Toledo union journal. [volume] (Toledo, Ohio) 1942-current, 1945-08-10
THINGS To Come

If coming events cast their shadows,
then workers in Toledo and other sections
of the country are due for some stormy
times if they dare to exercise their right
to strike in the postwar period.
Last Fridays action of the war depart
ment in sending military police into To-
Iedo to solve military problem, os-
tensibly the removal of "snipers" from a
building in enemy territory, turned out to
be something quite different than subse-
quent newspaper publicity showed it to be.
The "snipers", who took refuge in the
old Toledo University building, turned out
to be strikers, and the problem the
visiting NJ Ps. were called upon to solve
was removal of the strikers" and capture
of their leader.
We are indebted to the Toledo Blade
for the masterful way it handled the news
of the "snipers" with generous use of
quotation marks around the word snipers
making the story so obvious that few
failed to grasp the significance of the
army maneuver.
Nor did the attacking troops show the
slightest hesitation in referring to the
"Snipers" as strikers, an outstanding piece
of franlxness, possibly engineered by men
from organized labor forced to play at
strikebreaking under military orders.
Why the manevers were held in To-
ledo; why they were held in public park
under control of city council, usurping the
right of children to the use of their play
ground; why the maneuvers should be
repeated again this week at Bowling
hal Lat ell
tions which would seem to require
answers, particularly in the face of un-
impeachable evidence that certain MEM
bers of the Toledo Chamber of Commerce
were interested" in the proceedings.
We do not believe that problem could
exist in strike which could not be better
simulated under existing facilities at
Camp Perry than could possibly exist in
the old broken-down University of Toledo
building at Scott park.
And in view of this fact it appears
quite possible that the purpose of the dem
onstration Was to serve as thinly yelled
threat to intimidate labor with a not so
subtle warning of what may occur in the
postwar period, when labor casts aside its
no-strike pledge and reverts to its eco-
nomic weapon in its struggle for jobs and
living wages?
We protest this type of hostility so
obviously aimed at the workers by gov
ernment whose safety and continuation
depends upon other workers wearing the
uniform of their country's armed forces.
We protest this very apparent threat
to the future security of labor and its
right to use its economic weapon against
those who use their economic power
against labor.
We demand congressional investiga-
tion of the action of the War Department
in sending troops into Toledo or any other
city in the United States to demonstrate
their effectiveness in subduing workers
and holding over their heads the threat of
violence as the answer to the workers
plea for full employment at living wages.
Instead of demonstrating the armed
might of the nation manned by the sons,
brothers and fellow-wOrkers of those who
have made the successful prosecution of
the war possible, our government would
do well to reconvene the vacationing con-
gress and pass a full employment act that
would make the training of soldiers to
subdue American citizens unnecessary
Let us demand that our government
cease all subtle overt acts against its citi-
zens and advance the common welfare in
stead of threatening it.