Angry Breakfast

These things are no secrets in Pennsylvania: 1) that John L. Lewis wants his friend and fellow Mine Worker, Lieutenant Governor Thomas Kennedy, elected Governor this year; 2) that Pennsylvania's Democratic boss, Senator Joseph F. Guffey does not want him at the head of the ticket because Mr. Kennedy is a better labor man than Democrat; 3) that Pennsylvania's present Governor, George Howard Earle, can hardly afford to alienate either Joseph Guffey or the strongest labor leader in U. S. history if he expects to be elected Senator this year and President in 1940. Last week these three open secrets exploded at a piping hot mush breakfast in the dining room of the Governor's mansion in Harrisburg.

The breakfast, at which Governor Earle was entertaining State Democratic Chair man David Lawrence and Philadelphia Leader Matt McCloskey, had been called to celebrate the Guffey machine's decision of the night before on its candidate for Governor in the April primaries. No sooner had Mr. Guffey's followers started congratulating not Thomas Kennedy but an obscure, conservative Pittsburgh law yer named Charles Alvin Jones on his tentative nomination than the excitement be gan. No reporters were present and most of them were unable to describe the scene in detail, but Thomas P. O'Neil of Phila delphia's rabid (pro-Roosevelt & proLabor) Record, wrote a graphic, if second hand account:

"Guffey arrived . . . fighting mad. . . .'All bets are off,' said Guffey. 'I am a candidate for Governor, come hell or high water. . . .' Matt McCloskey raced across the room, shook his fist under Guffey's nose. . . . Red with rage, Dave Lawrence, who the night before took himself out of the race, jumped into the free-for-all. . . . 'Now I understand,' he bellowed, 'why I didn't get the support for my candidacy from persons who . . . should have been in my corner!' "

One report maintained that in the course of the excitement "a cook burned his finger and a pot of breakfast mush crashed to the floor." All spectators agreed that Senator Guffey stalked out of the room. When he reappeared after taking a walk along the Susquehanna, he announced that he had reconsidered and would give "wholehearted support" to the ticket after all. But later that day Miner Lewis flatly announced in Washington that, ticket or no ticket, he would support Miner Kennedy for Governor. Did this mean, newshawks asked, that C. I. O.'s half-million Pennsylvania voters would walk out on the Democratic ticket? Replied John L. Lewis: "Figure it out for yourself."

Since Mr. Lewis holds the balance of power in Pennsylvania, the ticket was temporarily shelved. Adding to the confusion is the fact that John L. Lewis is toying with the idea of backing Republican Gifford Pinchot for Governor, running Miner Kennedy for Senator.

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