LABOR: Double Assault

Labor, facing the Taft-Hartley Act, reacted swiftly. John Lewis' coal miners struck back with a sweeping wildcat strike through the nation's coal fields. In his cocked fist Lewis held the threat of a full-scale strike. The rest of the A.F.L. and the C.I.O. mobilized in an effort to destroy the new law, by constitutional and more peaceful means, in the courts.

The miners had acted within an hour after the Senate voted the bill into law over the President's veto. At the grimy tipples from Pennsylvania to Alabama, they threw down their tools and stalked off the...

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