◆ SpookStack

APRIL 14, 25 _ Drawings by Elizabeth Olds AR THE MINE SHAFT AND HUGE, BLACK SLAG HEAPS TOWERING ABOVE HOUSES AND PEOPLE seen, too, an extraordinarily subtle mind and a-vast personal force and charm usually concealed from the public.. One fcrmer close associate said re- cently, “John Lewis’ native qualities of leadership have been surpassed by few of his contemporaries in’ America ort anywhere else. But not many have so loved to drive rather than lead.” The key to power Do up all these factors—the history of miners’ struggles, the nature of coal digging, the character of John L. Lewis—and the “whys of lack of demo- cracy in the UMW become clear. The union's constitution gives the hows. Here is the key to power; Charters .of districts, subdistricts and local unions may be revoked by the inter- national president, who shall have au- thority to create a provisional government for the subordinate branch whose charter has been revoked The climb back from provisionalism, once Lewis has substituted his appointees for elected officials, is next to impossi- ble. Of the UMW’s 30 districts, 20 are provisional or semi-provisional. Some have held no election in a decade and a half. In a recent courtroom ‘tussle, Lewis self-righteously apprised the gourt of the fact that his expenses are passed on . by the union’s executive board. He did not add that as ruler of the provisional districts he appoints a majority of the board—and holds power to remove even . the few who are elected. The board has one member for each district. Appointment of subordinate officers is one of the few things which still causes fireworks in the conventions. Some locals regularly instruct their dele- Sates to ask for home rule—autonomy is the customary term—for their dis- tricts. Debate is usually perfunctory. The 1944 gathering, however, saw some excitement because Ray Edmundson of Illinois (District 12), was fighting Lewis. For years Edmundson has been looked on as a crown prince—not a healthy reputation to have. Lewis was poking into the financial affairs of Dis- trict 12 when Edmundson resigned, promising to beat the old man. Though an appointive district president for near- ly a dozen years, he tied his hopes to the home-rule issue. Edmundson couldn't get into the con- vention. The rump session he called drew less than a baker’s dozen, and later when he sought to contest for the presi- dency he couldn’t get on the ballot. But Lewis took enough notice to speak on home tule. The agitation for union democracy, it turned out, was a trick of the mine owners. “I know, of course,” Lewis told the convention, “that coal operators’ agents have gone about en- couraging this propaganda, enlisting men to come here and fight John L. Lewis on this question.” He had kicked many a dastard out of office “‘on the toe of my boot.” As he proceeded with the tale of carnage, his followers came out of their chairs shouting hosannahs. In a milder mood he has told a story out of his boyhood to illustrate his posi- tion on union democracy: When one of the boys would come _ home and would tell the other that in some of the neighbors’ houses the sons had more autonomy than we had in our -