West Germany: Feather for Ludwig's Cap

West Germany's next chancellor, Economics Minister Ludwig Erhard, passed his first test for the big job last week. A week-long labor stoppage among 400,000 metalworkers in Baden-Württemberg was threatening to spread to the industrial Ruhr. Already $100 million had been lost in idle factories. It was up to "Uncle Ludwig" to act—and fast. He did. Summoning both sides to a wood-paneled conference room of the Economics Ministry. Erhard sat them down face to face, providing two antechambers for both groups to use for their own discussions. Then the doors were shut and plentiful supplies of cigars, beer and schnapps were brought in to loosen up the bargainers. Erhard shuttled from room to room, chiding, encouraging, cajoling each group as the struggle continued to find a common ground. Then in the early morning hours he came up with a solution that just about split the difference between union demands and management's offer. It was the propitious moment, for each side now was groggy with fatigue—or beer—and before long each side accepted the compromise—a 7% wage hike spread over 18 months (current average hourly wage: about 77¢The feather was in Ludwig's cap, and he knew it. "It was a restless night," he beamed to cheering Christian Democratic Union deputies next day. "You know that I put all my prestige on the scale." The C.D.U. lost no time putting their hero's new prestige to use. Worried over a string of C.D.U. defeats in state elections, the party hustled Erhard off to start work in the campaign for next week's election in Lower Saxony.