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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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they approved of the settlement or not, if the necessity was to get coal, this would get coal. I think the board was pretty nearly unanimous on this stand. Of course, the chief thinkers on this were Davis, Morse, Graham. The principal active thinker on the labor side was Watt. Probably the principal active thinker on the employer side was George Mead. There were others. I think the board was practically unanimous on that.

At that time they had labored and brought forth what was called “the little steel formula.” They thought that was just the Ten Commandments. They had worked awfully hard to get it and they couldn't tolerate any breach in it. And, of course, John Lewis was so constituted that he was going to have a breach in it for the coal miners. If little steel got this, then the coal miners had to get more. They just had to. It's one of those situations that has existed right along, both before the war and since the war. I don't know whether the board was right in sticking to it or not, but it was annoying at the time.

Lewis announced constantly that he would not accept the authority of the board, that they had no authority over him. He wouldn't take into consideration anything that they had to say. He debated his agreements with the operators of the mines.

The miners then stayed away from work again. When the War Labor Board stepped in and said that they wouldn't approve





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