The Daily Alaska Empire

COLUMNIST ICKES
Probably it was pure accident,
but Harold Ickes begins his new
career as newspaper columnist on
the same day he is needed most
in his old job as Coal Administra-
tor. And, good columnist that he
is bound to be, probably most
people would prefer Ickes at the
helm in this coal dispute rather
than wielding a pen three times a
week.
As a columnist, Ickes should tell
the inside story of how he out-
smarted John L. Lewis during the
last coal strike and made him call
it off. However, since he probably
won't tell it, this competitor will.
During Lewis' illegal walk-out
over organizing foremen last fall,
Ickes pulled his trump card. The
Government-owned Big Inch and
Little Inch pipe-lines no longer
were needed to carry oil to the
East Coast; so Ickes threatened to
convert them to natural gas.
Natural gas is the thing which
John L. Lewis dreads most. It
makes him see things under the
bed. Piped up from Texas where
much of it goes to waste, gas can
be sold in the big Eastern indus-
trial centers at a rate which would
put many coal mines out of busi-
ness. Furthermore, Texas gas op-
erators figure that in five to ten
years, atomic energy will jeopardize
their investment, and they are
anxious to sell their gas now.
With this trump card, plus the
fact that the miners themselves
didn't want to strike, Ickes bull-
dozed Lewis into calling the strike
off.
Today the two government pipe-
lines are filled with salt water, and
Mr. Ickes, instead of battling with
John L. Lewis, is brandishing a
pen.