National Affairs: A New Way to Strike

For years, John L. Lewis had played one role—the massive, threatening, bully-boy champion of his miners. Last fall he was challenged, fined, and—the U.S. thought—stripped of his power to strike. But the great opportunist, the master of vendetta, was only temporarily thwarted, not subdued.

To John Lewis the mine blast which killed in men at Centralia, Ill. (TIME, April 7) was his opportunity for revenge. Under the guise of a "memorial" shutdown to let his miners mourn their dead, he found a new and gruesome way to strike, despite Government ownership of the mines, despite the Supreme Court.

As millions of shocked...