Perilous Position

A year ago, Wendell Willkie wanted to assume all the President's worries. Last week observers thought that he was going to get one of them, predicted that Mr. Roosevelt would hand him the Labor Problem.

It was still a problem.' With the onslaught of war, labor and management passionately agreed that any largescale strikes in defense industries were as inconceivable as the recently threatened nationwide railroad strike.

But how to make dead certain of lasting industrial peace during war's duration? The Smith bill, the club which Congress had fashioned to keep labor in good order, had threatened before war came to bring on a labor blowup. Mr. Roosevelt now had another scheme. At his signal, Administration leaders quietly put the bill away in a closet. Not letting labor forget that the bill was still handy and could be broken out again at a moment's notice, the President suggested that labor and management get together, decide among themselves how to keep the peace.

Management representatives chosen for the council: W.P. Witherow, president of Blaw-Knox and new president of the National Association of Manufacturers; Rubber Executive Cyrus Ching and Shipping Tycoon Roger Lapham (both of the National Defense Mediation Board); General Electric's Charles Wilson; Lawrence Bell (aircraft); W. Gibson Carey Jr. (Yale & Towne Manufacturing Co.); Donald Comer (Avondale Mills); Robert M. Gaylord (Ingersoll Milling Machine Co.); Paul Hoffman (Studebaker Corp.); Charles Hook (American Rolling Mill Co.); Thomas R. Jones (American Type Founders, Inc.); Reuben Robertson (Champion Fiber Co.).

Labor's representatives: A.F. of L. 's President William Green, C.I.O.'s President Philip Murray, John Lewis, pinko Sailor-man Joseph Curran; A.F. of L.'s John Coyne, John Frey, George Meany, Dan Tobin, Matthew Woll; C.I.O.'s R. J. Thomas, Emil Rieve, Julius Emspak.

Over this synod, the President proclaimed, would sit a "moderator" who presumably would speak for the public. Presumably, he would also speak for Mr. Roosevelt. It was that perilous position to which railbirds nominated Mr. Willkie.

When Mr. Willkie lunched with Mr. Roosevelt, observers were sure that it was in the bag. But Mr. Willkie came bounding out of the White House denying that the job had even been discussed. At week's beginning, the moderator was finally named. It was not Mr. Willkie but a surprised William H. Davis, chairman of the President's Defense Mediation Board, who had not even been consulted. As vice moderator: slow-thinking Senator Elbert Thomas. The Labor Problem still belonged to Mr. Roosevelt.

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