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“Look what Franklin Roosevelt's doing for these working people. Look what the NRA is doing for these working people. What do they strike for? It's against the government. It's against the welfare of the country when they strike. We're trying to recover from the depression. Why should there be a strike?” That was his general attitude. That conveyed itself very quickly to the newspapers and I think in all innocence they took up this cry of “Why should there be a strike? Why do these things happen? Look at all that's being done for them.”

At any rate, we were desperate. They were introducing bills into Congress to prohibit strikes and to put into jail persons who recommended strikes. A dreadful set of bills was being introduced. I can't remember them all, but people were rising in Congress and threatening what they would do. It was all very well to go up and oppose all these bills that were being proposed as laws, but the pressure was getting too strong.

I suddenly realized that I had to do something to hold them at bay. People would rise in Congress and would say, “Well, after all, they have a law in England. They don't permit this kind of behavior in England.” Of course, the law they had in England had nothing to do with this case. It was a law formed after the general strike. It