National Affairs: Friend of Little Children

People, it seemed, had worked up some wrong impressions of John L. Lewis. To dispel these and to be helpful to newspapers, the United Mine Workers had hired a Manhattan public-relations firm to put over the misunderstood Mr. Lewis’ true character. The project proved more helpful to the papers than the Mine Workers expected: last week most papers joyfully quoted from the handout. Sample:

“In private life, Mr. Lewis is by no means the ‘gruff sourpuss’ that many cartoonists and writers have endeavored to depict. He is one of the most affable, big-hearted men on the American scene . . .

“A keen student of Napoleon and military strategy in general, Lewis was once found down on the floor of a conference room with the late General Hugh Johnson. The mutual friend who saw them reported that the two men were heatedly discussing how this flank and that battalion should have been moved in the Battle of Gettysburg . . .

“His broad shoulders and sculptured features with the famous eyebrows make him appear most imposing. He dresses immaculately, feels at home with children and knows how to please them. He possesses an old-fashioned courtliness that is too often lacking in other great leaders . . .”