Battle of the East Coast

As the first signs of a coal shortage appeared last week in parts of the East, 20,000 anthracite coal miners (almost one-quarter of the total employed in Pennsylvania), were out on strike. The cause was an increase in dues voted by John L. Lewis' powerful, affluent United Mine Workers, which jacked fees up by $4 per year to $16 per year.

The strike coincided with a joint decision by U.M.W. and the mine operators, also made last week, that coal miners work a six-day rather than a five-day week, with time and one-half paid for overtime. The new schedule aimed to increase anthracite production by at least 20% to meet the increased demand for coal occasioned by the nation's pinch in oil. Instead--because of the strike--hard-coal production fell off 30,000 tons daily.

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