Evening star., 1944-12-18
Stote Department
Fight Laid to CIO
President Failed to Confer With
Hillman, Says Writer
By David Laurence

behind the peculiar controversy that has
arisen in the Senate over the confirma-
ton Of six Assistant Secretaries of
State. Just why are Senators who have
been among the staunchest of President
Roosevelt's supporters engaging in a
campaign to sabotage all the nornina-
tions even though they really favor con-
firmation Of Archibald MacLeish?
Various answers are heard on Capitol
Hill but the most plausible is that Presi-
dent Roosevelt committed the cardinal
error Of not Clearing everything with
Sidney" The nominations were decided
on by Mr.. Roosevelt while Sidney Hill
man was in London on q labor mission.
without waiting for his return, the left
wing started to organize behind the
scenes. Certain Senators who are high
up in the CIO-PAC councils went to bat.
The Republicans were dumfounded.
They couldn't understand It, But grad
ually they learned that the CIO-PAC Is
really feeling its oats and that this is
the first of the coming battles to control
the Democratic party and the Roosevelt
policies.
Nothing Personal
There isn't anything personal about
1t. The left wingers concede that Joseph
Grew and William Clayton and James
Dunn and Nelson Rockefeller and Gen.
Holmes are all amiable men and con-
scientious but they simply aren't left
wingers. And in making State Depart
ment policy the CIO-PAC wants men
who are sympathetic with left-wing
ideologies not only in the United States
but in Europe especially as these cleav-
ages have been emphasized ever since
the Spanish civil war, the controversy in
Italy over the Badogaio government and
later the Bonomi regime and now over
the left-wing aspirations in Greece.
Observers who have thought of the
CIO-PAC as labor organization inter-
ested solely in electng men to Congress
who are friendly to labor are mistaken.
That's an incidental objective and in
some cases wholly ignored. Thus in
Pennsylvania, Senator James Davis, Re
publican, had the best labor record of
any man in Congress. He voted for
everything labor ever asked for and yet
the CIO-PAC defeated him because they
didn't like his views on foreign policy.
The conspiracy to beat all six nomina-
tions for Assistant Secretary of State
rather than make q fight on the fivs
they oppose was apparently decided
upon by the strategists for the cIO-PAC.
They have been willing to sacrifice
MacLeish, whom they like because he
is left winger, in order to confuse the
issue and maybe get Republican support
for a move to send all six nominations
back to the President.
Senator Tom Connally, who is leading
the administrations battle to confirm
the nominations, has succeeded in get
ting the name of Joseph Grew before
the Senate for individual action. A
motion to send all six back to the White
House cannot be voted on ahead of the
Grew nomination which, II allowed to
come to vote separately, would be con-
firmed by substantial majority. So
hlibuster was planned last week in order
to compel first a vote on the "all-six'
rejection idea.
Clark Changes Stand.
Originally, Senator Clark, Democrat,
Of Missouri had been expected to lead
the filibuster but over the week END he
learned of the conspiracy and notified
Senator Connally he wouldn't be party
to it and would vote for all six, includ-
ing MacLeish whom he had previously
opposed. This is understandable because
he was opposed by the CIO for renom-
nation.
Also, Chairman Hannegan of the
Democratic National Committee comes
from Missouri and it Is understood Mr.
Hannegan Is not little displeased with
the attempt of the Hillman group to
assert its mastery over the Democratic
party in this, the first important con-
troversy after the election affecting the
solidarity of the Democrats in the
Senate.
In the end the Republicans will come
to the rescue of the Democrats because
while they will vote almost unanimously
to support five of the six nominate tions, q
few will vote even for MacLeish, and
this means that on the individual vote
method all six would be confirmed.
The President may well say before the
end of this week: Thank God for the
patriotism of the Republican party in
the Senate" And he also may murmur
to himself: "Why do my allies of the
cIo-PAC forsake me-their friend?"
Reproduction Rights Reserved.)