Sullen Settlement in Detroit

The seven-month shutdown of its two daily newspapers had given Detroit the longest newspaper blackout of any ma jor city in U.S. history. Efforts by Mayor Jerome P. Cavanagh, Governor George Romney and Mediator Nathan Feinsinger to end the strike had been rebuffed; the Free Press and the News stayed shut and the situation was be coming desperate. So the News let it be known that it was thinking of publishing without the benefit of unions.

"We're not going to stand around wringing our hands," announced General Manager Edwin Wheeler, "while the unions wring our necks." In anticipation of trouble, windows on the street floor of the News were painted black and covered with wire grilles.

This threat, combined with mounting exasperation and ennui on both sides, finally forced an apparent settlement.

Last week the two parties agreed to a pact that will be submitted to the balky union membership. The key issue was the wage package; noneconomic issues, such as work rules or automation, were subsidiary. The unions, whose members were making from $134 to $174 a week, demanded a $36 weekly wage in crease over a 36-month contract. The settlement provides for a $33-a-week wage increase over a 341-month contract. The unions that held out won a slightly better pact than the Teamsters, who had settled for $30 a week last March. But the extra pay hardly seemed worth the idle hours and the anguish caused by the protracted strike. If the shutdown proved anything, beyond hu man obstinacy, it was that a modern U.S. city can ill afford the loss of its daily newspapers.

Uncontrolled Rumors. Especially not Detroit. Last summer's riots, which claimed 43 lives, left scars of fear and resentment. With the papers gone, rumors spread more wildly than usual. Whites in the suburbs terrified themselves with yarns about a black invasion. Negroes spread tales of special weapons and concentration camps that were being readied for them. Members of both races began to arm.

To try to fill the news void, local television stations increased their coverage. But it was far too episodic and fragmented to be effective. When a clash between police and Negroes occurred last May, television recorded the mob scene without adequately explaining it. Important public matters, such as the appointment of a new police commissioner who might be able to ease racial tension, were not properly aired.

All this gave rise to certain stop-gap measures. Mayor Cavanagh set up a rumor-control service; anyone wishing to check out a story could dial a number for information. A group of businessmen called MUST (Men United for Sane Thought) placed ads in suburban newspapers and on radio and TV, urging their fellow citizens to keep cool and not to buy arms.

The only interim paper to survive, the Detroit American, fanned the hysteria. Converted from a Polish-language daily to an English one in April, it has built up a claimed 178,500 circulation by concentrating on crime. "Crummy vicious street punks continued to rob and beat pedestrians over the weekend," began a typical story. Another told of a Miami socialite who had learned how to shoot after being robbed four times.

She was quoted: "I can draw from the hip and be about 85% accurate in my shooting." Managing Editor Ray Pearson explained his approach to newsgathering: "Sociologists and psychologists tell me that we should hit the punk in our copy so that he will stop being idolized. This is a clever use of language. And we use other words in the place of punk for variety." Such as: hood, bum, slob, jerk, thug, whelp.

The paper makes it clear that the "punks" are usually blacks.

After helping to settle the strike, Mediator Feinsinger concluded that Detroit's newspaper labor relations are the "worst I have ever seen." There is a tradition of acrimony. The papers were shut down for 134 days in 1964, and they have also been plagued by smaller strikes. The 14 unions have a hard time agreeing among themselves, much less with management. The publishers ! are thus forced to respond to 14 sets of demands. That is what happened in the present strike when the Teamsters, who called it in the first place, settled, but other unions refused to go along.

Not that the publishers proved themselves to be skilled or diplomatic negotiators. The unions are particularly incensed with the top brass at the News for being abrasive and high-handed.

The conclusion did not augur well for future labor peace. James McMahon, president of the Detroit Newspaper Guild, expressed the general sullenness when he said of the publishers: "I think we have reason to hate them."

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