The Inside Story on CIO and the Labor Draft
The Inside Story on CIO and the Labor Draft From the New Leader Wa$hington Bureau. WASHINGTON, D. C—The communist "party line" has a way of leading even the most tolerant.and/or naive to the end...
...Only the communists and the National Association of Manufacturers take the view that winning the war requires labor dumbly to submit to every suppression of its rights, every undermining of the position it has achieved through years of toil, and every indignity that a tory reaction can invent or promote under the cloak of "winning the war...
...At that point Murray exploded...
...Effort* by the communists to acquire stock in the Chicago Defender and the Afro-American, two more leading Negro weeklies, have been rebuffed...
...When Murray left the White House he promptly called a special meeting of the CIO executive board...
...They already have acquired financial interests in two of the oldest Jewish dailies in America, and in two old established Negro weeklies...
...The next day, Phil Murray and AFL President William Green saw the President...
...The draft was a faithful reflection of the communist "party line...
...Roosevelt said yes...
...The chronology of the conflict picks up the day President Roosevelt advocated a labor draft act in his message to the Congress last month...
...Roosevelt said no...
...Murray Indignantly rejected it...
...At that meeting last week, Murray devoted five Hours to jumping all over Bridges, Curran, Quill and the other communist* present, all of whom had endorsed Roosevelt's pies for a. labor draft act, for violating the CIO national convention decision against a labor draft...
...As was reported in tho columns of The New Leader at the time, faced with the President's decision to ride with *o tory- wave, the CIO felt the greatest bitterness Precisely because in that quarter was felt the greatest disillusionment...
...After the executive board meeting, Len DeCaux, Stalinist publicity director for the CIO, attempted to ¦often the castigation of Bridge* by Murray by explaining that Bridges had been "misquoted" by the pre...
...The reaction in the national CIO office was violently explosive...
...The inside story is that the communist "parfy line" has faced Murray with »n internal conflict of interest within the CIO...
...But Bridges, queried by newspapermen, upset DeCaux's alibi for him by denying that he had been misquoted...
...Pretty thoroughly nettled by this time, Murray asked the President: "Do you expect to get a realiatic tax program...
...In the past few weeks, the differences in these positions has led Murray into serious conflict with both tho President and the communists...
...But the suave and slick Pressman succeeded in having the CIO statement come out as a page-long genuflection to the President's tory position on a labor draft before the reader came to the last sentence—and that p-eiterated Murray's insistence on carrying out the deeision of the CIO national convention in opposition to a labor draft...
...Now CIO President Philip Murray—who, God knows, is an eternally patient man—appears to be within view of that end...
...Newspaper circles are watching with keen interest the activities of the American communist* in buying financial interest* in established journals of the Jewish and Negro press...
...This, Murray shares in common with all honest labor leaders...
...Roosevelt said yes...
...In that case," persisted Murray, "would you sign a national service bill anyway, if Congress passed it...
...WASHINGTON, D. C—The communist "party line" has a way of leading even the most tolerant.and/or naive to the end of their rope of patience...
...Pressman, however, was able to prevail on the ever-patient Murray to tone down his indignation...
...In the final compromise, Pressman included Murray's phrase referring to a labor draft *» "quack medicine"—a direct barb at the President's •elf-description at "Dr...
...In common with all bona fide leaders of American labor, Murray yields plate to none in his heartfelt desire to make all necessary sacrifice in the interest of winning the war...
...Win-the-War...
...But the pattern of tho building up of a disguised communist propaganda machine is already apparent to insider...
...The latter complained of labor's opposition on ths labor draft and of Murray's reference to it as "quack medicine...
...Do you expect to get a good aubsidy program T" Roosevelt said no...
...Roosevelt'* reply was to tell Murray scornfully that he could not speak for the CIO on that view . . . and in proof showed Murray a telegram from Harry Bridges endorsing a labor conscription act...
...Pressman's hopeful idea of burying that sentence, however, did not fool the proas, which ignored all the "party lino" phrases which preceded the punch* line sentence and featured the last lino of the statement: "CIO opposes President on labor draft...
...But he finds it impossible to ignore the many years of his training as a trades unionist, or to dismiss the basic proposition that the first duty of a labor union is to protect the interests of its members...
...He told Roosevelt he would go up and down the country apeaking in opposition to hi* plan...
...The first draft of the CIO reply to the President's, proposal was drawn by Lee Pressman, CIO general counsel, for Murray's signature...
...Suppose," continued Murray, "Congress were to pass s severe Smith snti-strike bill instead of a national service bill, would you sign that...
Vol. 27 • February 1944 • No. 6
