What a Guy

Some people said that vindictive old John L. Lewis itched to hotfoot the Administration on Nov. 5. Some said that crafty old John L. Lewis wanted to get a wage oar in for his United Mine Workers before the rival C.I.O. began its new race for raises. Still others said that, after five months of relative personal anonymity (while his U.M.W. grubbed along on its Government contract), egomaniacal old

John L. just had to see himself in headlines again--even if he had to take on the Government to do it.

For once, every guess seemed to be close. Despite the generous terms of the contract handed him by Interior Secretary "Cap" Krug last May, Lewis found sudden fault with it last week. The whole agreement, he growled, would have to be reopened on or before Nov. i. And if not re-opened by then, said John L., the U.M.W. would consider itself without a contract. Everybody knew that that meant a strike; to the miners, the slogan "No contract, no work" is as automatic as their breathing.

The Lewis timing could not have been more fiendish. Cap Krug, electioneering on the West Coast, hurriedly denied Lewis' charge that Government "misinterpretations" of the contract had cost the miners "millions." Then he bluntly told the great stentor that the meeting would have to wait until after election day.

But in Washington, harassed Harry Truman paled at the thought of what an election-eve coal strike might mean in votes, or what capitulation to Lewis might do to his vanishing prestige. Then he made his decision -- the Administration boat must not be rocked again, not by so much as a millimeter. Promptly, Cap Krug changed his tune, agreed that November 1 would be fine for the meeting.

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