COTTON MILL STRIKES

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28894, 14 May 1959, Page 15

COTTON MILL STRIKES

Armed Guards In North Carolina (N .Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 11.30 p.m.) HENDERSON (North Carolina). May 13. Heavily-armed National Guardsmen, with fixed bayonets, stood face-to-face with jeering strikers last night as non-striking workers left two strike-bound cotton mills in Henderson. The heavily-armed troopers, estimated at more than 300, were ordered to Henderson earlier yesterday to combat violence at the Harriet-Henderson cotton mills, which have been strike-bound since November 17. The guardsmen formed about the mill gates. Others patrolled the area in utility vehicles. Strikers, faced with this show of force, refrained from violence and workers drove their cars through the gates unmolested. Guardsmen were stationed at the gates of each mill, located in separate ends of the city. The area around the plant was brightly lit by parachute flares. The crowds gathered at the mill entrances before the 11 p.m. shift ended. They jeered and hooted at the soldiers, and in the background a . few firecrackers exploded. But no rocks or bricks were thrown, as had happened earlier in the day before the guardsmen arrived. City police announced that they arrested five persons for rock throwing and other disorders outside the area patrolled by the guardsmen. One of these persons was charged with inciting a riot. Two cars, one a sheriff’s cruiser and the other carrying a television camera crew, were damaged. In recent outbreaks of violence, hidden gunmen, thought to be strikers, have fired on non-strik-in workers’ cars as they left the factories.