The Scorekeepers

When 750 delegates gathered in Cleveland's public auditorium last week for tie 15th annual convention of the C.I.O., memories of 1952's bitter fight for the C.I.O. presidency still rankled. The United

Auto Workers' hard-driving Walter Reuther won last year's fight with 54% of the vote, and afterwards rumors floated about that some lesser C.I.O. chieftains were restive, that the C.I.O. was coming apart at the seams, that Steelworkers Boss David J. McDonald was getting ready to join up with the A.F.L. Teamsters' Dave Beck and the United Mine Workers' John L. Lewis in a new labor federation.

Before the five-day convention was over, it was plain that Reuther had the C.I.O. under firm control. He ran the show with the brisk confidence of a ringmaster putting veteran circus horses through their paces. Handsome Steelworker McDonald showed his seething dislike of Reuther, but his hostility set off no fireworks. Every one of the 64 resolutions presented to the delegates passed with little or no opposition. Bathed in floodlights while cameras reeled up movies for TV, Reuther ticked off resolutions as though he were counting nickels: "Is there discussion? No discussion. All in favor say aye. Motion carried unanimously."

On the fifth day, the delegates re-elected Reuther president by acclamation. There were no other nominations. Just before the voting, McDonald walked off the speakers' platform, sauntered to the side of the hall, and stood chatting with some of his lieutenants about a Spanish course he once took at a school in Pittsburgh. As cheers went up for Reuther, McDonald turned his back to the platform. "I want the newspapermen, and everyone else, to see my total indifference to this election," he explained.

Call for Repeal. Among other actions, the convention:

P: Ratified the C.I.O.-A.F.L. nonaggression or no-raiding pact, already voted by the A.F.L. The agreement will be binding only on member unions that specifically endorse it; some A.F.L. leaders, notably Teamster Boss Beck, show no eagerness to sign.

P: Acclaimed a resolution supporting "the efforts of our affiliates to negotiate guaranteed annual wage agreements"--a pet project of Reuther's. P: Demanded that the federal minimum wage, now 75-c- an hour, be raised to $1.25. Even that, said Reuther, is "not adequate," just a "first step." P:Called for repeal of the Taft-Hartley act. Earlier, the delegates heard Secretary of Labor James P. Mitchell suggest that they "preclude further talk of repeal" and "concentrate on those features of the law which are really dangerous to labor, really loaded, really unfair." Mitchell did not say what unfair features he was talking about, but he did say that he, and President Eisenhower, favored their "removal." The statement drew no applause.

The Most Important Act. Day after day, the convention denounced the Eisenhower Administration. Reuther began the attack in his keynote speech: "Big business has moved in. They are taking over the Government lock, stock and barrel . . . they have turned the New Deal into the Big Steal." Assailing Republican leaders as "stupid, selfish men," Reuther said: "We are keeping score for 1954, and we are going to even the score at that time."

The delegates listened in iceberg silence to President Eisenhower's greeting (sent by mail, special delivery, not by presidential emissary), gave Secretary of Labor Mitchell and Secretary of State Dulles meager applause. In contrast, they stomped and whooped in approval as Minnesota's Fair Dealing Senator Hubert H. Humphrey charged that under Eisenhower "money-changers have invaded the temple of democracy . . . modern-day pirates have hoisted a new Jolly Roger over Washington." Among the convention's 64 resolutions was one blasting the Administration and urging stepped-up politicking by the C.I.O.'s Political Action Committee. Reuther called the passage of that resolution the most important act of the entire convention.

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