Detroit evening times., 1945-11-15
BEHIND
The NEWS
By Paul
T MaIIon

you saw il out front.
And better than that was the
rccaSting the President did of
the principal roles.
You may have read here be-
forchand that John l.. Lewis,
who is not only a living Ham
let but inspired the play which
union labor has enacted the last
few years (sit-down strike, or
canization of CIO). was sched-
uled 10 carry spear
lie has been limited 10 one
vote and no representation on
committees.
But when the curtain went
up. there was Mr.. Lewis, prac-
tically in center stage, less talk
ative than usual and without a
spotlight on him, yet visibly the
unannounced star.
In fact, the assigned roles
were openly revised and the
executive committee enlarged
TO give him full representation.
A FEW days before Mr., Tru-
~ man had called Lewis in TO
the White House. II was not
only the first time Lewis had
seen the inside of that august
edifice for years; it had been
years since he had even seen
Truman.
They had met when Truman
was investigating war contracts
as a senator.
Lewis came in with other
union leaders, but remained be-
hind for a private unreported
talk.
He expressed sincere per-
sonal interest in success for the
conference. made clear his be-
lief il was time to get to collec-
tive bargaining Gin contradls-
tinction to all this nonsense OF
strikes, arguments, politics and
Chaos) and said he was ready
to cooperate.
This was a bonanza for Tru-
man, in the theatrical termlnol-
ogy of the day.
The conference was be n 6
publicly foredoomed,
The dominant pow was
Hillman and his ClO.
II was he who took the inltia-
tive in handing Lewis the spear
role.
His tactics are fW avs 10
fight, fight, fl e h I 49, especially
when the tim has come to
make peace.
Recrimination or selfish po-
litiCal advantage always seem
10 be guiding stars he cannot
get away from-and these prac-
tically exclude the barest pos
sibility of peace.
7 EWIS took hold. The first
IL thing, with AFL's Bill Green
standing by his 81 d Q, Green
could never handle Hlllmanl,
Lewis turned his bullet eyes,
camouflaged under karloff eye
brows upon the follower OF Mars
and said matters would be ham
died thus and so. They prac-
tically were.
The chances for final, con-
vincing peace are hazardous, ot
course, but this is the way the
stage was happily reset to inn
prove them at the last minute.
The first two days were steam
vented with speechmaking and
then the opposing factions went
off the front pa geS and into
committee meetings to do the
real business.
My information is that the
agreed goals were two:
adopt a set of new, strong
principles under which labor and
and management can live.
b-To set up new machinery
for collective bargaining.
THE principles should not
Il prove excessively difficult.
The machinery is the important
thing. The NLRB and WLB
have been farces which no one
wants TO play longer, except
the Hillman-Murray combina-
tion which is the only one that
got much out of il for itS"h y
The idea of new labor boa,
more honest. more judicial
(creating a refuge where both
sides can 60 TO get justice in-
stead Of political or high pres
sure settlements) is one solu-
tion which seems obvious to
me.
The railway mediation board
is a pattern. which has pre-
vented general strikes in that
industry for nearly 20 years.
1t was forced back then
when lust such A situation as
now controls labor nationally
was evident in that one indus
try.
Railway management and la
Dor got together and wrote a
law, providing cooling of pc
riodS before strikes and just
mediation.
THIS cannot be done. how
L ever, for every union in
the country say those who are
intimate experts with an OBJ
iective inner view of the prob
lem
They think such a board or
boards would be smothered
with cases from every drug
store or laundry. The machin-
cry. they assert. would he too
cumbersome. The Job Of fact
a. - a