AMERICAN STEEL STRIKE

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 134, 23 June 1937, Page 12

AMERICAN STEEL STRIKE

-Press Assn.-

Employers Refuse To Negotiate THREATS OF VIOLENCE

(By Telegraph-

-Copyrifeht. >

MONTEEAL, June '21. Mr T. M. Girdler, a Canadian steel tnauufacturer said: "The Bepublie Steel Corporation cannot aiid will not enter into any contract, oral or written, with the Committee for Industrial Organisation. During the last few years a great deal has been said about the right of eollective bargaining and the right to strike. Is there not an equal idght in this country for free American citizens, who want to work, to do eo unmolested? The right to strike is undeniable, but it i(s another thing to havfe plants and employees picketed by mcn armed with clubs and guns, who} by show of force, keep the plants from operating." The strike committee at Youngstown aiegraphed Pfesident Eoosfevelt askihg dm to prevent the re-opening of the uills "to avoid in time the mbst hor:ible thing that may be let loose within sh.e next 24 hours. Any attempt to reopen the gates will automatically bring terrific violence and bloodshed." A message from Cleveland (Ohio) says the Committee for Industrial Organisation matched Mr. Eirdler's attitude by announcing that it would not accept any settlement less than a written agreement. The Mediation Board's first efforts are considered to have xesulted in a complete collapse. The situation is fufther complieated by the issuance of an injunction by the State Court limiting pickets to a dozen men at the two Eepublic Steel plants at Waxren and Niles (Ohio) and forbidding arming and interference in any manner with the operation of the mills. A message from Colombus (Ohio) says that GovernOr Davey has ordered troops into Mahoning Yalley to arrive at daybreak. He stipulated that the steel plants now operating must so cdntinue and those , closed^ must reinain closed. President EoOsevelt, states a Washingtoh message, has telegraphed the heads of the Eepublic Steel and Youngstown Sheet Tube Company asking them not to open the Youngstown plant. A Philadelphia message states that the first ruling by a Federal Court on a sitdown strike has been issued by the Oircuit Court of Appeals. It declares it illegai and orders the strikers to, vacate the hosiery mill seized on May 6th. The seizure is now declaTed criminai and the upton is held to be a violator of the Sherman Act on the ground that it restrained inter-State commerce. President Eoosevelt, in his appeal to the Eepublic and Youngstown Sheet Tube CompUnies, asserted: It is too late to cancel reopening and the responsibility for the protection of the ineu reporting I'ot work rests with Governor Davey. Shortly before 7 a.m. the police and non-union leaders began notifying the uon-strikers who "were already assembiing that the reopening of the two plants had been cancelled due to Governor Davey 's intervention. Although t.he companies had not - made any announcement of the sudden change in their plans their representatives admitted that the companies had sanctioned the notification.