in collective bargaining disputes—a power it had previously lacked. The Board could not, however, force parties in a labor dispute to accept its findings. When making recommendations, the Board was authorized to report only to the president—bypassing Putnam and his superior, Charles Edward Wilson, administrator of the Office of Defense Mobilization (of which ESA was a part). As one incentive to get the union to postpone the strike, Truman agreed to let the WSB investigate the labor dispute and invoke the direct presidential reporting provisions of E.O. 10233. While the Wage Stabilization Board conducted its hearings, Putnam was forced to replace the administrator of OPS. Michael DiSalle, the OPS administrator, had announced his resignation in the fall in order to run for the United States Senate. Putnam and Truman agreed to replace DiSalle with Ellis Arnall, a former governor of Georgia. The issues involved in the steel wage case were so complex that the Board extended its deadline for issuing a decision by 30 days. The union also agreed to put off its strike until the Board acted. During this time, Putnam met repeatedly with White House staff to keep them abreast of developments at the Board and price negotiations between OPS and steel manufacturers. When the Board issued its recommendations on March 20, 1952, it triggered a crisis which led to seizure of the nation's steel mills. The decision to give the workers a 26 cent-an-hour raise (which included bringing their pensions to parity with workers in other industries) was largely seen as an overly-generous award as well as a union victory. Although he had been bypassed by the procedures of E.O. 10233, Wilson decided to intervene in the dispute to avoid having the terms of the recommendation accepted. He met with Putnam and Arnall on March 21 and informed them he would be involved in the steel industry labor dispute personally. Wilson then traveled to Key West, Florida, to meet with a vacationing Truman. Believing he had won Truman's consent to reduce the wage recommendation, Wilson subsequently denounced the WSB recommendation and sponsored a number of collective bargaining sessions between the parties over the next few days. An angry Putnam and his deputies met with Wilson on March 27. Wilson Putnam, and his deputies then met with the president on March 28, at which time Putnam told Truman that the WSB recommendations met wage stabilization goals and that