'FORCE' AUTHORIZED IN NATIONWIDE RAILWAY STRIKE
Chicago, Illinois (JFK+50) On July 9, 1922, the Sunday Star reports that on the previous evening District Attorney Charles F. Clyne and U.S. Marshal Robert Levy received "authorization to use force in preventing any interruption of interstate commerce and the movement of the mails."
The Associated Press front page story states that many trains were cancelled due to threats. There will be a federal probe into interference with the mails.
The Star says...
"The calling out of troops in Illinois, the assembling of soldiers in half a dozen other states and the intervention of the federal courts in the nationwide strike of railway shop men marked the close of the eighth day of the walkout tonight."
JFK+50 NOTE
The Great Railroad Strike of 1922, a.k.a. The Railway Shopmen's Strike, began on July 1, 1922 by seven railroad labor organizations. It was caused by a 12% wage cut in the pay of maintenance workers. 400,000 railway employees took part.
On July 3rd, Ben W. Hooper*, head of the Railroad Labor Board & appointee of President Harding, pushed through a resolution declaring all strikers forfeited their arbitration rights & railroads were encouraged to hire replacements or strikebreakers.
The strike collapsed in August 1922.
*Ben Walter Hooper (1870-1957) was born in Newport, Tennessee & graduated from Carson Newman College, 1890. BWH served in TN State Legislature, 1893-1897, Asst US Attorney East TN 1906-1910, & Governor of TN 1911-1915.
SOURCE
"U.S. Orders 'Force' In Rail Strike," The Sunday Star, Washington, D.C., July 9, 1922, Chronicling America, Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/
