Wage Strike

After conferring with labor leaders and employers in November 1929, President Hoover proposed that the Depression would run its course unmarred by wage strikes if employers would make no attempts at wage reduction. With two exceptions--textile disturbances at Danville, Va. (TIME, Jan. 12) and at Lowell, Mass. last month--this Hoover proposal held good until March 1931. Last week, however, came another labor demonstration against pay cuts, with economists gloomily predicting many another cut and strike before the country has fully recovered.

In New Orleans, one midnight last week, a crowd of 200 Negro longshoremen, disgruntled at a wage reduction of 15-c- an hour, swarmed out of a meeting hall to the waterfront to wait for strikebreakers on their way to work. Harbor police saw the sullen crowd approaching, sent in a riot call. Major clash occurred at the base of the Liberty Monument, which stands near the river in memory of the men of New Orleans who died for the overthrow of Carpet Bag rule.* As the dawn came up, police charged the blackamoors, some of whom withdrew, firing revolvers. Most of the mob was arrested: 103 for disturbing the peace, 15 for carrying concealed weapons, others for violating the Federal injunction protecting the docks.

In Washington, William Green, A. F. of L. president, took notice of the muffled business agitation for pay cuts, warned: ''Reduction in wages, forced by some employers, are delaying a return to prosperity. These reductions have been favored by a few bankers and some employers whose desire for standard profits has overcome their better judgment. If they are persisted in, a return to normal conditions will be delayed two or more vears."

*Following the Civil War, Louisiana suffered sorely from unscrupulous Republican politicians supported by the Federal Government, backed by the new Negro vote. The New Orleans monument commemorates a fight between the "White League" (Democratic ex-Confederates) and the Republican police on Sept. 14, 1874. The State returned to normal after the election of Francis Tillon Nicholls to the governorship in 1876.

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