Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1943-12-04
Cracking the Whip


The current debate between Sec
rotary Ickes and the Southern coal
producers has generated great deal
OF heat. but has not thrown much
light on the issues underlying the
controversy. Yet these issues are
too important to be buried under a
barrage of more or less irrelevant
charges and countercharges.
Mr.. Ickes appears in this picture
as the representative of the ad-
ministration in charge of the coal
mines. And it is fair assumption
that the policies he has adopted are,
in the main. the policies of the
President. What are these policies?
Mr.. Ickes is concerned with one
obJective-getting coal mined. To
that end he is said to have assured
John L. Lewis that he will not re-
turn the mines of the Southern
operators, which he has seized under
authority delegated to him by the
President, until the operators sign
contract with the miners embodying
the terms which Mr.. Ickes and Mr..
Lewis have agreed upon in their
contract. This assurance has been
given in the face of provision of
the Smith-Connally Act which re-
qulres that the mines be returned to
their owners within sixty days after
productive efficiency is restored Mr..
1ckes is not going to comply with
the letter OF that provision, presum-
ably in the belief that to return the
mines would only result in another
strike. If productive efficiency had
been restored, strike would nullify
that gain, and Mr.. Ickes probably
feels that he would be doing a fool
ish and futile thing by returning
the mines in the absence of a signed
contract.
1t may very we'll be that.Mr. Ickes,
ii he holds these views, is correct.
But this much should be made clear:
The thing he fears is strike by the
miners, not some overt act by the
operators. Yet, in practical effect,
he is using his power to seize the
mines as a means of forcing the
operators to sign a contract with
Mr.. Lewis. And this despite the fact
that it has been Mr.. Lewis who has
shown the least regard for the coun-
try's welfare in time of war.
Why are the Southern operators
unwilling to accept the contract
which Mr.. Lewis and Mr.. Ickes want
them to sign? According to Mr..
1ckeS, their attitude is one of sheer
obstruction. But the operators tell
another story.
First, they say that they do not
want to become parties to an at
tempt to force the War Labor Board
to approve a contract which would
violate the Little Steel formula.
Second, they say that they have in
stituted suit to test the legality of
the miners claim that travel time
is working time, and that this case
now is awaiting decision. Having
filed this suit, in their view, they
should not now sign a contract
which treats travel time as working
time-a contradiction of their posi-
ton in court. Finally, they say that
the President has appointed a COM
mission to investigate the whole
question of travel time, and that it
is expected to make a report in the
near future. Since travel time-the
time spent in travelling to and from
the face of the mine-is at the heart
of this whole controversy, the OPP
orators feel they should await an
authoritative finding on this point.
This position certainly is not as
devoid of reasonableness as Mr..
1ckes' comments would lead one to
believe. His contract with Mr.. Lewis,
which he wants the operators to &C
cept, assumes" that travel time
amounts to forty-flve minutes. But
this is an arbitrary assumption
which in many instances is not a
fact. And the War Labor Board has
intimated that it might not approve
contract between the miners and
the operators if travel time exceeded
forty-f1ve minutes because that
would cut down the assumed" eight
hours Of working time, on the basis
Of which the tentative pay increases
have been approved.
In view of all this uncertainty,
why is Mr.. Ickes demanding that
the contract be signed now? And
what has Mr.. Lewis done to entitle
him to a pledge that the mines will
not be returned until the operators
accept his terms? This is an ap-
proach which makes a mockery of
collective bargaining, and which
seems to lend a certain official sane
ton to the high-handed tactics that
Mr.. Lewis has employed. If this is
the only way to get coal mined
another assumption-it is neverthe-
less an expedient which exacts a
high price in the sacrifice of prin-