Smith-Connally Act

The Smith-Connally Act figures in the account as a legal restraint on strikes against government-held facilities. Its application to coal mines still under government seizure gave the Truman administration grounds to take John L. Lewis and the United Mine Workers to court during a threatened walkout.

Provision and Scope

The passage identifies the Act’s relevant rule narrowly: it prohibited strikes against facilities held by the government. The coal mines fell within that scope because they remained technically under government seizure. The law thus supplied the stated legal basis for the administration’s challenge; the account does not elaborate on other provisions of the Act.

Application in the Coal Dispute

After a threatened strike, the administration went to court on the ground that Lewis was violating the Act. A judge issued an injunction. When Lewis allowed the strike to begin on November 20, a federal district judge ordered him to stand trial for contempt. Lewis refused, and on December 4 the judge fined the United Mine Workers $3 million and Lewis personally $10,000.

Outcome

The confrontation ended on December 7, when Lewis ordered the miners back to work pending an appeal to the Supreme Court. In March 1947, the Court upheld the contempt ruling, although it later reduced the fine against the union. The episode shows the Act operating not as an abstract prohibition but as the legal basis for a direct contest between the administration and a powerful labor leader over a work stoppage at facilities still under government control.