No Thrill for Mr. Roosevelt

The issue of the closed shop arose again last week to vex the President. His labor-management conference, instead of agreeing on a program to end strikes, stumbled over an old block: the closed shop.

Management men wanted labor to promise not to raise the issue until after the war. A.F. of L. and C.I.O. leaders, loudly united, would promise no such thing. They would promise not to strike, they would mediate, they would consent to arbitration. But they would keep on trying for closed-shop contracts.

After two and a half days of arguing, the conferees recessed without giving President Roosevelt the "thrill" he had asked for by week's end: a guarantee, for the duration, of industrial peace.

William Hammatt Davis, doing his dogged best as umpire, had kept tempers down. Where they met, in the big board room of the Federal Reserve Building, not yet sold for taxes (see p. 54), were enough longstanding feuds and well-ripened hates to make the session remarkable even in Washington. The only conferee from whom John L. Lewis remained studiedly aloof was A.F. of L. President William Green. Mr. Green pretended not to notice. Mr. Davis was optimistic about reaching an early, happy ending this week.* The country hoped so too.

* During World War I, labor and management took 31 days to reach a stabilizing agreement.

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