Seventieth'Year
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Steel
Situation
)Ainions Are Free
Swill Prevail"
Examined
POLITICAL PROBLEM:
President Responsible
For Ending Walkout
By JAMES SEDER
torials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.
I
Y, OCTOBER 25, 1959
NIGHT EDITOR: KENNETH McELDOWNEY
U' Should Cut Budget,
Serve Itself and the State
FE MACHINE ground out a $38 million
budget Friday. Human and IBM gears
ed neatly into place, producing another
>rd request. Only testiness and grimness on
faces of a few Regents at the meeting sig-
ed that 'approvial was slightly less than
hanical - and unrealistic.
'oming on the heels of the use tax decision
accompanying financial. chaos, the mam-
h request could be viewed only with irony.
even if an income tax bill is ever pieced
ether and passed by the Legislature, chances
t it will happen soon are not good. Mean-
le the state will lose $300,000 a day in use
revenues which would have been gathered
ept for the decision.
'he cash crisis, already an interval ratherj
n a crisis, must grow worse before it gets
er. And the state's $100 million cash defi-
icy will probably grow worse, so that when
. if income tax revenues come in they will
used to pay off these debts.
)R THE NEXT seve'ral years the State Con-
broller is inevitably committed to juggle, ex-
ses, to make ends meet as nearly as pos-
e and .to cut expenses as much as is feasible'
rder to keep the state on its feet.
n light of the monetary wreck that is the
e at present, a University serving the state
nrealistic when it requests a budget for the
al year 1960-61 which is $1,326,723 higher
n last year's request, and approximately $5.2
.ion more than the state appropriation for
current year.
heoretically, since the University is sup-
ted by the state, it has no choice but. to
cate the state's citizens "up to the point
re it has used its resources to the fullest
neeting the need" - so President Hatcher
said. Likewise, the University is committed
expand its facilities and resources to pro-
room and services for the citizens of the
e.
he budget for 1960-61 was motivated by this,
onale. In fact, official University news
:ces have called an expected enrollment
of 500 to 1,000 the major reason for the
:er request.
IS OBVIOUS to the most cursory news-
aper reader that the state cares more at
moment about its financial troubles than
about. providing for expanded education. It
wants most to keep bad matters from becoming
worse in terms of dollars and cents. If the Uni-I
versity is to sei've the state at this particular
moment, it should be cutting budget estimates
to conserve state dollars and censt. And it is
not up to the Legislature, but the University,
to make these cuts.
When setting up the budget report, officials
can choose to cut or expand requests, or hold
the line. The University's budget-machinery
inevitably encourages finances to expand. In
the fall, just after one request is made, work
on another is. begun. Reports from depart-
ments, schools, offices, branches, and institutes
throughout the University filter into the ad-
ministration building. These are then consoli-
dated into three {or four huge loose-leaf note-
books, questioned and changed on policy, and
presented to the Regents for their suggestions
on revision. Again revised according to their
proposals,, the final budget is presented to the
Regents for final approval. It takes effort and.
a long time to make a budget.
UNDERSTANDABLY, then, the budget could
.not have' been hurriedly remade when the
use tax decision signalled Thursday that the
state will be under 'financial siege" for a long
period. Nevertheless, the budget requests could
have ground to a halt and reversed direction.
Perhaps the expansion momentum is not
founded on a goal to serve, the state, but on a
lust for size itself. Although the "service" ra-
tionale for raising enrollment does not hold'
at present, the University still asks financial
support for more students. Conclusions, maybe
only partially unfair, can be drawn from the
facts.
o ossibly the Regents did argue the merits of
a ower budget request in their private meet-
ing, but the public will never know if any-
one sat back and looked realistically at the
University's dollars and cents vis-a-vis the
state's dollars and cents.
Can't any administrator look at the budget
realistically? Or is the University too large a
mass to protect itself from the gravity of a,
situation which is forcing the state, and itself,
to slide downhill?
The University, as of Friday, is not serving
the state -- and ih the long run, itself as a
part of the state,
--NAN MARKEL
THERE IS AN academic and journalistic tradition of drawing analo-
gies between modern United States and ancient Rome.
By partially perverting this tradition, one can sum up the steel
strike situation: President Eisenhower is burning while the steel indus-
try and the United Steel Workers Ilddle.
The negotiations between the Steel Companies' Coordinating Com-
mittee and the USW. began last spring. They accomplished nothing.
When the contract expired July 1, the old pact was extended for two
weeks at the request of President Eisenhower. At the end of this period,
the steel mills shut down.
. Negotiations continued on an on-again off-again basis all summer
--with a conspicuous lack of success.
* *. * S
THE PRESIDENT had been expressing increasing concern over the
Oleadlock..His decision to use his power under the Taft-Hartley law re-
flected this.
The one reason for the President's concern is purely economic. The
country is beginning to'feel the pressure of the steel strike. Companies
dependent on steel for manufacturing or construction purposes have
started to slow down their operations and lay off workers. The President
is evidently afraid that the layoffs are beginning to snowball into a
serious economic paralysis.
The President also must be concerned with the time lag between
the strike settlement and the date when the mills can reach full pro-
duction. Steel executives estimate this' will take approximately 35 days.
1uring this period Industries dependent on steel will still be hobbled.
THE PRESIDENT seems equally concerned with the fact that both
sides have shown extreme reluctance to bargain in good faith.
There doesn't seem too much justification for the strike. The steel
companies are rich enough to afford to be somewhat generous and the
workers, who are among the highest paid industrial workers in the
world, can certainly afford to
settle'for a; modest increase.
Three is now supposedly anoth-
er issue - a "more basic" issue-
..e..-H Cber' involved in the, strike. This is the
fight concerning the right of man-
agewent to alter local working
he. said. "Some strikes are the rules.
price of. a free society," Management claims it wishes to
"In our society, continuous pro- end "featherbedding and loafing"
duction and stable labor relations and "increase plant efficiency."
require a fantastic amount of mu- The USW claims the i n d u s t r y
tual accommodation," Haber said. wishes to re-impose "industrial
The alternative is "'industrial au- dictatorship."
-Daily-David Cornwell
A TOOTH AND NAIL AFFAIR
CAN'T STOP BIG STRIKES:
Present Taft-Hartley Act Inadequal
By PETER DAWSON
Da~iy Contributing Editor
THE PROVISIONS of the Taft-
Hartley Act are "inadequate"
for stopping big strikes. Prof. Wil-
liam Haber of the economics de-
partment said yesterday.
If a strike is not settled during
the 80 days of its injunction, he
said, the 'law provides no remedy,
and Congress may have to deal.
with it by special legislation.
"It is most unfortunate," Prof.
Haber said, to have to wait- long--
in this case, 90 days - until the
President appoints a fact-finding
board. He should be given explicit
authority to designate a fact-find-
ing board with power to subpoena
at any time, "even before the
strike starts, and certainly at any
time after."
* * *
A FACT-FINDING board has an
advantage over the present media-
tions service, Prof. Haber said. It
brings the issues into the public
eye and mobilizes public opinion.
The mediation service works be-
hind the scenes, he said, "as it
must."
The idea of early appointings of
AS I SEE yIT. ... By THOMAS TURNER
INTERPRETING:
.Indus try-Labor War
Maims Foreign Policy
By J. M. ROBERTS
Associated Press News Analyst
ROJECTION OF President Eisenhower's.picture of steel strike effects
onto the world screen produces the clear implication that the na-
tion's chief weapon in the cold war is being dulled.
Not because of its interference with construction of missiles and their
bases, or for any direct effect on military defense, which is serious
enough,. Instead, because it is damaging the national economy.
Soviet Russia, having the initiative in the cold war, chooses the wea-
pons. In the beginning she chose an aggressive teritorial expansionist
policy backed by military strength. Now she has switched to economic
warfare.. Her twin goals are to rival the United States in economic
capacity and'to demonstrate to countries which are just developing
fact-finding boards has been ad-
vanced by labor secretary James
D. Mitchell. But Haber goes a step"
further.
Haber would have the board be
empowered to make findings and
recommend terms of settlement,
It should do so, he said, later on-
perhaps at the time the President
finds that national health or safe-
ty are being endangered by the
strike.
* * *
THE recommendations would not
be binding, Haber said, but' the
making of them would create more
public pressure on the disputants
to compromise. The pressure would
probably be in the direction of the
iterms of the recommendations
sthemselves.
The Taft-Hartley Act prohibits
the fact-finding board from mak-
ing recommendations, but George
W. Taylor, chairman of theboa
now in action, has made'. public
comments about the parties' posi-,
tions,,thus acting a little as Haber
thinks he should be empowered to
act.
Why not make the recommenda-
tions be binding? "Almost every-
body involved," Haber said, is
"strongly opposed" to any law
that would force disputants to go
to arbitrators and accept their
deoisions.
"YOU CAN'T turn wage settle-
ments over to a court without
seriously compromising the nature
of our private-enterprise system,"
NLY ONE-THIRD of ,the University's reve-
nue for 1958-59 came from the legislative
ropriation, Vice-president for Business and
ance Wilbur K. Pierpont told the Regents
day.
his represented a drop in appropriation from
year before, while private grants for re-
rch rose significantly.
'o what extent this is cause and to what ex-
b effect of the University's announced great-
emphasis on graduate Work is perhaps im-
sible to determine. But certainly, with the
e's finances in their present condition,
wth to the 28,000 level President Hatcher
suggested -will depend heavily on the
rtes of revenue other than appropriations.
ith foundations and industries contribut-
both relatively and absolutely more heavily
he maintenance and growth of the insti-
on, the influence they will exert on shap-
this growth is considerable.
NSEQUENCES of this influence may be
interpreted either positively or therwise.,
new Dearborn Center, for example, repre-
s an innovation in education whose value
not be realized for some time. Such an
ovation would not have taken place had it'
i up to the legislature to appropriate funds
it.
et the impetus for, this innovation came not
n the educators who administer the Uni-
ity, but from the businessmen of Michigan's
industry. By presenting the proposal in
Editorial Staff
THOMAS TURNER, Editor
l POWER ROBERT JUNKER
rial Director Ctty Editor '
RLES KOZdLL .............. Personnel Director
v KAATZ. ....................Magazine Editor
rON HUTHWAITE...... .... Features Editor
BENAGH ................ ..... Sports Editor
CA SAWATA ...... Associate Personnel Director
ES BOW . ................Associate City Editor
kN HOLTZEi ........ Associate Editoriak- Director
R DAWSON.............. Contributing Editor
E LYON.. ..... ...... Associate Sports Editor
)KATZ ............... Associate reports Editor
Business Staff
RONALD PETERS. Busine Mamn .
terms too lucrative to be ignored, the industrial-
ists exerted pull on the direction of off-campus
growth.
Whether either in this instance or in others
in the future this potential danger will be real-
ized remains to be seen. Lack of central direc-
tion in terms of the University's philosophy and
goals has been alleged in the past; adding cen-
trifugal force caused by greater dependence on
outside funds to the directional power the
legislature holds would aggravate the problem.
DISCUSSION of the appropriation-revenue
ratio at the Regents' meeting led to an-
other problem., Vice-president and Dean of
Faculties Marvin Niehuss pointed out that sev-'
eral published reports have interpreted the
entire revenue figure (over $92 million) . as
coming from the state,
By. this reasoning, Niehuss explained, Michi-
gan is considered to spend more per capita on
higher education than any other state.'
While it would be good in one sense to have
people think Michigan shows so much interest
in education, he said, the misconception is dan-
gerous because it's used against the University
when the budget request is discussed in Lan-
sing.
Dispelling this illusion is essential, since there
will be many genuine problems in Lansing this
year.
W HICH BRINGS up perhaps the central point
from Friday's Regents meeting. Niehuss
said student fees would tide the University over
through the next pay-day, perhaps through
two. After that, presumably, we turn to the
banks for substantial loans.
But the same demands that were placed on
faculty loyalty last Spring will be placed again,
as professors begin receiving enticing letters
from state institutions in more solvent states.
With the same stresses and strains beginning
this year this much earlier, faculty losses may.
snowball.
The administration and Regents obviously
realize this: the atmosphere at the meeting
Friday was distinctly bleak. There was less of
the usual joking, and what there was seemed
rather forced.
,j ACULTY pay-raises are prioritized first.
tocracy," and we discarded that
when we accepted collective bar-
gaining as the normal way ofU
settling things.
"There's no royal road to indus-
trial peace."
In the present case, he added,
-the use of the Injunction may
delay settlement. Both parties are
under pressure from public opin-
ion. Further, the companies es-
pecially are under pressure.because,
the Great Lakes will freeze in
another month. If .they do not
settle by then, they will not have,
ore for the winter. So they must_
get back into production soon.
SHUTDOWN:
Both Sides
Suffering
By PETER STVART,
Daily Staff Writer
' RECENT steel union slogan.
brandished by pickets dem-
onstrating before President Eisen-
hower at Palm Springs, Calif.,
dramatically questions the whole
approach to the .steel strike.
The slogan is "Steelworkers
Want the Right to Win."
The question is: Will anybody
really "win"' the strike?
For the past 109 days, while
union and management represen-
tatives have traded charge with
counter-charge- and plan with
counter-plan across the bargain-
ing table with no apparent con-
tract progress, other Americans
have felt the economic pinch.
The ,most acute pain is probably
borne by' the two principal parties
in the dispute themselves, wheth-
er they are willing to admit it or
not. The million-plus employes of
steel mills and allied industries
haven't pocketed a pay check in
amany long weeks. During .'the
'longest steel shutdown in history
rthey and their families have been
diving on AFL-CIO "strike fund"
,relief payments, but according to
'recent protests by the wives, this
ps not enough.
S* * *
* * *
THE PROBLEM seems to be
that labor-management relations
have not outgrown militancy. The
militant 'attitudes which both la-
bor and management assumed
when labor was in the organizing
stage are no longer relevant to the
present stage of. union-manage-
ment - at least in the steel in-
dustry. Both sides should be able
to sit down and calmly settle their
differences without p r olon g e d
strikes.
,There are, basically, two ways
of accomplishing this: judicially
.and politically.
There is obvious appeal in a
"judicial" approach. A non-politi-
cal, non-partisan, impartial board
cotld be set up to find a "fair"
solution. After all, this is ana-
tion of laws, not men; it seems
better to find the right solution
than to 'let two selfish groups
paralyze the country.
But what criteria could a nego-
tiating boar use? The union
members want to improve their
economic position -- this is an un-
derstandable desire.
* * *
MANAGEMENT opposes the
wage demands. They claim they
need to maintain their present
margin of profit, so that they can
afford to re-invest in expanding
steel-making capacity - this is
also an understandable aim.
And there is still another prob-
lem. Conservative 'ecofnomisti
claim that the steel union is lead-
ing the trend toward a "cost-
push" inflation which will inev-
itably end in a depression "which
would. curl your ha(ir." Liberal
economists claim that continuous
wage increases are necessary to
our continuing economic health.
All these factors seem to point
out thatthis steel strike and oth-
er. strikes in =major industries do
not. involve simple, "factual" que -
tions.
* '* a
economic systems of their own
that the Communist system is best.
* * *
WHEN THE American way fails
to work, Khrushchev can jig as
Hitler jigged over the surrender
of France in 1940.
So far, nobody in the steel strike
seems to have done much negoti-
ating over the real point of be-
ginning on, a settlement. The
situation fits' Abraham Lincoln's
description of war as something in
which the opponents, having be-
come sufficiently exhausted, sit
down to settle the issues over
which they have fought.
A Presidential advisory group
has reported that the issues to be
settled have not yet been even
defined.
The participants know that these
issues will be reached and settled
in time. In the meantime, the
country is weakened and humili-
ated before the world in a critical
period of human affairs while
each side tries to weaken the
other's bargaining position.
4 *
OTHER businesses are closing
down for lack of steel, despite the
belief, in at least some sections
of the industry, that a ' seven-
months backlog had been pre-
pared. This backlog had been ex-
pected to do for management what
the union had done for itself
through creation of a strike fund.
The emphasis has all been on pre-
paration for war instead of prep-
aration for agreement.
The ramifications are wide-
spread, and not only in the imme-
diate effect of layoffs and produc-
tion stoppages.
Expansion of seemingly unre-
lated production is being held
back. I know of one company
which is ready to come into the
markret with a new nroduct_ This
CLOSED SHOP:
Who Protects Workers?
By SHERMAN SILIER
Daily Staf Writer
THE UNITED STATES Supreme
Court this year will have to
rule once and for all on the con-
stitutionality of compulsory union
membership. Six employees of the
Southern Railway System are
challenging the validity of the
closed shop, arguing that they
should not be required to pay un-
ion dues when part of their money
is used for political purposes to
which they are opposed.,
In 1956, the Supreme Court
actually decided that compulsory
union membership, in itself, was.
perfectly legal. However, at the.
same time, the high court said
that it was reserving judgment as
to the constitutionality of cases
where dues money was used to
promote "ideological conformity"
(which wasn't the question in-
volved in that 1956 case).
This decision contained within
it the germ of the suit presently
being filed. The only avenue left
by the court to' those wishing to
defeat the closed shop was simply
to try to show that compulsory
dues money was used in violation
of the individual members' free-
dom of speech. This is the point
of the case now facing the court.
* * *
ANY NON-PARTISAN observer
can see that there are strong ar-
guments on both sides of the
fence. The union feels that, mor-
ally speaking, since the benefits
obtained through the union are
derived by all workers. not ist
political and lobbying activities
which have nothing to do with col-
lective bargaining-the actual pur-
pose of the union.
The union leaders, of course, in-
sist quite logically that in order
for collective bargaining to be ef-
fective, it must be carried out in
a climate conducive to a success-
ful agreement. This climate, ac
cording to the union, can. be
achieved mainly by strong lob-
bies and the right man in office.
* * *
THE WORKERS say that many
times they approve of certain
goals the union tries to attain,
but disapprove of others. These
members might desire increased
wages, for example, but might ve-
hemently oppose unemployment
compensation insurance. Yet, their
compulsory dues are used for all
activities which the general un-
ion consensus seems . to desire,
without their individual consent.
The question really appears to
be whether certain liberties of
the individual union members can
be justifiably sacrificed in order,
to promote the general good of
most members; or whether, by
safeguarding the liberties of the
few, interests of the many should
be endangered. Certainly this di-
lemma is not easy, perhaps not
possible, to solve.
However, one point does emerge,
from this controversy: Unions
were originally formed to protect
the individual worker from the
claws of the cruel industrial or-
ganization of which was necees-
LOOKING AT steel management.
after their mills have been at a
standstill three months, it is evi-
dent that the strike hurts them
too. It takes. a steady turnover of
capital and products to keep a
manufacturing firm operating,
smoothly, but with steel produc-
tion presently zero the industry's
capital input Is the same.
Unpleasant news'to the millions
of stockholders in the' steel corp-
orations is the loss of important
markets 'and dividend-producing
profits during the strike. .
As pre-strike stockpiles of steel
dwindle, construction, manufac-
turing and general national ex-
pansion are stalled, due to their
heavy dependence on the metal.
One sees the sensitive American
economy wavering in its tedious
upswing as a result of the orippl-
PRESIDENT Eisenhower has
moved cautiously in the strike be-
cause he was afraid to interfere
with the "natural workings" of
the American economic system.
But the economic system is not
involved. The steel strike is simply
a dispute between two groups of
citizens about how to distribute
the income front the making of
steel. This is a political question
and should be settled through the
political processes.
There are two basic problems
involved in a strike of this nature.
The paramount interest is the na-
tional interest-large-scale strikes
in major industries must be
stopped. It is the inescapable obli-
gation of the federal government
-primarily the President-to see
that work is resumed.
The other aspect of the strike
is the question of how to divide
up the profits. The "fair" solution
is the solution that the American
people decide is fair.
T* * *
THEY DECIDE this by electinf
7i