The Waterbury Democrat., 1946-05-15
By DrssO Pearson

A retirement fund established by conersss. The same could be done for the minsr1-thcush not tc be ad- ministsred by one man
 However no one in the White House saw these things in advance. no one had the vision to crack down on John L. Lewis with gas pipelines ir one hand and mine safety. plus proper welfare fund. in the other.
 This failure to meet the issues early, to ward off either bonus army coal strike before it testers is the gravest failure of the Truman admin istration today.
 It is the difference between statesmanship and muddling through It gets to the heart of why we, the most victorious the strongest nation to emerge from the war; have lost leadership of the world today.
 Inside fact i that the first days coal negotiations between John |. Lewis and the operators got off to a had start Lewis demanded time-and-a-han pay promised him by Roosevelt for holiday work, but which Truman had cancelled shortly after V-J Day.
 Ed McGrady, opening the negotiations did his best to emphasize the importance of the conference
 "President Truman speaking for the people" McGrady declared "has said that he wants some results from us in four five days We must not let him down and disappoint the American people
 However Lewis again raised the question of pay for Labor Day. Thanksgiving Christmas, and New Years and refused to arbitrate The coal oper- ators requested time to caucus but after hlrr1ed conferences were not able to reach agreement to give Lewis this pay They contend that. inasmuch as President Truman by an executive order abolished Roosevelts promise shortly after Vel Day, they are not obligated to pay anything further to the miners
 rYouve got the money in your pockets" thun- oered Lewis to the operators Tt belongs to my men
 Finally, McGrady agreed to adjourn and give the operators time to think things over
 Last week. John I. Lewis had an interesting hours conference with Secretary of Labor Schween- bach in which he made this remark:
 why don't you seize the mines? You seize the mines and appoint good administrator, and your crisis will be over"
 'eWho do you think would make good admipis- trator?" asked Schwellenbach ss
 John L. Lewis" replied John L. Lewis Tn see that you get your coal
 Later, in negotiations with John Steelman, Lewis opposed seizure of the mines and said that he couldn't trust the Solid Fuels Administration to run them Lewis said the Solid Fuels Administration and he Interior Department were full of broken-down mining engineers who tools of the operators
 Weakest man around the President continues to ,e St. Louis John Snyder, the alleged war recon yerter Bob Hannegan (who incidentally says Snyder is from Arkansas not Missouri has done his best to persuade Truman to oust Snyder. The President won't budge . At economic sessions inside the White House. Snyder contributes almost nothing ex- ,ept to tell strangers where to find the washroom. individually, Truman has an Al Cabinet but asloe from Hannegan and Byrnes none will light any firecrackers under the presidential chair sec retary of the Treasury Vinson, who used to bat home-runs in the Roosevelt administration, now takes his base on balls. Any administration which can't keep young men or else attract new young blood is bankrupt and young men are leaving the Truman administration so fast it's tragic. Only outfit attracting young blood, the state Department now is under attack with the White House asking for undercover investigation