U.S. RAIL STRIKE.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 161, 10 July 1922, Page 5

U.S. RAIL STRIKE.

VIOLENCE AND TERRORISM. I TROOPS CALLED OUT LOYALIST HOMES ATTACKED : (By Cable. — rress Association.—Copyrisbt.) , JsTSW YORK.. July 0. The strike of railway shop workers has assumed serious proportions. Fol- < lowing the killing of a boy during a fight i between strikers and railway property , guards at Clinton. Illinois. State troop- . ers were called out. Four other States, t Indiana. Kansas. Nebraska, and lowa. } are holding troops in readiness. i Violence has been renewed by strikers 1 at several places, particularly at Chit-ago , and New Orleans, where terrorism of workers and suspected strike breakers . is alleged. < At Chicago a mob, including many ] women, attacked the homes of the loyal , workers, and attempted to burn the buildings. The police drove off the ( rioters. , 'Die Kansas Industrial Court has issued warrants for the arrest of three union heads for calling the strike. Opera- ' tions have been curtailed on several railways because of the shortage of men. ' Fruit consignments to the West are ■ menaced because of the extension of the strikn to employees of ice depots along the main routes. The Governor of Ohio lies issued a ' circular to local authorities in mining ; districts where non-union workers are employed declaring that they will be ' held to strict account, if they do not safeguard life and property, in the event of attacks by strikers. State troops have been mobilised, and are ?n readiness for use only if the local authorities are unable tocope. with the situation. Mine official* at Madisonville have asked the Governor of Kentucky for troops to prevent trouble at Madisonville where "non-union men are employed. (A. and XX Cable.) According In the reports to hand b> j mail great etforts were made to avert j the coal strike. On March 11> a strike vote of sott coal miners was taken by local unions • scattered throughout the country, and though tlie exact returns could not be completed for a week or more later, the officials (if the United Mine Workers of America at Indianapolis, believed that nine-tenths or more of the workers favoured -walk out" on April 1 unless a new wage agreement was made in the, meantime. The seriousness of the position was not lost sight of by the representatives of the miners. Before the vote of the miners was actually completed Mr. Davis, secretary of Labour, used his best, endeavours to secure a inectins of the coal operators with the minors," to avert the threatened nation-wide eo»l strike. The suggestion, however, was refuted at n conference of Southern Ohio operators, members of the Southern Ohio Coal Exchange at Columhu* mi March 11. It was declared that the present de-| mauds of the miners had been rejected! liv every inter-State conference in the last three years, anil that the united | mine worker- of America had violated, . every agreement made by them since iniu. 'H,e threatened suspension of bitU- ' minou> coal mininu resulted from action I by the Southern Ohio operators in first j refusing to join in a iv'tnriil States wagej conference that was t.. ii.no been liold at Pittsburg in January, ami in a later' conference scheduled for Cleveland early m March. ! Other districts followed the .:.ction of ( the Southern Ohio operators, and the I conference*, which wore asked for l>y j the president, John l<. Lewis, of the, I'nited .Mine Workers, were called oft". I Following their failures to obtain a joint wage conference, the United Mine j Workers announced that unless a new central competitive field wage scale was formulated hy April I. the miners would, suspend work at that lime. j The cables have announced that the strike is now in full operation, and any I other efforts to avert it must have . proved abortive.