 umph was keeping the CIO
 from splitting wide open.
 Certain Communist elements, operating on the rule or ruin" principle, were bent on splitting the CIO if baked from winning control. That would have meant chaos in the labor movement, the end of any hope for AFL-CIO peace, and 8 smashing blow to the Roosevelt administration.
 The true measure of Hillman's
 strategic mastery was that he tied the can to his opponent in
 such & deft manner that Lewis
 followers could not erupt. They would have done so at the drop
 of the hat had Hillxnan given
 voice to one word of personal
 feeling against Lewis.
 But 'Hillman knew that a per- sonal attack was just what Lewis wanted, had tried for months to provoke. And he has fought too many battles in his 24 years as a union leader to fall into that kind of a trap. He suppressed his per- sonal anger and kept the fight to the ground on which Lewis could- mt Win-that the CIO was bigger than any one man and all forces must unite to preserve their com mon gains.
 1.-THE COMPROMlsER"
 A pet taunt of Hillman's left. wing foes is that he is a com- promiser. They are right and wrong. Hillman is Q compromiser on details, but never on principles.
 It was "c0mpr0mises" such as the one at Atlantic City which beat the unbeatable Lewis that have won Hiilman the deserved reputation of being the most as- ute strategist in organized labor, and that have built the Amal- gamated Clothing Workers into one Of the six most powerful un- Ions in the country.
 Old Amalgamsted associates