A. F. of L.'s 54th

As a rule, the annual convention of the American Federation of Labor is about as exciting as the annual convention of the American Bankers Association or the American Bar Association, than which there are no duller. Such was not the case, however, as the spokesmen for U. S. Labor gathered in strike-scarred San Francisco last week for their 54th meeting. Significantly, an earthquake jolted the Civic Auditorium before the preliminary 48 hours of speechmaking could be concluded. And as the week wore on, it was manifest that temblors of a different sort were agitating Labor.

On such basic propositions as the 30-hour work week, unemployment insurance, old age pensions, hard money and democratic government, the 450 delegates were in harmonious agreement. First friction developed when delegates from the bricklayers, carpenters and electrical workers unions, which seceded from the Building Trades Department seven years ago over jurisdictional disagreements, sought reinstatement. Spade-nosed President William Green, who supported the secessionists, was considerably discomfited when the Building Trades Department handed him a rare rebuff, refused to reinstate. Another issue which promised to send fur flying when brought on the floor this week was the growing sentiment in favor of vertical v. horizontal unionism.* Since their organization is based on the craft union, old A. F. of L. heads like President Green have long opposed industrial unionization. This year, backed by the Massachusetts and Pennsylvania Federations and the hat & millinery workers, the question cannot be shelved for study as it was at the Washington convention in 1933 (TIME, Oct. 16).

But what put the A. F. of L. meeting into a unique fighting mood was not the friction of internal discord. It was an angry feeling that Labor was not getting the treatment from its Government which it expected. On the whole Labor was better off than it was two years ago. It did not feel it was as well off as it was last year, before the disillusioning discovery of NRA's shortcomings goaded Labor to its series of costly, unpopular strikes.

Company Unions, at past A. F. of L. conventions, had been liberally berated as scab-breeding, strikebreaking competitors. With a savage slash, the Federation was now out to wipe the company union off the industrial map by demanding that the Government outlaw all such organizations. Applauded to the rafters was a resolution to this effect introduced by the Wisconsin Federation. Case in point was the election of labor representatives conducted by the Labor Relations Board at the Kohler ("of Kohler") plant week before. The company union had won the election 1,063-to-643. In the outraged eyes of the Wisconsin Federation, the Labor Relations Board had violated NRA's section 7a when it "gave the illegally begotten company union recognition equal to that rightfully bestowed on Federal Labor Union 18,545." In future, said the resolution, A. F. of L. would be justified in refusing to participate in "such unwarranted elections."

Villains. In the same truculent mood, the convention selected a trio of villains to vent its wrath upon.

Villain No. 1 was Samuel Clay Williams, chairman of the new National Industrial Relations Board. Delegate I. M. Ornburn of the Cigar Makers International Union charged that when he was chairman of R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., as well as head of the cigaret code authority. Mr. Williams had used his NRA prestige to delay the code's enactment, to lower the code wage level and to frame the code so that it "deprived the President of the United States of the mandatory power contained in other codes." On this score a resolution was presented asking the President to "reconsider" Mr. Williams' appointment to the I. R. B.

Villain No. 2 was Attorney General Cummings, who, according to .the bellicose Wisconsin Federation, had given organized Labor "the shabbiest treatment accorded to any set of people in recent years." Mr. Cummings was flayed for failing to prosecute NRA violators. "Only a single injunction suit has been brought by Mr. Cummings." said Judge Padway, "involving the Weirton case, and this one has been so badly bungled that it should never have been started."

Villain No. 3, singled out by President Green himself, was that famed friend of Labor, Director Donald Randall Richberg of NRA's new Industrial Emergency Committee. Mr. Green was angry with Mr. Richberg because Mr. Richberg had just announced in Washington that employers would be allowed to bargain collectively with individuals and minority groups among their workers.

Truce. Temporarily, at least, Labor was even inclined to regard Franklin Roosevelt himself with anxiety. Well did the President know that the dockets of lower courts throughout the land were sagging with NRA violation cases, that work was being bootlegged in the U. S. on a scale comparable with whiskey during Prohibition.** For this and other reasons he was unable to agree that A. F. of L.'s 30-hr, week, for which there was growing Congressional sentiment, was operable.

Even the President's fireside "truce" proposal, which sounded straight forward enough as it came out of loudspeakers, began to take on a tenuous air as White House interpreters got to work on it. Emerging from a conference with President Roosevelt, Madam Secretary of Labor Perkins explained that during the "trial period" Labor would not be asked to foreswear the strike. Secretary Stephen Early made it known that employers would still be free to invoke the lockout, and decision to submit their troubles to arbitration or mediation would have to come voluntarily from each side.

With Labor in a pettish temper, the President sped Secretary Perkins off to San Francisco to address the convention. Her audience was friendly but far from enthusiastic when she keynoted: "We cannot expect the Roosevelt Administration or any other Administration to give us the millennium on a silver platter."

Meantime, on the other side of the continent, the National Association of Manufacturers put on its most polished duelling-ground manners, proposed that the Wartime industrial peace agreement be revived, "challenged" the A. F. of L. "to bring forth a similar acceptance." Viewing the proposition with the deepest suspicion, President Green branded the proposal a "subterfuge," snapped: "Let them first publicly announce that they will obey the decisions of constituted authorities as the President suggested. . . . They can issue no challenge to Labor--they can make no protests!"

Nevertheless, the embattled United Textile Workers offered to haul up the cease-firing signal for the next six months-- with the proviso that it would continue organization work within the industry.

*A vertical union is a union which embraces all crafts within a given industry. A horizontal union comprises all the members of a given craft employed in different industries.

**A bright spot in NRA's code enforcement week was the case of 4,700 New York Chinese hand laundrymen. Since few of them read English, they were surprised to learn that they were expected to comply with NRA's minimum wage and hour provisions: $6.82 for a 20-hr. week. $12.40 for a 39-hr, week. Most important wage basis in a Chinese laundry is the liberal meal of rice, chop suey and tea served at noon, much relished by the industry's Negro employes. After 15 leading launderers had been summoned for wage violation, Louis Wing, president of Wing Moisture Blower Co. and a power in the Chinese Laundry Alliance, pledged the local NRA enforcement officer that the laundrymen would henceforth keep their books in English, hang their codes upside up in a conspicuous place, pay NRA wages.

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