Evening star., 1939-08-20

PorIey Called Monday
By La Guordio as
Supplies DwindIe
BACKGROUND
Dairy farmer union is striking
for increase in price OF milk in
| NeU York. A boycott against
metropolitan dealers has been In
effect since Tuesday, one picket
has been killed, milk dumped
and many persons hare been ar
rested. State police are patrol
ling milkShed.
BY the Associated Press.
UTICA, N. Y, Aug 19.-Led by an
ex-sailor, a farmers union which
three years ago had only eight men,
bers throttled the milk supply OF
100000 persons today with the lat
est strike in New York's turbulent
$4,000 100000 dairy industry.
Grim pickets tightened blockades
around upstate plants, further cut
ting the huge metropolitan market S
dwindling supplies in their fight for
higher prices New Yorks doughty
Mayor Fiorello La Guardia called a
Monday conference between rival
factions
Immediate acceptance to the con-
ference bid came from the eX-sailor,
Archie Wright, 47-year-old chair
man of the dairy farmers union
which called the milk strike in de-
manding a uniform base price in
crease to s235 per hundredweight
(47 quarts. Dealers and leaders of
rival farmer marketing factions also
agreed to attend the New York City
meeting.
Mr.. Wrights union. which now
claims a membership of $4,000,
started its boycott of metropolitan
dealers Tuesday and with each sue
ceeding day made heavier inroads
on deliveries. Today only so per cent
of New York's normal daily intake
of 4,400, 900 quarts was delivered.
All Available Men on Duty.
Widespread violence, the death of
one picket, arrests and wholesale
milk dumping marked the first days
of the strike until Gov. Lehman Or
dered all available State troopers to
patrol the milkshed.
Numerous arrests for minor dis
turbanceS were reported today in
the trouble zones, but Maj. John A.
Warner superintendent of State po-
lice, reported the situation well
under control"
This weeks strike is the latest
move in long series of disturbances
in the huge dairy industry over the
past decade by which farmers have
sought to raise prices and solve the
complicated milk problem.
Mr.. Wright, a former Maritime
Union representative. helped organ
lze the Farmers Union th<ae years
ago after he bought farm near
Ogdensburg, N. Y, for his fathers
| health.
Militant from the start despite its
small membership, the union has
been opposed consistently by older
farm groups such as the powerful
Dairymen's League, which claims a
membership of $1,000 and whose
leaders oppose the present strike.
c. 1. o. Takes Hand.
For the first time in New York S
dairy history, the C. I. o. has entered
the situation. officials have desks in
Farmers Union headquarters. The
c. I. o. offers financial and moral
aid to the strikers, is directing or
ganizers, and asks an estimated 700,-
600 Congress of Industrial Organiza-
tions members in the State to boy
colt dealers who failed to meet the
farmers demands.
Henry H. Rathbun, State vice
president of the Dairymen's League,
in reply, asserts the Farmers Union
is using typical C. I. O. practices to
scare farmers into keeping their milk
at home"
Rathbun contends the strike has
all the earmarks of well-engineered
scheme to wreck the Federal-State
marketing program" under which
prices are fixed and milk marketed
| in the milkshed
Federal and State officials have
called hearings under the marketing
order for August "a and Is to con-
slider milk price raise to farmers
because of adverse drought con-
ditions.