The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-09-19

into the Presidential dining room,
 The guest lists will be exceedingly limited. No cabinet members or other high government ottiei@ls nave been invited. Only A. F. of l., Pres" ident Green and Q few of the top national executive officers of the Federation will sit at the head table with President Roosevelt, President Daniel J. Tobin, Vice President Dave Beck of Seattle and the hierarchy of the Brotherhood of TeamsterS. Q. I, o, President Phil Murray, F. A. 0. Chairman Sidney Hillman, .. M, W. President John L, Lewis ana such riff-raR haven't been invited and can't crash this party, which IS strictly I. B. T. o. w, & H., A, F, ot L. You can't buy tickets to this clam bake, so don't ask.
 The President attends this party, of course, because Dan robin, Who again In this campaign year of iR4S, as In i932, 1886 and i040, heads up the Labor Division. of the Demo. cratic National Committee,
 PRESIDENT WILL
 SPEAK POLITICS
 At first tho TeamsterS were going to pay for the radio time and spon. sor this nationwide broadcast of what the President calls his first political speech of the campaign" But on second thought, 1t was be. lleVed this might be violation of the Smith-c connally act, so the Democratic National Committee took over and 1t will pay for the broadcast. The Teamsters will just pay for the dinner, and there's no harm in that, Is there9
 Real purpose of the gathering, acc cording to Dave Beck, in charge Of arrangements, is 0 business session which will be held in the afternoon before the feast. The Teamsters have e lot of important things to talk over before they litsen to the President.
 A majority of the Brotherhood's e60,000 members are truckers, and they are genuinely concerned about the shortage of heavy duty truck tires and repair parts, Also, they arc concerned about the 36.nnile speed limit on ss-country trucks, which cuts down the earnings Of their members who are paid on o mileage basis. All these things affect the jobs and working conditions of the union members. To explain these situations and make sure that all the locals understood the present and postwar economic situations with regard to the trucking induS- try the Teamsters' executive coun- oil, meeting in Chicago 0 couple of weeks ago, decided 1t would be nec- essary to call in representatives from each union and spell the thing out. Washington, where government rubber, parts manufacturing and transportation regulations are written was c logical place for the meeting. The dinner and the Pres- ident's speech were of course just afterthoughts.
 UNION VOTE
 ALREADY DECIDED
 Nor should this session be con- fused with the national convention of the Teanisters. The Brotherhood holds Q convention only once every i've years. Next one Is scheduled for Los Angeles in the Fall of le45. If transportation and hotel situations are still tight, the convention may have to be postponed. That's an- other thing the coming Washington meeting will consider.
 Knowing all these facts, any evil- minded scoffrs who might be prone to blow of that Roosevelt's speech before the Teamster is just Q Dem- ocratic party bid for A. F, of L. support, will have the wind knocked out of his pufiing cheeks.
 This hasn't got anything to do with that" says blue-eyed Dave Beck. "It's my personal opinion that 90 per cent of the A. F. of L. union members are going to vote for Roosevelt anyhow whether he speaks before the Teamsters' dinner or not"