A. F. of T.'s 2oth

U. S. teachers have had a full-fledged union affiliated with the American Federation of Labor since 1916. Ten years, during which they lobbied earnestly for higher salaries, pensions and tenure laws, left American Federation of Teachers with only 3.000 members. Then Depression forced school boards to slash salaries, and by 1934 A. F. of T. had 302 locals. 35,000 aroused and militant members. Although it still represents less than 2% of the 2.000,000 U. S. schoolteachers. A. F. of T. assembled for its 20th annual convention in Philadelphia's Hotel Sylvania last week to face all the problems that beset an important U. S. labor union.

Major concern of last year's convention in Cleveland was William Green's charge that A, F. of T. was riddled with Communism. Major concern of last week's 500 delegates was William Green's charge that Miner John L. Lewis' Committee for Industrial Organization is trying to split A. F. of L. in two.

Some A. F. of T. locals enroll school clerks and typists as well as teachers, thus qualify as would-be industrial unions. Lately Leftist members have urged the Federation to embrace industrial unionism completely by throwing its ranks open to charwomen, janitors, window-washers. Foreseeing trouble over that proposal, A. F. of T.'s conservative President Raymond Lowry resigned two months ago, left his increasingly pink union membership a free rein.

Last week President Adolph Hirschberg of Philadelphia's Central Labor Union rose to plead: "Don't take the attitude that officers of the A. F. of L. are enemies of the laboring man. Much damage has been caused . . . [by] this rift in the ranks." Snapped Yale Professor Jerome Davis: "The A. F. of L. should never have suspended [Lewis' Committee for Industrial Organization] without putting the question to the whole membership. . . ." (TIME, Aug. 17). Promptly passed by a unanimous vote was a resolution condemning the A. F. of L.'s treatment of Miner Lewis, endorsing the principle of industrial unionism. At that point the delegates abruptly reefed their sails, declined to head into C. I. 0. Likeliest explanation was that A. F. of T., whose members pay a maximum 40-c- a month dues, cannot afford lobbyists in every State capital, must depend on the A. F. of L.'s regular lobby for legislative representation, must stay in the A. F. of L.'s good graces. Purred Secretary David Pierce: "By staying in the A. 'F. of L. we can make peace between the warring factions."

Smoothest oration of the meeting came from stocky, aggressive Historian Louis Morton Hacker. Slickly observed he: "The Daughters of the American Revolution are the most dangerous enemies of the free schools in America. It is time these busybodies were told what their ancestors fought for. . . . Many of the members of the D. A. R. of today, had they been alive in 1776, would have been Tories. . . . The American Revolution of 1776 was a popular uprising of the workers, and the labor unions of today are the true inheritors of this tradition. . . ."

Said Mrs. Harper Sheppard, Regent of the Pennsylvania D. A. R.: "How ugly and uncivil! I have never heard of Mr. Hacker. . . ."

P:Before disbanding the delegates paused to elect a new president. So overwhelmed was A. F. of T.'s right wing by the convention's five-day doings that there was no potent conservative candidate. Winner after two ballots was Yale's Professor Davis. A tall, rugged "radical Christian." Jerome Davis teaches Practical Philanthropy in Yale's Divinity School, scandalizes his colleagues by fraternizing with New Haven strikers.

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