The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1945-06-27
BY Mauldin


laborite selected hus far is Jo'
seph B. Keenen, secretary of the
council in Chicago.
The reason for Keenan's selection
is fairly obvious. AS a vice chair.
man of the War Manpower Com.
mission, he worked closely wi h
Clay when the latter was deputy
to War Mobil.zer James F. Byrnes.
He sided frequently with Clay in
controversies in which the Clio
was in opposition.
But whether keenan, is equipped
for the delicate assignment he pre-.
sumably is to carry out is quite
another matter. A building trades
unionist of the old school, he knows
little about Germany or the Euro
pean labor movement.
Word came to Phil Murray OF
the CLIO that keenan, was recruit
ing only AFL executives to 60 to
Germany, and he promptly went to
see Maj. Gen. J. H. Hildring, chief
civil affairs officer, to protest. Hill
dring informed Murray that he had
offered position similar to Kee-
mans to one of Murray's closest
associates, Clinton Golden of the
CLIO steelWorkers union.
The two were to serve together
as a sort of joint department Of
labor under Clay in the American
zone. At any rate, that is the i'm
preston Murray got from Hill
dring.
But Golden declined. When he
was asked by Clay to go to Ger.
many, he replied that he was con.
WINGED the Army would run the
whole show in its own way and
that he felt it was futile to GO
in the role of adviser.
Now, however, the CLIO is to NOM
mate its own men to 60 to our zone
in Germany. keenan, has been in
Europe since February. According
to reports here, he wants to return
to America, where a top ALL job
possibly as successor to ailing
John P. Frey of the machinists
union - awaits him. But he has
been prevailed upon by Clay to
stay on.
With keenan, are two other la.
borites, Newman Jeffrey, former.
ly with the United Auto Workers
when Homer Martin was head OF
that union, and James C. McDon.
aid, out of the ALL. These men
have curiously anomalous posi-
ton. They are on the payroll of the
Foreign Economic Administration,
and yet they are assim11ated to
the Army. The year uniforms with
out insignia.
At least one other labor special
list on the FEA payroll is going to
Germany. This is David G. Saposs,
former chief economist of the Ma
tional Labor Relations Board and
later chief economic adviser to
the labor production division of the
war production board. Saposs, who
speaks German, has a bro d
knowledge of world labor move
ments. Charged before House
committee in 1899 with holding
revolutionary views, he was
dropped from the labor board
when the House put in a specific
provision that no part of the
boards appropriation was to 90 to
pay his salary.
In the light of the general fail
ure to fix any workable policy for
Germany, all this may seem I'M
important. Yet it is symphonic
1t is symptomatic, above all, OF
the lack of any agreement among
ourselves on policy for Europe.
Back of this, it seems to me, is
the lack of a general understand
ing of what our national interest
in Europe is. The divisions among
us cut so many different ways.
The AFL-CIO split is in itself SYM.
ptomatic of the factionalism which
divides us, just as it illustrates
the difficulties of working out pol
icy-if we had a policy-in Ger
many.
These differences were obscur-
ed by the war. AS is becoming in
~ r1x, 1xyiI4v,+ with