Matthew Woll. vice president of the American Federation of Labor, had to call off a strike in a Long Island bronze foundry last week so that a statue of Samuel Gompers could arrive in time to be dedicated by President Roosevelt and the A. F. of L.'s 53rd annual convention.
There were strikes all over the country. Fifteen were shot, one killed when picketers and steelworkers clashed at Ambridge, Pa. Silk mill strikers marched 10,000 strong in Paterson. N.. J. Corset-makers and truck drivers struck in Manhattan. Grape pickers struck in Lodi. Calif. A strike of 10,000 machine tool and diemakers was on in Detroit. In Pennsylvania, 55,000 coal miners were still out (see p. 12). Philadelphia bakers left their ovens. Chairman Wagner of the National Labor Board barely averted a strike by 650 commercial air pilots. A dozen striking window washers pulled two men off their ladders in Independence Hall, beat them and fought police. A quibbling jurisdictional strike stopped work on the new Department of Labor Building, a few blocks from Washington's Willard Hotel, in whose ballroom the A. F. of L.'s convention was being held.
But the strikes did not worry Labor's representatives. Nobody strikes when he has no job. Strikes mean better times. When times get better. Labor is on the ascendant. Not since 1920. when Samuel Gompers was a person and not a statue. had the organization had so many members (4,000,000). Not since 1917 had the convention been attended by so many delegates (535). Not since 1917. when President Wilson addressed the Federation at Buffalo, had a U. S. President heard his name so thoroughly praised in an A. F. of L. meeting. At the Cincinnati convention last year Labor had been in a stage described last week by President William Green as ''innocuous quietude." Since then, U. S. Labor had suddenly found itself a partner, somewhat dazzled but quick to take advantage of its new position, with Capital and Government in the New Deal. In Washington. Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins, in her cocky tricorn hat, rose to tell the A. F. of L. that "thanks to the vision and courage of President Roosevelt in making possible the National Recovery Act. the present convention sees
Labor as an integral part of our modern State.''
The New Deal brought to the Federation's attention new responsibilities and new problems. These, with many an old A. F. of L. convention chestnut, kept the delegates busy in committee rooms and on the convention floor a fortnight.
Horizontal v. Vertical. NRAdministrator Johnson lost his right-hand man for industry. Dudley Cates of Chicago, when their views on NRA's backing vertical v. horizontal unions became irreconcilable (TIME, Sept. 11). Mr. Cates believed that horizontal unions, based on crafts, were obsolete. He wanted to see labor organized down through each industry vertically. Since the A. F. of L. is preponderantly an amalgamation of craft unions, Federation officials saw red at the mention of Mr. Cates's name, were glad when he retired from NRA. But last week the Federation found that the departure of Mr. Cates had not settled the issue.