The Wilmington morning star., 1940-05-11
WASHINGTON
DAYBOOK
BY JACK STINNETT

WASHINGTON, May 10-If You are one of
those who put it in your pipe that CLIO Boss
John L. Lewis is going to the polls in November
with an effective third party, you better put
your pipe back on the rack and get yourself a
stogie.
Lewis siren song to bring the nations youth,
the farmers, the aged, and the negroes into
step with John L. Lewis and his labor legions
is just some more Of Willy Johns political man.
euvering. Capital politicians at first puckered
their brows every time Lewis let off a batch Of
political fireworks, and asked themselves:
whats he want?" where's he going?'
Whats he doing?" Now they are pretty
certain.
If the wiseacres are right what he's doing is
organizing for a little collective bargaining on
a big scale. Where he's going is into the thick
of the campaigns the political market place
for all good bargainers.
What he wants is perpetuation and strength
ening of the influence of John L. Lewis and the
labor movement he represents.
A person who knows the bushy-browed labor
leader intimately once said, Don't ever forget
that he's a great poker player" And If Lewis
could make his cards read labor, farmers, aged
youth, and negroes, that would be five aces in
anybody's political poker game.
That Third Party
Let's see why the third party possibility won't
hold any more water than a rattan backet:
1. AS far as 1910 is concerned, the movement
was far too late getting started. Not even a
genius for b~litzkrieg could get an effective force
in the field before election.
2. In Lewis own CLIO ranks, there's a formid.
able pro-Roosevelt bloc made up of the garment
and textile workers led by such men as Sidney
Hillman and Emil Rieve, CLIO vice-president
They don't just favor a third term; they want
Roosevelt drafted.
3. In Lewis own coal miners union conven-
ton, where he predicted an "ignominious de-
feat" if President Roosevelt runs again, there
were Al resolutions favoring a third term.
4. Leadership in the American Youth Con.
gress is reported divided on the question of
stringing along with Lewis so closely as to aft.
late with Labor's Non-Partisan League.
5. Two of Lewis influential lieutenants, who
walked with him through unionism's lean days,
will sit in the Democratic convention as dele
gates. They are Philip Murray and Thomas Ken
nedy of Pennsylvania.
6. It's not a third party year. Third parties are
i%nsurgent groups. They must stem from the left,
the right conservatives or reactionaries); or the
center. Now the New Deal has the left well COW
cred; the Republicans have the right well COW
cred. Both are too close together in the center
for a third party to squeeze in, even if Lewis
could formulate a middle-of-the-road platform.
He's Got A System
Don't think that any of this is news to John
L. Lewis. He holds to the theory that political
action by labor and other organized groups is
necessary to attain economic and social goals.
Just now he's bent on getting further action
on such things as unemployment, taxes, the ma
tional debt, and more adequate pensions to take
older people out of the competitive labor market.
Even if his 1910 cards turn out to be deuces,
he still has a playing hand and who knows .
by 1914, he may be able to turn up Jacks, at
least.