LABOR: The 13th Vice President

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When 14 members of the A.F.L.'s Executive Council gathered in Chicago's Palmer House last week, 13 of them were in for a big surprise. Old (79), crotchety Big Bill Hutcheson, ex-president (and still boss) of the 822,500-member Carpenters' Brotherhood, walked out of the federation in a huff over the A.F.L.-C.I.O. no-raiding agreement.

The walkout touched off a flurry of speculation about the real reasons behind it. Some cynics guessed that Big Bill wanted a free hand to go raiding. A more sinister explanation was that Hutcheson planned to join up with the Mine Workers' John L. Lewis to form the core of a new labor federation (dubbed the "Phantom Phederation" in labor shoptalk). Said a member of the executive committee: "I see the fine hand of John L. Lewis in this."

Whatever Hutcheson was up to, his walkout had an important result. It led to the election to the executive council of Dave Beck, tough, ambitious boss of the 1,400,000-strong International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers. When ist Vice President Bill Hutcheson departed, the twelve other v.p.s each moved up a notch, leaving a vacancy at the bottom. As head of the biggest A.F.L. union, Beck was an obvious choice. But the machinists' Al Hayes had been promised the next opening. Upshot: compromise. Beck became the 13th vice president, and Hayes' hopes were kept alive by a council recommendation to increase the number of v.p.s to 15.

Beck's election was a sign of his power rather than of his popularity. Few top A.F.L. officials like him, and even fewer trust him. But, at 59, he is one of the half-dozen most powerful labor bosses in the nation, and he is still on the climb. Beck's enemies insist that his goal is nothing less than a single, giant labor federation, with himself as its boss. Since he succeeded Dan Tobin as Teamster president last year, Beck has kept on the offensive, recruiting and raiding uninhibitedly. Last week he predicted a teamsters' membership of "in excess of 3,000,000" by 1960. Long the No. i union boss on the West Coast, he is building a $3,500,000 headquarters in Washington, an indication that he expects to step onto a broader stage.

Private talks between Beck and John L. Lewis in recent months fueled rumors that Beck might become part of the Phantom Phederation. Beck's election to the council last week, and his public protestations of loyalty to the A.F.L., took the wind out of such stories. But nobody believed that the title of 13th vice president would take the wind out of Dave Beck's full-rigged ambition.