National Affairs: Tweedledum Y. Tweedledee

The A.F.L. and C.I.O. bumped heads again in runoff elections at the Oak Ridge, Tenn. atomic-energy plants. Both were left groggy; the collision settled little in their scrap to organize Southern labor.

At the biggest plant, Tennessee Eastman, a majority of the workmen voted for no union at all. At the smallest, Monsanto Chemical Co., the A.F.L. came out on top. At the Carbide & Carbon Chemicals factory, where the C.I.O. had trailed the A.F.L. in the first election, it now won by a molecule (25 votes out of 3,811 cast).

The switch at Carbide & Carbon was a minor triumph for the C.I.O. As a last-minute campaign tactic it had accused the A.F.L. of scheming to put Oak Ridge workers into the corrupt and autocratic Hod Carriers Union. An A.F.L. suit for criminal libel was too late to stop the damage. Summed up Southern A.F.L. Representative George Googe: “Chaos for another year.”