MASS STRIKE THREAT

Evening Post, Volume CXXXV, Issue 101, 30 April 1943, Page 4

MASS STRIKE THREAT

GOVERNMENT CHALLENGED WASHINGTON, April 29. A general walk-out in the coal dispute Is threatened for May 1. The War Labour Board has submitted the dispute to President Roosevelt, thus heading for a showdown with the president of the United Mine Workers' Association, Mr. John L. Lewis. The board said it had no alternative but to seek Presidential intervention. The United Press says that the dispute is arousing nation-wide interest because the U.M.W.A. is openly challenging the Administration's attempt to establish a method of settling.wartime disputes and control of the cost of living. "Mr. Lewis has confronted the Government with an ultimatum," says the "New York Times" in' an editorial. "Either Mr. Lewis gets a wage increase for the miners which violates the Government's formula or the soft opal Industry will be brought to a standstill on May I and steel production will cease within a fortnight We will then stop making weapons for soldiers. The responsibility is partly the Government's for hesitant handling of labour problems, but the direct responsibility rests on Mr. Lewis. By Mr, Lewis's own choice, we are about to see whether the Government's authority ih wartime is greater or less than that of Mr. Lewis."