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The Administration followed up its seizure by asking a federal district court in Chicago in effect to legalize the President's Act by sanctioning it. Attorney General Francis Biddle, who painfully remembers his last clash with Avery, was not quite sure how to regard Avery's present position. In the course of one short press conference, Biddle referred once to Avery as "perfectly harmless," a few minutes later was describing him as "a tough old guy who will stick to his guns." At week's end, irreconcilable old Sewell Avery trumpeted that a court test of the President's powers was what he wanted most.
*In Detroit alone, WLB orders would give 2,200 Ward employes back pay amounting to $500,000.