The Western news. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1933-current, 1944-10-26
BLUNDERS PERIL FUTURE OF
AMERICAN UNIONS

BLUNDERo fERlL FUTURE UF
AMERICAN UNIONS
HAS the CLIO, in setting up Mr.. Himans Political
Action Committee stepped into political BOBBY trap
Responsible and experienced labor leaders, both in
the AFL and the CO. are seriously raising this ques
ton Throughout the labor movement there is grow
ing fear among clear-sghted labor that the CO. in
its 1914 political strategy has blundered into something
which is certain to bring incalculable harm upon the
whole American trade union movement.
Win lose at the November polls they believe, the
PAC has set in motion wave OF public anti-union
ill-w which will Unfortunately strike all labor
unions during the next four years.
For what the CIO has DONE in launching the PAC,
has been to throw overheard the most nvioabe oil
American trade union precepts That precept has been
to entangle the trade unions officially IN the
fortunes of either of the two national political parties
But now under Hman and Murray, the Clio has
recklessly scrapped this tme-tested policy The PAC,
for all practical purposes has made the CLIO SUBJ
sidiary of the Democratic Party With trustfulness
almost incredible, it has united itself with the Demo-
cratic Party without exacting any assurance or guar
antee in return It has placed all its political eggs in
single political basket-the Fourth Term basket oil
Franklin D. Roosevelt.
On the surface such pig-n-the-poke ClO political
policies would seem unexplainable by any rule oil
trade union experience or even OF good common morse
sense.
Ever since the 1910 exit of John L. Lewis, who UNI
derstood the difficult art of using politicians without
being used by Them the CLIO has virtually ceased to bel
an independent self-sustainng labor movement AFTER
the pattern Of the AFL the Railroad Broherhoods.
For all practical purposes 1t has been kept labor
adjunct of the New Deal
In return it is true, the Roosevelt Administration
has shoWered the CIO with its favors. In situations
where the Clio has come in competition with the ALL
other unions it has invariably given it the breaks
The PAC is the unhappy product Of this unnatural
marriage between the Clio and the Roosevelt Admin
istraton When in 1913, the White House strategists|
deemed it necessary to use the apparatus OF the ClD
as labor front for the Fourth Term draft the ClOI
had no alternative but to obey. Mr.. Hlrnan snapped
into action, and launched the PAC He pledged the
White House to deliver at the ballot box the millions
of unconsulted unioniss who, with New Deal ald, !
have been recruited into the Go OF course from any
consideration Of long range labor interest, what thel
Clio is doing in this campaign is truly disastrous toll
American labor's future.
Samuel Gompers, who was the architect OF so much
that solid and enduring in the American trade union
movement defined the accepted policy OF the ALL
unions when he said.
Our movement has not asked and will not ask
at the hands of government anything which the
workers can and should do themselves The move
ment of labor is founded the principle that that
which do for ourselves individually and col
lectivey, is done best
In violating these principles the present CLIO leader
ship is Of course counting future disaster for all
gained labor The tragedy of the situation is that sound
unions as we'll as unsound certain to suffer from
the reaction of public resentment which greeting
the PAC. The whole labor movement may be facing al
serious afterelection setback, result of Mr.. Hill
mans brash maneuvers
AFL members acutey and painfully aware of the
boobytrap which Mr. Hman has put under the feet of
American labor. As prominent AFI1 leader ex-
pressed it recentyd in off the record candor THE CIO
is ousing up the whole situation for organized labor
and we are the ones who are going to suffer"
Pol Adv paid by Republican State Central
Committee, Helena Montana. y