The Daily Alaska empire. [volume] (Juneau, Alaska) 1926-1964, 1937-01-23
A STRIKE ON HIS HANDS
BY SIGRID ARNE
AP Feature Service Writer


WASHINGTON, Jan. %. = The
baseball season was opening in De-
troit in 1881, and the teams were
idling at their posts waiting for
the mayors lady-like toss, which
traditionally puts the ball in play.
But the mayor that year was the
red-headed Frank Murphy. The
players stiffened a little as he left
his box and walked nervously to
the pitchers mound. He wound up,
and let fly a burning curve over
home plate. The stands rose and
yelled
Later surprised fans learned that
Murphy had been practicing in the
city park, polishing up the pitching
arm he had had years before in
high school days at Harbor Beach,
Mich.
Dramatic Mayor
Much of his work as mayor of De-
troit had that dramatic element.
He took office in 1890 when the de
preston was settling and grumbling
crowds were gathering around soap
boxes. s
Murphy knew his city from the
river up He had started as a night
school teacher in the Rumanian
and Hungarian settlements. He had
risen to the circuit bench when he
was elected mayor He didn't like
the hunger in his city.
When he got his relief machin-
cry working he spent million
month. Howls rose from the bust
ness district, but when they be-
came too loud he invited business
leaders in to look at his accounts.
He had spent $10,O00,0Oo on relief,
but he argued he had saved SIS
100000 elsewhere.
Faces Strike As Governor
Now as Michigan's governor he
has tackled another big job-at-
tempted mediation of the General
MotOrS strike.
Industrial warfare belongs to the
past" he told the State Legislature
in a paragraph inserted in his in
augural message on his way to
Lansing
Force and violence are not to be
tolerated We want the rights of
labor protected and want business
to flourish The government ought
to play a helpful part in adjusting
differences and settling controver-
sizes. 1t can do this only in an
atmosphere of peace and reason
and mutual respect"
After days of effort he seemed
unable to bring G.M.C. and its strik-
ing employees together.
When strike riots broke out in
Flint he dispatched regiment OF
national guardsmen-purely, he de-
clared to preserve peace and or
der
Lost Money On Change
Between the mayorality and the
governorship lie three years as u.
S. high commissioner of the Phil
ippine commonwealth.
Murphy resigned the Philippine
post and ran for the Michigan gov
|ernorship when Democrats decided
his political presence would go far
toward holding Michigan for Rco5e-
welt.
He is Irish enough to laugh at the
financial spot it put him on.
MY friends will vote to take me
out of a job that pays $4,000 year
for one that pays $4,000 he said
at the time. "And my foes will
vote to keep me in the better paying
job"
His pay check still means more to
him than it does to the usual man
in high office. He -confided to his
friends recently that his savings
account is just reaching the conval-
escent stage due to the $4,000 he
had been earning in the Philippines.
He's No Joiner
He has been teacher, lawyer,
Judge, mayor and commissioner dur
ing his A years He hasn't mar
ried, and he hasn't joined any clubs.
He always seemed interested in the
job at hand to the exclusion of ev-
erything else
In the Philippines he found
house cleaning job to his liking.
First, there was deficit of 100000