Fact Forcing

The dislike of "compulsory arbitration" that led Congressman John F. Kennedy to vote against the Taft-Hartley Act in 1947 was still plainly visible last week in President Kennedy. As the fortnight-old maritime strike began closing down oil refineries in Texas and threatening residents of Puerto Rico and Hawaii with a diet of bananas and pineapples, the President's "fact-finding" board, which he appointed to determine whether the strike menaced the nation's health and safety, spent most of its time trying to revive negotiations between the shipowners and the seamen.

The committee succeeded in securing a conditional agreement between the 37,000-member National Maritime Union and the shipowners. The terms: a wage increase rising to 11% over the next four years in return for which the unions would relegate to a "study committee" their demand for the right to organize the crews of U.S.-owned ships under foreign flags. But to become effective, the deal would require the assent of three smaller maritime unions and at week's end it seemed likely that at least one of them would reject the terms--a move that would force the President to decide whether to demand an 80-day Taft-Hartley injunction against the seamen.

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