SHOOTING ON COAL-FIELDS

Southland Times, Issue 24599, 22 November 1941, Page 7

SHOOTING ON COAL-FIELDS

U.S. GOVERNMENT MAY ACT

SOLDIERS STAND BY (Rec. 6.30 n.m.) WASHINGTON, November 20. Defence officials hinted tonight as reports came in of shootings in the coal strike and spreading sympathy strikes in the commercial collieries that legislation would be submitted promptly for- Government seizure of the closed mines, authorizing Federal operation and forbidding labour leaders or pickets to interfere with production. A defence spokesman said 50,000 soldiers were standing by ready to intervene if necessary, but the Government did not want to use the troops. The Government, however, would not give in. Three men were shot, but none seriously, in a fresh outburst of violence on the Lafayette County coalfields. Non-strikers attempting to go to work clashed with pickets and about 100 shots were fired. Later a fusillade of shots struck a mine superintendent’s car when he drove through the picket lines, but hi escaped injury. MORE MEN WALK OUT It is estimated that nearly 100,000 miners have walked out of the commercial collieries in sympathy with the 53,000 strikers from the “captive” mines. The outlook for a settlement is at present poor. The Congress of Industrial Organizations Convention at Detroit carried a resolution urging that the Congress of Industrial Organizations utilize to the utmost degree Government mediation facilities and do all in its power to cooperate with the Government and industry to achieve a maximum defence production. The convention appealed to the Government and industry to recognize that Labour’s participation in the formulation and administration of the nation’s policies was essential in the endeavour to defeat Hitlerism.