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LATE JULY. Durkin's Labor Department lawyers drafted a new, 19-point program, much more favorable to labor, and began negotiating with White House Assistant Bernard Shanley. Commerce was left out of these discussions. Durkin got Shanley's personal agreement to the new list, and immediately leaked the fact to the press on July 30.
JULY 31. At a Cabinet meeting, Commerce Secretary Sinclair Weeks was hopping mad that the agreement between Durkin and the White House had been made behind his back. Vice President Nixon joined the anti-Durkin lineup. Somebody gave the Wall Street Journal the text of Durkin's 19 points. This increased management pressure.
AUG. 19. Durkin talked to the President in New York, failed to get his agreement on the 19-point program.
AUG. 31. Durkin threw his Sunday punch, a letter of resignation.
SEPT. 8. .Durkin spent most of the day at the White House. Sherman Adams told him that Ike would not sign a letter to congressional leaders which Durkin had drafted on the basis of the 19 points. Durkin wanted the letter to take to next week's A.F.L. convention.
SEPT. 10. Durkin again talked to the President, who wanted him to stay but gave no assurance on the 19-point revision. That day, his resignation was accepted. Martin Durkin went back to the A.F.L. plumbers' and pipe fitters' union.
Durkin said that he left because the Administration "had taken no position" on Taft-Hartley amendments "about which we agreed." If the "we" meant White House Assistant Shanley, Durkin was correct. If it meant Eisenhower or Weeks, he was not. And Durkin himself had previously retreated from a settlement to which he had given 99% agreement.
At week's end, a new Secretary of Labor was being sought. He would not have to be a pipe fitter, but he had better know about pressures and leaks.