Evening star., 1941-11-13


cause Mr.. Roosevelt will work out
the compromise formula.
Announcement that the Presi-
dent had sent for the heads of Beth
lehem Steel, United States Steel and
the Youngstown Sheet and Tube
and also for the three chiefs of the
., c. I. o. for conference tomorrow.
served to corroborate the views cur
rent here last week when John
Lewis and Myron Taylor agreed to
re-submit the closed shop contro-
versy to the Defense Mediation
Board.
The board now has acted. The
C. I. 0. doesn't like the result and
It's members have withdrawn from
further participation in the Medi-
alton Boards proceedings. The
next move is up to Mr.. Roosevelt.
What can the President do? He
has tremendous leverage. He can
do what the Mediation Board evi-
IDENTITY heSitated to do-propose
compromise formula rather than
render a decision. In the realm of
compromise could come a definite
proposal by the President that if
the closed shop were agreed to by the
steel companies for their captive
coal mines. the c. / O. would agree,
and also the A. F. OF L. to drop the
closed shop issue on defense work
for the remainder Of the national
emergency.
Means Voluntary Acceptance.
Such a suggestion made by the
President would clear the skirts of
the Mediation Board in that this
agency said a closed shop could not
be forced by the Government. Vol
untary acceptance by the parties at
interest is something different. 1t
would conform to the Mediation
Boards contention that only in that
manner could the contract be in
line with the Wagner Acts Ian
euage.
l.
to give up the right to strike for
closed shops but the President holds
the best cards. If he gave the c. l.
O., IN effect. what it wants in the
coal controversy but merely stopped
the organization from carrying on
closed shop warfare. the C. / o.
would have 10 consider seriously
whether this gain would be more
than could be gotten if Congress
gets busy and bans the closed shop
altogether for the remainder of the
emergency.
The steel companies. on their
part, would gain an assurance OF
industrial peace and so would other
defense contractors. It would be
a broad-gauged policy that would
remove one OF the most trouble
some issues in the whole war Situa-
ton, for it is known that many
union asks for the closed shop for
trading purposes only and forces
higher and higher wage costs as
the price of abandoning the closed
shop demand
Reacts on Consumer.
From the standpoint OF imitation
and higher prices to the consumer,
the closed shop demand has been
one of the most expensive in the
last year 1t is directly responsible
for the higher price of automobiles
today because in the General
Motors settlement, which was
quickly followed by similar scales
in other auto companies, the in
crease of 10 cents an hour was
granted in lieu Of the closed shop
and there was no secret about that
trade at the time. The whole wave
of l0-cent-an-ho increases in in
duStry. which now is admitted to
be responsible for the inflationary
trend, had its origin in the closed
shop maneuvers Of c. l. o. labor
unions. But, it will be asked. sup
posing Mr. Lewis declines to accept
any compromise formula and calls
a coal strike and also the C. l. o.
unions keep on striking without sub
mitting their cases to the Defense
Mediation Board? The answer is
restrictive legislation. Union labor
will lose more by this than it would
by going along with the solution
y,rnrcSeS hy- Mr. PnoCaralt
It was foregone conclusion that
the board would reject the closed
shop if that issue alone were pre-
sented. The temper of the country
has been against closed shop mo-
nopohes and Furthermore the board
has been under fire ever since it
granted the closed shop in the West
Coast shipbuilding industry. But
the board evidently felt it could not
act as policy maker. The COM
position of the board prevented such
deal from being developed
Mr.. Roosevelt, who has no pre-
eedents to bother him and no other
result to worry about except an
uninterrupted production program.
can offer new proposals without
embarrassment In the final anal
ysis, he is mediating dispute and
virtually compelling both parties to
accept a settlement. There are,
moreover, many issues of collateral
nature to decide Thus tie Kearny
case is a thorn in the side of the
Navy Department. If blanket
settlement or master agreement on
the closed shop issue were attained,
the way would be opened for the
return of the Federal Shipbuilding
and Drydock Co. plant to its
owners, the United States Steel
Corp. Certainly the main objection
OF the steel company is to the pre-
cedent that would be established.