Labor's Paint Brush

How white of the A.F. of L. to turn their collars around last Thursday at their Seattle convention and come out for a "program of wiping out racketeering and crime wherever it may exist" in their union! And how sincere of them simultaneously to oust George E. Browne, President of the Stage Employees and Motion Picture Employes Union now on trial in New York for extorting $550,000 from four motion picture companies, from the A.F. of L. Executive Council!

Of course, it is merely coincidental that during this same convention, on October 9, four of their Local officers were given ten years' imprisonment for forging union dues stamps.

It is also coincidental that, on October 11, four men from Local 42 of their Hod Carriers', Building and Common Laborers' Union in St. Louis, were indicted for embezzling $1500 apiece.

But these men would come under the category of the "few dishonest individuals" which the A.F. of L. resolutions committee reported were bound to turn up "in any organization of 5,000,000 or more." They are past history, and the Executive Council is going to get rid of just this sort of thing.

It does seem a little inconsistent, however, that only a few minutes after this convention had resolved to purge the union of racketeering and crime, it should come out and demand the removal of monopoly mauler Thurman Arnold. For it was Mr. Arnold who reputedly suggested only two weeks ago the possibility of prosecution of the A.F. of L. for violating the anti-trust laws. It was he who said that O.P.M.'s Hillman was wrong to grant 300 Michigan defense houses to the A.F. of L., when the C.I.O.-organized Currier Lumber Company had bid $431,000 lower. And it was Arnold who brought to light O.P.M's secret and illegal order granting the A.F. of L. a building works monopoly.

Still, there is always room for hope. The 1940 Convention at New Orleans also turned its collar around and gave the Executive Council power to "apply all influence to correct the situation where racketeering was suspected." Perhaps if these conventions keep whitewashing the A.F. of L., the whitewash will even get grey. Then the government can step in and do a really good paint job.