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Show EDITORIAL: Were You Wise Mr. Lewis? IT WAS only thirteen years ago that the men who mine bituminous bi-tuminous coal received a wage of 50 cents an hour, and their leader, John L. Lewis, was without with-out power to bring them more. Big John had gambled heavily, a few years previous, in a game to force the wages of his miners up, but Big John had lost, and the UMW was forced to retreat, seeking whatever shelter it might find behind the name of organized labor. But time alters circumstances and the ways of men change, so a few short years after John L.'s resounding defeat at the hands of the mine operators the great period of labor reformation set in, and Mr. Lewis with well laid plans was quick to seize the wide open opportunities offered by an ultra-liberal government. He . became powerful, he made demands which were met, he organized or-ganized the CIO, and baited business bus-iness at every turn. He became feared, and through astute, unadulterated un-adulterated courage emerged the symbol of all that organized labor had been hoping and fighting for.. HE DEFIED his government during its trying period, knowing know-ing full well that by his order he could have prolonged the war or even brought the nation to defeat. Yet John L. Lewis, like so many men who achieve the dynastic right to direct, lost sight of the good he had done and may have been destined to accomplish, and expended his tremendous energy on attaining more power. He exceeded bounds beyond which wiser men have refused to venture, and, in spite of his natural shrewdness, his brilliant mind and ability, he stands today to lose for himself many of the weapons given him by sympathetic hands; tools he used to hack his way to power. And the United Mine Workers, what do they stand to lose because be-cause their chieftain, Mr. Lewis, had misguided ambitions? First, and in all probability their strongest ally, the Wagner Act, will be drained of its one-sided labor provisions. Too bad, because be-cause the Wagner Act was hailed, hail-ed, at the time of its enactment, as the document which emancipated emanci-pated the American laborer, and when it is amended, as it no doubt will be, all organized labor la-bor will feel its effect. The closed clos-ed shop which now gives unions complete control over workers, will go, and the Wagner Act re-written re-written to restore powers previously pre-viously held by employers. What about it, Mx. Lewis? All signs point to legislation, carefully planned to break down gigantic labor organizations into small independent units, units that can be dealt with suddenly and harshly. Employers will have the right to exercise discipline over unruly employees, while the unions will be forced to arbitrate ar-bitrate rather than strike, under the terms of legislation now being be-ing considered. Were your ambitions am-bitions worth it, Mr. Lewis? LABOR LEGISLATION may not come suddenly, but it will come, carefully planned and there is a note of apprehension among the miners over the pending pend-ing storm. Although facing it with bravado they are aware that they have lost more through idleness forced by strikes than if they had worked on the Id basis. They show concern over what the general feeling is to-ward to-ward them, for they realize that in the end they will lose. They support John L. Lewis because he raised their pay from 50 cents an hour to $1.46 an hour, but there are growing indications in-dications that today they believe be-lieve he has gone too far. Although Al-though supporting him for the good he has brought, they dare not criticize him for the evil he is doing, for the monopolistic control of union over workers is too great for the laborer to call himself a free man. So when the smoke clears and the United Mine Workers' are able to. take stock, their question will be: "Were you wise, Mr. Lewis?" |