Back to the Mines

Into the hard-coal mine shafts and sooty breaker houses of East-Central Pennsylvania the miners tramped, glad after 24 days of idleness to be back at work. Once again out of the valleys threaded long, black lines of coal trains. The wildcat, leaderless anthracite strike, which had gained the miners nothing, cost the East 1,000,000 tons of needed fuel, was over at last: the President had stopped it. John L. Lewis had tried and failed (TIME, Jan. 25).

Last week the President caused to be issued a crisp back-to-work order which was at the same time a threat: "If this order is not complied with in 48 hours, your Government will take the necessary steps. ..." No further step was necessary. By week's end all 17,000 striking miners were back to the mines.

In three weeks the U.S., grappling with war and winter, had suffered the most serious work stoppage since Pearl Harbor. Anthracite production had dropped from 1,300,000 tons a week to 888,000 tons. With the President's forced intervention, tithingman John L. Lewis had won the temporary right to continue to exact an extra 50-c- a month dues, but at a high price--he had lost his once-dominant control of the miners.

In the hard-coal basin there was bold talk of anthracite-union secession from the bituminous-worker-controlled United Mine Workers.

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