Evening star., 1946-01-10
T telephone
Continued From First Page.)


Western Electric Co.. telephone
company subsidiary, nor did it con-
Germ the WTTU's demand for a $40
wage increase, Mrs. Cannon said. -
However. telephone company Off
cials watched the ACEW strike with
mounting interest in view of picket
ing scheduled throughout the Ma
ton tomorrow should last-minute
bargaining efforts fall through.
Those of the 5000 Washington
and nearby Virginia and Maryland
operators who were on duty this
morning. began leaving their switch
boards at 10 am. and within Is
minutes, about $50 were seated in
Turner's Arena.
AS was the condition last Friday,
5 per cent of the areas local service
was discontinued. most of it in
communities where only manually
tnondiaD operated telephones are
being used.
Hardest hit were the Ludlow ex-
change in the District and ex-
changes at Marlboro, Rockville.
Kensington, Capitol Heights and
Locust, Md, and Falls Church, Va.
In these communities only manually
operated telephones are used.
The White House was not i'm
mune to the interruption, but Eben
Ayers. assistant press secretary, said
no action by President Truman was
In sight.
He told a news conference that
incoming long-distance calls were
blocked and outgoing long distance
calls had to'be routed through Army
and Navy tie lines with the principal
cities.
So far as could be determined
overseas calls were not affected
Business Workers Aid Company.
When the operators began leaving
the telephone company building at
TBS Thirteenth street NV. in groups
of 10 to 20, some smiling and others
apparently reluctant. managerial
employees such as Accountants, en-
gineers and clerks Initiated an effort
to keep the long distance lines open.
In the main toll room. where 125
operators normally work, less than
so business workers struggled with
the switchboards. Many of those at
the boards were men.
You can see we are doing every
thing we can to place calls" an
official said. I'VE have modified
every available administrative en-
ploye to operate the switchboards. Z"
He said none Of the employees had
any recent practice at the work.
Every Effort Made.
The same situation prevailed at
another long-distance room at the
downtown building and in other
buildings throughout the District.
Offlcials said every effort was made
to keep the calls flowing, but only
emergency and high priority calls
could be handled
Government employees, accustomed
to dialing $50" through the central
switchboard to call other agencies,
were forced to call regular listed
numbers after the board was closed
The. central Government switch
board is operated by telephone COM
pany employees
Pentagon Service Continues.
Normal service was maintained at
the Pentagon except for restrictions
on outgoing long distance calls.
War Department officials said a few
trunk lines were kept open for
emergency" out-of-city calls. Tel
ephone operators at the building are
civil service employees and were on
duty as usual.
Prospects of national telephone
shutdown increased as the ACEW
announced that picket lines would
be formed in A States tomor-
row unless there is a settlement
in contract negotiations under way
in New York. s..
Every telephone company in the
cities affected by the strike would
be picketed if Ernest Weaver, ma
tional president, gives the signal for
action from New York.
In the District, r. L. Austin,
representative Of the ACEW local.
said the 200 workers who left their