Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1944-10-08
Strikers Indicted

present. Jrickie TO q roaring torrent.
Strikers Indicted
A Philadelphia grand jury, called
to investigate the strike which tied
up that city's transportation facil-
tiles last August, has indicted thirty
employe strikers of the Philadelphia
Transportation Company on a
charge Of violating the Smith
Connally Anti-Strike Act. The grand
jury apparently hewed closely to the
line of the evidence. its sole charge
against the employees being that they
helped to keep the strike going after
the Federal Government had taken
over the transportation system. It
did not find that enemy agents"
had fomented the strike, as had been
charged by CIO union officials. 1t
did not conclude that any Of the
strikers were enemy sympathizers,
as had been suggested by Major
General Philip Hayes. who took con-
troll Of the transit lines for the Gov
eminent. It did not confirm Attor-
ney General Biddle's expressed belief
that conspiracy" was behind the
walkout. And it found nothing to
sustain the extraordinary suggestion
by Federal Judge George A. Welsh,
who convened the grand jury, that
the strike somehow was designed to
influence the national election.
The grand jury did find that the
"chief fuel" for the strike grew out
of resentment over an order by the
Fair Employment Practices Commit
tee for the upgrading of Negro
transit workers. IN It. emphasized,
however, that the members Of the
grand jury were in complete agree
ment with the purposes of the, order,
and expressed Its conviction. that the
great majority" of the employees
were not interested in striking over
the Negro question. Among the
contributing causes to the strike,
according to the grand Jury, were
the aggressive actions of a small
number" of employees who objected
to Negro upgrading, the seeming
weakness" of company officials in
dealing with early symptoms Of I'M
rest, and certain tactics of the CLIO
Transit Workers Union, which re-
Gently was chosen to represent the
employees. Officers of this union
opposed the strike, but the grand
jury, after reviewing some OF the
company's labor troubles, said In
admitted reference to the CLIO that
1t wanted to raise the question of
whether the country "can safely
afford to leave wide open the way
for a great organization to develop
in the United States" reach
ing its tentacles into every COM
munity of any size in the land and
in its principles of action seemingly
subversive of the principles first de-
clared. and later constituted in this
city of Philadelphia as the basis of
the life and government of our great
Republic"
This thrust at the CIO brought
from James ]. Fitzsimon, the unions
bargaining agent, and one of those
who blamed enemy agents for the
strike, the retort that the grand Jury
was dominated by reactionary,
partisan, Republican thinking" and
that the jurors were afflicted with a
profound antilabor bias" On the
other side of the ledger is the COM
ment OF Judge Guy X. Bard, to whom
the indictments were returned, that
the grand. jury had done Its work
intelligently and had rendered "a
real public service"
This seems to be the fair appraisal
OF the jury's handling OF an exceed
ingly difficult and delicate task. In
this connection 1t is worth noting
that the jurors paid tribute to the
careful help" that they received
from Henry A. schweinhaut, special
assistant to the Attorney General,
who presented the evidence, and 1t
will be the better for Philadelphia
and the future of race relations in
general II the trial Of the accused
men Is conducted with equal care.
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