Peacemakers

Historic hates in Labor are Matthew Woll's for John L. Lewis, Thomas A. Rickert's for Sidney Hillman. Tiny Mr. Woll (5 ft. 2 in.) thinks he would be president of A. F. of L. today instead of its third and smallest vice president if John Lewis had played ball in 1924 (when Founder Sam Gompers died). Tom Rickert thinks he would be high man in the men's apparel industry if Sidney Hillman had not seceded in 1914 from Mr. Rickert's United Garment Workers and eclipsed it with the Amalgamated Clothing Workers.

Neatest irony of last week was the appointment of these ancient enemies as negotiators to make peace between A. F. of L. and C. I. O. William Green named Messrs. Woll, Rickert and Bricklayer Harry Bates to the committee which at Franklin Roosevelt's behest will seek "peace with honor" with C. I. 0. (TIME, March 6). John Lewis matched them with a C. I. 0. committee consisting of himself, Sidney Hillman, Philip Murray (steel).

The A. F. of L. executive council, which undoubtedly had a hand in Mr. Green's selections, did not at first stack its peace committee so obviously against peace. Originally chosen to serve with Messrs. Woll and Bates was Teamster Dan Tobin, one of the few Federation councilmen and vice presidents who would not insist on dismembering C. I. 0. before making peace with it. As one of Franklin Roosevelt's few supporters on the council, Dan Tobin last year roundly berated his colleagues for shelving a peace message from the President to A. F. of L.'s 58th convention (TIME, Oct. 17). In consenting last fortnight to renew negotiations, William Green restated that A. F. of L. cannot and will not concede anything in the interest of peace. Having taken time to digest this warlike statement, Teamster Tobin announced that the pressure of his own union's business made it "absolutely and utterly impossible" for him to serve. In that way Mr. Tobin put himself in the position of a Federationist to whom Franklin Roosevelt might eventually turn for a peacemaker when the negotiators who are ancient enemies get nowhere.

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