Finesse

On the eve of the C.I.O. convention (see above), the War Labor Board confessed that the cost of living had risen 29-30%. This was quite an admission, since the Little Steel formula assumes that the cost of living has gone up only 15%.

Then, after the C.I.O. had started home after its week of oratory, WLB formally rejected a C.I.O. Steelworkers' eleven-months' attempt to abandon the Little Steel formula.

As usual, WLB seasoned its decision with concessions to the workers. Among them: better vacation schedules, more pay for night-shift workers (WLB raised their pay an average of 5-c- an hour). Once again WLB used a convenient loophole in the formula which allows it to correct "inequities." But it turned down demands for a guaranteed annual wage and a 17-c--an-hour raise over the Little Steel formula. WLBoss William H. Davis proudly announced that the decision neither broke nor bent the Administration's prize line-holding device.

Six weeks ago, WLB had said that it would not recommend a change in the Little Steel formula. In the end, only Franklin Roosevelt can change it, since the formula is part of a presidential directive. But union labor, having helped re-elect Franklin Roosevelt just three weeks ago, is as yet unwilling to train its oratorical guns on him. At the C.I.O. convention, Phil Murray concentrated on lesser fry, primarily WLBster George Taylor, who devised Little Steel. Said Murray: "We have been aware of your machinations." Mend your ways or "resign your job."

The only criticism of Franklin Roosevelt came from a unioneer not directly involved: the United Auto Workers' R. J. Thomas. Said he: "We cannot go out to the workers much longer and sell them on the idea that the President is the greatest man in the world unless the President moves [to satisfy labor's demands]."

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