LABOR: Why Shouldn't I?

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One day last week, Speaker Joe Martin sat in his suite in Washington's Hay-Adams House and explained how he had brought about the end of the 29-day coal strike.

Gentlemen, I Said. "I had been worried about this strike," said Joe. "As quietly as possible and without attracting anyone's attention, I nosed around and found out everything about it. I came to the understanding that if somebody would move in, the thing could be adjusted. And it was time for somebody to move in. The Administration wasn't doing anything. I said to myself, why shouldn't I do it? So I called John Lewis.

"I asked him if he would come up and see me. I said to him that the strike was getting to be very destructive and that it was going to put our economy into a tailspin.* Furthermore, I said, if this strike isn't settled soon, the Administration is going to move in with controls and that will be bad for everybody.

"Lewis agreed with me and said he would be in my office at 11. Then I called Ezra Van Horn [the operators' representative] and gave him the same spiel. He said he would see me at 11. When they arrived I took them into my office and said, 'Gentlemen, this thing has got to be settled. I understand that the whole dispute hangs on getting a referee—a third trustee for the pension fund.' "

Why Sure, Joe. "They asked if I had a candidate. I said, 'Yes. He's a fairminded, level-headed Yankee. He is Styles Bridges [anti-New Dealing New Hampshire Senator, chairman of the Appropriations Committee, a supporter of the Taft-Hartley Act]. They seemed pleased at the suggestion and they asked, 'Will he take it?' I said, 'He certainly will.' So I got him on the phone at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York.

"He said, 'Why sure, Joe, I told you last night I would take the job.' Then and there Lewis and Van Horn elected Styles Bridges the third trustee. It was agreed that the three of them would meet the next day."

Some Suspicion. That was Joe's story and he stuck to it. There was some suspicion that there was more to the whole business than met the eye. Lewis was anxious to get out of a legal box. So far, he had disregarded a court order to send his miners back to work. He was due to appear before Federal Judge T. Alan Goldsborough and explain why he should not be held in contempt. Goldsborough was the man who, a year ago, had slapped him and his union with a $3,510,000 fine (later reduced to $710,000) for being in contempt in a similar case. There was a suspicion also that Lewis saw a chance to humiliate Harry Truman by throwing credit for solving the coal strike to GOP Speaker Joe Martin.

In fact, Senator J. Howard McGrath, Democratic National Chairman, was wrathful. "This device will fool no one," he said. Harry Truman, however, did not feel so bad. He met Joe that night at the Gridiron Dinner and said to him: "You can have him, I don't want him, he's too fat for me."