Attack from the Rear

Under Secretary of War Robert P. Patterson last week charged more than 10,000 striking members of the Mechanics Educational Society of America (independent) with "conduct equivalent to treason." The strike was a jurisdictional dispute between M.E.S.A. and the C.I.O.'s United Auto Workers; it had spread from a single small factory to 48 other war plants by order of M.E.S.A.'s energetic Matthew Smith, 51.

Under Secretary Patterson wired Smith: "Your strikes . . . represent no honest grievance. . . . You are striking our fighting men from the rear. The War Department insists these strikes be stopped at once."

But the strikes did not stop. Next day President Roosevelt ordered the Army to take over eight of the plants. And on the next, Smith ordered the strikers back to work.

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