Evening star., 1946-05-29
Johnston and Whitney
Both Charge Truman
With 'DoubIe-Cross'
BY the Associated Press

CLEVELAND, May 2s.-Alvanley
Johnston, head of the Brotherhood
OF Locomotive Engineers, today
joined the President of the Train.
mems Brotherhood in charging
President Truman with double
crossing" the railroad workers dur
ing the recent rail strike.
A. F. Whitney. president OF the
Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen
made the accusation last night ano
asserted that in an address in New
York today he would spill all over
the country" proof of his charges
Mr.. Johnston, who had main
tained strict silence since the. strike
ended last Saturday. declared that
the President failed to fulfill a
promise made to the two union
leaders.
Call From SteeIman.
Shortly before We agreed to the
flve-day truce, we received a tele-
phone call from John Steelman, the
Presidents labor adviser. who in
formed us that he was speaking for
and in the presence of the Presi-
dent" Mr.. Johnston said.
Mr.. Johnston declared that Gin
accepting the Presidents assurance
that We would receive a better set
tlement of our working rules dis
pute, we received further assurance
that the carriers had agreed to the
additional concessions.
The engineers head. however, re-
fused to go along with Mr.. Whitney's S
announced plan to consolidate his
brotherhood with the AF'L or CIO
and to spend union funds in an eff
fort to defeat Mr.. Truman
He declared he hadn't even
thought about" setting up a polit-
ical fund and said Mr.. Whitney's
consolidate plans were entirely his
own"
Plans Unification Move.
Before leaving for New York last
night, Mr.. Whitney said he planned
the unification move in a defense
against antilabor proponents.
Mr.. Whitney said he expected, at
the convention of the trainmen in
Miami Beach, Fla, in September to
present a resolution before his
brotherhood calling for consolida-
ton of the brotherhood with the
CIO or AF'L. Mr.. Whitney said his
pm. address today in Madison
Square Park would prove that he
and Mr.. Johnston had been given
assurances by President Truman of
satisfactory settlement of their
dispute with the railroads, before
they agreed to a fveday postpone
ment of the strike
Mr. Whitney declared the post
ponem6nt was agreed to by the
brotherhood heads after they were
given ..such an attractive package"
in telephone conversation with the
President At the same time he
said. they agreed to return to WASH
ington to resume negotiations on
ending the strike.
Had Conversation Recorded.
During the conversations we told
the President we would like to take
the conversation down on record,
Mr.. Whitney said. He said we could
go ahead. So we got our StenO-
grapher and in a three way conver-
satione I've got it all down-his state
ment and ours.
He said that if We postponed the
strike for II days he would assure
us a satisfactory settlement. We
asked whether the assurances meant
we would get more concessions than
had been offered us. He responded
in the affirmative
I'VE then asked if he had the as
surances of the railroads that there
would be more concessions, and he
again said he had those assurances
so We said all right and We
decided TO take a chance.
Says He was Double Crossed"
Like a bunch of suckers we post
poned the strike, gave them a
chance to load their guns, and then
got double-crossed