Evening star., 1952-10-26
Genius With Words

" SeSs ' ~ ~
The problem of the coal indus
try was an exceedingly complex one.
But, genius with words that he is,
John Llewellyn Lewis reduced the
whole problem to this absurdly
simple matter of milk for mine
workers children.
Lewis and the Soft-coal opera
tors had bargained a wage con-
tract-a raise of $1.90 a day in
wages and an increase of 10 cents
ton Ito total of so cents) in
miners welfare fund royalties. The
contract went to Wage Stabiliza-
tion Board panel for approval.
When approval was not forthcom-
ing immediately-and when the
first payday passed for some miners
without the increase being re-
flected in their pay envelopes-the
disappointed miners left the pits.
Finally, week ago yesterday, the
board handed down its decision. BY
an 8-4 vote, industry and public
members constituting the majority
and labor members the minority,
the panel cut the wage raise to
$3.50 a day. The Nation waited to
see, not so much what Lewis would
do as how he would go about
doing it.
Hard. Fost and Low
The monolithic old labor giant
hit hard and faSt-and some peo-
pie felt, low. In letter to the head
of the coal operators, he put the
whole controversy on a basis of milk
for miners children. The 20 cents
the miners did not get, Lewis cal
culated, would have bought milk
for their children.
Usually, John LIS prose is COM
posed in rolling, periodic sentences.
This time it was as staccato as
Lewis pen could write it. He ex-
coriated the wage board majority
as gang of thieves. He blasted
the majority as being made up of
-four agents of the National Asso-
citation of Manufacturers
professor from the Harvard Law
School and his timid trio of dilet-
tante associates" He went on:
Naturally miners resent such at
tempted thievery. Miners are peo-
pie. g. They have children. Chill
dren need milk. The 40 cents
would buy milk each day."
Eye on the Courts
With a weather eye on the Fed
eral courts which in the past had
nicked him and his union more
than So million in contempt fines,
Lewis added disclaimer for any
strike that might materialize:
"You assert that many miners
are not working. You also know
that they are outraged by the at
tempt Of the NAM ruffians to fitch
milk money from their purse. They
are acting as individuals. They are
exercising their rights as individ-
uals and free-born Americans.
They have not sought, nor been
given advice, nor suggestions by
their union or this writer. We have
a contract. We expect your COM
pliance with its provisions. Miners
will work when you honor its
provisions"
Lewis letter was directed to
Harry NJ. Moses, head of the Btu
minous Coal Operators Association.
Lewis told the group that the way
to get the miners back to work was
to get the WSB to change it's mind.
And the people to ask for a WSB
rehearing, he said, were not the
miners but the operators. "You,"
he told Moses, "are the sole petit
tioner and plaintiff"
Master Moeieion's Trick
The old magician pulled off the
unimaginable-he got the mine
owners to help him do his work for
him. On Friday night. Moses and
Lewis signed a joint petition to Eco
nomic Stabilizer Roger Putnam
asking for a review of the WSB
decision. Putnam is expected to act
early this week.
Still the miners were not working
as the week ended. Yet there was
no strike the Nation had Lewis
word for that, just mass express
sion of resentment on the part of
individual workers against a plot
to steal money they had budgeted
for milk.
The whole thing was an ingenious
-:but certainly not ingenuous-way
Of driving collective bargain. And