"What Big Teeth You Have"

By a trenchant order Franklin Roosevelt averted a revolt in his own War Labor Board.

What had angered WLB members was: 1) they had no authority to make their decisions stick; 2) they could not deal decisively with labor although they had powerful weapons to use against management. One member, insiders said, had his resignation written and ready to make public. Other members, public, labor and industry, were ready to follow suit.

The President, prodded by OWM Czar Jimmy Byrnes, last week acted swiftly to quell the uprising. To WLB, virtually toothless for 21 months, he handed a shiny, brand-new set of store teeth. Gazing at their new dentures in the mirror, WLB members clicked them contentedly, seemed to think them a perfect fit.

Uppers & Lowers. WLB's added powers were something new in the history of New Deal labor relations. Under Presidential decree, WLB now has the authority to withhold the dues of a recalcitrant union, to cancel its contract, to void any and all union benefits. The board can also recommend to the War Manpower Commission a change in the draft status of noncomplying union members.

At the same time, WLB got additional authority to deal with recalcitrant management. In addition to the power to recommend plant seizure, it can now virtually put a noncomplying employer out of business. Those who balk at WLB's decisions may have their Government contracts torn up, their priorities canceled, their materials sent to other plants.

For such a sweeping grant of authority, WLB could mostly thank its four public members, Chairman William H. Davis, Wayne L. Morse, Frank P. Graham and George W. Taylor. Balance wheel between industry and labor members, they had fought consistently for added power.

Their argument: unless all unions and all employers were treated in like manner, wage stabilization was impossible. Out of more than 1,000 decisions, WLB has had to refer only seven to Franklin Roosevelt for executive action. But among these seven were its key decisions. As long as labor, in the person of John L. Lewis, or management, notably Montgomery Ward and U.S. Gypsum, was able to defy it, the board could command no respect, achieve no final success in holding down wages.

Click, Click, Click. . . . Pleased with its new teeth, WLB clicked them menacingly in several directions. It reopened the old Montgomery Ward case by summarily ordering the company to grant maintenance of union membership; it denied maintenance of membership to the United Automobile Workers at Chrysler because of continued wildcat strikes.

This was only baring the incisors. WLB's molars, as everybody knew, would get their big test on John L. Lewis. This week old John L., his outsize hat in hand, appeared before WLB for the second time within a month. Reason: Pennsylvania anthracite operators had asked for a reopening of contract negotiations. Said the union, in a circular to its members: "The best way to cooperate ... is to continue to maintain maximum production of anthracite coal to meet the war and consumer needs of the nation."

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