Evening Post. MONDAY, MARCH 1, 1937. "SIT-DOWN" STRIKE WAR

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 50, 1 March 1937, Page 8

Evening Post. MONDAY, MARCH 1, 1937. "SIT-DOWN" STRIKE WAR

In America today there is no question more important than the degree to which the new Labour movement headed by Mr. John L. Lewis is prepared to act through violence and illegality. This question was not' definitely settled by the recent "sitdown" strike in General Motors factories. Mr. Lewis no doubt led from the background, but the head and front of the United Automobile Workers of America was a former Baptist minister, Homer S. Martin, who in 1934 was one of the organisers of this new union, formed in consistence with the Lewis campaign to organise labour by industries instead of by crafts. Mr. Martin led his strikers to a settlement, one feature of which (cabled on February 11) was that the "sit-down" strikers would evacuate the motor plants, and the General Motors Corporation would drop the legal proceedings to have them ejected from, the plants. ;So the question of the legality or illegality of "sitdown" strikes did not go to the Courts. A compromise settlement which seems to be, on its face, of a temporary nature was arrived t at; and a day or two later Mr. Lewis entered the cablegrams with a statement that collective bargaining had come in the automobile industry and that the steel industry would be next. If he said anything about tactical methods and the "sit-down" strike it was not cabled. Today, however, a New York cablegram mentions further "sit-down" strikes "sponsored by the John. L. Lewis Committee for Industrial Organisation"; and it is likely that the American Courts will sooner or later be asked to tackle this and allied legal questions in,their slow, unpredictable, way, unless some person in authority decides the law on his own responsibility and takes decisive action . against "sit-down" strikers—action that will precipitate a crisis. During Mr. Roosevelt's first term, the American Courts killed the N.R.A. slowly, by inches; but the "sit-down" strike may come to a "show down" more rapidly through the determination of some Governor. Governor Frank Murphy, of Michigan, proved to be not such a Governor; he was a conciliationist, and the cablegram of February 11 announcing the General Motors compromise contained a footnote by Mr. Murphy recording his pleasure'that "one of the greatest industrial disputes in American history had been attended by not ; a single fatality." Contrast Governor Murphy with Governor Hoffman, of New Jersey, who followed Mr. Murphy's statement with a public intimation (February 16) that "there was no doubt in his mind that 'sit-down' strikes were illegal," and that he would use "the entire resources of the State of New Jersey to preserve property rights," and to put down the "lawless methods and practices" used in motor strikes in Michigan and Indiana. Governor Hoffman pegged his challenge on current reports of a "unionisation drive" in New Jersey. Governor Hoffman's warning was addressed to Mr. Lewis's Committee of Industrial Organisation, but, according to the cablegrams, it was not Mr.- Lewis who replied. The expected defiance of the Governor came from "leaders of State (New Jersey) labour unions," who said that if necessary they would convert their words into deeds by themselves staging a "sit-down" strike. Less than a week later a message from Waukegan (Illinois) indicated that the "sitdowners" were particularly active in a plant used for making fine parts for' automobiles, owned by the Fansteel Metallurgical Company. Someone outside took enough authority into his own hands to send attackers with tear bombs, but they were repelled by "sit-downers," who hosed the attackers with fire-extin-guishing acid, and hurled at them "bottles of tungsten and tantalum valued at 500 dollars each." Thus science, unwittingly, and unwillingly so far as the owners of the tungsten are concerned, has already become part of the "sit-down" strike war. But that was only a beginnings The attackers beat a "strategic retreat" (to use a euphemism of 1914-18) and drew on tactical reinforcements. Drawing inspiration from tank warfare and fire brigade practice, they fabricated "a wooden tower mounted on a truck," approached the windows of the factory as old-time fighting machines used to approach city walls, and from the tower "poured gas into the strikers, who hurled back bolts, pulleywheels, and metal fragments." The commander of the first attack that failed had promised to come back with a "knock-out" gas. Apparently he kept his word. For today's cablegram announces that the "sifcrdowners" were ultimately compelled to vacate this Waukegan factory. Meanwhile, in California, a threat of guns and tear gas awed the "sitdowners" in the Douglas Aircraft Corporation's plant, and 400 strikers submitted to arrest without resistance and were locked up in the county gaol," It seems that strike tactics ' {

will be countered by different State authorities in different ways, with varying degrees of firmness; and this may encourage users of violence to go out of bounds and get out of control. If the authorities, both State and Federal, are in a difficult position, that of Mr. Lewis is certainly not easy. His industrial unions are seeking to establish themselves in many places where craft, unions or company unions already exist. Where an industrial union claiming the backing of Mr. Lewis's Committee (generally known as the C.1.0.) has secured a majority, its position lias much more validity than where the majority is claimed by an existing union that has the backing of the employers and/or Mr. Green's American Federation of Labour. With a Green union in the majority, and a Lewis union in the minority, a "sitdown" strike staged by a minority represents a degree of tyranny to worker as well as employer. The fact that Labour is fighting Labour, with hardly less of the bitterness with Which Labour fights Capital, complicates the issue and makes for double-dealing - and opportunist tactics. The usual fight for wage recovery on a rising market is tangled up with a fight for a new industrialisation of Labour; and the "sitdown" strike is a tactical weapon that is particularly dangerous in opportunist hands..