Harry S. Truman 1947 Typed Letter Signed as President – Railroad Strike Content

33rd President. Typed letter signed “Harry S. Truman” AS PRESIDENT, August 30, 1947, 7.5×10, The White House Washington stationery, to Frank M. Swacker, in full:

Your report of investigation dated August 20, 1947 respecting the dispute between the River Terminal Railway Company and certain of its employees represented by the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen has been received.

I wish to compliment you on bringing the parties into mutual agreement on the question in controversy and to express my appreciation of the public service thus rendered by the Emergency Board.

Presented custom matted with a portrait of Truman and framed to 20×16.

In May 1946, President Truman, acting under his war powers, seized the railroads as a means of dealing with a nationwide strike by engineers and trainmen that paralyzed the railroads for two days. Similar threats to strike by other major union groups brought similar seizures by the government in 1948 and 1950. The one in 1950 lasted 21 months. In 1951 Congress amended the 1934 Railway Labor Act by removing the requirement of union membership in order to hold a railroad job, thereby permitting union shop negotiations.