Evening star. [volume], May 21, 1948, Page A-4, Image 4

About Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972

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CIO Union Expected
To End Meat Strike
Against All But Wilson
By the Associated Press
CHICAGO, May 21.—An end of
the 67-day-old Nation-wide meat
strike at most of the major
packing plants appeared im
minent today.
The CIO United-Packinghouse
Workers' Union strike director pre
dicted that the rank and file vote
on proposals to end the long work
stoppage—on company terms—will,
favor immediate return to all plants
except Wilson & Co.
Locals across the country last
night voted by secret ballot on the
settlement proposals to end the
strike, which has been marked by
violence at several livestock centers.
Results were expected to be an-!
nounced today at the union's na
tional headquarters here.
Predict Close Vote.
Herbert March, directing the strike
of about 100,000 CIO workers who
quit their Jobs March 16 after a dis
pute over wages, said the union had
recommended that strikers vote j
against returning to work at Wilson,
one of the major packers. He pre- i
dieted the vote would be close for
returning to work at plants operated
by three other major packers. Swift,
Cudahy and Armour.
The strikers voted on the accept- j
ance of a 9-cent hourly wage in-j
crease, retroactive to the March 16
strike call; retention of all seniority
rights, and arbitration with the
company on possible discharge of
workers accused of unlawful acts
during the prolonged work stop- j
page.
The 9-cent-an-hour pay increase
was the original offer made by the
packers and also had been recom-;
mended by a presidential fact-find-1
lng board. The union, which had I
demanded an increase of 29 cents
an hour, rejected the original offer.
It had been accepted by AFL and
independent union workers, who re
mained on the job.
'Mr. March said the union recom
mended that strikers vote against
returning to Wilson plants because
the company's proposals “would
mean the destruction of our union.’’ j
He said the company has insisted
that it reserve the right to deter-,
mine re-employment of strikers and'
said it would not rehire workers
charged with unlawful acts.
Mr. March said the company, by
its terms, can rehire "who they want
to regardless of seniority rights.”
Further, he added, the company “re
serves the right to fire all members
of our union who have fought to
preserve our union.”
Iowa Meat Plant Re-opens
Under Protection of Guard
WATERLOO, Iowa, May 21 UP).—
The big Rath packing plant, closed
for 24 hours after rioting in which
a CIO packing house union picket
was killed, re-opened for limited
production today under protection
of nearly 1,000 National Guards
men. The reopening went off
calmly.
Although numerous nonstriking
workers told polwe last night they
had received anOhyftlous telephone
calls warning them not to go back
to work, guardsmen said there was
no violence as the first shift re
ported. ,
Some of the nonstriking workers
told police anonymous callers told
them, "if you think anything of
your hctpp, you'd better not go to
work." ■«.
Governor Assart* Protection.
The Guard, however, issued as
surance that "we are prepared to
protect the safety of workers going
to and from the plant.”
And Gov. Robert D. Blue, who
called out the Guard to aid civil
authorities, told lowans in a radio,
address last night that the State
would "protect people and property
from violence and injury.
Col. Prank Williams, Guard com-:
mender, said early in the morning
that "there were no important inci
dents and all appears peaceful this
morning." He said the union local.:
whose 4.500 members went on strike
against the Rath Co., March 16 in j
a wage dispute, was being permitted
to increase its picket lines at the
plant gates.
"Union officials have been co
operative,” the Guard commander
said.
The colonel refused to estimate
the number of production workers
returning to their jobs. The com-j
pany started a back-to-work move
ment last month and its conten
tion that it is increasingly success
ful has been challenged by the
union.
Estimates 904 at Work. .
A. T. Stephens of Des Moines,
union district director, estimated
904 workers entered the plant and
that less than 300 were production
workers. He said 1.258 persons—
450 of them production workers—
were at their jobs Wednesday be
fore the riot.
A. D. Donnell. Rath spokesman,
said that although he had made
no count of the number returning,
“it looks like about the same num
ber as before the Wednesday in
cident.”
Although the firm announced
livestock killing would be resumed
today, none had arrived by 9 a.m.
Mr. Donnell said from 12 to 20 car
loads of meat would be shipped
from the plant today.
County Attorney Blair Wood said,
meanwhile, that to avoid tension he,
was deferring arraignment of Fred
Lee Roberts, 55, colored night clean
up man at Raths. Roberts has been
charged with murder in connection
with the death of the picket whose
fatal shooting touched off rioting
Wednesday.
The slain picket was William J.
Farrell, 40. married and the father
of three. A woman picket. Miss
Margaret Draheim, 34. was wounded
in the shoulder in the shooting
affray.
Virginia Agencies Asked
To Delay Job Changes
ly fh* A hoc i a **d Pr«»t
RICHMOND. V«.. May 21—State
Personnel Director J. H. Bradford
has asked State department heads
to hold the line on job changes
within their agencies until the new
reorganization of the State govern
ment is carried out.
In recent weeks, several depart
ments have-made requests for major
reallocations of their employees.
The streamlining of the State gov
ernment agencies becomes effective
July 1.
Mr. Bradford said large shifts of
personnel before the reorganization
has been studied and approved by
Gov. Tuck may complicate the whole
plan.
Jerusalem Old City Defenders
Make Last Stand in Synagogue
•
Arab Legion at Backs,
Threatening Jews'
Escape Route
By Daniel De Luce
Associated Press Foreign Correspondent
WITHIN THE OLD CITY IN JE
RUSALEM. May 21.—The end of a
four-day-old battle for old walled
Jerusalem seemed to be in sight
today.
Arabs claimed last night that
their forces controlled 80 per cent
of the Old City, seized by their
forces or abandoned by the Jews.
The Jewish Hagana and Irgun
Zvai Leumi had been driven back
to a thin defense line along the
west side of the Jewish quarter.
Midway of that line they were
holed up for a last stand in the
Beit Yaacov or Hurva (Ruin) Syn
agogue, on a spot where Jews have
worshipped for 700 years and two
earlier temples have L-2en osstroyed.
Withdrew Yesterday.
The Jews withdrew into the syn
agogue yesterday with Arab capture
of the Tiferet Israel Synagogue,
Jerusalem’s tallest structure, to the
east.
King Abdullah’s Trans-Jordan
Arab Legion was at their backs,
threatening to block escape. The
Legion had most of the Armenian
quarter, west of the Jewish section.
It was reported unofficially in firm
control of Zion Gate just below that
quarter in the southernmost of Je
rusalem's 400-year-old walls.
Legionnaires on the gate traded
automatic weapon fire yesterday with
Jews in a school on Mount Zion a
few score yards away.
In the New City outside the walls,
the Legion, had thrust from the
northern limits down Ramallah
road to the Damascus Gate on the
North side of the Old City and last
night was trying to clear the Jews
from Allenby Square opposite the
gate.
Hospital Pounded to Ruins.
West of there Legion guhners
pushed back Jewish defenders from
the north side of the Mea Shearim
quarters, including central prison,
che law’ courts, the Russian Cathe
dral and the Abyssinian Church.
In the Old City's Jewish quarter,
the easternmost Midrash Porat
Yosef Synagogue and Misghab
Ladach Hospital have been pounded
into virtual ruin by Legion artil
lery fire, but no sacred structures
outside that quarter seem to have
suffered much damage.
Meat Inspection Bill
Is Sent to Truman
ly th« Allociat»d Prill
The House passed by voice vote
and sent to the White House late
yesterday a bill providing that the
Government shall pay the $12,000.
000 annual cost of meat inspection.
The inspection cost now is paid
by packers.
The Senate previously had acted
on the bill.
The House vote came after twp
hoflrs'of heated debate. Represent
ative Dirksen, Republican, of Illi
nois and other opponents contended
the bill means the Government
would hand the meat packers mil
lions of dollars and take the amount
in taxes from the people.
Representative Sabath. Democrat,
of Illinois told the House:
“You keep yeiHng economy, econ
omy, economy. T don't see how you
have the nerve to bring this bill up.
Packers should pay this fee, not the
taxpayers.”
Chairman Hope of the Agriculture
Committee argued that packers are
required by law to have their meat
inspected. He said assessing packers
for inspection costs places a heavy
burden on small packers.
The Federal Government paid the
cost of meat inspection until last
year. Congress then transferred it
to the packers. The new bill puts
the inspection cost back on the old
basis.
O'Daniel Won't Make Race
For Senate This Year
ly Ph» Associated Prsil
FORT WORTH, Tex., May 21.—
Senator O’Daniel announced last
night that he would not seek re
election this year.
Senator O’Daniel, former flour
salesman who campaigned for the
governorship and later in the sen
atorial race with a hillbilly band,
made the announcement in a radio
speech.
The junior Senator from Texas
also said he would not indorse any
of those seeking his post. Among
the announced candidates are for
mer Gov. Coke Stevenson, Repre
sentative Lyndon Johnson and
George E. B. Peddy, Houston attor
ney.
Senator O’Daniel first was elected
to the Senate in 1941, to fill the va
cancy caused by the death of Sena
tor Morris Sheppard. He was re
elected in 1942.
TORONTO, ONTARIO.—
CRASH VICTIM—George Buzz’
Beurling. Canadian fighter
ace, who, with Leonard Cohen,
a Briton, was killed near
Rome, Italy, yesterday, in the
crash of a plane they were
ferrying to the Jewish air
force in Palestine. Mr. Beur
ling was Canada’s ace pilot
during the war and was known
as the “hero of Malta.” C. M.
Schuller, a Swiss newspaper
man, said he had been in
formed that Mr. Cohen was
the Spitfire pilot who achieved
fame in 1943 when the Italian
island of Pantelleria surrend
ered to him. —AP Wirephoto.
Jews Storm Zion Gate,
Seizing It for First
Time iff 500 Years
(Normal communications be
tween Jerusalem and the United
states have been disrupted since
last Friday. The following dis
patch by Associated Press Corre
spondent Carter L. Davidson is
the first one he has been able to
transmit independently since
then. It was received by the
Navy in the United States last
night.) *
By Carter L. Davidson
Associated Frets Foreign Correspondent
JERUSALEM, May IB (Delayed).
—With the storming of Zion Oate
before dawn today, 100 young Jews
with an average age of 19 wrote
another page in Holy Jerusalem’s
long, biblical and bloody history'.
Not since the Turks stormed
Arab Jerusalem nearly 500 years
ago and put the final touch to
the Ottoman Empire have these
ancient walls been taken by force.
At dawn today there were sounds
of the most modern weapons over
walls designed for crossbow warfare
as Hagana “stormers" torpedoed
and penetrated Zion Gate to relieve
the 1,500 persons in the old city
who were marooned and doomed
to die unless help came.
Barrage Hurled Into Walls.
For the first time, riagana's strik
ing force “Palmach” permitted
newsmen to accompany the storm
ers in action. I was one of four
newsmen who went to the base
headquarters, waited for four hours
in a slit trench 300 yards away
while a "softening up” barrage was
hurled into the city walls, and then
rushed with the stormers to the,
Zion Gates, already blasted open
by shock troops.
Mortar shells, including the
heaviest ever invented and built in
Tel Aviv, ripped across the holy area
in a pattern that caused fears some
may have damaged shrines of
Christians, Moslems or Jews.
We followed a stormer officer
through a minefield on the valley’s
slopes and under the guns of Jaffa
Gate to reach Mount Zion where
Hagana had mounted its attack.
Din of Battle Fearsome.
Through the grounds of Fran
ciscan and Benedictine monasteries,
both still under the yellow and
white flags of the pope, to a narrow
lane which led to Zion Gate, the
din of battle was fearsome. The
Arabs, driven back by the first
onslaught, had grouped with the
Trans-Jordan Arab Legion rein
forcements and had started an ef
fort to blast the Jews out of their
beachhead.
Sniper bullets whined in as we
dashed the last 15 yards across the
open space into Zion Gate. The
snipers were Arabs further along on
top of the 700-year-old wall and
in the village of Silwan on the
Mount of Olives. The withdrawing
stormers frolicked and laughed to
gether—until an officer came and
told them they could not keep their
looted trophies.
L - *
Israel
(Continued From First Page.)
attacking the vicinity of Samakh
with planes and artillery.
Along the Lebanese frontier Jewish
troops reported little activity.
They said Lebarffcse and Syrian
troops were massed across the bor
der from Upper Galilee.
Exchange of Wounded Rejected.
A Jewish announcement claimed
that the Arabs had turned down
a Red Cross offer to exchange
wounded taken in Kefar Etzion and
the Old City of Jerusalem.
A spokesman for Israel said yes
terday that all Arab pilots who
have been captured alive are being
treated as prisoners of war. The
statement said Israel expected the
Arabs to give the same considera
tion to captured Jews.
Yael Shertok, daughter of Israel's
Foreign Minister Moshe Shertok, is
with her father in Tel Aviv. Re
ports from Cairo recently said she
was captured by Arabs at Kefar
Etzion.
Clocks to Be Advanced.
The state of Israel goes on double
daylight saving time, advancing
clocks two hours tomorrow at mid
night, largely because of enemy air
raids.
The raids have been starting at
daybreak, which, in the Eastern
Mediterranean, now ia before 5 a.m.
The change will give workers two
hours more sleep. Local time will
be eight hours, instead of seven,
ahead of Eastern daylight time.
This all-Jewish city, administra
tive center of the nation born a
week ago today, has been under air
raid or alert a third of the time of
the first six days of its life. It is
moving rapidly to meet security re
quirements.
At first,, street traffic remained
normal during the alerts, when
bombs fell on the outskirts. But
since the heavy death toll in the
bombing of a midcity bus terminal
two days ago, the streets have been
cleared quickly at the sound of the
sirens.
Trans-Jordan-Syria Rift
Healed, Arab League Says
AMMAN. Trans-Jordan, May 21
</Pi.—The Arab League announced
today long-standing differences be
tween King Abdullah of Trans
jordan and President Shukri al
Kuwatly of Syria were settled at a
meeting yesterday near the borders
of the two Arab nations.
Recent dispatches have pictured
Syrians as worried about Abdullah’s
dream of a “Greater Syria,” which
would unite Arab lands of the Mid
dle East, including Palestine, under
Abdullah's rule. It had been re
ported that Syria and Lebanon were
seeking the aid of Saudi Arabia to
stem Abdullah's ambitions.
A dispatch from Beirut, Lebanon,
last night said leaders of Trans
jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq
conferred at Daraa, Syria, on plans
for Palestine’s future. It said this
was the first time Abdullah had met
the Syrian and Lebanese Presidents
since they helped form the seven
nation Arab League three years ago.
Judge Oscar E. Bland
Breaks Arm in Fall
Former Judge Oscar E. Bland of
the Court of Customs and Patent
Appeals was reported in good con
dition at Georgetown University
Hospital today with a fractured left
arm, suffered in a fall at his home.
2050 Macomb street N.W., last
night. •
Judge Bland, 71. retired from the
(court last December and is now
practicing law here.
D. C. Girl Is First
To Be Chemical
Engineer at M. U.
Miss Mattie Gary Moorhead, 1214
Decatur street N.W., will make his
tory—University of Maryland his
tory—when she steps up for her
diploma at graduation exercises in
Baltimore June 5. She will be the
first woman to graduate in chemical
engineering from the university.
Miss Moorhead, a native of the
District, attended West and Mac
Parland Junior High 8chools and
the Academy of the Holy Name in
Silver Spring before she entered the
university in the fall of 1943. There
here growing interest in chemistry
led her to enroll for chemical engi
neering in her third year.
Secretary for the campus chapter
of the American Institute of Chem
ical Engineers and a member of the
American Chemical Society, Miss
Moorhead, as a commuter, was a
member of the Day Dctagers Club.
She plans to enter her chosen field
Immediately upon graduation.
Virden
(Continued From First Page.)
a graduate of two fashionable wom
en’s schools, the Westover School
at Middlebury, Conn., and Sarah
Lawrence College, Bronxville, N. Y.
She worked for a while in a fac
tory of the General Instrument Co.
at Bloomfield, N. J., after gradua
tion from Sarah Lawrence last
June. She has been with Tass since
January, when she broke with her
father. She showed particular in
terest in social science courses in
college.
The daughter’s employment came
to light through a letter from Rep
resentative Crawford, Republican,
of Michigan to Mr. Sawyer in which
he asked “upon what grounds can
American industry be called upon
to co-operate with your department
when the head of your division of
Industrial co-operation is so close.
by flesh and blood, to the Tass
agency?"
Mr. Virden. operator of a Cleve
land business, was given the post
when it was set up to carry out
phases of the Republican voluntary
anti-inflation program.
In a letter to Mr. Sawyer, Mr.
Virden said “it happens that I
have been almost violently anti
atheist-Marxist for many years, so
much so that it is truly ironical for
a member of my family to be in
terested in the Marxist type of
philosophy. My daughter, though
a girl of high ideals, is only 22 and
in my judgment is simply being
exploited. She and I had a com
plete break last January when she
decided to accept this position and
I have not seen or communicated
with her in any way since that
time.”
Disqualification Denied.
Mr. Sawyer, in reply to Mr. Craw
ford, said thr matter raises two
questions: Is Mr. Virden himself
‘unfit to do the work he is doing?”
and does a man become unfit "for
public service, because his daugh
ter, against his wishes and to his
.great regret ana aismay, nas
decided to associate herself with a
Communist group?”
The Commerce Secretary said the
answer is clear: Mr. Virden "is in
no way disqualified." He added he
would ask the official to remain at
his post, "but if he feels that he
does not Wish to have his personal
family affairs the subject of further
public discussion I shall acquiesce
in his decision” to resign.
Mr. 8awyer, in hla letter to the
Congress member, pointed that Mr.
Virden is the "largest stockholder
and operator of a substantial busi
ness in Cleveland, Ohio, and has
given of his time, experience and
thought gladly and for the most
part freely, for the benefit of the
public.”
Mr. Virden was a regional director
during the war for the War Produc
tion Hoard in Cleveland, part of the
time at $1 a year. He was recom
mended fo* his present post by the
Business Advisory Council, the group
of leading businessmen who act as
unofficial advisers to the depart
ment He heads a staff of about 41
persons.
The Commerce Secretary said Mr.
Virden "is competent, honest and
experienced." He added:
"He himself has never by any act
or word indicated the slightest in
terest in or sympathy with any
Communist organization or group,
or with the Communist ideology;
and. in fact, his acts, as far as I am
informed*, indicate not wily an un
sympathetic but a vigorously an
tagonistic attitude toward it.”
Mr. Virden’s letter said he had
intended to discuss the matter with
Mr. Sawyer but the story became
public before he had an opportunity
to do so. He said he had informed
Mr. Sawyer’s predecessor in the sec
retaryship, W. Averell Harriman,
"of the situation when it first de
veloped.” , „ _
He closed his letter to Mr. Sawyer
with these words:
"You know without me telling you
that I am sorry that this matter had
to come to a head just as you are
taking over the helf but I see no
alternative."
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