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Show John L. Lewis Leading Anti-Wage Ceiling Fight 'Man Who Came Back' Responsible for Battle Against Little Steel Formula Of Increases. By BALKHAGE Nrws Analyst and Cnmnwntnlnr. YVN'U Service, Union Trust Building, Washington, D. C. There is a new candidate in Washington Wash-ington (or the title of the "man who came back." He has come back before so It Is probably no great thrill for him but It is a terrific pain in the neck for a number of people who hoped this tall, dark ghost had been laid away for the duration, if not for longer. I am speaking of John Lewis, stripped of his robes as head of the CIO which he hewed out of the rock of AF of L opposition. But if his head Is bloody, it is bowed in no humility whatever. Lewis may not be all the way back but it seems very much as if Messrs. Green and Murray are going through some preliminary shuffles that may be a dance to Piper Lewis' tune. Lewis loudly sounded the keynote for what he hopes to be the death march for the Little Steel formula which held wage raises down to a 15 per cent maximum. When Murray and Green heard of Lewis' press conference, con-ference, on the day he sounded his threat, they hurried t9 the White House where the President, who isn't seeing just anybody, permitted the visit and let the CIO and the AF of L talk to reporters on the White House steps but they had nothing to say which could drown the Lewis roar. I talked with a man who has fought labor's cause for many a year without affiliation with any group. He said to me: "There are only two things that will keep from blowing the whole price control system into the high heavens. Either Murray and Green can turn their backs on Lewis, put aside their fears that he will win the plaudits of labor away from them by being the sole champion of wage raises and say boldly to their followers: fol-lowers: " 'We'll do what is best for you and everybody. Inflation will be worse in the end than the squeeze you feel you are getting now.' "If they don't, Lewis will have his way. "The alternative," he went on, "is to have the President call in both the farm and the labor leaders and say: 'All right. How much of an increase in-crease do you want? Twenty per cent? Thirty? But then prices will go up by just that much. Ton and everybody else will be that much worse off.' " Of course, there is another alternative alterna-tive a cast-iron ceiling on prices but the metal to withstand the upward up-ward pressure has not been found. With this situation before him, almost al-most anyone would rather be right or left of center than President. ... Different Problem Recently, to add to the troubles of the labor leaders themselves as well as the government, there was evidence evi-dence of a different type of problem In scattered hot-spots in the labor world undisciplined groups which one man described as made up of men "who wouldn't even take orders from Stalin." Some 300 workers in a zinc smelter smelt-er in Moundsville, W. Va., gave notice that they weren't going to work Saturday or Sunday without overtime pay. This, in spite of the fact that they worked only 36 hours a week. The orders are clear that double-time is only paid for a seventh sev-enth day of consecutive work. But these men said "orders or no orders" or-ders" they weren't going to work Saturdays or Sundays without that overtime. Zinc is one of the bottle necks. The War Production board was frantic. These are only pin pricks and not typical but they cause a near-crisis every time they occur in industries producing essential materials. Quick Comeback To McNutt Edict There has seldom been a quicker comeback in a Washington bout than the smart jab to the chin that followed fol-lowed Paul McNutt's haymaker delivered de-livered at the boys in non-essential industry. The echoes of the "work or fight" ukase of the Manpower commission were still reverberating up and down the corridors of the long list of industries in-dustries from bootblacking to window-curtain -manufacturing when the house military committee arose with its "no. r.o, a thousand times, no!" mm fcw nil 'fit Representative Kilday of Texas obtained ob-tained a promise from Chairman May of the Military Affairs committee commit-tee for immediate hearings on his amendment to the Selective Service act and the "block McNutt" move was soon heavily under way. As you know, Representative Kil-day's Kil-day's bill is aimed to make dependency depend-ency the basic cause of deferment while McNutt's move was to establish estab-lish participation in the war effort in field, factory or the armed forces as the principle governing the order of induction. McNutt's order set the boys in the non-essential businesses hammering at the doors of the United States Employment offices all over the country and consternation and confusion con-fusion reigned. Then up spoke Mr. Kilday. The attitude of those favoring the measure meas-ure to draft the single men first, everywhere, ev-erywhere, before the married men and the others with dependents go, is this: They say they do not want the Selective Service -act made a weapon to force men into essential jobs. They claim the act was never so intended. Legislation, they say, must be passed after careful study which will lay down a manpower program; military service is an honor as well as a duty. It must not be used as a threat. Kilday's Views I talked with Representative Kilday Kil-day before the hearings began. He was optimistic over quick committee com-mittee acceptance of his bill though he said he didn't want to hurry the hearings and he realized all sorts of opposition might develop. He pointed point-ed out that his measure would not alter the present deferments, that it doesn't mean, as some seemed to think, that single men, now deferred under the present deferment rules, will be yanked out of their jobs and thrown into the army. Opponents say, however, in some cases, this will be the actual effect. Whatever the effects on agriculture agricul-ture and industry may be if the bill passes, it will sink the present Manpower Man-power commission program without a trace and with all hands on board. There is plenty of public appeal in the Kilday measure the argument that it is more important to keep the family together than to fill quotas for industry or the army and the navy, te argument that there is no authority in the Selective Service act to do what the Manpower commission commis-sion order is aimed to achieve, namely, to state what job a man is to hold. And that side of the argument argu-ment has particular appeal in a congress con-gress exceedingly jealous of its prerogatives, pre-rogatives, sworn to prevent usurpation usurpa-tion of its powers by the administrative adminis-trative branch. A Prediction Last week, I reported the prediction predic-tion by a keen observer of this whole problem to the effect that one more desperate measure would be attempted at-tempted by the Manpower commission commis-sion before it would be forced to step aside for some other agency. McNutt acted, and within 24 hours of that prediction, the military affairs committee com-mittee announced hearings on the Kilday bill, looks very much like a bird of ill omen echoing the second part of the dire prediction the end of the Manpower commission as an agency with any power of initiative left. To many high army officials, there is grim satisfaction in what is happening. Long ago, it was intimated inti-mated that sooner or later the military mili-tary would have to take over the whip hand and settle the manpower question in its own way. Some military mili-tary men would be quite happy to have the Kilday measure pass, sweep everyone draftable into the armed forces and then do its own reallocation, re-allocation, screening out the men necessary to industry and agriculture agricul-ture and furlough them back as military mili-tary needs, first, and the industry's, second, demanded. One can imagine, however, how union labor would like to see khaki and navy blue manning the stamping stamp-ing machines and the lathes beside the workingmen in civvies. Labor's objection to the bill was expected from the first. And so we have a four-way clash: Legislators, Manpower commission, Military, Labor. Once more, a labor draft "looms" as the headlines say. |