COAL CRISIS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 June 1943, Page 4

COAL CRISIS

AGAIN FACED IN UNITED STATES FEARS OF NATION-WIDE STOPPAGE. MINERS FOLLOWING LEADERSHIP OF LEWIS. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 12.35 p.m.) NEW YORK. June 1. America is facing another national coal crisis. Thousands of miners stopped work last night, when the coal strike truce expired, and a nation-wide stoppage is feared. The only hope of a settlement rests on a conference today between the coal owners and the miners' leaders. If this conference fails, more than 500,000 miners are expected to strike. Governmental action, and possibly the use of trcops, are expected unless Mr J. L. Lewis orders the miners to resume work. The walk-out appears to be 100 per cent effective, although some mines manned by independent union members have continued producing. The “New York Sun’s” Washington correspondent says the walk-out has produced a final showdown between Mr Lewis and President Roosevelt. The miners have demonstrated their unfaltering determination to follow MiLewis’s leadership rather than the President's, indicating that further appeals to their patriotism would be futile. The Government must now resort to force to ensure an uninterrupted production of coal.