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That was real brinkmanship.

Oh my gosh. [tape interruption]

What was your comment about Davis?

That is Leon Davis.

Another thing from 1962 that I recall, which was a saddening thing for me, we were trying to get the support -- I had gotten every Democratic and Republican legislator that I knew, and I knew many, and we sent a letter out to them from the Citizens Committee for Justice, from [A. Philip] Randolph and [Martin Luther] King [Jr.] and me, asking them to support this particular bill, enclosing a form in which they pledged to vote for it. We got all of these forms. We had all the votes because it's Republican and Democrat. Of course, some Republicans wouldn't go for it because of the hospitals.

One guy who wouldn't go for us was Assemblyman Brennan, and I remember wagging him with my finger, said, “This your signature?”

He said, “Yeah.”

“How come you're not going to vote for it?” And he was embarrassed. But to get the support for that bill, which included compulsory arbitration --

Maybe you should summarize what the bill was about.

In order to get a bill to give hospital workers the right to organize, we understood early that the law would have to include compulsory arbitration, because under no conditions could we expect the legislature or the governor to approve a bill that approves strikes in hospitals. And we said we would -- Davis said, “Don't worry about that. We'll deal with that.” We ended up violating it, but at that time it was crucial that the bill include that.

The AFL-CIO in Washington was opposed to compulsory arbitration, although Harry van Arsdale, in this case, supported us. But Ray Corbett, the head of the state AFL-CIO, was opposed to it. I remember spending an hour with Ray Corbett pacing in the legislature on the first floor. There's a narrow thing, a passageway that goes all the way around. For an hour, just pleading, explaining, and trying to get him I remember him saying, “Thirty-two dollars? That isn't my drinking money.” And he said, “Nah, no way.”