Evening star., 1942-04-12
Le1uis Bids Ane,u for Pouer
Aims Seen Obscure, but Possibly Far.Reaching
By Charles G. Ross

1
i Lewis then as now the head Of the
powerful United Mine Workers OF Amer
lea, was widely hailed in the ranks OF
labor, organized and unorganized, as the
New Messiah. As the creator OF the
Congress of Industrial Organizations and
its first president, he was, indeed, the
strong man of the American labor move
ment. Many thought him, and with
reason, its ablest man, not only the
ablest at the moment but In the whole
history of labor unionism in this country.
True, he had split the union move
ment, but he had split 1t in the interest
of principle-industrial unionism-and
in so doing he had opened the way to
the organization of millions OF workers
outside the American Federation OF
Labor.
To great masses of the underdogs OF
the United States, this descendant OF
Welsh miners was a figure like Paul
Bunyan, the legendary miracle-working
hero of the lumbermen. To the average
industrialist-and to the conservative
labor leaders he had defied-he was one
of the most malignant and dangerous
influences in American life.
This was the John L. Lewis of 1885,
when he revolutionized the labor move
ment, and Of 1886, when from the we'll
filled Golfers of the United Mine Workers
he tossed $500, 900 into the campaign fund
for the reelection of Franklin D.
Roosevelt.
| What of the John L. Lewis of today?
He has broken with Mr.. Roosevelt,
broken with Philip Murray, his old friend
and his successor at the head Of the
c. I. O.: broken with scores of others
with whom he fought shoulder to
shoulder in his rise to power. He and
Mr.. Murray, who is the vice president OF
the United Mine Workers, have Offices
in the same building in Washington;
they pass each other in the corridors
with cold greetings The separation from
Mr.. Murray. Of whom his colleagues say
that he is the easiest man in the world
to get along with, typifies the changed
status of Mr.. Lewis in the labor move
ment. To Mr.. Murray, it is a poignant
personal tragedy.
Heresy Becomes Orthodoxy.
hestatus of Mr.. Lewis has, indeed.
radically changed. Such items of news
as that "the Western New York district
convention of the C. l. o. Steel Workers
Organizing Committee yesterday March
22) assailed John L. Lewis for attempts
to create dissension within the C. I. o."
have become commonplace. What would
have been heresy in the c. l. O. a few
years ago is the orthodoxy of today. In
quarters where Mr.. Lewis; was once
idolized, one can hear now, that he is
"a dangerous conniver," the greatest
enemy of the Organized labor movement"
"a man consumed with greed for personal
power"
Thus the question arises: Has Mr.. Lewis
himself changed? Was he once a self
less friend of the oppressed and has he
become, with the decline in his fortunes
a ruthless adventurer seeking his own
aggrandizement? The man Lewis is a
fascinating subject of speculation. What
goes on now in his restless, brooding
mind? What schemes are masked by his
sultry visage2 What, in fine, is John L.
Lewis up to?
Mr.. Lewis himself Is not telling. He
can only be judged from the record and
from his present activities. 1t is possible
to believe from the record that he was
dominated by personal ambition even in
| the days when he was most applauded
for his service to the worker; or it is
/ r>Cccih1o To ha1 I,otI Ia hoe
fundamental change: That whereas the
desire for personal power was but Sec
ondary as he clawed his way to leader
ship in the labor movement, this desire,
through his enlightenment, has become
the ruling obseSSion of his life. Mus
solini, it is recalled, was once Socialist.
There is an alternative: That Mr..
Lewis, despite all visible evidence to the
contrary, is motivated now, primarily, by
zeal for the workers welfare and not by
considerations of power or revenge. Save
among the fanatical followers of Mr..
Lewis, that is an alternative that finds
scant acceptance, and If accepted, it is
likely to be with the reservation that the
present zeal of Mr.. Lewis, whatever the
motivation, is zeal that plays directly
into the hands of labor's enemies.
Lewis History Confusing.
1t is possible that Mr.. Lewis himself
does not know the answers to the ques-
| tions that his new bid for power whether
| power for himself or for the common
man. has posed. His whole history is
confusing confusing not alone to others
| but, there is reason to believe, to him.
| self.
| 1t is a history rejecting the contrasts
| in the man himself: He is both tough and
suave; he, is at once the miner from the
coal pits and the big-time executive, sal
airy $25, 900 year, with home in Alex
| andria, Va, that once belonged to George
| Washington's physician; he left school
at the age of IL but he quotes Shake
speare, Homer and Plato; he was Re-
publican before the Roosevelt admin
istration, then in 1886 made his United
Mine Workers the biggest single con-
tributor to the Roosevelt campaign fund,
then in 1910 switched dramatically to
Wendell l.. Willkie.
The complex character revealed by his
acts has been the subject of probings by
Mr.. Lewis himself in talks with his inti-
mates. He has asked them to diagnose
his acts, to say whether they sprang
from lust for power.
Some years ago, when it appeared to
his followers that he had dedicated him.
self to a messianic crusade on behalf Of
the new unionism, he talked of himself