Cool Coal Strike

Last Monday morning 400,000 soft coal miners in Pennsylvania. West Virginia. Illinois and Ohio failed to go to work and the fourth bituminous strike in the U. S. since the War was on. But nobody got excited.

This same coal strike had been called five times, postponed five times since February (TIME, April 8, et seq.). Chief reason given for the postponements was that both sides were waiting for the passage of the Guffey Coal Bill to establish a "little NRA" in the soft coal industry, assure miners good wages and operators good prices. The Guffey Bill had been passed three weeks, and the National Bituminous Coal Commission and the Bituminous Coal Labor Board, which were to settle production and wage questions, had been appointed three days when the strike finally came off this week. When puzzled newshawks tried to find out why the Labor Board had not done something about settling the strike, they discovered that under the Guffey Bill all the Board is empowered to do is to get employers and employes together, just where they had already been for the past six months.

Notable feature of the strike was its good-nature. The operators, with nearly two months' surplus on hand, apparently had decided just to let matters slide until they found out if the Guffey Bill was constitutional. No less imperturbable, the miners and their estimated 1.000,000 dependants figured that they would not lose much 'by going on the relief rolls for a while. ("Certainly our people expect relief," said President John L. Lewis of United Mine Workers.) In this atmosphere the strike had been called when neither side would budge over a wage concession which would have lifted the whole industry's pay roll less than $17,000 a day. But after lengthy haggling during the strike's first day, operators and miners' representatives were nearer agreement. Said Assistant Secretary of Labor Edward L. McGrady: "The situation looks hopeful."

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