Ford had vetoed a bill to extend the rights of strikers that he had earlier promised Dunlop he would pass. Dunlop's head was on the line: he had worked hard to get Ford's acceptance of the legislation, then had conveyed the president's assurance back to labor leaders.

So Dunlop resigned Tuesday, saying that the possibility for progress in the construction industry with him as secretary of Labor no longer existed.

The statement he released was long and overly-worded. There was one gentle stab in Ford's direction, but for the most part it was just a mealy-mouthed and conciliatory swan-song from a man who will undoubtedly return to Washington after he comes back to Harvard to perform some work, perhaps as a labor arbitrator.

As Lazonick says, "Dunlop's sort of one of the people who provides the link, one of the conciliators, between labor and management. Labor is kind of conservative, and the capitalists want to keep it that way. He's sort of the go-between, and he wants to keep that position."

Under Ford's veto, Dunlop lost that position, and he will come back, to work mainly at the Business School, in early February.

"He's pragmatic--that's what you call a man like him" Stephen Marglin '59, professor of Economics, said yesterday. "He's opportunistic, if you want to make it a pejorative characterization."