Abstract

Editorials

John L. Lewis' resignation from the executive council of the American Federation of Labor, though it was spectacular after the Lewis fashion, was not unexpected except in the moment chosen. It was the opening shot in the battle of American labor to beat down the forces which have so far been able to keep it from realizing its enormous potential strength and seizing the power it should rightfully exercise in the democracy. If is ironic and unfortunate but not illogical, given the peculiar development as a nation, that the first line of the enemy forces stands within the labor movement itself in the form of a small but strongly intrenched army of craft unions headed by a little band of blind and reactionary bureaucrats who have played into the hands of the real enemies of labor, the great industrial corporations, which are not weak and have their eyes wide open.