GOVERNMENT: The Peacemakers

For seven months the labor situation at the Government's vital Oak Ridge and Paducah atomic-energy plants had been as explosive as an Abomb. The C.I.O.'s Gas, Coke & Chemical Workers union wanted a raise in pay, angrily threatened a crippling strike to get it; Union Carbide & Carbon Corp., which runs the plants, turned down the demands. After a three-day strike last July, Labor Secretary James Mitchell and C.I.O. President Walter Reuther both pleaded for a settlement, but negotiations bogged down again; an 80-day injunction only postponed the inevitable showdown.

Finally, the Government's...

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