Madam Queen Up

Her Majesty, Mary the Good of England, has many queenly prerogatives, one of which is to wear hats of a famed pattern. Secretary Frances Perkins of the Department of Labor, nicknamed in Washington "Madam Queen," also has many prerogatives. One of them, to wear tricorn hats, she has exercised for many a year. Another, to conciliate labor disputes, she has had since taking office but has not notably exercised. In the crowd of angry disputants in the automobile labor trouble, the Weirton Steel case, the Budd body strike, the Alabama miners' walkout, the Manhattan taxicab strike and many another, one might see the panama of NRA's General Johnson, the grey fedoras of the National Labor Board's Senator Wagner and Edward F. McGrady, Assistant Secretary of Labor--but seldom "Madam Queen's" tricorn.

Last week, however. General Johnson's rough handling of the steel union leaders had won him so many enemies that he was all but useless as a mediator. Labor had even turned against its oldtime friend McGrady. And the passage of the new labor disputes law (TIME, June 25) authorizing the President to set up impartial labor boards automatically put Senator Wagner out of the picture.* After seeing the President sign the new measure, he cheerfully remarked: "Now I can return to my Senatorial duties and play a little golf."

Those who went to Washington on Labor questions last week went to see "Madam Queen." Her prestige had grown while others' had shrunk. She received President Green of the A. F. of L. and President Mike Tighe of the steel workers with their proposals for settling steel's labor troubles. She took the plan to the White House, explained it to the President, stood by while he interviewed the union men. To leave no doubt of her new importance the President issued a formal announcement: "I have referred the proposal to the Secretary of Labor for careful study and to undertake any negotiations that seem advisable. The Secretary is fully empowered to represent me in taking whatever action seems advisable under the circumstances. . . ." Then Mr. Roosevelt departed gaily for the crew races at New London. When appealed to there by Governor Merriam of California for settlement of the Pacific Coast longshoremen's strike (TIME, June 25), he promptly wired back that Miss Perkins was in charge. She was. She had already telegraphed San Francisco a proposal to mediate the only issue still in dispute. Meantime she had also telephoned to the heads of the Iron & Steel Institute the union's peace proposals. Big question still at issue was whether the union should, as it demanded, have the right to represent all steel workers in a plant where a majority voted for union representation. Sooner or later it was evident that Miss Perkins was going to sit down with the steelmasters of the U. S.--Grace of Bethlehem, Taylor of U. S. Steel, Weir of Weirton, Girdler of Republic--and try her prowess as a labor peacemaker. Although a secret ballot of U. S. Steel's employes last week showed, according to Iron Age, that 95% of the company's employes opposed a strike, the bloodiness of all past steel strikes made the threat of such a walk-out still one of the most grievous prospects for the Administration. On "Madam Queen's" shoulders rested the queen's-size task of ending it.

* the Constitution a Senator or Representative cannot hold a second Federal job which he in Congress helped to create.

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