THE ADMINISTRATION: Rather Confusing, Isn’t It?

As the seven-week-old steel strike began to paralyze civilian and arms production last week, one Washingtonian suggested a new kind of seizure to end the dispute. Why not seize Presidential Assistant John Steelman and Price Boss Ellis Arnall and ship them back home to Arkansas and Georgia? The idea had some merit. Steelmakers, in the firm belief that they had a promise from Steelman for a $5.20 boost in prices, had come close to agreement with the union on wages and a form of union shop. Then Steelman withdrew the promise.

To drive home the point, Arnall turned down a request by Weirton Steel Co., which has already granted a boost of 16¢ an hour to its nonstriking independent union, for any increase bigger than the $2.84 the company was entitled to (even before the wage boost) under the Capehart amendment. Said Arnall: This “definitely and completely repudiates, withdraws or reverses” any previous Government promise to the industry. To newsmen, trying to keep up with the giddy on-again, off-again Government offers, Arnall said: “It is rather confusing, isn’t it?”

This week, union and management met again as the steel loss to the nation rose to 16 million tons, or 15% of a year’s production. After four hours, the meeting ended without a settlement. Before the C.I.O.’s Wage-Policy Committee this week, President Philip Murray defiantly announced that the steel industry had repudiated a strike settlement he had worked out with Bethlehem Steel in June. Cried he: “Nobody is big enough to lick you.” The C.I.O., Murray later explained, would not settle for anything less than a full union shop. The committee promptly voted unanimously to continue the steel strike. “The unholy alliance of steel companies wants total surrender by the union … [We] pledge to carry on this struggle.”