LATE EDITION

Manawatu Times, Volume 62, Issue 68, 22 March 1937, Page 8

LATE EDITION

Sit-down Epidemic Spreads 140,000 Workers Affected CHBYSLEB STRIKERS SI FIGHTING MOOD. United Peese Association —By Electric Telegraph-—Copyright. Received Sunday, Midnight. NEW YORK, March 20. Amidst growing strikes and threats of strikes Miss Prances Perkins, American Secretary of Labour, disclaimed a programme for the settlement of the Chrysler trouble. Messrs. Lewis and McGrady conferred at Washington on the industrial situation, but no agreement on any point was reach-

ed. Legislation for the control of the sit-downs increasingly agitated the Congressional halls. The police ousted 82 sit-downers from the Packing Company’s plant a hundred women from a tobacco plant at Detroit. The sit-downera at the Chrysler plant in a statement said: “In the inhuman conditions to speed up production the workers last summer fell like flies in the heat. The employers conducted an unspeakable spy system. There must either be collective bargaining or we will resist ousting to the point of bloodshed to protect our Jobs and our lives.*' Governor Murphy is apparently hesitant to use force. It is believed he would require Federal troops. Sit-down strikes in the five and ten cent, stores are spreading. Twelve of the largest stores in Providence, Rhode Island, shut their doors to prevent 6000 employees adopting sit-down tactics. Five Woolworth stores in Akron, Ohio, have closed owing to the sitdown epidemic. Four five and ten cent, stores in Pittsburgh have also closed. Henry Ford denied a report that he was prepared to Bhut his plants for three years in the event of a strike. “We are not shutting down. We intend operating to the last man. We stand to our position and, have advised our workers to fhmi onions. Those who join like the turkey will get it in ths neck eventually.’' A New York Times’ census of the nation showß that there are a hundred principal sitdowns in seven states affecting 140,000. Mr. Martin, incensed at the evictions of the sitdownors in the packing and tobacco plants at Detroit, telegraphed. Governor Morphy that if it continues he will order out all members of industry m the city. Observers fear this will precipitate a crisis in organised labour.