| OCR Text |
Show 400,000 UNION MINERS OBEY STRIKE CALL; SHARP WATCH BEING KEPT Bl PALMER District United States Attorneys Warned to Deal With Any Attempt At-tempt to Evade Order. President Is Urged by Congressman to Take Possession of Mines and Negotiate Scale. By Universal Service. WASHINGTON, Nov. 1. The government gov-ernment tonight determined upon "direct "di-rect action" to end the coal strike by carrying its fight to avert a fuel famine fam-ine into the individual' states affected by the walkout. Injunctions similar to that obtained at Indianapolis yesterday restraining the national representatives of the mine workers from . Btrikc activities will be sought by the .attorney general Sv-. against, local leaders and' agitators in the bituminous regions involved in the strike. Attorney General Palmer'ad-dressed Palmer'ad-dressed a telegram .to. all .the United States district attorneys in the country tonight to report immediately any action ac-tion "by two or more persons" to carry forward the strike. These reports re-ports will be made the basis of the now injunction suits planned by tho attorney general. Cognizance of unscrupulous operators and dealers who take the present crisis as an opportunity to profiteer is taken in tho attorney general's telegram. They are not to be spared, he declares war prices of coal have been restored and they are to bo rigidly observed, his instruction Tcad. TEXT OF PALMER'S OFFICIAL TELEGRAM. The attorney general's telegTam reads as follows: "Yesterday at Indianapolis Judge Anderson, on the application of the United States, issued a temporary restraining re-straining order restraining a large number of officials of the United Mine Workers from taking any action or proceeding of any kind whatsoever in furtherance of the bituminous coal strike which had been previously called. It is of the utmost importance that 1 . should be promptly advised of any concerted con-certed action by any two or more persons per-sons in your district to carry forward this strike. "Please communicate with the mar-j shal and local representatives of the bureau of investigation and keep yourself your-self fully' informed of the situation in I your district. If you discover any concerted con-certed action by any two or more persons, per-sons, cither employers, employees or others, which amounts to an agreement or arrangement to limit the facilities for transporting, producing, supplying, storing or dealing in coal or to restrict the supply or distribution of same or to exact excessive prices for coal or to aid or abet in the doing of any such act you should advise me at once by wire, giving me the names of persons and full particulars. Federal fuel administrator ad-ministrator has issued order restoring former prices fixed by fuel administrator adminis-trator and any profiteering in coal should bo promptly proceeded against." NO GENERAL STRIKE PROPOSED BY LABOR. Labor does not contemplate any general gen-eral strike nor sympathetic strike because be-cause of its repugnance against the action ac-tion of the federal government in peeking peek-ing an injunction at Indianapolis to prevent tbe coal strike, it. was learned authoritatively today at the American Federation of Labor. Labor does intend, however, to fight with all its power short of a strike the issue raised, by Attorney General (Continued on Page 3, Column 2.) Si : B ' r. . SHARP WATCH BEING KEPT BY PALMER (Continued From Page One.) Palmer, but in just what manner it-will proceed was not disclosed this afternoon. after-noon. Meanwhile the government today, if the movement of large numbers of troops to the bituminous coal regions may be excepted, was "sitting tight" in expectation of the test of strength which will come Monday or Tuesday. At that time it will be determined how many of the members of the United Mine Workers of America will disre-' disre-' gard the strike order and return to I work. If the strike then appears to be s a success the government will take j steps to see that coal is mined. I Following are the outstanding dc-Ivelopments dc-Ivelopments in the situation up to tonight: to-night: DAY'S DEVELOPMENTS ARE SUMMARIZED. Judge C. B; Ames of the attorney general's office, returned to the capital this afternoon from Indianapolis where he sought tofore Federal Judge Anderson, An-derson, on behalf of the government, an injunction restraining the officers of the miners' union from carrying out the strike order in any way. Attorney General Palmer held a long conference 'with Judge Ames this afternoon, af-ternoon, discussing the argument that will be presented bv the latter on No- vember 8, when he asks Judge Anderson Ander-son to issue an injunction to take, the place of the restraining order he issued is-sued yesterday. The United States railroad administration adminis-tration announced its complete plan of distribution and the selection of nine cities frorn which operations will be directed. di-rected. The department of justice was in receipt re-ceipt of reports from widely scattered parts of the country to the effect that miners wished to disregard the strike order and return to work. Troops are now on their way to there localities to give protection to the men. Preparing Statement. It was announced that the four brotherhoods broth-erhoods whose representatives were in conference with this attorney general yesterday were preparing a statment settihg forth their views on the injunction injunc-tion proceedings and that this statement state-ment would be made public tomorrow, the statement following the same gen- j eral line, it is understood, as the state- ment issued last night by Samuel Gom-pers Gom-pers and other officials of the American Amer-ican Federation of Labor. President Wilson was kept in constant con-stant touch with all developments today to-day by his secretary, Joseph P. Tumulty, Tu-multy, and he may again confer with Attorney General Palmer tomorrow. The next meeting of the cabinet is slated for Tuesday, but iu the event it appears by Monday that the strike is a partial success, the cabinet may meet in special session Monday afternoon after-noon to perfect plans for the operation of the mines. The strike was declared to be a success suc-cess by Edgar Wallace, legislative agent of the United Mine Workers here this afternoon. He predicted that-few of the members of the union would be at work Monday. The railroad administration administra-tion '3 distribution of coal will be handled by a central coal committee at Washington and regional coal committees com-mittees in New York, Chicago, St. Louis, Cleveland, Atlanta, Boston, Pittsburg, Philadelphia and Roanake, Virginia. Day Reported Quiet. Attorney General Palmer said this afternoon that the situation was "quiet," and that little chantre could be expected until Monday or Tuesday. Today in addition to being an "off day ' ' at the majority of the mines, was a church holiday, and this probably accounted for many reports from coal cen'ers which declared that none of the workers had put in an appearance this morning. "We have received reports," said .Mr. Palmer, "from Kentucky, Wyoming, Wyom-ing, Alabama and other parts of the west that the miners do not intend to observe the strike order and that they will continue at work.'' "They are going to get protection," it was suggested. "They are," was Mr. Palmer's reply. The attorney general was asked whether or not he could say anything regarding the return of Judge Ames from Indianapolis. "No," he said, "he got what he went out there for." Protection Is Assured. Mr. Palmer's assurance that the men who remained at work would receive protection was borne out today at the war department when it was learned there were approximately forty-four regiments of infantry in the army department's de-partment's jurisdiction which include the largest number of soft coal mines. A new and serious eViment in connection con-nection with the coal strike is the attitude at-titude of the pumpers, helpers and other unionized workers at coal mines from which the miners have walked out. The strike order did uot include those men because they were deemed necessary for tie protection of the mines, especially against fire and flood. If the government attempts to use nonunion non-union kibor to work the mines, those men might walk out, it was said, and heir positions, which arc somewhat speeialked, would be hard to fill. . |
