FIRM ACTION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25215, 3 May 1943, Page 3

FIRM ACTION

AMERICAN MINE STRIKE INTERVENTION BY STATE (Rec. 9 p.m.) RUGBY, May 1. President Roosevelt has directed the Secretary of the Interior, Mr H. L. Ickes, to take immediate possession of all coal mines where strikes are in progress or threatened, to provide protection for all employees resuming work, and to use the army to provide protection. Mr Ickes, in the capacity of Solid Fuels Administrator, will take over the mines immediately and make employment available, as well as governing the sale and distribution of coal. A later message says that Mr Ickes has issued instructoins that the pits taken over are to fly the Stars and Stripes “ as an indication that they are working exclusively for Uncle Sam.” He has also ordered the elimination of all unessential railroad travel for the duration of the strike, and a 25 per cent, reduction in passenger train mileage. President Roosevelt’s ultimatum to the miners expired with the workers following Mr Lewis’s instructions “ not to trespass” on mine property. A United Mine Workers’ Union spokesman estimated that 515,000 miners are striking, and that another 15,000 to the west of the Mississippi are operating temporarily under the fiveday notification clause in their agreement. The newspapers point out that the dispute has finally crystallised into a personal struggle between President Roosevelt and Mr Lewis. President Roosevelt’s executive order taking over the mines was issued 85 minutes after the expiry of his ultimatum to the United Mine Workers’ Union. He assured the strikers that an investigation of living costs was going on, and that the Government would insist on prices being held at the limits fixed in his recent executive order, and action would be taken against violations.

President Roosevelt had earlier appealed to the miners to return immediately, saying that the national interest was in grave peril because, except for a’ few mines, the production of coal had virtually ceased. He urged the United Mine Workers’ Union to place its wage demand before the War Labour Board, and promised a prompt and fair decision. The production of coal must and would continue. The stoppage was a direct interference with the prosecution of, the war.