LABOR: The Big Three

Once upon a time there were three ambitious men in the United Mine Workers. John L. Lewis kicked out William Green, and then there were two. John L. Lewis had a falling out with Philip Murray and then there was one.

As the years passed, and the A.F.L.’s Green, the C.I.O.’s Murray and the miners’ Lewis became the Big Three of U.S. labor, John L. Lewis never hesitated a second when he had a chance to chuck a cast-iron insult at his former brothers-in-labor. Samples: “I have explored the head of William Green and, believe me, there is nothing there”; “a pusillanimous little man who sees ghosts at night”; “the A.F.L. has no head—its neck just grew up and haired over.” Furthermore, rumbled old John L., Philip Murray was “innocuous, feeble and namby-pamby,” and guilty of “cringing toadyism.” For his part, Philip Murray thought (and said only last week) that Green was “an old Fally-doodle.”

Soft & Low. This unremitting little mountain warfare was disturbed last week by a new voice from White Sulphur Springs, W.Va. It was soft and low, but it was the voice of John L. Lewis. He had a message for “the able Mr. Green.” Making no mention of his own many troubles (his 385,000 striking coal diggers are making little headway), John L. proposed that the A.F.L. join with him to help Phil Murray’s C.I.O. fight against “the giant adversaries which would decimate one by one the major units of organized labor.”

To seal the grand alliance, Lewis proposed, the U.M.W. and nine affiliates of the A.F.L. should chip in $250,000 a week each to help Murray’s 480,000 striking United Steelworkers ward off “a vast and barbaric attack” on their union.

“Impossible.” Murray, deep in trouble, learned about Lewis’ offer from newsmen and reacted to it with the air of a man who will believe it when he sees the color of Lewis’ money. Aware of Lewis’ insinuation that the Steelworkers could not fend for themselves, he said: “The United Steelworkers of America and [the C.I.O] stand prepared … to pool their resources for the common defense and general welfare of the labor movement.” The Steelworkers are aware that the U.M.W. is itself engaged in a “mighty struggle,” Murray added pointedly, and they might well have use for such a defense fund themselves. Cautious Bill Green brushed off John L. Lewis’ sweet-smelling offer as “impossible and impracticable.”

As for the mineworkers whose own welfare and retirement fund was now shut off a few had their own ideas about a defense fund. “We believe a kitty should be raised to alleviate poverty in the mining fields first,” said a 500-member Pennsylvania local of the U.M.W. in a telegram to Lewis. “. . . Charity begins at home.”