(2 of 5)
Revolving Stage. Quite as far removed from strictly union business as a third-term boom was the main drama of high labor politics in which John L. Lewis was engaged. It was a drama played on a revolving stage in which the scene shifted back & forth in the twinkling of an eye between the old Rialto Theatre in Washington and the Hotel Everglades in Miami. For simultaneously with the Mine Workers' Convention in Washington, William Green was holding the quarterly meeting of the A. F. of L. Executive Council in Florida.
In Miami, with the 17 members of the Executive Council were about 100 lesser laborites and hangers on. To the vast annoyance of the all-night poker players the Executive Council sessions were scheduled for 9:00 a. m. However, they only lasted until 12:30 p. m. after which there was a daily exodus to the race track at Hialeah Park. One labor man lost $1,500 in two days.
Beneath the fun ran a muddy stream of intrigue and high politics. The Stage Hands were wangling for jurisdiction over the Screen Actors. Secretary Joe Obergfell of the Brewery Union was there to keep Teamster Dan Tobin from getting any more beer drivers. Lean, pale Charles P. Howard (who is C. I. O.'s secretary but whose union is still A. F. of L.), hovered in the background like an unbidden ghost, protecting his preserve from jurisdictional poaching by letting it be known that his Typographers might soon hold a referendum on joining C. I. O. But the most distraught man with the biggest problem on his hands was John L. Lewis' old friend and new enemy, William Green himself.
"Perfidy." During his entire career the A. F. of L. president's franchise as a labor leader has been a union card that he holds in the Coshocton (Ohio) local of John Lewis' United Mine Workers. After splitting with C. I. O. the A. F. of L. started to play ball with a rival union, Progressive Miners of America, and John Lewis threatened to kick Miner Green out of the United Mine Workers for "treason." Since Mr. Green's home town local, whose financial secretary is Mr. Green's brother, would probably stand by him, Mr. Lewis proposed to try him before the International's executive board, later before the full Mine Workers' convention —where Mr. Lewis could employ to the utmost his flair for good theatre.
The Green trial is scheduled for this week but last week Mr. Lewis was already at work on the jury. To the assembled miners he sighed: "I know of but one member of the United Mine Workers of America who has fulfilled the function of a traitor to this great movement of ours. He is a poor little pusillanimous man who sees ghosts at night and pays his own penalty for his perfidy."
In Miami, Bill Green desperately tried to make up his mind whether to rush to Washington to make a personal defense. If the miners kick him out, he will be left with an honorary card given him as a one-finger piano virtuoso by the Chicago Musicians Union. That is not enough to hold down the presidency of the A. F. of L., and he will have to join the Progressive Miners of America, which is flat on its back with 36 members sentenced to jail and a $117,000 fine hanging over its head (TIME, Dec. 27, et seq.).