National Affairs: Strikes of the Week

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Maine's Androscoggin River, some 30 miles before it flows down to the sea, divides the cities of Lewiston and Auburn, built upon a thriving shoe industry. Month ago 19 shoe factories of the twin towns were closed by a strike of the United Shoe Workers of America, a C.I.O. union. In Lewiston, last week, Associate Justice Harry Manser of Maine's Supreme Judicial Court handed down a temporary injunction denying the union's right to call the strike. His grounds: the Wagner Labor Act. Said he:

"Testimony shows that six people, not duly elected to represent the shoe workers of Lewiston and Auburn, issued a call for the union to come here. . . .

"The union should have proceeded in the method provided under the Wagner Act and made certain they had the required percentage of workers before calling the strike. . . .

"The Act has been invoked by the defense as justification for what has been done. Instead, in my opinion, what has been done is a direct violation of the Act."

That night State police turned back a crowd of strikers who tried to march across a bridge over the Androscoggin from Lewiston to Auburn. By next day the situation was more serious. Powers Hapgood—a graduate of Harvard (1921) and nephew of Editor Norman Hapgood, former Minister to Denmark; husband of Mary Donovan who was Socialist candidate in 1928 for Governor of Massachusetts; himself Socialist candidate in 1932 for Governor of Indiana—was not so many years ago, as an irregular union organizer in the coal mines of West Virginia, very much at odds with John L. Lewis. Now secretary for the C.I.O. in New England, he appeared at Lewiston fresh from a conference with Leader Lewis. When strikers emerged from a union meeting and tried again to cross the Androscoggin, police used tear gas and clubs to turn them back. In Auburn another riot ensued when police dispersed a crowd that advanced on two shoe factories that were still operating.

That night Governor Lewis 0. Barrows called eight companies of militia on duty.