Greetings to the C.I.O. Convention.

Dear Mr. Lewis:

Will you please extend my greetings and best wishes to the delegates in attendance at the Convention of the Committee for Industrial Organization and my regrets at being unable to accept your kind invitation to be present.

The wage earners of the United States have made great progress in recent years in regard to wages, hours of labor, general working conditions and economic security. This has been made possible through their cooperation with other great groups of Americans in formulating and carrying out a progressive program to elevate labor standards in the public interest. If the great gains already made are to be consolidated for the benefit of workers as well as management, it is essential that there be cooperation among the wage earning groups and because of this, I venture to express the hope, as I did also to the American Federation of Labor convention delegates, that every possible door to access to peace and progress in the affairs of organized labor in the United States be left open.

Continued dissension can only lead to loss of influence and prestige to all labor. On the other hand, collect bargaining will be furthered by a united labor movement making for cooperation, and labor peace which will be in the interest of all Americans.

I hope the Committee will have a successful and constructive convention.

Very sincerely yours,

Mr. John L. Lewis,

Committee for Industrial Organization,

William Penn Hotel,

Pittsburgh, Pa.