The Wilmington morning star., 1946-12-09
This Time Lewis Surrenders

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Eight times John L. Lewis called
strikes in the bituminous coal industry
and won out. The ninth time he. lost.
When he issued the order on Saturday
ending the strike which had already
caused untold suffering and put the
brakes on industry, it was he who sur
rendered-not the government of the
United States.
But it would be wrong to assume.
that by knuckling down, however huml-
that may be, however hard a
blow it strikes at Lewis egotism, the
miners car has become, as we say,
a back number. He ended the strike
only because he knew full we'll that he
could not win, and took the course he
did in the hope of softening the judg-
ment of the Supreme Court in the con-
tempt case against him personally and
the union he has so long misled. 1t
would be in keeping with his conceit to
think by sending the miners back to the
pits the Supreme Court might be led
to rule against the fines imposed by
Judge Goldsborough in District Federal
Court last week and he and the union
go scot free.
Of course what the Supreme Court
does cannot be forecast, but one thing
is certain. Lewis violated a contract he
had made with the government, and was
not only guilty of contempt but precipi-
tated what he acknowledges to be an
economic crisis" For doing that he is
as guilty today as he was before he
cancelled the strike. The order he is
sued on Saturday to his miners to go
back to work does not cancel his guilt.
Nor can the $4,000 he was fined or the
$3,500,000 fine levied on the United
Mine Workers, offset the economic
he created. The Supreme Court
obviously will bear this in mind in
determining it's decision.
Too much emphasis cannot be placed
on this economic crisis" of Lewis
creation. The country's average bitumi-
nous coal production is 1000, 900 tons
a day. With production suspended, on
his order, for seventeen days, the coal
shortage reached "a, 900, 900 tons. Even
with the operators announcement that
they expect to have their mines in full
operation by tomorrow, this shortage
will not be overcome this winter. And
Lewis brought this condition about,
not because This miners" as he calls
them were in financial want, unless
they had been wasting their high
wages.
John D. Battle, secretary of the Ma
tional Coal Association, has shown in
a statement made in Washington that
instead of working fifty-four hours a
week, as Lewis had claimed, coal miners
in September spent an average of Ala
hours in the mines, including travel
time, and received an average of SCI
a week, or about $1.48 an hour. Even
in these times that is a comfortable
living wage for any man and his family.
One result of the strikes end is
that the Krug-Lewis contract, made last
May, will remain in effect until its
calendar expiration next March. This
means that Congress will have ample
time to pass new legislation or revise
the Wagner Act, so as to place the same
responsibility upon labor unions that
now rests upon industry, and require
them to employ collective bargaining,
without strikes during the necessary
negotiations, before the contract e
pires.
Another result may well be that
other union leaders who have prepared
to call strikes in their unions will un
derstand that their day of dominating
the government and the people of the
United States is drawing toward 8
close. If thew lose anv of the "~pains" he.