Evening star., 1945-07-22
BY George Kennedy.

Because he managed to make peace
in the State of Washington between or
ganized workers and organized veterans
(the American Legion after the Gen.
tralia incident, Lewis B. Schwellenbach,
the new Secretary of Labor, believes he
can handle the problem presented by
the current antagonism of the men in
uniform to the men in the labor unions.
I'VE may as well face it, the antago-
nism is there" he said. "Unless 1t Is
solved it is going to be used to the detri-
ment of collective bargaining and Of
the Nation"
He bit off the end of cigar and
puffed at it with rolling -chewing
movement of his mouth as he finished
his breakfast coffee in which he had
been deeply dunking his toast.
THAT cafeteria sends up good food"
he said with primal satisfaction in his
new situation. He was sitting on one
of the IL red leather chairs about the
conference table in his impressively
appointed Office. He was wearing a tan
gabardine sports jacket such as men
wear on fishing trips. The l2-year-old
matriarchy was over. A. male Secretary
had just been installed in the outer
Office and there was q spittoon under
the Secretary of Labor's big desk.
The Male Atmosphere
Labor leaders seem to like the male
atmosphere in the Office. Messrs Green
and Murray have been in on courtesy
calls, and also representative of Re-
publican Bill Hutchinsons carpenters
union, who wrote his boss that the new
Secretary is all right. Mr.. Hutchinson,
who stayed away from the Secretary of
Labor's Office for II years, is expected.
And Sidney Hillman of the PAC has
been in and r. j. Thomas, head of the
CIO United Automobile Workers, Amer
ica's largest union with more than q
million members.
The new Secretary is not shaking
hands with his right yet. 1t has not yet
recovered from glass cuts received in an
automobile accident behind the White
House on his first official call on the
President. But he succeeds in making
a good impression in putting out the
left. He Is a tall man with a large,
long-oyal head His straight brown
hair is parted back from high start
ing place on his brow. His shell-rimmed
spectacles make him look bit on the
serious side, but his boyish chin offsets
this He will be 81 in September.
There is bit of reserve about the
new Secretary of Labor. He answers
questions but does not volunteer much.
On the Strike Front
Asked if he had handled any situa-
tions on the strike front since taking
office, he said:
Under the law all can do is to
sign a paper transferring strike prob
lem from one agency Cancellation
Service) to another (the War Labor
Board. 1t seems kind of silly to sit
here and not be able TO do anything
about it"
One gathers (although he said Moth
ing to that effect that he is going to
ask Congress for powers to do some
thing about it. And the consensus is
that he will get what he asks.
The truth is that the Secretary Of
Labor has little more directly to do with
labor than Henry Agard Wallace across
the. street in the Commerce Department
has to do with business. The Depart
ment Of Commerce has two large Stats
tical organizations, the Bureau of For
eign and Domestic Commerce and the
Bureau OF the Census. 1t also has the
National Bureau of Standards. the
Coast and Geodetic Survey. the Inland
Waterways Corp, the Weather Bu-
reau, the Civil Aeronautics Admins
tration. the Civil Aeronautics Board, the
Patent Office and the National Inyen-
tors Council.
The agencies that deal directly with
business. the Reconstruction Finance
Corp, the War Production Board. the
Once of Price Administration and the
Tariff Commission are independent
agencies.
Similarly the Labor Department has
a large statistical agency, the Bureau of
Labor Statistics. 1t also has the Divi-
sion of Labor Standards, which endeav-
ors to obtain some uniformity in State
labor laws; the Children's Bureau and
the Women's Bureau and two agencies
which directly affect labor, the Concilia-
ton Service, which, although without
disciplinary power, ends many strikes.
and the Wage and Hour Division. The
last reports directly to Congress-,