The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-10-27

QuI1Llk IL1S COd1 Sb4AAC VI 4SAn
 For today, with the coal strike deadline only a few days off, the Administration also faces @ seri- ouS rail wage crisis.
 Having both these disputes come to head at the same time, ad- visers admit, may be disastrous. For if @ real wage increase Is giv- en to the miners, the rail men will be seething mad; may call a general strike.
 But If the coal miners don't get any real wage boost, they are al- most sure to strike. So the Ad- ministration is caught coming or going unless wage boosts are are given all the way around and the plug is pulled on imitation.
 Meanwhile, there has been more grouslng against the Presi-
 dent among hitherto vigorously
 pro Roosevelt labor leaders than at any time in ten years. Dave
 Robertson, president of the Lo- cOmotive Bremen and Engineers,
 has been saying privately that
 the President has let the rail-
 way workers down, that his men
 are so rebelliOus he will have
 to got wage increases for them
 if he wants to keep his job.
 George Harrison, of the Rail- way Clerks, has been saying much the same thing, At the A. P. of L. convention recently he let loose a rip-roaring speech against the bungltng of the railroad wage question. Last week at @ White House conference, A. F. Whitney, of the Railroad Trainmen, also did some stiff talking, though his criticism was aimed not at the President but against Economic Stabilizer Vinson.
 DOUBLE.TALK
 White House labor advisers fear that part of the railwaymen's ire results from the fact that the President told them one thing, while Judge Vinson ruled another. Back in midsummer, when the special railway mediation board recommended a wage increase of 8 cents an hour for incorporating workers, they say the President told Brotherhood leaders that this increase was in the bag.
 Then, after the Brotherhood bosses had gone back and prom ised their members the raise, Julge Vinson, whose job Is to pre- vent imitation, partially ruled otherwise. He ruled that the 8 cents must go chiefly to lower bracket workers, with upper bracket workers getting propor- tionately less.
 White House labor advisers now wish the President had
 consulted his Economic Stab.
 ilizer before being too genial and generous.
 NOTE: Labor advisers last week dusted off the 48-hour week as the best way out of both the min ing and railroad dilemmas. If the miners work 48 hours they get time-and- -half-time for 13 extra hours. This means both more pay and more coal - which the nation needs badly. Also it is no violation of the Little Steel formula.
 Railroad workers are not in- cluded in the Wage-Hour Act. When 1t was passed they didn't want it. So they don't get paid time-and- half time until after they have worked 4S and in some cases 54 hours. However, by 8 simple act of Congress they could be included in the Wage Hour Act, which would give them extra pay after 40 hours. This is what labor advisers last week suggested to the White House as the best way to head off both strikes and imitation.
 CAPITAL CHAFF
 Fire broke out the other day in the State Department basement. After guards had applied the ex- tinguisher to a burning box, they found it contained books in German Before Leo Crowley took over Rubber Development