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Page Six
THE MAROON TIGER
I MAY BE WRONG
By John Blair
Each day the situations within the American
labor movement, assuming there is such a move
ment, become all the more confused. There was a
time when I thought I was fortunate enough to
understand a few of the issues involved in the
various struggles; that day has vanished into the
dim and, by now, distant past.
It was once possible to announce that, “In this
corner we have John L. Lewis representing the
industrial unions, or gas-house gang, while in this
corner we have Bill Green representing the graft
unions, or dinner table ensemble.” And it is still
possible to make this announcement, but it is such
an under-statement of what is actually taking
place, that all manner of false deductions are like
ly to be drawn from it. The most prevalent and
easily arrived at false deduction is that the con
flict is merely one of personlities. Nothing could
be further from the truth. To have a conflict of
personalities, there must be at least two of them
in the ring; Mr. Lewis has a personality.
The important question, though, is: what will
he do with this personality and ability? For a
long time Mr. Lewis has fought for the principle
of industrial unionism. He started out on this cru
sade many years ago motivated by the noble
realization that the interests of one, John L. Lew
is, were very closely tied up with the success or
failure of the United Mine Workers, the only
large industrial union then existing within the
American Federation of Labor. There is nothing
very angelic in the past record of Mr. Lewis as a
labor leader. In the early part of his career he
played the game as he found it, and the arena was
not exactly a place for Y. M. C. A. secretaries.
Furthermore, Mr. Lewis had to be just a little
tougher than the other labor leaders within
the A. F. of L., for all the other union heads were
officials of craft unions, organizations of skilled
workers, while Mr. Lewis led a very tough bunch
of unskilled miners, and it is always much easier
to make employers bargain with the skilled work
ers than with the unskilled.
One would be led to believe that a training such
as this would have turned Lewis into pretty tough
hombre. In this connection one’s expectations
would be correct. But it did something else to him,
for in some unexplainable way there entered into
the mind of Mr. Lewis the realization that the
great masses of unskilled workers ought to be or
ganized and that the only way such organization
could be affected would be through the medium
of the industrial union. The more he thought about
it, the more convinced did he become of the cor
rectness of the idea. For the past three years he
has brought up the idea at the annual convention
of the A. F. of L. At first it was received with
distinct frigidity. This coldness gradually melted,
however, and plans were made by the A. F. of L.
to push a campaign of organization along the in
dustrial lines; the campaign never proceeded far
beyond the stage of planning. This lack of pro
gress by the A. F. of L. can readily be understood
when one realizes how uninterested in the pro
gress of the unskilled are the leaders of the skill
ed.
Craft union bureaucrat do not particularly
care for the unskilled workers, and assuredly they
never lose sleep over them. Unskilled workers re
ceive such low wages that high dues are impos
sible; therefore why organize them? Futhermore
an industrial union tends to grow so much that
it becomes uncontrollable, and difficulties arise
when leaders try to double-cross it; witness the
maritime strike. Its size also prevents the bureau
crats from racketeering and grafting with and on
the employers. And finally the formation of one
big union within an industry means that many
craft union officials will lose their jobs. Is it logi
cal thus to assume that the leaders of the skilled
will try to build organizations whose very exist
ence means that they will lose their jobs? Or is it
more logical to assume that the unskilled will or
ganize the unskilled?
THE RENAISSANCE CLUB ORGANIZED
A group of men met in Sale Hall and organized
a club under the name of “The Renaissance”. The
purpose of this organization is to develop and pro
mote the social, moral, and spiritual welfare of
our college life. The idea was conceived by Mr. H.
T. Stephens and Mr. E. J. Roberts. Mr. Stephens,
who is from Athens, Georgia, was elected presi
dent. Mr. Roberts, who is from St. Petersburg,
Florida, was elected Secretary and Reporter. This
club is fortunate to have, along with these men as
officers, Mr. John Wilson of Atlanta as Vice-presi
dent; Mr. P. M. Davis of Atlanta as Treasurer;
and Mr. P. Y. Gray of Naples, Texas as Business
Manager and several other members.
This group thinks that it can do something of
which Morehouse will be proud.