"Miniature Revolution"

Out-of-town readers of any Philadelphia newspaper except Labor-loving J. David Stern's Record would never have guessed last week that anything out of the ordinary was happening in the staid third city of the land. Actually, Philadelphia was in the grip of what one of its officials called a "miniature revolution."

Trouble started when the local Storage Warehouse Union called a strike on all but one of the city's six biggest department stores. John Wanamaker's was exempted because it came to union terms after a strike last spring. With an enthusiasm which reminded observers of Philadelphia's election night spree and subsequent victory parade, thousands of clerks, teamsters, chauffeurs, bookkeepers and many an unorganized salesgirl, buyer, janitor and elevator operator walked out with the warehousemen. Around Gimbel's, Strawbridge & Clothier's, Lit's, N. Snellenburg's and Frank & Seder's marched mass picket lines with placards demanding more pay, better working conditions, union recognition. Read one placard: "Salesgirls on strike. Could you live on $12 a week?"

Read another: "Snellenburg's gave a week off without pay at Christmas. Some present!"

Read one in the hands of an undersized freight rustler: "DEPLORABLE CONDITIONS."

Primed for Thanksgiving and Christmas trade, the five stores, which do more than half of downtown Philadelphia's retail trade, had customers by the hundreds turn away from their doors. After a few trucks had been overturned, deliveries came virtually to a-halt. At week's end union officials claimed the stores had lost $1,000,000 worth of sales. Dumbfounded were their owners, who had been confident that the city would forbid mass picketing. Instead, Mayor S. Davis Wilson, who devoted his main speech before the U. S. Conference of Mayors in Washington last week to boasting the efficiency of his personal Labor Relations Board, proved more than friendly to the picketers. Only rules were that they must keep moving, not talk to customers. When strikers smashed the headlights on a store truck being unloaded at the post office, the driver and two helpers were arrested and fined for driving without lights.

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