"Well, John?"

Across the front of the United Mine Workers Building in Washington, the morning after election, pranksters hung a huge sign: "RESIGNATION ACCEPTED." In soap letters on the door they scrawled: "Lewis phooey." "The people's choice--Roosevelt."

Aides of John L. Lewis pulled down the sign and erased the lettering. At 9:50 a.m. John Lewis arrived, bull shoulders hunched, and clumped inside. There he fixed waiting newsmen with his scowl. Would Mr. Lewis discuss his promise to resign as C. I. 0. head if Roosevelt were reelected? Labor's most enigmatic leader good-naturedly brushed the question aside.

By week's end he was still mumchance, nor had he resigned.

C. I. O., split by his pre-election denunciation of the President, last week split wider. Powerful, pro-Roosevelt groups, formally and loudly called upon Lewis to make his word good, step down. William Leader, of the C. I. O. hosiery workers, wired: "Well, John. . . . What are you waiting for?"

Other C. I. O. left-wing unions loudly reaffirmed their loyalty to their "great leader." A great leader or a repudiated man, Lewis had become the biggest issue in Labor. This week, with its annual convention just ahead, a jittery C. I. 0. faced a showdown. There was little question about John Lewis keeping his promise to resign. The question was what would happen to C. I. 0.

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