Evening star., 1941-03-30
Cancellation Service Is Earning
Its Keep and Good Bit Besides
Much of Its Success in Handling Labor Disputes
Is Laid to Steeman's Uncommon
Amount of Common Sense
By Charles 6. Ross.

There is a bureau of the Government
here that costs the taxpayers modest
100000 G. year and returns a direct
social gain worth many times that
amount. For the past two years 1t has
actually received from Congress more
than it asked for. This agency Is the
Government veteran peacemaker IN
labor disputes-the Cancellation Service
of the Labor Department.
On this little known but tremendously
important permanent bureau, the Pres
ident has now superimposed, as sort
of supreme court for the adjustment of
labor r-and-management quarrels, the Ma
tiona. Defense Mediation Board. The
Cancellation Service will carry on its
work as before Only when the Secre-
tary of Labor certif1es that the service
has been unable to settle dispute
bearing on the defense program will the
new emergency board step in.
To those familiar with labor relations
in the United States, the Cancellation
Service means John r. Steelman, and
Steelman means the Cancellation Service.
No other board or bureau in Washington
bears more Enthusiastically the imprint of
the personality at the head of it. You
can hear among his associates that DR..
Steelman was hired by his own staff"
for when the dictatorship of the service
fell vacant in 1887 the staff petitioned
the Secretary of Labor for his appoint
ment to the post. The Endorsement was
one of many. DR.. Steelman was named
director the second the service has had
since its beginning in 1913 and he has
remained on the job despite half dozen
commercial offers of considerably more
than his governmental pay. Until lately
this was $4,000: it is now $500. Il like
this work " DR.. Steelman explains simply.
Il like to be doing something alive"
Came Here From Teaching Job.
A big, powerfully built man. Dr. Steel
man at 40 is still possessed of the nerv-
Gus energy that carried him from an
Arkansas farm through his schooling in
five colleges, on to profeSsorship of
sociology and economics, and then to his
post at the Governments No. l labor
conciliator
Equipped with a Phi. D. degree, Dr.
Steelman began teaching sociology and
economics at Alabama College, at Monte
vallo, in 1928. In the spring of 1884, at
his suggestion his college invited Secre-
tary of Labor Perkins to deliver its COM
mencement address. She accepted On
her visit to the college she had a long
talk with the professor of sociology about
labor problems, and especially about
strikes. She found in him no doctrinaire,
but thoroughgoing pragmatist, filled
with practical ideas for the settlement of
labor troubles. A few weeks later she
sent for the young professor-he was
then 34-and made him a rowing "trou-
BILE shooter" in the Cancellation Service.
In the next l8 months he helped to settle
strikes in SO States. There followed a
| period of about year when he was a
special assistant to the Secretary of La
Dor, and in 1887, on the death Of Hugh
L. Kerwin he was placed at the head of
the Cancellation Service.
ITO Commissioners.
The service now has 110 commissioners
of conciliation drawn from varied walks
of life. Some have been trained as labor
leaders, some came from management
some have been lawyers, some personnel
directors and so on. Incidentally, as tc
lawyers, DR.. Steelman says they are likely
to make either the best conciliators or the
worst. New men are chosen with ex-
treme care There are thousands of ap-
plicants each year DR.. Steelman says, in
cluding some men who have been getting
more than the $4,000 to $4,000 salaries
| paid in the service Last week he hao
among his applicants man now draw
ing $500.
| 'I can't afford to make a single mis-
take" he says. when conciliator goes
out into the field, he is strictly on his
own. One damned fool could ruin U.S.
The service breaks into the headlines
only when it figures in some spectacular
dispute, like the Vultee Aircraft strike
on the West Coast last fall. AS has been
told, Dr.. Steelman flew out there when
the dispute was in a bad snarl and
within "a hours was able to announce a
settlement. He gives the credit largely