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Show Behindjii theNews !j By PaulMallon Released by Western Newspaper Union. CIO REBUKED AT SAN FRANCISCO CONFAB WASHINGTON. Here is the story no one could get at San Francisco the inside story of why Sidney Hill-man, Hill-man, Russian labor, and leftists of British trade unions happened to assemble assem-ble their new world labor order on Oakland, Oak-land, across the bay, just at the very day of the opening of the world peace conference, and what they were up to. All Inquiries were Sidney HiUnian pushed aside out there with the explanation ex-planation that this new world labor power, called the World Trade Union Congress, was merely looking for reflected re-flected publicity from its proximity to the conference, or something similarly sim-ilarly inconsequential. It is no wonder the story was hidden hid-den securely beneath a rubble of confusing explanations because it would have disclosed a coup de conference con-ference planned by Mr. Hillman and his Russian associates a coup which was squelched completely in a secret meeting of the conference steering committee, despite intervention inter-vention by no less a powr than Mo-lotov Mo-lotov himself. These arc the facts: The Oakland labor assembly was completely under control of Hillman and the Russians, with the British riding quietly behind them. The head of the Russian labor delegation at Oakland was also an official delegate dele-gate for Russia in the San Francisco Fran-cisco peace meeting and the pipeline pipe-line between. PLAN WORKED UPON Through him the Hillman crowd worked up a program whereby they would all get into the conference and into the permanent peace setup by being established as the group to handle world labor problems. They succeeded in getting the economic eco-nomic committee of the conference to approve their entry as consultants. consult-ants. The economic committee includes in-cludes strong representation of smaller nations, particularly Latin America. A resolution carrying out this purpose pur-pose was handed by the economic committee to the steering committee commit-tee which is composed of all nations. After some warm discussion, that guiding committee of the conference decided it would not even go into the matter thoroughly and defeated the resolution. When Hillman saw this coming he got Molotov to champion his cause, and it was the Russian foreign minister min-ister who pressed the matter as far as it went in the steering committee. By his own adroitness, Hillman Hill-man thus outslicked himself and disclosed his hand. That Molotov would champion his cause was all-too-obvious evidence evi-dence to everyone on the inside that their fears and suspicions about Hillman's trade union congress con-gress had solid ground that it was more Russian than worldly. A few days later the Oakland meeting quietly adjourned without taking any noticeable action and Mr. Hillman went off to southern California for a rest. The frustration of the coup represented repre-sented a victory for Bill Green, the AFL president, who has been vigorously vigor-ously fighting Hillman's attempt since the last election to establish with the Communist a world labor front. WORLD LABOR PLANS Green demanded in resolutions passed by his executive council (May 8) that world labor be represented repre-sented in the future world order by the International Labor Office, a successful suc-cessful creature of the old League of Nations. Shrewdly he did not seek the place for his own AFL world group which is represented by an organization known as the International Federation Federa-tion of Trades Unions. He did not seek to steal for himself him-self the world authority and power which he would deny to the CIO crowd, but would leave lt to an established es-tablished League of Nations organization. organ-ization. His protection was impregnable. impreg-nable. I hear that even the British have become suspicious of Hillman's effort ef-fort to align with the Communists in a front which would in some ways be as powerful as the peace setup of the nations and if Hillman's coup . had gone through able to influence the judgment of nations. The Rus-j Rus-j sian unions are not free trade unions. I understand that even Sir Waltci Citrine, the British ultra - liberal leader, is looking for open doors behind be-hind him to escape politely the agreement. The British trade unions which were unanimously represented ir that London gathering have now split, and I do not expect they wil go very much further with Hillinar and the Russian effort to captur world labor control, t Hillman. by this effort comirif atop his domestic electoral activi ! ties, has lost much ground in Wash ington, particularly in congress. |