Helping Hand

When young (37) G. Mennen Williams, onetime Princeton oarsman, surprised himself and his fellow Democrats by getting elected governor of Michigan last November, the C.I.O. hurriedly set out to help him run the state. Personable "Soapy" Williams, a New Dealing Grosse Pointe socialite (and an heir to the Mennen shaving-cream fortune) soon had a press secretary handpicked by U.A.W. Chieftain Walter Reuther, and a batch of other officers who had been blessed by the C.I.O. Political Action Committee. Considering that the C.I.O. (530,000 dues-paying members in Michigan) was the biggest group to support him in the campaign, Governor Williams thought it was the thing to do.

After teaching Williams the secret grip and tattooing him with the mystic symbol, the C.I.O. set out to bring Michigan's Democratic Party into the lodge, too. This involved rescuing it from the A.F.L. (who controlled the Michigan delegation to the Democratic National Convention) and from jealous old-line party members who showed an unrealistic persistence in demanding space on the political scene.

The man who straightened it all out was smart, amiable August Scholle, 44, longtime president of the State C.I.O. Council, and one of Walter Reuther's close friends. His influence was soon felt. A committee of properly indoctrinated Democrats last week held a state convention at Grand Rapids.

State Chairman. John R. Franco, a party wheelhorse, was not consulted. When he arrived to protest, he found that it was too late to do anything--the convention was dominated by August Scholle.

While Soapy Williams watched from the sidelines (his law partner, Hicks Griffiths, was named to replace Franco), Scholle pulled the strings. All Democratic candidates for the spring elections were hand-picked by the C.I.O. By moving smartly, new Boss Scholle had made the Democratic Party in Michigan a political arm of the C.I.O.

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