The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1937. LABOUR AND THE PRESIDENT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 283, 29 November 1937, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1937. LABOUR AND THE PRESIDENT.

For the muse that tacks assistance, For the urnni) that needs resistant*. For the future in the distance, * And the good that we ctm do.

It is significant of the changes which are taking place in the social structure of the United States that the greatest prominence is no longer given to the public utterances of linancial magnates, but to those of union lenders. Mr. John Lewis, head of the Committee for Industrial Organisation, who has been indicating his present attitude to the Roosevelt Adininstration, is a great power in the land. He has directed the membership "drive" of the C.1.0. so successfully that in about two years it has enlisted 3,700,000 workers. He believes—and the growing influence of the huge organisation which he is building up supports him—that Labour in the United States is destined to play an everincreasing part in the political life of the nation. At the moment the kind of part it [will play is largely a matter for his determina[tion. There is conjecture that, at an appropriate time, he will attempt to divert the .political power of the newly-organised unions 'from the Democratic Party to a Labour Party, and so break up the traditional organisation of American political life. Hence great I importance will be attached to his latest statement.

President Roosevelt retains in a very large degree the popularity and prestige which last year resulted in his re-election by an overwhelming majority. The prestige of his Administration, however, has declined, and there is increasing disunity in his party. Mr. Lewis' statement indicates that he is well aware of both these facts, and that his present intention is to encourage the President to pursue the more radical policies which are associated with the "New Deal," even it that means sacrificing the conservative wing of his followers. If the President does so, it is implied that he will still have the support of Mr. Lewis and the C.1.0. If not —well, the political commentators will speculate furiously about the alternatives. The President's | dilemma grows acute. The highly nervous state of stock markets is due largely to uncertainty as to his intentions. He cannot afford to allow another major depression to develop, and he must therefore do something to restore the confidence of "big business." But in taking such action he may alienate the support of the confident and increasingly militant Mr. Lewis and those behind him. Possibly Mr. Roosevelt, who is nothing if not a consummate politician, will manage, at least temporarily, to placate both sections, but Mr. Lewis' latest statement lis an indication that the Labour section is not I disposed to moderate its demands.