Action -- Camera!

Like single firecrackers, here & there, sporadic violence popped and sputtered on U.S. labor fronts last week. Strikes immobilized U.S. ships again, touched the nerves of one great city, tied up various factories and kept the movie industry in a state of riot. Workers around the nation fought each other and punched cops.

P: In the nation's ports, the strike of A.F.L. Masters, Mates and Pilots and C.I.O. Marine Engineers left most of the nation's ships just as dead in the water as they were five weeks ago when lower-crust seamen struck. Wages were not an issue; shipowners were willing to settle for boosts which would give some merchant marine captains well over $600 a month. The dispute was over the West Coast shipowners' refusal to give union members preference in hiring. While negotiators argued in Washington, ship captains in Manhattan argued among themselves, fought a battle of bottles, knives and clubs.

P: In Hollywood, the dispute between the belligerent Conference of Studio Unions and monopolistic International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employes over who would do carpentry and painting on movie sets (TIME, Oct. 7) continued with little sign of settlement. C.S.U. pickets outside MGM, Warner, Universal and Republic lots tried to stop busloads of I.A.T.S.E. workers and imported goons from crashing their lines. In one melee, Deputy Sheriff Dean Stafford, knocked down and kicked unconscious, was rescued by Deputy Gilbert Leslie, who kept pickets at bay with the threat of his drawn revolver. In one brawl nine deputies and seven strikers were hospitalized.

P: In Chicago, C.I.O. United Automobile Workers, picketing the American Automatic Devices Co., threw rotten eggs at police and fought them with their fists (see cut). In four days of violence 68 rioters were jailed and scores were beaten by cops. "Those mob scenes with policemen swinging their clubs make ugly pictures," observed Mayor Ed Kelly.

P: Pittsburgh jerked along, still harassed by the strike of 3,500 employes of the Duquesne Light Co. (TIME, Oct. 7). There was no violence. Pittsburgh just suffered, got along with barely adequate power, depended on autos for transportation; A.F.L. trolley and bus drivers still refused to cross the Duquesne workers' picket lines. Some 100,000 people were thrown out of work. Only hope for a settlement on the 13th day of the strike: Government seizure of Duquesne Light.

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