No Reunion

The old U.S. labor dream of "one big union" appeared to have vanished for good last week. In a tart letter to top A.F. of L. chieftains, C.I.O. President Philip Murray announced that the vision had fled. Said Murray:

"There has been much talk during the last eight long years about unity. . . . It is no longer a question of the prodigal son returning to the fold, nor of the disgraced daughter being sent forth into the winter snows. That time has passed. . . ."

In effect, Murray was putting the kibosh on the eight years of pleas and proposals to merge the A.F. of L. and C.I.O. Murray now proposed: let's fight side by side for prolabor legislation, and forget about reunions. Phil Murray was obviously not worried about C.I.O.'s future--not only because of its 5,000,000 membership but on account of its proved political power at the polls. And Murray also believed that C.I.O. ambitions for vast, industry-wide bargaining units could never be reconciled with the old-line A.F. of L. craft-union idea.

To President William Green (whose A.F. of L. has 6,807,000 members) this was just more big talk from the erring son. Green replied stiffly and sternly to Murray: "There is room for only one united labor movement in our country."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.