Evening star., 1952-06-12
Steel Seizure
Voted Down by
House Group
Measure Patterned
| After Bill Beaten in
Senate Loses, 1910

Is to 10, today a proposal that
President Truman be empowered
to seize and operate the struck
steel mills.
1t was the first formal vote by
any House group since Mr.. Tru-
man went before Congress Tues.
day and pleaded for this power.
The Senate previously had re-
oufted Mr.. Truman by voting that
he should use antistrike pro-
visions of the Taft-Hartley law
IN an effort to end the strike of
$4,000 CIO United Steelworkers.
And today Senators favoring seiz-
ure power for the President aban-
doned their fight to write it into
Wage-prlce controls legislation.
Ihey said they would propose it
again later in a separate bill.
Boiling Raises Question.
The seizure question was raised
in the House Banking Committee
by Representative Boiling, Demo-
Icrat. Of Missouri, who proposed it
as an amendment to legislation
extending the economic controls
law.
Mr.. Bolling's amendment was a
duplicate of that offered in the
Senate Tuesday by Senator Hum
phrey, Democrat, of Minnesota
and rejected by that body.
Members reported nine Demo.
Gratis and one Republican sup
ported the seizure move in the
House committee. Five Demo-
Gratis and 10 Republicans were
against it. One Democrat voted
present and one Republican was
absent.
The House group is working on
its own version of new wage
price controls law to replace the
present one, which expires June 30.
The Senate battling over seizure
power has been in connection
with the Senate's own version of
controls legislation.
Clears Way for Vote.
Abandonment of the fight for
a seizure power amendment
cleared the way for an early
Senate vote on the controls bill.
The Senate previously had re-
jected by top-heavy margins four
separate efforts to give Mr.. Tru-
man the seizure powers he asked.
Two more were pending today.
but were disposed of in this FASH
ion:
First. Senator Case, Repub-
llcan. OF South Dakota withdrew
an amendment containing a linn
Ilted seizure feature.
Then Senator Maybank, Dem.
ocrat. of South Carolina, floor
manager for the controls bill. an
nounced he would not call up his
amendment containing a compre-
hensive seizure plan.
Senator Maybank asked that
all OF the seizure plans discussed
IN connection with the controls
Dill be sent to the Senate Labor
Committee for consideration in
connection with a separate seizure
bill.
He said such a measure could
be acted on by Congress in August
or September if the current steel
dispute were not settled by then.
Senator Humphrey, chairman Of
a Labor subcommittee on seizure
bills. assured Senator Maybank
that the group would 60 ahead
intensively with a study of all
the plans.
Use of Taft Act Seen.
Senator Maybank's reference to
August or September as a time
when seizure bills could be con-
sldered indicated he had in mind
that steel production might be
resumed, meantime, by use of the
Taft-Hartley law.
The law allows the Govern
ment to seek a court order, good
for 30 days, against a strike which
lmperils the national welfare.
The Government, meanwhile.
worked on a plan to reopen some
strike-bound steel mills to pro-
duce materials for the Korean war
and other vital military programs.
Steel management, union and
Federal officials met with John r.
Steelman, acting defense mobi-
lizer, to find ways of getting the
much-needed military steel. The
l7-man group included eight Gov
ernment officials, top officers of
nVe steel companies and three
leaders of the striking CIO United
Steelworkers.
Mr.. Steelman's committee spent
several hours this morning dis
cussing ways of getting finished
and Semlfinished steel released
from the strike-bound company
warehouses. There was no precise
estimate as to the amount of this
steel there was in the production
pipelines at the time of the mills
shutdown. One official said, how
ever. that the amount was large.
Later this afternoon, Mr.. Steel
man said the committee hoped to
get around to the main problem Of
working out a way of reopening
some steel plants for military
needs.
There was no known move afoot
to end the 10-day-old strike of
$50. 900 steelworkers through nego-
tiations or otherwise.
Parade of Graduates