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Show oo STEPS TAKEN TO END STRIKE OF pines WASHINGTON. April 16 Steps! toward settlement of the strike of I New England telephone opermr. were taken today by Postmaster Gen-1 era! Burleson and Secretary Tumulty. Each official urged the strikers to I return to work immediately and sub 1 I mit their demands to the general man-1 , ager of the New England Telephone j land Telegraph comp m: The operators were assured that ; their application would be acted up- on promptly after its submission to the general manager of the company. In a statement given out late todav after a conference v.ith Secretarv Tumulty, Tu-multy, Mr Burleson declared that i'ie ' postofflce department was not free to grant wage increases which would have to be paid for by the public, '"without carefully inquiring Into the I relation between reveuues and expenditures expen-ditures ' of the company He promised, prom-ised, however, that if the increases irere found to be just and reason-able reason-able " they would be granted even if the charges to the public had to be td-vanced td-vanced Mr. Burleson warned the strikers (hat unless they returned to work at once, the people of New England, "now suffering so seriously from the loss of service," would turn against them and would be likely to give the employes the support necessary to warrant favorable government action" |