The gleaming, Santa Claus countenance of West Germany's roly-poly Economic Minister Ludwig Erhard darkened with fury. No more than four days after the triumphal end of an election campaign in which he made 86 speeches promising no price increases if voters stuck with Adenauer and free enterprise, the big Ruhr coal-mine managers' association had announced a stiff, $1-a-ton price boost. Berating the coal barons for "stupidity" that reflected "the political instinct of horses," Erhard told off 250 of them at an emergency meeting in Essen: "This has hit like a bomb. You have abused the government. Your price increase...
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