Evening star., 1943-06-25


ttary service.
But it turns out that up to the
close of yesterday, about Is per
cent of the miners had returned to
work. This means that out of $780,
900 about rs per cent were idle or
indifferent about coming back. The
word received in Washington was
that they are tired of being kicked
around" and that they propose this
time to insist on settlement.
The ingenious plan whereby the
President was to issue his state
ment about forced labor and at the
same time veto the Smith -Connally
bill has run into some practical
difficulties. 1t was assumed by the
Presidents advisers that his state
ment of Wednesday would suffice.
But public opinion, as indicated in
editorial and congressional COM
ments, shows that the plan to raise
the draft age as a penalty and to
bring about forced labor has been
a boomerang. 1t is not a solution.
The President, therefore, mus cast
about again for some other manner
New Statement Expected.
The belief at this writing is that
he will make another statement,
this time outlining the kind of leg
tSlation he wants to prevent strikes
some provision to give increased
power and statutory backing to the
War Labor Board. Obviously an al
tentative had to be planned and
issued before midnight tonight,
when the time limit on signing or
vetoing the -Connally bill ex-
pires.
The feeling inside the Govern
ment agencies, incidentally, is in
tense. The War Labor Board mem
bers privately resent the double
system of handling the case-partly
by the fuel administrator, Mr.. Ickes,
and partly through them. The
board, as matter Of fact, has been
Inundated just as have the opera
tors of the mines who paid attention
to the boards requests and direc-
tives.
The board on June Is ordered the
Miners Union to sign a two-year
contract with two-year o-strike"
clause in it. But John L. Lewis
ignored it, and the President didn't
request the United Mine Workers
to comply. Asked about the plight
of the coal operators who agreed
to accept the contract which the
board ordered them to sign, Mr..
Ickes is quoted as saying:
Il sympathize with them. But
think they would have been more
helpful if they had shown how
private individual or group can be
made to sign contract"
Another Case Arises.
Not many blocks away the WLB
was answering Mr.. Lckes' question in
a case involving an employer-the
U. S. Gypsum Co. That company
was being ordered to sign contract
with union providing for main
tenance of membership of the CIO
union and for check of in union
dues.
'I do not think" said Wayne L.
Morse, public member of the Labor
Board, that it makes any difference
to the United States Government
whether the u. S. Gypsum Co. re-
mains in business If it persists in
challenging the authority of the
Government and If 1t becomes neces-
sary to put it out Of business to pro-
tect the no-strike policy"
Brave words, these, but they do
not seem to have been applied to
the. putting out of business of a
national labor union led by Mr..
Lewis. Indeed, on the contrary, the
mines were taken over, and presum-
ably the Government now will collect
dues out Of the payroll and hand
the big sums over to the treasury of
the miners union, thus cooperating
In the maintenance of union which
refuses to recognize the authority
Of the War Labor Board.
Miners Union Justified.
But the miners union has legal
Justification for its action. WLB is
not the creature of Congress but was
created out of an auegedly delegated
power-out of an executive order
The two houses of Congress, in the
Smith -Connally bill, have given the
War Labor Board full legal author
ity, but President Roosevelt, for rea-
sons of his own, has not wanted to
sign or let the measure become law.
So there's failure to mine coal
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