OCR Text |
Show News Fix Behini By Paul Mallon Jg? ' Released by Western Newspaper Union. STEEL STRIKE TROUBLE STILL COMING UP WASHINGTON. II anything could have been worse than the coal strike settlement, it was the railroad settlement, set-tlement, but worse than both together to-gether is the steel strike trouble coming up. Steel unionist Phil Murray already is pressuring the War Labor board and the White House for another wage increase. This is a campaign year and he knows it. Unless he gets something, he practically says he will lose the CIO to John Lewis, and the White House would sooner lose the buildings and fixtures to Dewey than to allow that. But how to do it? Up to now, old Doctor "Win-the-War" (who has replaced re-placed Doctor New Deal) has been getting around his own Little Steel wage prescription increasing wages more than it allows by especially espe-cially concocted devices such as more overtime allowances, vacations vaca-tions with pay, but chiefly by reclassifications. reclas-sifications. But this steel case is the formula itself, and getting around it without seeming to, will take some doing. Pressuring behind Murray are a national array of unions shipbuilders, shipbuild-ers, textiles, automobiles, aircraft, aluminum, radio, shoes and a half dozen others with similar wage increase in-crease demands beyond the Little Steel formula. Of course, most, if not all these unions, already have received Increases In-creases beyond the 15 per cent allowed al-lowed in the formula. Aluminum, for instance, got that 15 per cent and about 8 or 10 more hidden in reclassifications. On an average, 1 think these unions have received from 5 to 10 per cent above the formula, for-mula, chiefly by upgrading. But this, of course, is never discussed dis-cussed aloud. Only the base pay rate is used in arguments and official offi-cial papers, the reclassifications being be-ing mentioned obscurely, if at all, and never in such a way that anyone any-one (except the particular union-industrial union-industrial wage experts involved) can figure how much actual increase these amount to. What is likely to make the trouble trou-ble is that the unions have discovered discov-ered the more recalcitrant and troublesome trou-blesome they are, the more they are apt to get. The coal miners gol $1.75 a day increase from the government, gov-ernment, a few hectic months after aft-er they would have taken $1.25 from the operators. The operating railroaders rail-roaders won 11 cents an hour increase, in-crease, a few troublesome weeks after Economic Stabilizer Vinson decreed de-creed eight cents would be inflationary. inflation-ary. They also have discovered they can get more by needling their way straight up to Mr. Roosevelt's desk, rather than playing along with Vinson Vin-son or the War Labor board. A situation, indeed a predicament, thus has been created which augurs iU for union tranquility and actually invites strife. My guess is the way Mr. Roosevelt Roose-velt will get around it this time is to let his Davis committee concoct some new devices allowing steel at least to get another hike, probably less than 10 per cent. This is the committee appointed to look into the official labor bureau statistics on the cost of living. 8 S 8 ROOSEVELT UNPOPULAR BUT OPPOSITION IS SPLIT Congressmen came trooping back from their Christmas recess with strange tales of political doings at home. From their talk, I gather everyone is against Roosevelt, and that he may be re-elected. Three midwestern senators came back with approximately the same story: Farmers are more antagonistic antago-nistic to the administration than ever before, due most recently to the hog situation; labor split even wider open politically since the unsettling un-settling rail settlement; no one seems satisfied with the Roosevell administration. These deductions were personally confirmed in a week's trip I made through the Midwest. Yet, as the senators, I found political sentiment jelling in favor of no one Republican candidate who could be said to be more popular than Roosevelt or even widely popular. GALLUP DIFFERS The conclusion is contested by the Gallup poll. Mr. Gallup (unattached) (unat-tached) gives Dewey leadership with 36 per cent (up 1 per cent since September), Sep-tember), Willkie 25 per cent (off 4), MacArthur 15 (unchanged), Bricker 10 (up 2), Stassen 6 (unchanged), and Taft 5 (unchanged). Henry Luce's Fortune magazine (Willkie supporter) is currently printing a poll indicating Roosevelt would get 55 per cent of the vote ii the war is on, 50 per cent if only over in Europe, giving the "best Republican" Re-publican" (unnamed) an astounding minority of only 32 per cent, with 12 per cent of the people in the don't know class. Even more astonishing. aston-ishing. Fortune gives Willkie nearly a 2 to 1 popularity rating over Dew ey among Republicans. Polls are uor;hKs rv m t..i gumct.tnlivr I" ' I""' - i't u.. u- ;'.e: si: ' II e r.-, |