President Dwight D. Eisenhower Thanks Legendary Labor Leader John L. Lewis For Participating on a Committee Studying the Utility of Foreign Aid

John L. Lewis was President of the United Mine Workers union from 1920-1960. Coal miners for 40 years hailed him as the man whose efforts brought higher wages, pensions and medical benefits. He was named by FDR a member of the Labor Advisory Board and the National Labor Board of the NRA, and was also the driving force behind the founding of the CIO, a federation of unions that organized industrial workers. In 1952, Lewis commenced the long struggle for a Federal Mine Safety Act, one that would take 17 years to pass. And unlike many union leaders, he often supported Republican candidates for president, though he had favored Stevenson over Ike in the 1952 election. By 1956, he was generally considered the grand old statesman of the labor movement in the United States.

In September 1956, not long before the presidential election, President appointed Lewis to a committee entitled “The President’s Citizen Advisers on the Mutual Security Program”. This group was chaired by Benjamin Fairless, and charged with making recommendations on the role, scope, operation and impact of military, economic, technical and other programs related to foreign assistance. The thrust of the final report was that foreign assistance was a positive influence on peoples of the recipient nations and served American foreign policy objectives. This conclusion supported the views of the Eisenhower administration. Lewis may have played the part of labor’s representative on the committee, perhaps with a hope of lining up his support for the November election.

Typed letter signed, on White House letterhead, Washington, March 9, 1957, to Lewis, thanking him for participating. “I should like to express to you personally my deep appreciation of the large contribution that you have made through your participation in the work of the Citizen Advisors on the Mutual Security Program, under the chairmanship of Mr. Fairless. The subject matter which I asked this group to study is, by its very nature, highly complex. It is consequently all the more gratifying to have the valuable document that your group produced while working as you did under a severe time limitation. The report should do much to clarify the thinking of the American people on this important subject. With warm regards, and my hearty thanks for your devoted services, sincerely, Dwight D Eisenhower.”  Attached to a thin board.

This was to be Lewis’s last major role on the national stage. Just three years later, he stepped down from his leadership of the mine workers union.