Evening star., 1946-01-21
Truman Meets Heads
OF Congress 70 Talk
About Steel Crisis
Continued From First Page.)

hluSt NC gwen JUST snare OF IN
creased output in higher wages"
He again asked Congress to act on
his proposal for creation of fact
finding boards backed up by sub
poena authority and provision for
30-day cooling-off period for labor.
Only few scattered steel mills,
were unaffected by the strike.
Among these were a half dozen
small ones in Pennsylvania, the
Weirton Steel Co., Weirton, w. Va,
and Henry j. Kaiser's large plant
at Fontana, Calf. ALI the COM
panies signed up with the CIO for
President Truman's recommended
1871 -cents-an-hour wage increase
before the strike deadline.
While there was small indication
as to what the Governments next
step would be to end the strike, the
Civilian Production Administration
warned that within a week or two
steel starvation will be closing lone
factory after another"
Priorities Suspended.
CPA Administrator John D. Small
issued orders suspending immedi-
ately all civilian and military
priorities for steel and setting up
of a plan of voluntary rationing
for warehouses, so that compare
lively small supplies may be chan
neled into public utility. fire, police,
hospital, railroad, food processing
and other uses related to public
health and safety.
He predicted a stable part of
hard goods manufacturing plants
would be curtailing or shutting down
operations soon if the big strike
continues. Mr.. Small described the
strike as national disaster" but
recommended against seizure now
in the absense of assurance that
it would send workers back to the
mills.
We'll see one factory after an
other close within two or three weeks,
and even before that in many plants
supplying parts and materials" Mr.
Small said He added that many
plants have only IS days supply of
scarce sheet steel used for automo-
biles, and other civilian products.
Michigan To Be Hard Hit.
In Detroit, John L. Loyett, general
manager of the Michigan Manufac-
turers' Association, predicted 100000
workers in that industrial State
would be idle within a month.
Nobody has more than a 30-day
supply of steel on hand and some
have lot less" he told reporters.
A report was circulated here that
President Truman would take over
the steel industry in about two
weeks and place Mr.. Kaiser in
charge of it. Top officials placed
little credence in the report, al
though they did not discount pos
Sibility of eventual seizure.
The strike machinery was set in
motion quietly. Furnaces had been
cooled in preparation for possibly a
long shutdown. Production had
ceased in most mills hours in ad-
vance of today's 1901 am. deadline.
Picketing Orderly.
First reports said picketing was
orderly. In the sprawling Chicago
Gary area, scene of violence during
the 1887 Little Steel strike, union
spokesmen said the picketing would
be light unless the companies at
tempt to get back into production"
AS industry faced the prospect of
doing without steel, another i'm
portant NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. back in
again in II plants of the
Plate Glass Co. and the
Ownes-Ford Glass Co.
The two companies make a major
part of the glass required for new
homes, postwar trains and automo-
biles and hundreds of other pur-
poses. Their plants had been shut
down three months by strike of
$4,000 CIO members.
10.7-Cent Raise Accepted.
Settlement of the dispute was
reached Saturday night, with the
workers accepting 10.7 cents hourly |
raise, plus an additional cents for
certain maintenance duties. A clause
in the contract, retroactive to last
October 2, permits the union to petit
ton for subsequent increases. The
union originally demanded Is cents
an hour more pay.
Another major strike development
was acceptance by the heads of Gen.
eral Electric and Westinghouse COM
panies of an invitation to meet with
Secretary of Labor Schwellenbach
and officials of the CIO Electrical
Workers in Washington tomorrow
morning. They will discuss the
wage dispute which has made idle
200, 900 employees of the electrical ap-
pliance industry.
AS the steel strike got under way,
the steel industry-according to an
industry authority who should know
will lose through the strike about
S10,000,0 900 day in gross revenue it
would have received on its steel sales
if there had been no strike.
The industry's average daily wage
has been computed at $3.50. At that
rate, 100000 workers will lose S.
1880 each day they remain idle.
The union has been arranging with
various companies to let mainten-
ance crews pass through the picket
lines so the plants will not suffer
damage by their inactivity.
Planes Land at Plant.
The most unusual event yester-
day occurred at Lackawanna, N. Y,
where three airplanes made a total
of five trips over CIO picket lines
around a strike-bound B&hlehem
Steel Co. plant.
The planes landed on company
property, and, a company spokesman
said, brought in some personal
items. such as cigarettes and fresh
milk and various small maintenance
items for the plant"
Officials talked of asking a gov
ernment investigation. The COM
pany denied the planes had been
used to carry strikebreakers into
| the plant. The plant has been