The Cost of Compromise

The U.S. Congress was confronted last week with the necessity of having to cough up money to implement one of its more unwary pieces of legislation.

It was spring and, as usual, the fancy of John L. Lewis and his United Mine Workers had lightly turned to thoughts of strikes. Complying with the terms of the Smith-Connally Act, they formally announced their intention. That meant that the U.S. Government would have to poll 400,000 miners in 3,000-odd voting booths to find out whether they did or did not want to strike.

For this unprecedented undertaking, the National Labor Relations Board will have to concentrate its entire field staff and hire a few additional thousand employes. Accountants figured out that this operation, whose conclusion is obvious to anyone (i.e., a thumping "aye" vote); would cost the U.S. $300,000. The NLRB has not got that much money. Congress will have to appropriate it.

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