After much conversation on the "green line," the private telephone wire between the Prime Minister's residence and Balmoral Castle, Queen Elizabeth II last week proclaimed a "state of emergency" in Britain. Reason: the nationwide railway strike that had halted four out of five trains on the nationalized railway system. Close to 70,000 locomotive engineers and firemen struck May 29 for a wage increase that would add little to their weekly pay packets but would preserve the differential between their "skilled" wage rate and that of nearly 400,000 railroad workers including porters, signalmen and gandy dancers.
The walkout brought a creeping...
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