Evening star., 1949-03-15

Owners Would Fuce
Prosecution If They
Did What Lewis Did
By David Laurence
II the owners Of the coal mines,
ut the behest Of one man among
those owners, were to bring 1bout
q shutdown Of the industry. he
would be accused Of monopoly. re-
straint Of trade. price fixing and
q lot Of other counts under the
Nations antitrust laws.
But when the head Of the
miners union brings about such
a shutdown. he is violating no law
because Congress. intimidated by
q labor union minority. has been
afraid to make unlawful such re-
straints of trade on the part of
labor unions.
John L. Lewis has every right
TO use his maximum power and to
exercise his immunity from prose-
cution. If employers had q SIM
liar privilege. they would exercise
II, too.
There never was a more con-
spicuous example of what the
closed shop" monopoly means in
trade unionism today. Congress.
which In l947 banned the closed
shop, is now being asked to re-
move that restriction. The mine
workers union has a contract.
made before the Taft Hartley Act
went into effect. permitting q
closed shop until next August. But
Mr.. Lewis isn't worried about that.
for he is entitled. under the Taft
Hartley Act. to bring about 2
union shop If the employees in the
mines so decide by their votes.
The much denounced Taft
Hartley Act really went further
than the Wagner Act by making
1t lawful for compulsory unioniza-
ton to be practiced under the
union shop. The union leaders do
not, however. want to besubjected
even to an election test for the
union shop. and they have the
support Of President Truman and
Secretary of Labor Tobin and a
majority Of the Senate Labor
Committee for the removal Of all
procedural barriers to the making
Of closed shop agreements.
Form Of Dictatorship.
Closed shop monopolies make
possible a form Of dictatorship
over the lives of the workers which
Is best illustrated by the iron
discipline welded over the heads
Of all the coal miners. They must
quit work at the drop Of hat
and they must suffer losses In
wages estimated at many mil
lions Of dollars because the board
Of strategy of a single union
wishes to build UP its bargaining
power for the coming wage neso-
tiations.
Theoretically there is a loss now
In wages. but 1t Is assumed by
the miners board of strategy that
this will be more than made UP
by the concessions to be granted
by mine owners and by wage in
creases forced out OF the Lego
tiations.
Mr.. Truman cannot use any
Injunction powers to prevent the
two-week suspension. and he ap-
parently does not want any spe-
ctfic injunction power with which
to handle Nationwide strikes
anyhow.
Members Of Congress. and espe-
cially the Democrats who are fol-
lowing the orders Of the labor
union lobby. will not be able to
say they were not warned about
the abuses that could arise under
the closed shop. Already some OF
the labor union leaders are criti-
cixing Mr.. Lewis on the ground
that he is hurting the chances OF
passing the Administrators pro-
union labor bill. But the truth Is
that the miners chieftain Is EN-
phasixing asgressively the power
of the modern labor union. He
sees no reason why there should
be any legislative curbs at all.
Public Interest Injured.
II Mr.. Lewis had his way. there
wouldn't be any holds barred and
there wouldn't be any antitrust
laws or labor regulation laws ap-
plicable to management, either. to
interfere with the natural right
of labor and management to Tight
II out whenever they wish to do
%.
In the present instance the
public interest Is being injured.
because nobody in the national
Government Is lifting Q finger to
protect the people against In.
creases In the price Of coal. It
Ia known statistically how many
UONS Oh COul hIC uUOVc BAOuAAA.
Lately there has been an unusual
surplus and q tendency Of the
price to come down.
Mr.. Lewis realizes that this
isn't o good atmosphere into
which to launch his negotiations
for q new contract on June 80.
For n prices 60 down. profits go
down. too. and the opportunity
for higher wages Is impaired.
The mine owners say they do
not relish the two.week suspen-
sion. The fact remains. however,
that any set Of influences which
create q shortage are not at all
undesirable from the standpoint
Of q given industry. In the old
days the owners manipulated pro-
duction and created shortages and
boosted the price. This runs afoul
Of antitrust laws today-for the
owners.
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