There was danger of a powerful Germany arising from such ashes, able to wage terrible war within a generation. There was danger of causing a war between Russia and the West.

The Nuremberg trials were thereby converted into a farce as the accused in the docks might already be seeing a rebirth of the Fatherland despite the crushing defeat.

Mr. Lewis had left AFL in 1935, leaving behind bitter opponents, but that had healed and now he was back within the organization. He had left the New Deal camp in 1937 in the midst of the auto strike, supported Wendell Willkie in 1940 and Thomas Dewey in 1944, leaving behind enemies among Democrats. The miners followed him in union matters but not politically. They were following him for the sake of their pocketbooks, not because of personal loyalty.

And Congress was now targeting Mr. Lewis with legislation and labor feared that because of his antics, all would suffer.

It took time for the people to express their opinions en masse. The majority of Americans had voiced approval of the President's post-war plan, but the Republicans, a minority, had opposed it and sought to block it. For a time, it appeared to succeed, but only because it took time for the people to catch on to what the Republicans were doing.

When it became obvious, with the heart of the veterans housing bill, the subsidies provision, chopped out and the emasculation of OPA, the people caught on and let their representatives know what they thought. Now, the subsidies had been restored and it appeared OPA would also be given its proper powers for the duration of its existence.

Other programs still awaited action. The Wagner-Murray-Dingell health insurance bill was one. A poll had shown 70 percent of Washington residents in favor of the bill. The piece urges the people to let their representatives know that they wanted the health insurance bill also.

That one, unfortunately, PPACA, would only take another 64 years to obtain approval by the Congress, and another two years after that before the Supreme Court would uphold it.

We hope that it will be revised for the better, when and if revised, and not for the worse. If dissatisfied with it, blame the recalcitrant Tea Partiers and Republicans who fought it tooth and nail, not the President and leaders in Congress who showed courageous leadership in getting it finally passed. It is not the bill which anyone really wanted but a starting point at least to provide better and more affordable health care to all.

Such, alas, is the problem with democracy. It is slow and wieldy. But the alternative is not acceptable to anyone in the end, even the dictator, who usually winds up dead or in exile.

While FDR had the no-strikes pledge in his corner, President Truman waited until thirty days before the contract deadline to have the Government enter the negotiations.

The previous fall, when Mr. Lewis had started a strike to establish a foremen's union, without rank-and-file backing, Harold Ickes had advised the President to go over the head of the UMW boss and end the strike, to weaken his power. But the President refused to act. The strike ended, but with Mr. Lewis's power still intact.

Mr. Ickes had also recommended to the President that the two oil pipelines used during the war to pump oil to the East Coast be converted to natural gas to afford competition with coal, but again the President had not acted thus far. Even a threat to open the lines would chill John L. Lewis.

The President also could have urged Congress to pass an adequate mine safety law which would have pulled the teeth from Mr. Lewis's chief current demand.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch had disclosed two years earlier that Mr. Lewis had constructed a deal in the Illinois coal fields whereby the rival union, the Progressive Miners of America, despite winning two elections at Springfield, ultimately lost out. The mines were closed after the elections and, when reopened several weeks afterward, a new election found UMW in the majority. The lessor of the mines in the interim had received a "loan" from Mr. Lewis for $225,000, and twelve members of the rival union were retained on the UMW payroll during the controversy.

A subsequent investigation was initiated by the IRB to determine whether the "loan" was actually a taxable bribe, and eventually, the Justice Department investigated to determine whether there had been a conspiracy to violate the National Labor Relations Act.

An executive of UMW claimed not to know of the payment and that it did not appear as proper effort on behalf of the rank-and-file members. This executive was then suspended from the union for six months and removed from the board. The president of the UMW Illinois district resigned in disgust. Mr. Lewis had authority to appoint provisional officers until elections could be held, and no elections had been held in the Illinois district since 1933.

Another deal had Mr. Lewis advancing via a holding company a million dollars of UMW funds to the Rocky Mountain Fuel Corp. in Colorado, headed by a friend of Mr. Lewis and a former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, Josephine Roche.

The methods of Mr. Lewis were in distinct contrast to the International Ladies Garment Workers Union which, through education of its membership, had eliminated most of the sweatshop conditions extant prior to its existence in the garment industry. The mines of Kentucky remained "slum mines" under the leadership of UMW by John L. Lewis.

Historically, public servants, such as firemen and policemen, and public utilities employees were considered not entitled to strike. Coal, while not in those categories, nevertheless had such an impact on life and health that it should also be separately categorized.

The Wagner Act had been passed to alleviate an imbalance heavily favoring management, but now had caused an imbalance on the side of labor. The Smith-Connally Act, passed during the war as emergency legislation to deter strikes, had, according to management, provoked an unprecedented wave of strikes, the unions being confident that Government would take over plants and then coerce the hand of management to resolve the dispute causing the strike.

There was a call for elimination of the "wildcat strike", the "quickie strike", and the "slowdown strike", but legislation passed too hastily could do more harm than good.

He favors seizure of the mines by the President to halt the coal strike and some form of Congressional action which would produce a procedure under which strikes could be compromised after due fact-finding.

An expert on radio entertainment told him that it was difficult to discern trends in radio as it changed only when shows died, but he believed that the screwball comedies were doing better than others. Political humor was less sparing of the feelings of leaders, and stunts which resulted in inadequate cures of a problem were popular, such as blowing out a candle while hanging by one foot from a ceiling.

A jewelry manufacturer informed him that sales of cheaper jewelry had slightly diminished, that low-income people were becoming more careful in spending their money while those better-heeled had more cash, some perhaps accumulated out of the black market.

"This kind of spending pattern is, of course, typical of an inflated period, during which the well-heeled become even a little better-heeled than they were before, while the relatively unheeled lose what little economic heeling they had."

A similar phenomenon was occurring in the cafe trade. Good entertainers were receiving salaries of which they had never dreamed, as much as ten thousand dollars a week.

The overall picture was of a society which had lost its sense of world affairs and was concentrating on personal goals and ambitions. The veterans had not turned into any political bloc, conservative or liberal, but were more interested in establishing businesses and earning a living.

"It is a confused, spiritually hungry time, in which attention shifts from the great world, and turns inward, partly as the result of a bungled reconversion; it is an insecure, off-center, tired sort of time, ideal for the making of large national mistakes. Perhaps that is what ultra-conservative opinion counts on, as it hopes to clinch an election victory this Fall: an uncertain mandate, absent-mindedly given by a preoccupied people."

Whatever the ultimate cause, the strategy would work, as the Republicans would capture overwhelming majorities of both chambers of Congress, albeit only short-lived, as the Democrats would recapture substantial majorities in both houses in 1948.