WASHINGTON, December 1--The legal battle of the United States vs. John L. Lewis may drag out for most of this week, attorneys indicated today, raising the prospect of large scale industry shutdowns and 1,000,000 unemployed.

Fines authorized by the government against individual minors for each day of the soft coal strike brought not the slightest signs of a return to work. The fines, $1, $2 a day, will go to the United Mine Workers's Medical Fund, under the government contract.

The governments sole hope of halting the walkout at present appeared to be the court ruling it seeks holding that Lewis' "termination" of his contract was unlawful. President Truman had no conferences on the situation today and other government offices were closed.

In the deadlock, Gov. William M. Tuck of Virginia urged the government to prosecute Lewis under the Smith-Connally act which outlaws strikes against government owned plants or stand aside and let the individual states handle what he called "this challenge against law, order and public morality."

"Virginia, or any other state, has all the power it needs to repel insurrection," Tuck said on the radio, adding that states can administer labor Laws before than the federal government.