Evening star., 1949-10-23
Presidents Strike Powers?

The big strikes in steel and soft coal
are beginning to hurt. For while effects
OF the stoppages were confined to the not
1nconsiderable number OF people employed
by the two giant industries Now this
strike-induced recession is spreading to
the automotive and other industries
dependent upon steel and COAL
Time is running out on the negotiators
and mediators who nave tried fruitlessly
for weeks to bring about settlement of the
strikes caused largely by arguments over
pensions and worker welfare funds.
The time is drawing near when the
President will be forced to use the author
lty OF his office to get the mines and steel
mills In operation once more, step he
Is UNDERSTANDABLE most reluctant to take.
All of this poses the question as to Just
what emergency powers Mr.. Truman pos
sesses to cope with situation which soon
may be grave. The answer is that he has
no weapon to use in settling the dispute
which caused the Strikes, and no quick and
sure-fire way of ending the strikes.
The Government has ended so-called
national emergency strikes in the past by
two methods: Seizure and token operation
OF properties and use of Federal Court
injunctions
AS for seizure methods, the only direct
authority the President had to seize struck
facilities other than railroads was derived
from the wartime Smith -Connally Act
which was removed from the statute books
two years ago. The railroads were taken
oyer in May, 1948, under a special
World War I law which is still on the
books. Since railroads, or most of them,
are dependent on coal, that law possibly
could be stretched to include seizure of
enough mines to assure the carriers of
the coal necessary to keep them running.
But Federal legal minds are very doubt
full that it could be used other than in
very limited way
The peacetime draft act gives the Gov
ernment power to seize and operate facili-
ties necessary for supplying the armed
forces with the things they need. At best,
such authority could be put to only limited
use. And Government officials who have
studied the draft provision say that the
debate preceding its passage shows clearly
that Congress did not intend the seizure
authority to be used in strikes. The "leg-
islative history of the law indicates rather
that it was intended to force a company
to make something badly needed by the
armed forces
During the fight last winter to knock
anti-strike injunctions from labor law,
much was heard about the inherent"
power of the President to seize in protec-
tion OF the public against a possibly dis
astrous strike. But such power has never
been used, never tested. And the lawyers
agree that the situation would have to
very grave indeed before such a course
could be tried. -. ..-
The remaining weapon at the disposal
OF the White House is the strike injunction
feature OF the Taft-Hartley Act, law the
President has helped fashion into a DO
htical football and one which, because of
the accompanying embarrassment, Mr..
Truman is reluctant to use. It is probable
that John L. Lewis, no admirer of the
President, would like nothing better than
to be the cause of such presidential en-
barrassment. And he probably will be.
But aside from that, the Taft-Hartley
procedure takes time. A fact-inding board
must be appointed and it must report
before the President can ask an Injunction
to stay strike for 80 days. At the end
OF that time there is nothing to prevent
resumption OF the strike. In the case of
steel, there has already been fact-finding
board, but 1t had no statutory standing