Evening star., 1949-12-19
Probe Of Unions Urget
To Help Find Cause
OF Steel Price Rise
Opportunity to Study
Factor of Strikes Seen
, Open to O'Muhoney
By David Laurence

By David Laurence
Senator O'Mahoney, Democrat,
of Wyoming, has real oppor-
tunity now to perform an autopsy
on the coal and steel strikes
of 1949 to determine just who
exercised power irresponsibly-
whether It was the steel and coal
unions or the producing COM
panies, and whether the rise in
prices of steel and coal. now
shaping up. could have been
avoided.
Every time there's a price rise,
there's a squawk. But nobody in
the Truman administration or in
the Democratic leadership in
Congress has ever let out a
squawk when costs have been
recklessly forced upward through
the monopoly power Of industry
wide unions.
So here's a chance to get at
the facts. provided, of course,
Senator O'Mahoney is in earnest
in wanting to analyze the fac
tors that make for price rises.
He will not be able, if he is OBJ
jective about it, to do as the sub
committee of the House Judiciary
Committee has done -to soft
pedal any real inquiry leading
into monopolistic power exercised
by unions.
For the facts will show in the
case of steel, for example, that
the smaller companies recently
began advancing their prices be-
fore the United States Steel Corp.
acted and that if the latter had
stuck to its price scale there
would have been lot of smaller
steel companies forced out of
business just as soon as the pres
ent abnormal demand-likewise
stimulated by the work stoppages
dies down..
Murray Seen Responsible.
The truth is that Phil Murray
is to no small extent responsible
for forcing up the price of steel.
He did so by ignoring the recon-
mendations of the Presidents
ct-f1nding board and imposing
on the steel companies not just
q 10-cent-an-hour cost increase
for social insurance and pensions,
but figure estimated to be at
least Is cents an hour.
The fact-f1nding board said a
10-cent increase could be absorbed
: without price increase. but Ger
tainly not Is cents. It is esti-
mated that every cent an hour
means an increased cost of $6,-
100000. So, in the case of the
steel corporation, the social insur-
ance and pensions will cost close
to $100.000,000 a year-which is
way beyond what the 10-cent-an-
hour package was to have cost.
But this is not the entire reason
for the advance now In steel
prices. There are many other fac
tors, not the least of which are the
losses growing out of idle plants
In connection with the John L.
Lewis antics this year which he
called "Stabilization" but which
brought red figures, as overhead
and other costs mounted in coal
mining.
Then there is the big factor
involved in bringing to the steel
mills from distant points the low
grade ores which now have to be
processed at high cost to replace
the high-grade ores no longer
available in sufficient quantities.
It has been rumored in the steel
trade that somewhere near 81 ,000,-
100000 in additional costs of i'm
proving the ore and increasing
transportation facilities are in
volved in the ore question alone.
Probe of Unions Urged.
Doubtless the steel executives
will be glad of the chance to tell
the public why they advanced
their prices. It is something,
however, that in all fairness can
not be dismissed without a thor
ough investigation of the behavior
of Messrs. Murray and Lewis and
their two unions in recent months.
The inquiry will not be COM
plete, moreover, unless the Senate
Joint Committee over which
Senator O'Mahoney presides
delves into the affairs of the
smaller steel companies, so many
Of which are on the verge of going
broke because of the high costs
of pensions and social insurance.
What would the Representatives
and Senators-who are so quick
to cry monopoly" when prices are
advanced and SO silent when the
costs are being forced upward by
labor--say if the United States
Steel Corp. maintained its prices
and gobbled up more of the busi-
ness as the smaller companies,
unable to compete with the low
level Of prices asked by United
States Steel, lost their customers
and had to fold up? This doubt
less would be called "cutthroat
competition" That's why the
larger businesses in America
wisely do not make political de-
cisions on prices but mark their
goods up when costs 60 up.
nd rnH
= lANk Nk~<elLS%elAN
k~''~*~*<~%~*