Fourth Round?

Even as the economy showed signs of getting its second wind, a new threat arose--the possibility of the first serious wave of strikes since 1947. Now, as then, the test would come in the nation's two biggest industries, steel and autos. In both, the C.I.O. was already threatening to strike to get a fourth round of wage boosts.

With the Ford contract on a day-to-day basis, the United Auto Workers' Walter Reuther insisted that only a surrender by Ford could avert a strike; "We are prepared," cried Reuther, "to use all the weapons possessed by free labor in America." The steel workers talked just as tough, but Big Steel's tight-lipped Ben Fairless showed no signs of yielding. Snapped he last week: "There is no sound or proper justification for . . . a wage increase at this time."

Such talk was relatively easy for steel, which had already felt such a shakeout that it had laid off hundreds of workers. But the auto industry was still booming and expected to sell every car it could make this year. To keep making them, while the market is there, it might be willing to undermine Big Steel's stand against raises. That is precisely what happened last year, when General Motors gave the U.A.W. a third round and broke the solid front of Big Steel and General Electric.

With no compelling reason to compromise and with production outrunning demand, the steel industry might prove as agreeable as the coal industry to a shutdown that would use up customers' stockpiles. Knowing this, steel union leaders were likely to walk cautiously, but CIO President Philip Murray showed no sign of backing down. This week, after getting both sides into a huddle Federal Mediation Director Cyrus S. Ching told President Truman that they were hopelessly deadlocked. Murray said this could mean only one thing, strike. Apparently, he was putting his chips on the hope of last-minute intervention by the White House.

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