The Pittsburgh Press (July 24, 1944)
CIO-PAC leaders boast of vast organization
Real powerhouse of 4th term activity is confident of registering 14 million voters’
By Henry J. Taylor, Scripps-Howard staff writer
New York –
How the CIO Political Action Committee operates its $3-million slush fund and how its chief, Sidney Hillman, kept Henry A. Wallace in the vice-presidential race is the kind of thing you can learn in hotel rooms and Pullman cars when the CIO kingpins are in a mood for talking.
My education began in a talk with Mr. Hillman at his Democratic Convention headquarters just after the convention ended and continued in a Twentieth Century Limited club-car eulogy by Richard Roman, Hillman press chief.
Mr. Roman said:
Political Action is clicking because the PAC boys have the knowhow. After the bloody battles fought for industrial unionization, political organization is a picnic.
Recall fight in organize
Mr. Hillman who pyramided a Lithuanian darning needle into a multi-million-dollar union czarship and a comfortable seat in White House inner circles, recalls as really tough “the fights against fanatics for the ‘open-shop’ and company unions, yellow-dog scabs bought by company money, crooked police as in the Indiana steel riots, and sometimes even against state militia.”
But in the political field, who is to stop the quick-thinking boys with the tried and tested knowhow? As long as nobody in a democracy stops voters from voting, they claim, nobody’s going to stop them from organizing the vote and supporting anyone they please.
Mr. Hillman, the “yes” and “no” man at the convention and already the real powerhouse of fourth-term activity, will tell you to figure it out for yourself. Or you can roll along in club-car comfort and listen to Richard Roman.
Bosses lacked vision
Mr. Roman explains:
In America, political bosses never really saw the picture in terms of mobilizing the masses. They didn’t have any imagination, and they didn’t understand much beyond turkeys at Christmas.
Even earlier setups like the IWW and labor’s Non-Partisan League only nibbled at the edge of mass action. To really get rolling in political action you need dynamic thinking. You’ve got to spread wide, solidify and hit hard. That’s new in American politics. The Democratic Party is 140 years old. We’re only one year old, so what’s the answer? As Mr. Hillman says, it’s the knowhow.
The CIO-PAC, with headquarters in New York operates through union officers in plants in every industrial community. A hundred thousand shop stewards are the hard core of Mr. Hillman’s technique. They are the immediate, hour-by-hour bosses of five million subordinate union members working under them.
No money worries
They receive and distribute political literature in seven languages, get running reports on the votes of Congressmen and on what the dynamic PAC thinkers think of each vote.
They are told whom to go down the line for at each municipal, state and national election. The money flows in with the greatest of ease, collected by the 100,000 stewards and by inter-union contributions. The present money-raising slogan is “A Buck for Roosevelt – Our Friend.”
PAC leaders already have more cash in their treasury than the Republican and Democratic parties combined. “Money doesn’t worry us,” says Mr. Roman.
New registration technique
The clincher for getting out the right kind of vote resulted from another piece of “dynamic thinking.” Mr. Hillman’s study of state election laws revealed that in many states, statutes do not specifically require a citizen to go to the registration place to register. The PAC decided it could legally bring the place to the registrant, and is doing so in a big way.
PAC stewards set up registration outfits inside the factories, opposite the timeclocks. Outgoing workers are checked through the registration booths, one by one.
Mr. Roman explains:
This is in the country’s interest. Mr. Hillman keeps saying it is a patriotic duty to vote. That’s the basis of the Democratic system. Isn’t it? And besides we help the war effort by saving our workers’ time.
Will register 14 million
Spokesman Roman said:
Inside the factories and around the towns this fall, we’ll register 14 million workers, 600,000 in New York City alone. Only last night Senator Pepper agreed publicly that working with us in Florida gave him the biggest turnout he ever had in the industrial centers. Everybody knows what we did in Pennsylvania for Senator Guffey. Wait until you see what we do for FDR.
He was asked:
What about what you weren’t able to do for Henry Wallace in the convention? Some say Hillman’s support even hurt him.
Mr. Roman laughed. He said:
The day before Mr. Wallace came to Chicago, he telephoned Mr. Hillman there and said he couldn’t figure where he had more than 205 votes on the first ballot. Henry Wallace was ready to withdraw. He had prepared a statement and read it to Mr. Hillman. He planned to have it read from the platform, thank his helpers, release his delegates and kiss the boys goodbye.
Now, Mr. Hillman didn’t like this idea at all. He showed Wallace where we had an additional 200 delegates from him controlled by our men, although Mr. Hillman didn’t want to show his hand so early. He told Wallace he could guarantee him over 400 votes at the kickoff. Charlie Michaelson is working with us and he confirmed this to Wallace.
Wallace agreed to come to Chicago and try to pick up the rest himself. How badly did we hurt him? Sidney Hillman is the man who kept Wallace in the race.