Evening star., 1950-09-05
GE Strike Called Off
AS Workers Accept
u. 5. Mediation Offer
BY the Asseeiaied Press

Crlcal workers TO call on q strike
against the General Electric Co
and a wage boost to Ford Motor
Co. workers marked Labor Day
1850.
The electrical workers accepted
without reservation a Government
proposal-based on the hope oi
averting a defense production cut
back-to mediate a dispute over
wages with GE.
Ford workers won a new five.
year contract, carrying a wage in
crease which union officials esti.
mated would mean from $45 mil
lion to $50 million yearly to about
l26,000 workers.
Labor's annual holiday also
produced the usual flow of oratory
some of it keyed directly tc
workers problems and others call
ing on all citizens to- grid for 8
struggle against communism.
46 GE Plants Threatened.
The dispute with General Elec-
trio had threatened to affect 46 or
more G. E plants and 10000
workers-only about a third of
them members of the CIO Elec-
trical Workers Union. About st.
900 members had been called on
to strike today.
Cyrus Ching, head of the Fed
eral Mediation and Cancellation
Service, called on the union and
GE yesterday to settle the dispute
peacefully. He said "a proper re-
gard for their citizenship RESPONSE
bilities' required such solution.
Mr.. Ching asked that there be
no extension of week-old walkouts
which had made $4,000 workers
idle. The unicn, acceding to the
request for mediation, said it is up
to those idle men whether they
will go back to work.
Even before the Government
acted, a number of union locals
had voted to disregard the inter-
nationals strike call and to stay
on the job.
Strike Failure Charged.
This led Lemuel R. Boulware,
GE vice president, to contend
that the strike was already a
failure" before the Government
interviewed. He said Mr.. Ching
had been asked to intercede by
James B. Carey, the unions ad-
ministrative chairman. A union
spokesman retorted: Rubbish.
Leaders OF the CIO, AFL and
United Mine Workers all made
speeches yesterday.
President Philip Murray of the
CIO told an audience at Birming-
ham, Ala, that labor will give
full support to the Nations fight
against communism, but he said
workers do not intend to be the
goat onto whose shoulders big
business will pass its rightful
share of the common burden"
Speaking at Chicago. President
Green of the AFL pledged
full support in the Korean war
effort, which he said is merely
the opening skirmish of a global
struggle which may break out into
open warfare at any time"
John L. Lewis Of the United
Nine Workers said at Coaldale,
Pa, that the Taft-Hartley Act
makes a second-class citizen out
Of a man who belongs to labor
union" He said the right to
strike cannot be taken away
without making the individual a
serf to live under adverse condi-
tons"
Must Enforce u. N. Decisions.
W. Stuart Symington, chairman
of the National Security Resources
Board, said in Chicago speech
that Russia is steadily increasing
her military strength, including
an atomic bomb stockpile.
with relatively minor excep-
tions," he said, Everything would
now seem going according to their
schedule for world conquest.
Of Korea has taught us any
thing, it is that peace-loving de-
mocracieS cannot afford to wait
for an additional aggression be-
fore mobilizing to meet that ag-
gression. We must build, now, a
defense sufficient to enforce with
our Allies those decisions of the
United Nations made in the in
terest of world peace"
At johnson City. N. Y, Assistant
Secretary of Defense Paul H,
Griffith said department policy is
to be ready ito heap dreadful re-
taliation on any enemy which
might attack u.s." He said criti-
cisnl of Secretary of Defense john
son is an example of "the great
American game of finding a goat" ;"
Must Lead Cause of Peace.
In Oklahoma City, Senator Kerr,
Democrat, of Oklahoma said that
the Nation must swiftly make it.
self the worlds strongest military
power as insurance for peace.
He backed up President Tru-
mans call for doubling the size
of American armed forces, now
around is million men, and for a
vast increase in guns, tanks and
other military equipment.
Bluntly condemning Russia as
an aggressor and treaty violator
who has attempted to sabotage
the United Nations, Senator Kerr
said in an address before the
Oklahoma American Legion con-
vention:
1--WE now know that if there is
to be world peace, we and we alone
have the power and the might
and the confidence of others to
lead the free people of the world
into achieving that peace"