For the first time in his presidency, Richard Nixon was moved to use the Taft-Hartley Act. Despite his longstanding reluctance to interfere in labor disputes, he sent Justice Department attorneys into federal court last week to stop the 98-day strike by the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union that had shut down every port on the West Coast. The economic impact gave him no choice. Citing the "irreparable injury" of the strike, Government lawyers were granted a temporary restraining order. This week the court will consider a permanent injunction that would impose an 80-day cooling-off period.
Longshoremen also...