Meany v. the Bank

Barely a fortnight after President Eisenhower branded the political gambit of equal time as "ridiculous" (TIME, March 30), the First National City Bank of New York decided to try a little of the ridiculous itself. Along with its monthly newsletter last week, the bank sent 250,000 subscribers an amazing document that lambasted bankers for "violation of trust," "barren feudalistic prejudice" and "misuse of funds." The angry author using the bank's stationery: A.F.L.-C.I.O. President George Meany, who had taken a rapping from National City and, like any good politician, wanted equal time to rap right back.

What made Meany sore was National City's August letter, which criticized what it termed the "abuses of organized labor's power," went on to defend right-to-work laws, and quoted more than a dozen economists to back its case. Hopping mad, union leaders first wanted to withdraw their funds from National City, then decided to let George do it--on banker's hours. Said Meany, before tweaking the bank for everything from monopoly to Communism: "A most unscholarly collection of myths and half-truths about the American labor movement."

National City? It did not even bat an eye. Said the bank: "We will continue to publish any article that bears on the economic conditions of the country."

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