Evening star., 1951-03-11
American Attuche in Rome
Wins Red Enn1ity, Lobor's Praise
Tom Lone Landed in
ItoIy to Conquer,
Stayed to Help
By John P. Leococos
North American Newspaper Alliance

North American Newspaper Alliance
ROME. March 10.-That strap
ping hunk of the ould sod, Thomas
A. Lane, 53-year -old labor attache
of the United States embassy here,
set his Irish face hard as granite
and said:
'Pouf!"
The "pouf!" was for some shen-
anigan or other of Italy's Com
munists. Tom admits it's a pretty
. puny word for brawny herman
to use. Especially if. like him, he's
former bricklayer, a reserve
Army colonel and a fellow whose
folks came from County Limerick
to Washington way before the
Civil War.
But that's all the Reds deserve,
Tom thinks, whether they're acting
tough or. as right now, trying to
sweet-talk free Italian labor into
letting its guard down. And if any,
body should know about Com
munitsts, it's Tom Lane. He's no
theorist deducing global strategy
from Marx and Lenin-he's been
learning the hard way in the front
lines.
Mr.. Lane, to state a fact, has
been one-man political army in
Italy since 1943 when. toting a
tommy gun, he landed with the
8th Army at Salerno' Tom was
a major factor in helping swing
the crucial 1948 Italian elections
against the Communists. He was
the sparkplug behind creation of
the non-Red labor movement here.
Hired Labor officials.
This correspondent has been
sitting on the story of Tom Lane
nearly three years now. Written
earlier, it would have blasted his
name daily from Radio Moscow.
AS of today, Tom is sort of "un-
covered" he wryly admits. The
tip-off came naturally from
''Unita," Communist press mouth
piece in Italy.
1t was like this. Tom knows
practically every labor official in
Italy by his first name. He hired
them all from the toe to the top of
the boot when he was charged
with civilian labor affairs during
the war as he moved from town to
town with the troops. Among
those who used to work for him
were half a dozen men who, since
then have become cabinet minis
ters in Italian governments.
But also among the hired help
were Commies. He relped many a
Red with bread and pasta, and
milk and shoes for his babies.
The investment paid off. Later,
when things began to. get rather
strained, Comm unists who
wouldn't be seen dead with an
American would talk gladly to
Tom. The rank and file knew
Tom had labor in his heart. Even
Reds .affectionately called him
"Zio Tom" or Uncle Tom.
Compared to Nazi Colonel.
Not now, however. "Unita" dubs
him "Gualeiter Lane" It COM
pares him with a particularly ven
omous Nazi Gestapo colonel in
Naples before the Allies moved in.
But until the Communist high
command thus publicly stigma
tized Mr.. Lane and warned the
comrades. Tom didn't do so badly.
He used to walk openly into the
General Confederation of Labor
(CGH, the mass labor organiza-
ton controlled by Communists. He
learned a lot of things that helped.
In those nip-and-tuck days he
could smell mischief a mile off
He'd then retreat and figure out
ways to give the Reds hotfoot
they didn't expect.
When strikes called by the Reds
to sow political confusion sizzled
in touchy areas. Tom was on hand.
Smoothing things out. Talking
union issues - not politics like
one bricklayer to another brick
layer. Stepping on the right toes
when he had to. Leading the
timid by the hand. Italians never
saw anything like it. They
loved it.
When it was some big labor
powwow about to break up into
a thousand splinters over operate
Italian politics. Tom sat calmly
looking on. Leaders of every fac
tion would rush to shake his
hand, and ask: What should
we do?"
His Tactics Work.
Tom just rocked back and forth
on his heels and grin. Finally,
he'd say in his best Irish Italian:
Wall, Giuseppe, .how much
bread and butter are you goin to
get out of it?"
1t worked. Now there's big,
free trade union movement in
Italy, the CSIL. It sticks to rails
ing wages as we'll as hell with the
Reds.
This development has not been
entirely satisfactory to certain
labor circles in the United States
apparently. Toms been accused
of taking the Communist
labor groups out of the Red-led
CGIL too soon" instead of "en
masse at proper later time"
An Old operator for the AFL
lobby in Congress before the war,
Tom is an expert on silences. He