Imperial Valley press., 1941-06-10
is THE HONE NEYMOON
OVER NOW?

ne use OF federal troops 10 break PICK
ct lines at 1nglewood may mean that the
golden days of unstinted license for labor
raeketeers are over.
The nation hopes ferVently that the
lnglewood incident is an indication that
the national administration has at last
decided upon strong policy OF absolute
insistence that defense production must
go forward regardless of selfish inter
ests.
Standing alone, the use of troops at
lnglewood to take over the North Amer
ican Aviation plant in the name Of the
army is merely an incident Before it can
be translated into terms of broad impor-
tance it must be shown To affect other
strikes in other defense industries
The chances are that what happened
at lnglewood will deter others IN con-
sideration of defense strikes. Il is prob
able that lnglewood is the birthplace OF
new national policy toward strikes and
strikers in vital industries. at least fer
the duration of the emergency
The probability exists for two reasons !:
l. Labor racketeers, who declared at
Inglewood only three days ago that they
had expected "strong words but no ac-
ton" out of Washington. have been shown
that even they can go too far.
g President Roosevelt, who has been
long-suffering in his Difference toward
all branches of labor, has demonstrated
many times, in many ways, that he can
not tolerate outright defiance from any
source. Such defiance from labor rae
keteers, whom the President has some
times enormously regarded as real repre-
sentatives of labor, is apt to arouse his
temper to such q degree that he will use
all OF the great power he possesses to
oblterate the defiance.
Il ~ Ia,rr I
it has been proved elsewhere many times,
that should interest the New Dealers in
Washington. whose advice the President
! has sometimes so blindly followed. 1t
is the fact that most Of the Werkmen in
. the 1nglewood plant as they have dem
onstrated by returning to their Jobs. were
not in favor of the strike. Is that not con-
elusive proof that II was not Labor
which struck at IngleWood. but labor
racketeers who forced the strike?
There should be no doubt that, once
. the administration realizes II has been
. duped by boisterous minority, instead
of having deferred to the wishes Of real
American labor, Washingtons policy will
be open to detailed re-eXaminati0n. The
results of such a re-eXaminatl0n should
reveal whether the administration is in
. fact attempting to carry out the wishes
of maj ority of the people or IS in reali-
ty attempting TO force a neW economic
conception upon the nation.
DEFENSE STRIKES N
A FIELD OF THEIR OWN
Whatever happens in the broader field
of national labor policy, defense strikes
must cease The administration itself
has thrown down the gauntlet 1t must
follow through now, or back down. And,
' if it backs down, there will be such wave
| of strikes as this nation has not even
dreamed of before.
The situation has reached lie point
where one, or at most two more demon
strations of forceful determination by
the administration will serve to prevent
many strikes in many other defense in
dustries. On the other hand, the slight
est sign of Wavering b. the administra-
ton, the slightest indication of weakness,
! will set the problem right back where it
was before the troops moved into lngle-
wood.
The people are Loyalty behind the Pres
.ident in his decision, grave es 1t must
have seemed TO him. TO enforce his ulti
matum against work stoppages in de-
fense industries. That loyalty must not
be wasted.