"Legal! What the hell is legal?" snorted William L. ("Big Bill") Hutcheson, florid, mule-mannered czar of the 400,000 United Brotherhood of Carpenters & Joiners.
In Chicago's white-gloved Drake Hotel, around a decorously felted table, A.F. of L.'s Executive Council had conferred long and windily over taking John L. Lewis and the United Mine Workers back into the fold. On the first day they listened to taciturn Lloyd A. Thrush, president of A.F. of L.'s Progressive Mine Workers,* whose specialty is a passionate hatred of John L. Lewis.
Thrush demanded strict observance of the...