Across the Rubicon

Having been suspended by A. F. of L. after joining C. I. O., and having failed to reunite the warring houses, David Dubinsky's International Ladies Garment Workers of America last week quit C. I. O. President David Dubinsky felt that John L. Lewis had done Labor peace great harm by calling a convention in Pittsburgh this week to turn the Committee for Industrial Organization into a permanent "Congress."

Said Dubinsky's executive board, representing 250,000 of C. I. O.'s claimed 4,000,000 members: "We do not believe now, and we have never believed, that two separate organizations are required to achieve the common objectives of labor."

Said John Lewis in Pittsburgh: "It was known to us long before the C. I. O. convention was called that the I. L. G. W. U. desired not to cross the Rubicon, all of which is their right and privilege and all of which affects the situation in no manner at all. . . ."

Thereupon Mr. Lewis launched his congress in Pittsburgh's dilapidated Grotto Hall with a restatement of the C. I. O. peace position and official figures on C. I. O. membership and finances at the close of its third year. "We are not willing," said he, ". . . to make of the C. I. O. another Czechoslovakia, to be dismembered and destroyed by such powers as seek peace at our expense. . . . Once the representatives of the A. F. of L. are ready ... to deal with the C. I. O. on a basis of equality and justice, they will find the representatives of the C. I. O. more than receptive."

He reported a membership of 4,037,877 (before deducting I. L. G. W.'s 250.000); three-year receipts of $3.540.385.62; expenditure of $3,510,954.93; balance on hand. $29,430.69. Most significant claim: that C. I. O. has balanced its budget with incomes from dues, no longer depends on subsidies from its wealthy unions such as Mr. Lewis' United Mine Workers, Amalgamated Clothing Workers.

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