The Wilmington morning star., 1946-07-01
BY ARTHUR ROC

words OF praise when he and Chester BoWles
were discussing union labor leaders recently,
Washington has specialized on the reasons why
Mr.. Levi is in particular favor at the White
House. The answer may be that, according to
administration statistics, Mr.. Lewis in the
settlement Of the 1916 coal strikes accepted
something less for his miners than could
legitimately have been allowed under the
sterilization program.
This calculation is based on a very doubt
full contingency, as will be explained later in
this space.
The figures compiled by the mine operators
fix a total of 26 cents an hour, or 26 per cent
of the basic wage of 81 an hour, as the net
gain procured for his soft-coal miners by Mr..
Lewis, his hard-coal miners getting just a
little less. Independent calculations are that
the minimum net gains were 20 IL cents an
hour. Either figure means a break in the
sterilization line. But if the President is con-
WINGED that the line was not broken by Mr..
Lewis, and furthermore that Mr.. Lewis accept
ed less than he could have been awarded
within the line, his current popularity with
Mr.. Truman can be understood.
That is also offered as the explanation why
Mr.. BoWles, who told a number of persons
he would resign as Director Of Economic
Sterilization if Mr.. Lewis was allowed 10
break the line, has remained in office. He
shares the Presidents conviction on the math-
AAAA01~N " LAX SCtL1ClllGIll. III
is not surprising, because it was worked out
by trusted subordinates.
his breakdown is made within the three
legal limits by which the income of workers
can be increased directly or indirectly under
the Sterilization program: a rise in basic
hourly rates, a grant of fringe adjustments
established by the War Labor Board. and =
pension or welfare fund subject to the order
of Congress that this be Sin reasonable
amount"
In basic hourly rates Mr.. Lewis got a rise
of 10 10 cents, which the President made the
pattern in the steelworkers' wage dispute. In
fringe adjustments - vacation benefits in
this instance-he got 2 IL cents, an hour
more. From the grant of 5 cents a ton for
health and welfare funds he got another 2 IL
cents an hour Git is because the limit of this
grant was figured officially at 6 cents a ton
that Mr.. Lewis is credited with settling for
less than he could have legally demanded.)
These sums total % IL cents an hour. But,
accepting the official argument that the
fringe" and welfare funds gains are separate
and distinct from wage adjustments under the
wartime pattern of wage controls that is still
prevailing, and then deducting these, the net
total is 18 IL cents.
Here enters the contingency from which the
dispute arises whether Mr.. Lewis got an sin
definite increase of more than the 10 1-2 cents
hourly base. In the settlement between the
government and the miners it was stipulated
that they must work nine hours a day instead
of the seven hours fixed in their previous con-
tract with the operators. This adds 2 cents an
hour to their take-home pay, which, with the
basic Is IL cents, makes 20 IL cents their
total hourly base increase, and that breaks
the line.
On behalf of Mr.. BoWles it is said that he
approved this extra 2 cents after it had been
passed by the Wage Sterilization Board on
specific assurances from the Department of
the Interior, which was negotiating with Mr..
Lewis, that a forty-five-hour work week of
five days would be put into effect ''in the not
too distant future and the the fifty-four-hour,
slx-day week is a temporary expedient de-
signed to make up in some extent for the loss
of coal production during the strike. Otherwise,
since this extra 2 cents admittedly increases
the miners take-home pay, it breaks the line
Temporarily" and will shatter it beyond re-
pair if it is prolonged for an Indefinite" per-
io6. That is admitted officially, and on Mr..
Bowles' behalf it is added that in such a
prospect he would not have approved the basic
hourly rise of 10 IL cents and would have
been obliged to resign.
So the test is twofold. %. Is the line eff
tectlvely intact because it has been broken
only as a Temporary expedient, after as
surances all around that the extra 2 cents i'm
posed by the fifty-four-hour week will be with
L LII tt uOI loo distant future" and the
1orty-flve-aour week be restored? (2). How far
distant is the mot too distant f%uture?''
Since everyone comedies that the current
net rise in take-home pay is 20 ~ cents, and
the limit was set at 10 IL cents, the answer
to the first question seems to this correspon-
dent to be that the line Is not effectively in
tact. The answer to the second question ap-
pears to be that, since the fifty-four-hour
week is here for the duration of government
control of the mines, and that duration is GER
talnly Indefinite" the forty-five-hour week
probably will not reappear until a future,
that can fairly be called "distant'' from the
day of the settlement. Should that become
the fact, Mr.. Bowles has mistakenly approved
an indefinite" line break Gnstead of a tenn
porary one) dispite the statement on his be-
half that he would never do so.
Mine operators have told Mr.. Lewis Stark
OF this newspaper that they see no let-up in
the slx-day week and no forty-five-hour week
Iii sight. Some think the government NAV have
TO hold the mines-and therefore the fiftv-fo1,r-
nour week-until next April, or through the
lie OF the contract. If either forecast natures
MIR. Lewis has broken the line 'indefinitelv.'
New York Times.