PICK YOUR OWN COUNTRY

While most are viewing with alarm the European situation, a storm brewing in the West threatens shortly to capture their complete attention. And well it might, for the irascibile Mr. Lewis is no believer in mild-mannered dickering but in angry speech-making and drastic action.

True, Mr. Lewis was apparently taken aback by the speed with which his lieutenants moved in the automobile industry. He was "going after" the big bad boys in the steel industry, he announced some months ago. But now he has agily leaped the automobile bandwagon and seized the reins. And yesterday came a statement whose inspiration is obvious, one bristling with demands all the way from a thirty-hour week to union representation.

The automobile warfare, although still largely in the diplomatic stage, bulks large enough to cause consternation. It takes no long memory to recall that the industry was one of the chief factors in creating the newly-found "prosperity". Next in importance was the revival in the steel trade; next, too, is this industry on Mr. Lewis' list of objectives. Anything but quiet for the past few years, labor and hence the nation seems in for an explosive time that will beggar past experience. In every way, socially, legislatively, industrially, the nation will be shaken from stem to stern. Those--and there still appear to be a few--who cheerfully expect the relatively lush year to be but an introduction to better times, who disregard the incipient, large-scale labor trouble, the huge, ever-present unemployment, the yet unresuscitated building trade may be regarded with pity but not approval.