National Affairs: How Far?

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At 9:15 Mrs. Edgar R. Ailes had just finished the breakfast dishes and was reading the morning paper in her kitchen. Puzzled by a muffled sound of singing, she walked to a front window and looked out. What she saw sent her rushing to phone her husband, treasurer of the strike-bound Detroit Steel Products Co.

Outside, 63 United Auto Workers pickets tromped the sidewalk, brandished their placards ("No peace with piecework"), chanted their songs ("Ailes is a horse thief, we shall not be moved"). As a 25-man detachment of Detroit's riot squad roared up in answer to Husband Ailes's summons, the marchers hopefully switched their lyrics: "The police will protect us, we shall not be moved." But police were moved to hustle them off-in patrol wagons.

Next day, out on bond, the strikers returned. Boomed union president Paul Silver: "We will picket employers where we find them—at their plants, their homes, or on their Miami Beach vacations." But the police came back too.

Hauled into court, Leader Silver was given 90 days in jail (or a $100 fine), the others 30 days (or $10) each. Said the judge: "A frightening attempt to intimidate the occupants of a household, a flagrant violation of the privacy of the home." Most Detroiters agreed. While the pickets were free on appeal, Mr. & Mrs. Ailes were swamped with calls from citizens offering to mount guard with deer rifles and bird guns against further demonstrations.

Another Detroiter who wondered where union jurisdiction ended and private rights began was 65-year-old Alfred McEnhill. Because he had rented space in his house to an insurance agency, Local 22 of the A.F.L. Painters & Decorators decided that it had become an office building, ordered him to stop touching up the paint on his window sashes until he joined the union. Said New York's violently pro-labor PM: "The union should have its collective head examined."