Problem Corked

Just before he went on vacation last week, President Roosevelt gingerly stuck a cork in his most explosive problem. The problem : the rising number of labor disputes and stoppages in defense work--and the rising protest over them.

The cork: a new National Defense Mediation Board. He hoped the cork would hold.

On the Mediation Board Mr. Roosevelt put four businessmen, four labormen, three representatives of "the public." But critics called the board a clumsy compromise in a situation which, they felt, called for something tough and full of teeth.

Vague were the steps--as the President outlined them--by which the board would intercede in defense labor disputes. No move could be made until the Secretary of Labor had confessed that the Department's Conciliation Service was stumped. After that, the board was instructed to: 1) try to negotiate agreements; 2) "afford means for voluntary arbitration"; 3) make public "findings of fact." The only lash the board had with which to drive stubborn parties into a settlement was publicity. Its best chance of making a good record seemed to depend on the calibre of its members. Most observers applauded Mr. Roosevelt's selections.

"The public's" representatives were: Chairman Clarence Addison Dykstra, president of University of Wisconsin, director of the draft (a job he will resign), onetime city manager of Cincinnati, son of a Dutch minister; Frank Porter Graham, president of University of North Carolina, Southern-born, a fiery and apostolic liberal; and William Hammatt Davis, New York City patent attorney, former chairman of the New York State Board of Mediation. Wild-haired, level-headed Mr. Davis rehearsed for his new job by sitting in judgment on the New York City bus strike, which was ended last week.

Labor's representatives were: Philip Murray, president of C. I. O. and boss of the majority of workers in the key industries of defense, who last week was negotiating for higher wages in steel; Thomas Kennedy, secretary-treasurer of United Mine Workers, who, with U. M. W. President John Lewis, was looking for a better contract in mines; George Meany, secretary-treasurer of A. F. of L., no lover of C. I. O.; and George McGregor Harrison, president of A. F. of L.'s Brotherhood of Railway Clerks, who has been a zealous worker for A. F. of L. C. I. O. harmony.

Management's representatives were : Cyrus Ching, director of industrial and public relations for U. S. Rubber, who in 30 years of dealing with labor has consistently urged moderation, cooperation; Walter Clark Teagle, chairman of the board of Standard Oil of N. J., a top-notch production man with a knack for getting on with oilmen; Eugene Meyer, millionaire publisher (Washington Post), ex-governor of the Federal Reserve Board. Bernard Baruch's financial right hand on the War Industries Board, ex-chairman of RFC, "Butch" to his irreverent workers; and Roger Dearborn Lapharn, chairman of the board of American-Hawaiian Steamship Co., director of the U. S. Chamber of Commerce, organizer and vice president of the San Francisco Employers Council. From Harry Bridges, West Coast longshoremen's leader, Mr. Lapham won high praise during the 1936 maritime strike. Said Bridges: "If the employers as a group will exhibit the same sportsmanship and fairness that you did, the two sides can easily get together."

In Mr. Roosevelt's order setting up the board, much was left to "the duty of employers and employes." If disputants defied the board through thick & thin, ultimate action was left to the President. What course he might then follow he did not indicate last week.

Woodrow Wilson set up a National War Labor Board to serve much the same purpose. It had no more authority than the present board. President Wilson backed it up with a threat to take over recalcitrant companies, withdraw draft exemptions from stubborn workers. In two instances the U. S. Government actually took over corporations (the telegraph companies, Smith & Wesson). On one occasion Wilson sent the organized machinists of Bridgeport scuttling back to their jobs with Wilsonian words that Mr. Roosevelt may have pondered: "I desire that you return to work. ... If you refuse, each of you will be barred from employment in any war industry in the community in which the strike occurs for a period of one year . . . and the draft boards will be instructed to reject any claim of exemption based on your alleged usefulness on war production."

This week the board got down to work. There was plenty for them to do.

Relations between the four labor members of the board were not improved this week when A. F. of L. workers, protected by police, streamed through a C. I. O. picket line around International Harvester's McCormick plant in Chicago.

In Bethlehem, Pa., C. I. O. workers walked out of the main Bethlehem Steel plant. The grievance: union officials said the company permitted balloting for officers of the Employee Representation Plan on company property.

Still snarled at week's end were Allis-Chalmers, near Milwaukee, twoscore other smaller plants with defense contracts. Best news for the board was settlement of the strike delaying experimental work at Wright Field, the end of the Harvill Aircraft Die Casting Corp. strike, which was threatening the continued flow of airplane parts to West Coast aircraft manufacturers, and an end of the strike at Aluminum Co.'s plant at Edgewater, N. J., manufacturers of all-important aluminum sheeting, tubes and rivets.

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