THE WEEK

In spite of the thunder now rumbling on the horizon, a strike in the steel industry is not forecast. Unlike James Carey of the electrical workers union, for whom the Westinghouse strike was a desperate attempt at personal rehabilitation, the chief of the steel workers, David McDonald, has a solid and powerful position in the labor movement. He does not need a strike, the steel companies do not want one, and both are sobered by the current stumble in the business cycle. An agreement is likely, therefore, which would be sealed by an advance in the price of steel, and of the thousands of products that are made from steel.

Aswegoto press the Supreme Court has awarded a second victory to the railway labor unions (see “Freedom to Join or Starve,” p. 13). It refused to hear the case of two workers who had appealed on the ground of religious scruples against being forced to join labor unions. They contended that Congress, in amending the Railway Labor Act to permit compulsory unionism, had violated the “free exercise” of religion guaranteed them-by the First Amendment. The petitioners in question, George C. Wicks and Phillip F. Jensen, belong to the Plymouth Brethren, whose creed precludes their joining any private organization having among its members persons not of their sect. In refusing to hear them, the Court in effect placed federal labor union policy above a right hitherto protected by the Constitution.

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In spite of the thunder now rumbling on the horizon, a strike in the steel industry is not forecast. Unlike James Carey of the electrical workers union, for whom the Westinghouse strike was a desperate attempt at personal rehabilitation, the chief of the steel workers, David McDonald, has a solid and powerful position in the labor movement. He does not need a strike, the steel companies do not want one, and both are sobered by the current stumble in the business cycle. An agreement is likely, therefore, which would be sealed by an advance in the price of steel, and of the thousands of products that are made from steel.

Aswegoto press the Supreme Court has awarded a second victory to the railway labor unions (see “Freedom to Join or Starve,” p. 13). It refused to hear the case of two workers who had appealed on the ground of religious scruples against being forced to join labor unions. They contended that Congress, in amending the Railway Labor Act to permit compulsory unionism, had violated the “free exercise” of religion guaranteed them-by the First Amendment. The petitioners in question, George C. Wicks and Phillip F. Jensen, belong to the Plymouth Brethren, whose creed precludes their joining any private organization having among its members persons not of their sect. In refusing to hear them, the Court in effect placed federal labor union policy above a right hitherto protected by the Constitution.