The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1946-05-31
NEWS AND VIEWS
BY ALEXANDER S. LIPSETT
IAN ILNS Feature)
IAN ILNS Feature

John l.. Lewis statement concern
ing the proposed miners health and
welfare fund permits public opinion to
come to grips with the underlying fac
tors of the coal conflict. l, for one, am
glad he made it. He owed it to him
self, organized labor and the Ameri-
can people to state the union posi-
tion on that burning question in terms
which can be understood.
1t should be clear by now that the
issue has been deliberately befuddled.
Judging from the press clamor and the
Mortified shrieks of the coal opera
tors, one would have thought that the
United Mine Workers Union had taken
leaf out of Connie handbook of
instructions; that that uncompromis-
ing foe of left and right extremism
was getting ready for concerted as
sault on American basic liberties and
the structure of our free enterprise
economy. Nothing can be farther from
the truth.
There is nothing strange, incom-
prehensible or unAmerican in the
union proposal to throw protective
dykes around the economic and physi-
cal welfare of the men working in
coal mines, and their families SINH
lar measures have been in force for
some time in the United States and
abroad. They help the workers. They
help industry. Above all, they help
the nation and render substantial
contribution to the physical well-being
and economic. security of the Ameri-
can people.
The argument of the coal operators
that the proposal constitutes "a new
social theory and philosophy is just
downright silly. Moreover, it lacks
knowledge of the elementary facts.
1t has been adequately disposed of in
that part of the Lewis statement
which said:
eve pointed out that govern
ment agancies report that prac-
tically 2 million workers in Amer
lea are now covered by these
funds, that in the ladies' gar
ment industry = nonhazardous -
31a percent is now paid by the
manufacturers in that industry
that if 31a percent is a reason
able amount for the ladies' gar
ment industry to pay, then the
suggestion that the coal indus
try pay percent is ultraconser
vative; that nearly every coun-
try in the world has such funds
for it's mine workers, including
Great Britain, backward Spain
and more backward India.
The mine workers want one in
America. They feel that their
right to have it is accepted by
the majority of the American
people,
There may be room for argument
on fund administration and details
There is none about the basic sound
ness of such a fund. The sooner the
spOkesmen of the coal mining indus.
try realize that Lewis, on that issue
at least spoke for all of organized
labor, the better for all concerned.
Our nation, already sharply divided
within itself, cannot for long stand
continued economic strife and social
turmoil. Sooner or later political rep
ercussiOns will be felt that are likely
to OyershadOw our domestic and party
sauabbles. Americas latent civil wal
and why not call it by it's right
me?-cannot but play into the hands
of those who prefer to fish in muddy
waters. Let employers and workers
alike beware of the consequences OF
ill-cOnsidered actions. The seeds OF
today's strife will be reaped in 9
storm that may shake the United
States to it's very foundations.
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