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Governors. Although Governor Frank Murphy of Michigan was acclaimed as a great statesman when he refused to let General Motors' sit-downers be ousted and finally worked out a strike settlement, several other Governors last week appeared disinclined to follow his example. Perhaps they took note of the fact that Michigan has had a bigger rash of sit-downs than any other State. At one time last week there were no less than 22 sit-downs going on in Detroit alone.
One who declined to follow Governor Murphy was the senior of all U. S. Governors, 74-year-old Wilbur Lucius Cross of Connecticut—onetime dean of Yale's Graduate School and editor of the Yale Review. Kindly, liberal, scholarly, disarmingly honest, a Democrat and friendly to the New Deal, he has been re-elected three times with the votes of many an admiring Republican as well as Democrat. Last week after State police ousted the Electric Boat sit-downers, a union delegation headed by C. I. Organizer Francis X. McCann called on Governor Cross to protest. Jumping up from his chair and shaking his finger in the faces of his visitors in the manner of a dean trying to impress something on a group of disorderly students, the Governor solemnly declared: "There will be no sit-down strikes in Connecticut while I am Governor."
Not so emphatic was Governor Henry Horner's announcement after the ousting of the Fansteel sit-downers in Illinois: "I deem it only fair to all concerned to say that the action taken by the Lake County Sheriff was legal and required by his oath of office." He added: "Although the strikers' occupancy of the plant and their defiance of a court order cannot be approved, there is also a question as to the legality of the company's refusal to deal with representatives of striking employes."
Governor Robert E. Quinn of Rhode Island, questioned about a strike in a print & dye works at West Warwick, obscured his attitude on sit-downs by promising to "protect both the workers and the employers in their rights," but added forcefully: "I'll take care of Rhode Island."
Burly Governor Harold G. Hoffman of New Jersey last week in a radio broadcast repeated his previous promise:
"To the citizens of New Jersey I promise—and to lawless organizations I give warning—that, if necessary, the entire resources of the State will be called into action to preserve the rights, liberties and property of its citizens. . . . The most valuable of human rights is the right to earn, to own and to enjoy property."
Human Rights v. Property Rights.