St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1947-08-08
New York Negro
To Become AL
Vice President

York State Federation of Labor
for the first time in history seems
certain next year, a bitter fight
over who the choice will be is
rocking local colored AFL
circles.
The behind the-scenes story of
the organizations recent annual
in Utica, N. Y, un-
earthed by NNPA, reveals a welter
Of trafficking in labor politics and
race relations crusading which
never became public during the con-
Central figures in the controver-
sy are Thomas G. Young, secretary
Of Local 32B, Building Service
Workers Union, and Charles Col
Inns, vice president, Hotel and Club
Union, two of the col
ored delegates to the convention.
Both are rated highly as possible
choices for the new post. Young,
who is the only colored member on
the Federation's powerful Legisla-
tive Committee, took the floor at
the convention to oppose the word
ing of the resolution which opens
he way for a colored vice president.
The resolution, adopted and now
before the Executive Council for
almost certain favorable action,
provides for increase of the number
If Federation vice presidents from
10 to ID, with the specific condition
that the new vice president be col
pred. Collins was one of the leaders
IF the fight for the measure.
Reports from the convention that
Young's opposition to the wording
IF the measure was based on the
point that it constituted an admis-
sion of past discrimination were
emphatically blasted by Young who
,old NNPA he believed that single
parts Of his argument had been
picked out and circulated in an eff
tort to discredit him.
Much more important in my
mind" he said, us that the resolu-
lion as it is now worded, creates a
Negro vice president on sufferance.
who accepted the post
under such conditions would not be
a real vice president of the Fedora
lion like all the others but more
or less Of a vice president of the
Negroes powerless figurehead."
He would never accept a post on
such terms, he declared.
Collins, openly blasting the oily
Of the State Fedora
ton, asserted that cts time we
mad a Negro vice president" and
strongly backed the resolution as
4 means of making this possible.
The election of a colored vice
president has been an issue at each
for the past five years.
All 10 incumbents have been in Of
ice for years, being reelected regu-
arly, and lack Of a vacancy con-
,istently checked the pro-Negro
lrive until this year when the reso-
ution to create another such post
vas devised.
The resolution. it was learned,
was successfully Unanswered
through the Resolutions Commit
zee but encountered Young's oppO-
,ition to the wording when brought
up for general consideration. After
I was adopted, a number Of in
luential white delegates endorsed
Young's stand on the wording, sew
,ral Of them expressing the opinion
hat Communist elements had given
rigorous support to the measure
'or their own rather than Negroes
interest.
1t was also learned that the Ex-
,cutive Council, the top-policy-
body of the Federation
of the president, all vice
presidents and the secretary-treas-
Irer, had indicated it favored cleo
ion Of a colored vice president but
preferred to have no hand in the
,hoice, and that selection Of the
nominee would probably be left to
1 caucus of the dozen or so col
pred delegates among the 300 to
900 who attend the conventions.
A similar procedure was followed
n 1914 when Young was elected TO
he Legislative Committee. No reso-
ution stipulating the inclusion Of
A colored person on that body was
at that time, however.
The vice presidency of the State
is not a paid position
but carries with it considerable
prestige and influence in molding
the policies Of the organization.