Throttled Down

As the steel strike entered its sixth week, the Office of Defense Mobilization made a grim announcement: the loss of steel production had "wiped out virtually all the gain so far from the expansion program that has been under way since Korea." The vast, complex U.S. economy was slowly being throttled down, yet scarcely anybody--except the strikers and the steel companies--seemed to care. The Administration was trying to wash its hands of the whole mess. Nevertheless, the hard facts of trouble were piling up:

P:Eleven million tons of steel production have been lost so far.

P:For each week the strike continues, 20 million cases of canned goods will go un-canned for lack of tin plate.

P:For lack of oil pipe, already scarce, U.S. wildcatters have had to cut back their drilling plans by 100 wells a day.

P:In addition to the strikers, 250,000 have been thrown out of work, and production of autos, electric appliances and other consumer items was being slashed. Many strikers, their savings exhausted, are now dependent on union handouts for their groceries.

Hands Off. No one seemed to be doing much of anything to end the strike. The major companies and the union were not meeting, and had no plans to meet. President Truman still adamantly refused to use the Taft-Hartley law since he was determined to keep the Administration on the side of the strikers. Three months ago, he said the emergency was so great that he must seize the steel companies; now he was as relaxed as an idler in a Missouri crossroads store.

What was preventing a settlement? C.I.O. Boss Philip Murray has already settled with smaller companies (30 more last week) for less than the top wage offers made by the big companies. And Bethlehem Steel had earlier indicated its willingness to settle the big obstacle of the union shop. It suggested a modified union shop (every new man joins, but may quit after 20 days), although it subsequently withdrew the offer without any explanation. Other members of the industry's Big Six, such as Republic Steel's Charlie White and Jones & Laughlin's Ben Moreell, insisted that the union shop is the only issue and that they will not yield an inch on it. "We see no possible area of compromise," White wired the White House. ". . . This issue is going to be a long drawn out one." Said Moreell: "Our company believes in unions . . . that unions can and do render useful service. [But] we believe that each man and woman should be free to join or not to join . . ."

Thumbs Down. Harry Truman had his own answer. Once again siding with the union, he told his press conference that the steel companies had entered into "a conspiracy against the public interest" and were using pressure to prevent companies willing to settle from doing so. Presidential Assistant John Steelman elaborated on the charge. The Big Six had adopted a unit rule, he said, which enabled any one of them to veto any proposal. He intimated that this was the explanation for Bethlehem's withdrawal of its union shop compromise. Having got the signal by the White House, Phil Murray's United Steelworkers promptly filed NLRB charges against the "conspiracy" --and filed them under provisions of the Taft-Hartley law, which they profess to hate. By something more than coincidence, the union had the papers ready within an hour after Truman made the accusation.

For those companies who had settled, the Administration's reaction to requests for price rises was hardly encouraging. Last week Weirton Steel, which has already given its independent union a wage boost bigger than Murray had accepted elsewhere, asked OPS for a $5.50 a ton price rise. The formal request was lost for 27 hours. When finally found, nobody at OPS or elsewhere seemed to have any idea what to do with it.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.