New Mediation Board

The machinery of the National Defense Mediation Board, which had been hum ming for eight months, finally coughed and groaned to a virtual halt. When the board's decision went against John Lewis in the captive-mine dispute, C.I.O. members resigned and C.I.O. withdrew its disputes from the board's dominion. Since C.I.O. and labor disputes are practically synonymous, the board was left with no work to do. Last week in Washington, board stenographers polished their bright red fingernails; some board members went off to fish.

But it was clear that the board was still far from the scrap heap. Mechanics were already at work stripping out some old parts (such as the board's fact-finding function), putting in some new ones. Predictions were that the board would be recreated by statute (not, as originally, by a Presidential wave of the wand), that it would be backed up by another tribunal which would step in, if mediation failed, to arbitrate.

The old board's chairman, William Hammatt Davis, was not ready for the scrap heap, either. Despite the bazoos blown at him by various critics, the chunky, tenacious mediator had made a phenomenal record by peaceably unraveling the most tangled wrangles. With his belief that reasonable men in reasonable discussion can always find a way out, Mr. Davis was one of the brightest hopes the U.S. had in the murky field of industrial disputes. When the new mediation machinery was set up, observers felt reasonably sure that Mr. Davis would have his hand on the throttle.

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