The Silent Struggle

The coal strike was over, and it was a clean-cut triumph for Harry Truman.

From the beginning to the end, Harry Truman had not uttered a public word. But his victory had not been easy. His strategy had been simple--he had set the power of the Government against John Lewis, like a tractor against a redwood tree, and had waited for something to give.

John L. had a terrible weapon and no qualms about using it. He had the means of freezing up U.S. industry, the means of hurting the U.S. abroad. He had allies as well as power. Many a businessman, desperate for coal, was for peace at almost any price. Labor backed him, from the simple instinct of self-preservation.

Firm Stand. Harry Truman's advisers were divided. His "labor specialist," Reconversion Director John Roy Steelman, was plainly for appeasement. His crony, George Allen, the rolypoly RFC director, didn't want to be mad at anybody when the battle opened. But handsome, 39-year-old Attorney Clark Clifford, the President's counsel, ghostwriter and onetime naval aide, clamored to stand and fight. The Secretary of the Interior, huge J. A. ("Cap") Krug, agreed. So did Attorney General Tom Clark. So did the President.

Once he had made his mind up, the President ordered John Steelman to stay away; Mr. Steelman went on a hunting trip. Then the President made Clifford, Krug and Clark the members--and the only members--of his GHQ. He set out to take and keep the offensive.

Deaf Ears. From the nerve-racking start to the triumphant finish, the four agreed that there was only one way to battle Lewis--throw everything at him and stay deaf to every counter-offer short of unconditional surrender. The first Administration blows, the injunction and the $3,500,000 fine, thudded home.

As each day passed, John Lewis worked harder & harder at dangling unspoken offers of truce. The bait was not taken. Lawyer Clifford reasoned that when the other side was talking settlement, that was just the time to hold firm.

Heavy Weapons. In a way, the effects of the strike were a help to the Truman strategy. Hundreds of thousands were out of work, and angry. Every day the strike lasted, more were thrown out of work. Hundreds of trains were shunted out of service. The thousands of citizens who had jammed postoffices with Christmas bundles to beat the Government's rail embargo on freight, parcel post and express shipments, raised their voices against Lewis.

The White House GHQ, with everything staked on bringing Lewis to his knees, planned an even stricter embargo. They wheeled up other heavy weapons: an all-out Presidential speech, the threat of another fine, the sending of troops to guard the mines.

But these supplementary weapons were not necessary. John L. collapsed. With his collapse, an era ended--the 13-year-old era in which labor leaders, because of their implied political power, had been able to go to the White House and get almost anything they asked for.

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