Los Angeles herald., 1909-05-13
FIRST DAY OF
FRENCH STRIKE
WITHOUT RIOT
228 MEN ARE DISMISSED BY
FEDERAL CABINET
GOVERNMENT HOPES TO NIP RE.
VOLT IN BUD
Leaders Said to Be Discouraged by
Failure of Miners Congress
to Vote Sympathetic
Movement
IBy Associated Press.l

nARIS, May 12.-The first day or
the postal strike passed peace
4 fully. No disturbances were re-
ported, and the movement appears to
have gained no ground.
The service in Paris and throughout
the provinces tonight, with the ex-
ception of that of the railway mail
clerks, is normal and as a result there
has been no need to take advantage
of the preparations made by the vari-
Gus business organizations and COM
mercial bodies to carry on private
letter service.
The cabinet tonight summarily dis
missed 22S men under the decree is
sued on March Is, which authorizes
the discharge of strikers from the
state service, and made other pro-
visions for dealing with reealcitrants.
The ministers are confident the re-
moval of the principal fomenters of
the agitation will crush the movement.
The strike leaders experienced an
other encouragement in the failure or
the miners congress at Lens to vote
a sympathetic strike, and thus far
none of the trades unions has made
sign of joining the movement.
Government Hurries
At the same time the government
is hurrying the preparation of its
promised bill regulating the status of
state employees, which will be pre-
sented to a committee of the chamber
of deputies Monday Official figures
place the number of strikers in Paris
at 465 out of 11000.
Owing to the detection of a majority
of the mail clerks the outgoing mails
are more or less stranded.
The hotbed of the previous revolt,
the Central Telegraph bureau, is quiet,
the night shift reporting for duty as
usual.
Reports from provinces show that
the movement has not made much
headway except at Havre, where
special service arranged by the cham
Der of commerce will be inaugurated.
At Bordeaux, Lille and Chartres con-
ditions are normal. In some cities,
notably Lyons and Chambery, the pos
tai employees have openly expressed
their disapproval of the strike. There
is some anxiety at the Paris hotels,
where numerous Americans are ex-
pecting letters containing bank drafts
A mass meeting of postal employees
tonight was not so well attended as
that of last night.
To Strike with Vieor
The meeting, however, adopted
resolution to continue the strike with
vigor.
1t was announced the number of
strikers was growing rapidly, both in
Paris and in the provinces, an instance
being given of the mail clerks on the
yons mail, who had quit on the road.
During a long speech M. Lauron
declared that violence or destruction
of property by the strikers would not
be tolerated. He said the men would
finish the tasks on which they were
now engaged
Two detachments of naval mechan-
les. summoned from Brest by the min
lister of marine, have arrived here and
are now stationed in the machine
shops of the central postoffice and the
central telegraph bureau.
The Hotelkeepers' union has ar
ranged to take the mail of foreign
sent abroad. They are also devising a
Outside Unions to Aid
The first sign of the intention of the
outside unions to participate in the
strike movement came tonight when
at a meeting of delegates of the United
Syndicates of the Seine it was decided
that the moment has come to throw
down the barriers separating the state
employees from the workmen.'
The delegates bound themselves to
start an organization of the respective
unions so as to be ready to march out
in a body when a general strike should
be called, and ivited the General FEEDER
alton of Labor to take all steps neceS-
sarv to create a general movement in
France.