The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1940-06-13
The Cherry Tree
Where We Hutchet Out
The Truth
THREE CONDITIONS
. FOR ILGWU REAFFILIA-
TION
. AN ALERT MEMBERSHIP
. BEST GUARANTEE

BEST GUARANTEE
Before the International Ladies'
Garment Workers Union convention
in New York voted to rejoin the Amer
lean Federation of Labor, Mr.. David
Dubinsky laid down three conditions
for reaffiliation.
The able ILGWU head asked aboli-
tion of the special A. F. of L. assess
ment of l cent a month, and to the
power of the executive council to sus-
pend unions and, least important of
all, expulsion of racketeers.
Mr.. Dubinsky got what he asked for,
except in the matter of chasing out the
racketeers, vague and amorphous
demand, which opens some interesting
chains of thought.
4 X x
Mr. Dubinsky and his splendid
ILGWU didn't leave the A. F. of L.
on account of the presence of rack
eteers. He left to follow Mr.. John L.
Lewis's banners into the field Of seces-
sion, or whatever you want to call the
creation of dual movement.
Mr.. Dubinsky has said and undoubt-
edly with the utmost sincerity, that
when he Joined Mr.. Lewis in creating
the Committee for Industrial Organi-
zation he didn't contemplate going as
far as secession, but the secession
came anyway, although some point out
that it came via expulsion. Be that
as it may, dualism came and today we
have two armies, arrayed in battle.
Mr.. Dubinsky remained with the
CIO after dualism had set in. He was
given a grand kicking around by Mr..
Lewis, who took the ILGWU checks,
but didn't let Mr.. Dubinsky have any
"say" in what was done with the
money. Ultimately Mr.. Dubinsky got
tired of that and withdrew from the
CIO.
X X X
Mr.. Dubinsky is one of the best ex-
ecutives in the whole labor movement
one of the best leaders. He has
host of personal friends and his flair
for publicity has worked to the great
advantage of the ILGWU.
But the A. F. of l.. today is just
about as it was when Mr.. Dubinsky
left it. If there are racketeers today,
there were the same racketeers when
Mr.. Dubinsky left it, in company with
the host of banner carriers who then
rallied around Mr.. Lewis.
Maybe Mr.. Dubinsky didn't know it
at that time and that he has since
learned the facts of life from West
brook Pegler and young Mr.. Dewey.
X X X
Nobody can deny that racketeers are
allowed to function in a severely linn
tied group of unions.
But anyone who takes the trouble
can read the A. F. of L. constitution
and discover the very limited powers
of the A. F. of L. The basis of it's
existence is VOLUNTARISM-
Mr.. Dubinsky knows, just as Mr.. Hill
man knows and just as Mr.. Lewis
knows.
Samuel Gompers used to say, over
and over again, that it was better to
suffer temporarily from the weak
nesses and evils Of humanity rather
than give up the freedom which they
transgressed.
He used to hold that voluntarism
was more important than a system of
compulsion under which punishment
of evil might be swifter but under
which liberty of action would disap-
pear.
X X X
1t may be that the A. F. of l.. will
have to prepare for sterner discipline,
which means an amended constitution
creating more central authority. But
that will not come easily, for nowhere
is voluntarism more jealousy guarded.
1t may be that greater freedom
in discussing weaknesses would be
enough.
There are courts enough and laws
enough for every last offense, if they
could be used.
But the best guarantee of clean un-
ions is an alert membership, ready to
go to bat in behalf of cleanliness and
decency.
LET MEMBERSHIP ASSERT IT.
SELF SUFFICIENTLY AND THERE
WILL NOT BE MUCH TROUBLE.
The preponderance of cleanliness
would seem to have some bearing on
the truth of that assumption.