Evening star., 1950-03-04
Coal
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journed subject to call of Chair
man LeSinSki.
Federal Mediation Chief Cyrus
S. Ching and the three members
of the coal dispute board of in
quiry called at the White House
this morning and gave Mr.. Tru-
man a first-hand account of the
settlement. Board Chairman Da-
vid L. Cole and Mr.. Ching had
worked tirelessly to end the strike.
Mr.. Cole, who last night an
nounced substantial agreement
of the diSputants on contract
terms, said the board members
would go home today. Some time
later they will make a final writ
ten report to the President.
Acquittal Being Appealed.
The Government this morning
filed an appeal from the District
Court acquittal of the United
Mine Workers on a charge of civil
contempt. No move was made to
appeal Judge Richmond B.
Keech's acquittal of the union on
criminal contempt charge. Un-
der the law the Government is
precluded from appealing Grim
inal contempt acquittal.
Records in the case were for
warded from District Court to
the United States Court of Ap-
peals and indications were that
arguments will proceed this after
noon.
1t was understood that the Gov
ernment, in appealing. seeks clar-
ification of the law by determin-
ing if the collective action of
the miners in staying off the job
can be, per Sc, charged to the
union. The appeal apparently is
seeking to bring into focus the
opinions OF, Judge Alan K. Colds
borough two years ago and Judge
Keech this week.
The agreement on most contract
terms was made by Mr.. Lewis with
Northern, Western and the cap
tive" mines owned by the steel
companies. The group represents
about three-fourthS of UNIV soft
coal production.
Still outside the fold were the
Southern operators, representing
about one-fourth of UNIV pro-
duction. The Southerners had no
part in making the tentative
agreement with Mr.. Lewis. But
they were expected to accept the
contract when final details are
completed.
Joseph E. Moody, president of
the Southern Coal Producers As
sociation, said that his group
would be very interested in see
ing the final contract terms.
For Mr.. Lewis the settlement
was a substantial though hard
won victory. In order to achieve
it. he subjected the 100000 miners
to nearly a year of limited work
strikes and three-day weeks.
In dollars and cents Mr.. Lewis
proved once again that regardless
of methods he can get more for
his men than any of his big rival
labor leaders.
There were other satisfying
aspects of the settlement for Mr..
Lewis. He hates the Taft-Hart-
ley labor relations law. In this
case he proved that the so-called
national emergency provisions of
Taft-Hartley are no barrier to
him. In effect, he proved the
law will not work. In his own
words, Mr.. Lewis drove a coach
and four" through the law.
Mr.. Lewis called his 200-mem-
ber Policy Committee to meet with
him at 4:30 pm. tomorrow. One
purpose of the meeting will be to
ratify the new agreement.
The miners were jubilant over
the settlement. Many of them
are hungry and most Of them are
dead broke. There was little doubt
that most of the men will return
to work Monday after a full four
weeks of the present strike.
Pay Will Go to $14.75 a Day.
/ Terms of the contract still had
not been announced officially. Re-
porters, however. picked up the
major points of settlement from
union and operator sources.
The operators made one major
concession in connection with the
operation of the welfare fund
They had insisted that fund bene-
fits should be limited to employees
of contributing companies. But
Mr.. Lewis won out, it was under
stood, that all qualified members
of the UNIV should continue tc
be eligible for retirement, sickness
and death benefits.
The money terms include:
/. The miners will receive wage
boost of 70 cents a day. bringing
the average pay to STATS a day
IT. is nv far the highest wage re.