Evening star., 1960-01-06
OF Debts-ond Payment

Labor Secretary Mitchell, in an in
formal talk to the Steel Unions wage
policy committee, is reported to have
said that the American people owe
great debt to the unions officers.
A few hours earlier the union preSi-
dent, David Mcdonald, told rally in
Buffalo that the steel workers now have
their greatest" contract. I'VE haven't
won little Bit" he said. 1--WE haven't
won it part way; we've won it all the
way"
If this is correct, the nature Of the
great debt which the American people
owe to the union officers is not entirely
clear to us. Perhaps it will become
clearer when the bill comes in; when
all of us, as a result of higher steel costs,
start paying more for every item in
which steel is used.
In saying this we are not trying to
downgrade the part which Mr.. Mitchell
and the Vice President played in this
settlement, nor do we begrudge Mr..
Mitchell a certain verbal exuberance-
even though this contrasts rather
sharply with the strict silence which Mr..
Nixon has maintained. 1t undoubtedly is
a fact that the two men moved into the
deadlock at the right time, and that, as
Mr.. Mitchell has said, they proposed
settlement terms which both sides could
accept but which neither could propose
without weakening its bargaining po-
Sition.
Certainly some attention should be
paid, however, to the remarks of another
actor in this performance-Roger M.
Blough, chairman of the board of United
States Steel.
In an NBC televiSion broadcast, Mr..
Blough definitely did not share Mr..
McDonald's enthusiasm for the Nixon
Mitchell settlement terms. On the con-
trary, he made it clear that the industry
representatives accepted the terms be-
cause they thought they were the best
they could get in voluntary" settle
ment, and because they were afraid they
might get something worse if renewed
strike should bring Congress back into
the picture.
Mr. Blough also delivered lecture
on steel economics, which, If correct,
makes it doubly hard to understand just
what this debt is that the American
people owe to the steel union officials.
Prior to this new agreement-which Mr..
Blough says will cost the steel industry
we'll over 81 billion-American steel pro-
ducers had been losing ground to foreign
competitors, whose wage and other costs
are far lower. He mentioned the case,
without identifying the shipper, of a
consignment of steel bars from overseas
to Cleveland which was sold in that Ohio
city for S118 a ton-$55 ton below the
price that an American steel mill in
Cleueldnd would have to charge for the
same product. For the past two years,
he said, if one counts both increased
imports of foreign steel and the decline
in American exports, the combined loss
has been sc million tons of steel produc-
ton. This would have provided full
time jobs for nearly $4,000 people in the
American steel industry. So Mr.. Blough
says he is concerned, not with closing
the enormous gap" between American
and foreign steel wages, which he con-
CeQeS WOulQ De lHpOSSIUIe, OuI Will
keeping that gap from widening, with a
consequent loss of more and more mar
ketS to foreign competitors.
According to his estimate, however,
this new agreement will cost the in
dustry a billion dollars. If this is not
offset by greater efficiency, 1t almost
surely will result in sitter foreign COM
petition, fewer jobs in the steel industry
and, last but by no means least, more
imitation and further depreciation Of
the American dollar.
We are fully aware that one must
look for a propaganda factor in any
thing said by a man in Mr.. Blough's
position at a time like this. The same
thing goes for Mr.. Mcdonald. 1t may
even go for Mr.. Mitchell. Still, with full
allowance for propaganda element, we
confess to lurking apprehension that
this settlement, when taken with scores
of others similar to it, is leading our
country into very dangerous high-cost
position from which not even Messrs.
Nixon and Mitchell will be able to
eXtricate us.