Evening star., 1937-06-30
ROOSEVELT HITS
AT STEEL GROUPS
Rebukes Extremists of Both
SideS-Mediation Board
DiSbands.

With the short-lived steel Mediation
Board disbanded after futile efforts to
bring about peace the administration.
irked by the deadlock, continued today
to watch developments to determine If
further conciliatory moves are possible
The feeling of the administration
was disclosed at White House press
conference late yesterday, when Pres
ioent Roosevelt directed a rebuke 20
extremists on both sides of the strike.
He told reporters he and Charles P.
Taft, I'd, chairman of the Mediation
Board, believed majority of the peo-
pie are saying just one thing about
the trouble-"a plague on both your
houses" The President departed from
custom and allowed himself to be
quoted directly. He refused to elab-
crate on the quotation from Romeo
and Juliet" but White House officials
interpreted it as reference to those
who want to fight and those who re-
fuse to negotiate.
1t was added that this did not in
clude employers and employees, organ
lied and unorganized, who constitute
the great majority and who do not be-
lieve in violence and are honestly will
ing to pursue collective bargaining in
the spirit as well as the letter of the
law.
The strike issue also came up in the
House and Senate, with attacks on
the c. l. O.
A demand that John L. Lewis eject
'communistic leaders" from the C. I.
o. was made by Representative Hook,
Democrat. of Michigan.
Some of the honest labor leaders Of
Michigan have come to me to urge me
to use my influence to get conlmu-
nists eliminated as C. l. o. organ
izers,' he told the House.
Hook declared Lewis had con-
demned and ousted certain commu-
nistic leaders of his United Mine
Workers several years ago, but that
the same men now are his lieutenants.
The ranks Of labor will be disrupted,
he continued, unless these persons are
elected again.
Senator Bailey, Democrat, of North
Carolina criticized the c. I. o. in
statement accusing it of "laWlessness"
and the Government of failure to
maintain order.
The failure Of governing author
tiles to meet this laWlessness with the
means of maintaining order has
created a bad impression, has en-
Couraged the laWless and caused wide
spread alarm" Bailey declared.
He added c. l. O. representatives
had conducted illegal sit-down strikes.
seized United States mails, beaten up
"honest workers and so threatened
the public peace that martial law had
to be declared.
Bailey urged labor to support only
organizations that respect the law"
arguing that to do otherwise would
be to bring the labor cause into dis
1epute
Secretary OF Labor Perkins had be-
fore her the report of the Mediation
Board, which was received yesterday
from Chairman Taft, just before he
left for Europe. 1t was drafted by
Assistant Secretary of Labor McGrady,
who sat with Taft and Lloyd Gar
rlson, and Miss Perkins planned to
make it public as soon as Garrison
has had an opportunity to approve
the conclusions
The Labor Secretary said the board
believes that "noap.top,op d;e
cusslon around the conference table"
would be necessary to end the strike.
This opinion first was expressed by
the board after the negotiations ir
Cleveland with Lewis and the four
corporations involved collapsed last
Thursday
The rest of the report was under
stood to follow closely the statement
the board gave out at that time.