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from jumping into the Statement of Policy, because we are trying to eliminate that statement of policy and to get rid of that, to move closer to some form of collective bargaining. That's a noose around our neck until we can get it out. But as the strike develops, we begin to see that there's a possibility of using the strike to get legislation. I think I dealt with it when Paley came to us with Sol Corbin.

So the strike is settled, now, the strike is settled in the summertime -- we have every reason to believe that with the governor's hard promise, that there's not going to be too much of a problem in getting the legislation passed in Albany. Then the problems first began, because, when we got to Albany, we found again that here, too -- now, Corbett was a participant in the settlement meeting which said compulsory arbitration. Corbett again flip-flopped and went all out against the bill. When you add to that the role that the Catholic church was playing in the legislature, in the lobbying process, and at the same time you add the fact that you had upstate, we had no strength in any place except New York City -- you have a problem of how are you going to get this bill passed.

On top of that, this is a period when Davis has a heart attack. Davis is out for six months. So we're running the thing with Elliott, Bill Taylor, myself, running it with very little contact with Davis, because Davis is not to be spoken to. We had to get messages to him in a very careful way so that we don't upset him and stuff like that.

The legislative problem becomes very, very serious. I spend most of my time in Albany. Hank Paley is the key person for us because he is close to the Speaker, and I am now in touch with the governor's staff on the second floor. We do all the build-ups, the press and the editorials and the organizations and move things, and the delegations going. I remember I got commitments after the strike settlement. I got commitments in writing from virtually every single member of the legislature from the New York area for the bill. I remember I had a big fight on the floor with a guy named Brennan, who was a Catholic, I think from Queens, who followed Corbett. I remember throwing in front of him his signed statement where he pledged for the bill, which spelled it out. I was attacking him in front of everybody: “You don't support your word.” All this kind of stuff.

We were also in touch with Jimmy Wechsler of the Post. At that time Abe Raskin was the editor of the Times, so that they were working with us. The Hispanic and black papers -- Jimmy Hicks was the editor of the Amsterdam News -- they were doing editorials all the time, and