Comeback?

As many a grime-stained oldtimer in the coal fields will testify, John L. Lewis should not be counted out even when he seems to be draped over the ropes with his eyes glassing over and his legs vibrating like a pair of tired rubber bands. At a moment like that, Big John is often at his wiliest.

His adversaries, the coal operators, decided last week that it was time to say that they were ready to negotiate with John Lewis and his United Mine Workers. At first the offer brought the response the operators seemed to expect--U.M.W. aides assured the press that the offer was "strictly phony." But John L. dashed off his acceptance without even waiting for the mine owners' formal invitation. "Newspapers chronicle that you now wish to negotiate," he wrote. "If this be true, I advise that representatives of the U.M.W.A. will meet with representatives of your industry group . . . February 1 to negotiate in good faith . . ." The date he set had a purpose behind it too--it is the very day that the U.M.W. had been ordered to appear in Washington's district court to answer General Counsel Robert Denham of the National Labor Relations Board, who wants a court injunction against John L.'s three-day week.

Whether or not they intended it so, the operators had thus given John Lewis a timely assist. His willingness to negotiate weakened Denham's case against his union. It gave Lewis something to report to the 91,000 soft-coal miners who, in their eagerness for a full strike or a new mine contract, were mutinying against him (TIME, Jan. 30). It also gave Big John a chance to talk business in the climate he likes best. After seven months of his production-throttling three-day week, Lewis had equalized his bargaining position. That is, he had whittled the nation's coal pile down to a precarious 27 days' supply.

This week the President asked both sides to agree to a 70-day truce.

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