NEWS OF THE WEEK
THE constitutional crisis in the United States is grave, but there is at least the assurance that it will be treated as such by the President. "I am a constitutional Presi- dent," Mr. Truman has said. Consequently, although the action of a Washington judge, in ruling that the United States Government had no right to seize the steel industry, has plunged the country straight into a dangerous strike, the due process of law is being gone through and the whole question is being submitted to the Supreme Court. If Mr. Truman is willing to hand over to the judges an issue which may cut down the President's large but ill-defined powers to intervene in industry in a national emergency it is certainly not for any non- American to criticise him. It is a courageous act. But unfor- tunately whatever the final decision of the Supreme Court may be, and however profound the effect of its decision on the course of American constitutional history, it will not settle the dispute which has already brought the vast and vital United States steel industry to a standstill. That dispute arose over a claim by the steelworkers for higher pay and improved con- ditions. One Federal agency, the Wages Stabilisation Board, wished to grant much of their claim. Another agency, the Office of Price Stabilisation, refused to sanction the increase in the price of steel which would have been necessary to meet the higher labour costs. In effect, the President's seizure of the industry would have favoured the unions by removing control from the hands of the protesting employers. But it would not have broken the deadlock. Nor will a decision that the industry cannot be taken away from its owners by the Federal Govern- ment. The wage claim will still be there and the employers will still be unwilling to meet it.
