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Two Loves. Between Murray and McDonald a father-son relationship grew up. To McDonald Murray was always "Mr. Murray," and to Murray his young protégé was always "David." They went together to baseball games and horse races, traveled about the country on union business. But for McDonald the thrill of travel and important people was dulled by a conflict of interests. As an actor in church plays, he had been bitten by the theatrical bug, longed to take a fling at more serious acting. He enrolled at Carnegie Tech's drama school, studied esthetic and folk dancing, rehearsal and performance. He played the lead or directed a long series of plays in the university's workshop. He even wrote two one-act plays himself, both very gloomy. Through Frank J. Harris, who operated Warner Brothers' theaters in Pittsburgh, he was invited to Hollywood to discuss a job as an assistant movie director. McDonald never mentioned the offer to Murray, says he never seriously considered it. "But for a while I was torn between two loves−the union and the theater."
The need to make a choice came quickly. Franklin Roosevelt went into the White House; labor got the New Deal's green light. In June 1936, brush-browed John L. Lewis named Murray to head the S.W.O.C.−the Steel Workers' Organizing Committee. McDonald was made secretary-treasurer at $5,000 a year. Oral Garrison, who was Lewis' secretary at the time and a good friend of McDonald, remembers that McDonald was selected be cause "they wanted someone to handle the money. McDonald had made a great many, friends. He was able and experienced. He was the logical man for the job." McDonald and Murray rented an office in Pittsburgh and started their separate assignments. McDonald's was administrative. He assembled a staff, banked and paid out the money, established firm (if authoritarian) financial controls that have since won the Steelworkers a reputation as an honest union touched by no whisper of corruption. Best of all, he had a ringside seat for one of the most dramatic chapters of U.S. labor history.
"You'll Be President." On March 2, 1937, S.W.O.C. cracked the steel industry by signing a contract with the mightiest company of all, U.S. Steel. In the agreement were union recognition and a 10¢ hourly raise. Memberships rolled in; contracts with other steelmakers piled up. On May 19, 1942, at a convention in Cleveland, Murray proclaimed the establishment of the full-fledged United Steelworkers of America. McDonald was elected secretary-treasurer.
As Murray assumed the added role of C.I.O. president, succeeding Lewis, McDonald took on more and more of Murray's responsibilities in steel. As the years rolled on, Murray's health began to fail. He became snappish, frequently lashed out at Dave McDonald. Once, after Murray was stricken with acute pancreatitis while attending a banquet at Youngstown, McDonald wired members of the union's executive board notifying them of Murray's condition and putting them on stand-by basis. The ailing Murray heard about it, summoned McDonald to his office, told him: "I'm running this union and I don't need any goddamn office boy telling me how to do it."