Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1946-05-18
Union Leader Declares All HOPE
To Avert WaIkout Has Vanished
Headquarters Set
Up in New York
By Engineers
BY the Associated Press

NEW YORK, May 18.-ThomaS
J. Harkins, representative of the
Eastern division of the Brother
hood of Locomotive Engineers,
said today that "the railroad
strike is on" and "any hope of
averting it ended when the
union leaders left Washington to
return to Cleveland"
Mr.. Harkins made the statement
as he began setting up strike head
quarters for the brotherhood in q
midtown hotel. He said instructions
to all workers in his union in this
area would be issued from his Offices.
Meanwhile, Wilbur Reed, vice
president of the railroad trainmen
with headquarters in the same hotel,
declined to discuss the situation and
said all orders would have to come
from his unions headquarters in
Cleveland.
No Meeting in Sight.
Mr.. HarklnS, assistant grand chief
engineer for his union, said:
1.-The situation looks very bad. The
national officers have gone back to
Cleveland and there is no meeting in
sight today. 1t looks worse than it
did yesterday"
'The strike is on" he added. "T1he
matter is in the same status as it
was before the Government took
over"
Mr.. Harkins estimated that there
were $4,000 engineers in the New
York area and that there were three
trainmen for each engineer.
Insists on Workers Rights.
Asked If the men would work
for the Government, Mr.. Harkins
laughed and asked:
What did they do in the tugboat
strike? They didn't work"
But this is a much bigger, mat
ter" reporter interposed.
Yes, but the principle is the
same" Mr.. Harkins added. THE
Government has a lot of rights and
I assume the President of the United
States was fully advised. But we
still have certain rights that can
not be denied by the President or
by any one else"
In Cleveland the outlook in event
of strike was summarized as fol-
lows:
Industry, emerging from the ef-
fects Of Gripping coal strike, would
face shutdowns within q week.
Food shortages would develop rap
idly, with perishables disappearing
from store shelves in a matter of
hours.
Travellers would be stranded away
from homes.
Buses could handle only a frac-
ton Of train passengers.
Trucks could handle only a small
percentage of freight.
The Nations mail service would
be disrupted.
Called for PM.
The strike is called for pm
standard time in each affected area
Thus, strike will require an overall
time of three hours to become ef-
fective over the Nation.
Not affected in the strike call arr
troop, hospital and milk trains
Brotherhood officials have instruct
ed their members that so far as
their legal right to strike is con-
cerned there is no difference between
mail train or any other train.
Brotherhood members employed on
Canadian lines have been instructed
to remain in service.
Other brotherhood instructions:
mo man In road service involved
in the strike will perform any serv-
ice after the hour set to strike, un-
less he already has begun a trip and
actually has left the terminal,
IF the train has left the terminal
he will complete the trip and deliver
the engine and train at the end
OF che run, or tie-up point =.
Men in other than road service will
leave the service at the appointed
time"
The strike order involves approx
ICoa 0pTD ATIO1IC