The Man Who Has Done More
To Build Up Labor And Tear It
Down Than Any Man In America
WASHINGTON-John L. Lew
is was two years old when his
family in Lucas, Iowa, particip
ated in a labor strike. He was
seven years old when he left
~ school to work with his father in
the mines. He was 21 years old
when he left home to roam thru
the mining areas of the Far West
and later to become a tough
union organizer.
Fabulous stories were told
about him even at that time: that
he ate three raw'beefsteaks, that
he had once felled a mine mule
with a blow of his fist, that he
pounded on the desks until trem
bling state legislatures passed the
labor laws he demanded.
In the mythology was a cer
tain core of truth. John L. Lewis
got what he wanted by letting
no man stand in his way, and lie
gloried in that reputation.
Furthermore, he was fighting
mine owners who were just as
tough as he, and frequently more
juthless; men who were culling
the cream Of the country's coal
Without regard to the future:
men who would rather see en
tire cities cave in than spend
money on mine props; men who
made the green hills of Pennsyl
vania and West Virginia dreary
and desolate with piles of black
waste.
It took a tough man to fight
for the miners in those days and
John L. Lewis was equal to it.
He lifted the wage level in an
industry which desperately need
ed lifting, and the miners have
been forever grateful.
ROOSEVELT SAVED LEWIS
In 1933, however, John Lewis
was very near the brink. The
depression had closed mine after
mine. Almost half his miners
were out of work. Non-union
miners had taken over great
areas. And his treasury was al
most flat.
The story of how Roosevelt sav
ed him, and adopted a liberal
labor progTam, is too well known
to need retelling here. And with
that new surge of power, John
L.’s o’d egoism soared to fuller
and greater heights. He was cru
sading for labor, it was true; but
it was a personalized crusade
which was wrapped up in the
glorification of one man.
The fact that John L. bought
out the University Club in Wash
ington and transformed it into a
wood-panelled sanctum as ornate
as any big business office along
Wall Street was relatively unim
portant. It indicated however, his
personalized rule over the min
ers. The .United Mine Workers
always had been a one man ma
chine but now John L. reached
out and built up the CIO. And
the CIO became a one man ma
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35o a Box
Lehmann’s
chine.
For instance, when Carl Hold
erman, head of the New Jersey
CIO, filed a suspected Commun
ist. the latter came to Washing
ton and got a job from John L.
Lewis's CIO headquarters, which
prompt’y assigned him right
back to New Jersey as an organ
zer where he could embarrass
Holderman.
The miners liked to think of
their chief as sitting in a huge
office and riding in a limousine
as long as any mine owner’s; but
many times during recent years
they have sat in the outer office
holding their hats, while "Their
John" spent his time negotiating
strikes in CIO unions which had
no relation whatsoever to the
Mine Workers.
LEWIS’S CIO EMPIRE
Thus is one thing the miners
have not liked. However, they
have not known much about it.
They have not known in any de
tail, for instance, that "Their
John" has used miners’ funds to
organize other unions. Probably
they did not know that he financ
ed a man to operate inside the
Newspaper Guild, a union far re
moved from the coal industry.
This was now John L. continu
ed his great personalized power.
He maintains it also by playing
close to his district coal leaders.
They eat out of his hand. And
he feeds them well.
Not many miners knew it, hut
shortly before the present strike
was called, Lewis summoned his
district presidents and gave them
an unexpected and handsome
boost in salary, from $6,000 to
$10,000 a year. With the boost,
Lewis warned that he would ex
pect them to collect the increased
dues and see that the men stood
behind the expected strike in the
captive mines.
These district presidents are
the men who keep the miners in.
line locally, and operate Lewis’s
personal machine. And with lush
pap fed from the hand of their
master, they seldom fail to do
his bidding.
John L. has other means of
keeping his glorified ego in the
driver's seat. One is elections.
When it is announced to the
press that the miners have voted
to stand behind John L. Lewis,
it does not necessarily mean that
the great mass of miners have
voted. It usually means that a
little group of hand-picked Lewis
ites at the top have carried out.
orders.
Elections in the United States
of America have come to be a
sacred mandate, jealously guard
ed. Even inside big corporations
today there is supervision of el
ections. Many state laws require
that when a corporation votes on
an important issue affecting the
public, not merely a majority,
but two-thirds of the stock
holders must approve.
NO INSPECTION OF BOOKS
But the voting of John E.
Lewis's powerful organization is
above '•late or federal regulation.
There b no public supervision to
fee ho ,v the vote is taken.
Likewise theie is no outside
supervision of John L. Lewis's
books. The bonks of Sidney Hill
man of the Amalgamated Cloth
ing Workers, or of David Dubin
sky's International Ladies Gar
ment Workers, are subject to in
spection. Every telegram and
stamp is accounted for. But no
outsider, except his immediate
friends and family, can tell for
what strikes John L. spends the
United Mine Workers' money.
Today, the head of every big
insurance company is subject to
state and government regulation.
So arc the banks. They are semi
public institutions. The funds
and fate of many people are in
volved. The Unions also are great
public institutions. John L.
Lewis has at his command an
army thrie times the norma!
peace time army of the United
States. The U. S. army is sub
jected to the strictest supervision
from the War Department. Ev
erything it does, every cent it
spends is checked and double
checked not only by trained pub
lic servants, but by both houses
of Congress.
But John L. Lewis has a pri
vate army of his own, subject
only to his command and drill
ed by the little group of district
presidents whose salaries he so
conveniently raised.
The Congress of the United
States is s ubject to re-election
every two and six years. The
President can be turned out ev
ery four years. But John L.
Lewis has been in office around
twenty years, and no miners’
group has had the power to oust
him.
In other words, the CIO Czar,
who calls Roosevelt a dictator,
himself has dictatorial powers
which no other one man in this
country can equal. He has the
power to stall national defense.
He has the power to play into
the hands of Hitler. And most
tragic of all he has the power to
crucify the patriotism and pro
gress of the workingmen whose
champion he is supposed to be.
As a result., all of the labor
gains made under Roosevelt may
now vanish on the wave of Lew
is’s recalcitrance.
—The Washington-Merry-Round
by Drew Pearson and Robert S.
Allen.
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Fresh Buttermilk at Polet’s
Four-room house, well insulat
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water, new range, and partially
furnished. See Geo. Hite or Dave
Livingstone at Miners & Mer
chants Bank.
Delicious, Fresh, Quick
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35< a Box
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kINLOCH N. NEILL
Certified Public Accountant
202 Lavery Building Fairbanks, Alaska
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‘"lie Advertised'’
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Fresh Buttermilk at Polet’s
Notice of Hearing and
Settlement of Final Account
No. 268
In the Probate Court for the
Cape Nome Precinct, Second
Division, Territory of Alaska.
In the matter of the Estate of
FRED LARSEN, Deceased.
Notice is hereby given to
I whom it may concern:
i That the undersigned adminis
trator of the estate of Fred Lar-|
sen, deceased, has filed in the
] above entitled Court his final ac-l
i count and that the 30th day of
| January 1942 at the hour of 11 j
lam. of said date at the courtj
J room of said Court at Nome, Al-j
aska, has been fixed by the order]
of said Court, as the time and
place for the hearing of said final
account and objections thereto
and the settlement thereof and
that at said time and place the
Court will adjudicate and deter
mine who are the heirs and dis
tributees of said deceased.
Dated this 28th day of Novem
ber, 1941.
Peter E. Larsen,
Administrator of the Es
tate of Fred Larsen, deceased.
Publish Nov. 28, Dec. 5, 12, 19
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