The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1918-09-16
JUDGE WHEELER CONDEMNS STRIKE l AS DISLOYALTY Says Action of Machinists in Leaving Work Exposed
 Soldiers to Humiliation. APOLOGIZES FOR THE
 CITY OF BRIDGEPORT Audience of 15,0O0 Votes Unanimously to Stand by
 The President.

Justice George W. Wheeler spoke to day, and in the name of the loyal citi- zens of Bridgeport, voiced the apology to the President for the disloy-- ac- tion of the strikers of the city. Jus tice Wheeler said that Bridgeporters are backing the President to the last man and will support him in every ] way. He expressed his sentime--ts and those of others when he scathingly ar raigned the strike leaders and com pared them to the signers of the Brest-Litovsk treaty. According to the justice the strikers have served Germany by their cessation of the manufacture of munitions and we loy- al Americans should be ashamed of them.
 A public vote was taken on reso- lution to stand by the President and not to uphold the strikers, and not one hand was raised against it.
 Senator E. Burton gave the first ad- dress, and Miss Vera Curtis of the Metropolitan Opera Go. sang the Star Spangled Banner" America" and other patriotic airs. The community
 
 c. Breul, was led by a male chorus.
 After the Liberty Chorus had sung '"The Old Folks at Home,' Justice Wheeler spoke as follows:
 Perhaps I should add a few words at this time. We are all deeply grate- full to Senator Burton for the states manlike and richly patriotic speech he has delivered here this afternoon. hnSnaa1Ye fho hicy11 ,n11o aofo he won in the Councils of the Nation, and it bespeaks the repute in which the people of Connecticut in common with the people of the entire country hold him.
 'We thank him for his frank and sane words upon our local strike Some of us cannot but feel ashamed that it was necessary for him to speak at all upon this subject. We are ashamed that a strike could arise in Bridgeport in a munition factory, in @ time of war, and we are ashamed that we have compelled the great and patient President to turn from the weighty problem that beset him, to turn from the worldwide conflict, and give his thought to us, when it be- longed elsewhere and probably over there.'
 We are ashamed that he is the witness of the littleness of spirit of our striking machinists. We long that he shall know that Bridgeport and her people stand behind him in his every endeavor to win this wan We long to tell him that we appla ud his stern and overwhelming rebuke to our striking nachinists.
 That each one of you may have in mind what the President has said in his letter to the striking machinists l. purpose to read it to you. familiar though it may be to you" Justice Wheeler then read the Presidents let ter Justice Wheeler continued: My friends, the ground of the President is impregnable. It rests upon the inviolability of an agree ment, and it upholds the obligation of \ every loyal citizen to respect and obey s. the law and procedure adopted by the duly constituted authority in carrying \ out the law. But there is another \ ground upon which executive action might rest. That ground is as sane and sound as the heart of the nation, and it is as sacred as our soldiers lives, A few days ago we read that the German military machine was | equipping the German army with Maxim guns, in place practically of < the greater part Of the German rifle. The Maxim gun it is said, resembles our light Browning gun. Such a gun is infinitely more destructive than the ordinary rife. An army equipped \ with these and trained in their use, would drive through an army \ | al ha cause it could walk to victory over the bodies of it's fallen foe.
 Those of you who have sons, broth CTS, relatives and sweethearts on the other side raise your right hand. (Large numbers in the audience rais- ed their right hands). Justice Wheeler continued, Tt is a goodly company X When MT. Lavit and his associate leaders called a strike of the Machin- ists' union they materially checked the production of the Browning gun in Bridgeport when we were just get ting to the point of real quantity pro- \ duction They left machines idle in the Remington factory which should have continued to turn out the parts of these guns. Not content with their attempt to prevent our boys getting Browning guns made by us they sought, against the protest of their national leaders, to call a sympathetic strike Could they have succeeded the manufacturer of the Browning guns and of the Colt automatic would have been at standstilI throughout this country, and your sons, your brothers, your relatives, our brave boys across the water, would have been moved down like grass before the scythe, by the German army equipped to the last man with MaXims. MS4y "It is not the fault of MT. Lavit II and his associates that this wholesale murder of American troops cannot come to pass. If they acted in ignor- ance and in sincere fanaticism, and l prefer to believe that, it is none the less true, that had they had their way they could not possibly have serv- Led Germany and the makers of the Brest-Litovsk treaty better.
 | My friends, the lesson we must draw is this:
 | "We are at war. Every particle of the brain, the resource, the labor
 and the energy of every man, woman
 and child in this country belongs tc
 our country at the minute she needs | it.
 | "A strike in intuition factory ir
 this time is a strike against our gov.
 ernment, strike against our country \ and A strike pa in st the desfipy nf b,,