The Bill Is Tendered

The coal strike--and its slow strangulation of industry--seemed to end in the time it takes to flick a switch. Railroads recalled most of some 25,000 furloughed workers, restored curtailed schedules, were back to nearly normal in two days. Across the U.S., in the nick of time, manufacturers canceled orders for mass layoffs of more than 750,000. The Ford Motor Co., which had laid off 20,000, promptly called them back. The other auto companies, turning out cars at a postwar peak of 96,519 cars a week, canceled their shutdown orders, kept producing almost without interruption. But the strike may well cause a break in the all-important flow of supplies to automakers in a few weeks, force some of the plants to shut down then for a brief period.

But the real toll was far from negligible. The coal industry had lost some 25,000,000 tons in all. The steel industry had lost more than 1,000,000 tons (enough to make 396,000 automobiles). Steel production was scheduled at 69.8% of capacity this week, but would take another two weeks to get back to its pre-strike level.

Barron's weekly business index, reflecting only the first full week of the strike, slumped 15.1 points to 160.2. At this rate of fall, the strike had cost the U.S. an estimated $700 million in goods & services.

The U.S. would be paying for the loss in coal and steel production for a long time to come. It would be more than a month before overall production got back to where it was--if then. The stock market, full of rosy hopes for a quick resurgence, pushed the Dow-Jones industrial index up 4.75 points in the first post-strike day of business. But the all-around shaking up which the economy had had might well hasten the recession that nearly everybody feared.

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