Indianapolis Times, Volume 46, Number 58, Indianapolis, Marion County, 18 July 1934 — Page 3

.TI~LY 18, 1934

GENERAL STRIKE ALWAYS FAILS, HISTORY SHOWS Workers Here and Abroad Have Lost Through Such Methods. BY RITH FINNEY Tibim Spvnal Writer WASHINGTON. July 18— No general strike ever has been even 1 partly successful in this country, or ! In any other. Records of industrial warfare, studied here today in connection with the San Francisco strike, show this to be true. In every case organized labor has found itself up acainst unexpected responsibilities and problems it could not solve. In every case an unorganized public, determined to carry on normal life without interference, has broken the strike partly through its own efforts, partly through use of public funds, militia, and troops. The United States had its first experience with the general strike [ in Seattle in 1919. When it was over, labor men admitted they had gone into it without realizing that a general strike, if it succeeds, implies assumption on the part of labor unions of duties and responsibilities usually performed by government officials. Extra Duties Pile Ip With the strike under wav it was necessary for the strike committee to decide whether the city's streets j should be lighted or left dark, how the public health should be pre- j served, what businesses were essential to public welfare. The Labor Union Record, published in Seattle, “If the strike continues, labor may | feel led to avoid public suffering by j reopening more and more activities ; under its own management, and that is why we say we are starting j on a road that leads no one knows where." On the second day of the Seattle general strike, street cars started running again, under protection of police and troops. By the fourth day. hundreds of workers were trickling back to work, and on the , fifth dav the general strike was of- ! finally at an end, collapsed under the weight of its own inefficiency, j Revolt Plot Charged Little or no disorder occurred, but business men and Mayor Ole Han- | son of Seattle called the strike a ! revolutionary attempt to overturn' the government. In the same year a general strike I in Winnipeg lasted six weeks. In j that city police, firemen, letter car- | riers. and garbage collectors walked I out with 35.000 craft uty.on workers, j This strike committee also found I itself responsible for the city's wel- j fare and found the responsibility a i heavy one. Two riots occurred. | Trials for seditious conspiracy followed. Great Britain's general strike in 1926 lasted thirteen days. Experience Abroad The public walked to work when it could get there no other way and persistently carried on its normal pursuits. The government called for 500.000 volunteers to operate food and milk depots, to open communications services, and finally to restore transportation. Poor and rich responded, co-opcrated so successfully that organized labor was j forced to concede defeat. Perhaps the most significant attempt at a general strike took placp in Sweden in 1909. The country was well organized: 200.000 workers walked out. Strike leaders had made elaborate preparations to j keep essential services operating, but. found it impossible to maintain discipline. The government kept hands off to let labor make a thorough test of public sentiment. The strike went \ to pieces when public security brigades were organized, enlisting support from all classes. 3 Youths Hurt In Auto Crash Ay nitrd Prrti

RICHMOND. Ind.. July 18.—William Guver. 17. was injured fatally and Ivel Mendenhall. 23. and Wil-

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No Transportation, So San Francisco Does Next Best Thing

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Overflowing the sidewalks and swarming into the street, San Franciscans got to work as best they could. Here is a crowd of commuters walking up lower Market street, normally one of the busiest arteries in the city, now deserted by auto traffic. A city was suddenly dismounted from its accustomed wheels and set down on foot.

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Throngs milled into every grocery and food store in San Francisco as the chains of general strike tightened about the city. The above scene was typical, showing anxious crowds thronging the counter, and a single harried clerk trying as best he could to fill the storm of orders from dwindling stocks of food.

bur Bietry. 18. were hurt in an automobile collision near Richmond last night.

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THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

JOHNSON KEEPS EYE ON STRIKE General Is Closeted With Mediators During Night Conference. By United Pre* s SAN FRANCISCO. July 18.—Disclaiming official connection with any phases of the San Francisco strike, General Hugh S. Johnson, NRA administrator, remained here today for closely guarded conferences with federal mediation representatives. General Johnson’s part formed one of the most puzzling aspects of the situation. Some whispered that he is President Roosevelt's personal representative. Mr. Johnson himself insists he is making only an “NRA sales tour of the Pacific coast.” Regardless, the general was busy last night conferring with Edward F. McGrady and O. L. Cushing, members of the board appointed by President Roosevelt to arbitrate the labor dispute. Guards kept reporters far from the room in which the three men met. Archbishop Hanna, third member of the arbitration board, was not present. Steamship company officials and other employers of maritime labor were in the lobby but they too maintained silence.

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National guardsmen gradually extended their lines from the waterfront to include the produce jobbers’ district. Here is a portion of a barrier before which guardsmen are halting an auto as it attempts to enter the restricted district. The movement foreshadowed the bringing in of provisions under convoy to feed beleaguered San Francisco.

Briand Risked Career to Crush General Strike

Radical Premier Held Public Interest Came First in Defending Acts. ' BY WILLIAM PHILIP SIMMS Scripps-Howard Foreixn Editor WASHINGTON, July 18.—Aristide Briand, late prime minister of France, once threw away his whole political future, so he and every one else thought, to spare France a general strike. Mr. Briand came from France’s mining district. His associates were the roughest, most radical laborites in the country. And he outdid them all in demanding full rights for the workers. By 1910, so rapidly had he been pushed to the top by the masses, he was premier. One day in early fall a delegation of railwaymen called on him. They told him railway officials would not listen. He told them he would see that they received a hearing, that he, personally, would press for a just settlement of their grievances. But things dragged on, .as such things will. Each side was a little stubborn. Quite suddenly, on Oct. 5, employes of the Northern Railway of France quit their jobs. The strike was on. One by one, the other railways of the country were tied up. Dockers, street railwaymen, truckers, builders, and other began to follow suit. Briand acted. Firmly believing he was cutting his own throat forever, politically speaking, he issued a mobilization order calling the strikers to the colors for twenty days. The strikers thus became soldiers, and disobedience meant

trial for insubordination or desertion. Loyal to the Tricolor, the men responded. They were ordered to man the trains and set the wheels in motion. It was all over in one day. A single bold stroke had settled the strike, but it promised to settle Briand’s political hash. Parliament met, and pandemonium broke loose as Briand mounted the rostrum. “Apostate!” yelled Jean Jaures, famous labor leader. “You. yourself, were among the first to uphold the right to strike!” “Renegade!” “Traitor!” “Turncoat!” others yelled, shrieking, throwing books, inkwells and what not about the chamber. The bedlam went on until the deputies were almost exhausted. Then, seeing an opening, Briand shot into it a stinging rebuke: “Messieurs,” he said, his famous voice ringing like the great bells in the steeples of Notre Dame. “Permit me, gentlemen, to waive reply to the personal insults heaped upon ms. The people of France have first call—and they are waiting!” Then he explained his position. Tne right to strike was inviolable. He would yield to no man in defending it. But when strikes paralyzed a whole people—when a comparative few refused to settle their differences between themselves but instead ignored the common good, a helpless public and nation —then he would have to interfere. Public opinion practically was unanimously on the side of the Briand thesis. Even labor later forgave him. He died, France’s grand old man, beloved of the vast majority.

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FRISCO LOOSENS BELTS AS FOOD SHORTAGE ENDS Additional Restaurants Are Permitted to Open by Strikers. By United Pre ns SAN FRANCISCO. July 18. Strike-embattled citizenry' of the San Francisco bay area figuratively loosened a collective belt today after a good breakfast and prospects of two square meals to follow. The food situation definitely was improved. Approximately seventy ' restaurants were "permitted” by labor to ! operate. They were not San Fran- ; cisco's finest, by any means, but ; they offered fairly adequate meals. ; In Oakland and the east bay area twenty-three restaurants were operating. It was the “eating out” populace that suffered most from food restrictions imposed by strike committees. Such people found themselves unable to gain entrance to the few establishments permitted to operate in the first day of the strike. A few San Francisco housewives will obtain fresh tomatoes, lettuce and other vegetables today, thanks to success of truckers in bringing those products through picket lines. Oakland got a load of apples, and six loads of canned groceries were distributed in Marin county. Two truck loads of Sacramento valley vegetables were convoyed into San Francisco without incident. In general the east bay region suffered no shortage of fresh fruit3 and vegetables. Five major wholesale grocery houses were permitted to distribute products to retailers using their private cars to transport the goods: No trucks were to be used in moving the supplies. There was a marked shortage of fresh meat, however, as strikers continued their blockade against meat shipments. Butchers still are on strike. Many stores remained closed. Long rows of empty shelves testified to the immense drain upon food stocks during the past week. Canned vegetables and fruit, macaroni, noodles and tinned meat supplies were almost exhausted. Milk and bread deliveries continued uninterrupted. These commodities have been available all through the strike. Poultry and dairy products generally are available. Huge stocks of cold storage eggs, butter, chickens and similar produce assured the city of ample foodstuffs. “How are things going?” we asked one storekeeper. “Fine—l've added a stock of guaranteed can openers. That ought to take care of the last problem attached to this food question.” 150,000 GO JOBLESS" BECAUSE OF STRIKE Additional 75,000 Non-Union Men Are Also Idle. By United Pres* SAN FRANCISCO, July 18.Union labor’s general strike movement in the San Francisco bay region has thrown 150,000 men and women out of work. In addition 75,000 non-union men are prevented from working by strike conditions.