With the bankruptcy of the city of Detroit in the news recently and the news about the city turning off the water to homes where bills weren't paid, I found this editorial in the August 23, 1941 Syracuse newspaper interesting. Does anyone else see the connection?

That Detroit Situation

The fourth city in the nation, Detroit, with a population of 1,600,000, is at the mercy of labor leaders drunk with power, engaged in a jurisdictional dispute over the seemingly trivial exclusive rights to announcements on the bulletin board of the municipally owned transportation system.

Three days have passed without a trolley or bus in operation, traffic has been snarled because of the impression into service in an effort to keep the huge defense employment program going of automobiles for transportation, and officials confer vainly with rival union heads in an effort to bring order out of chaos.

At long range it would seem the authorities are overly patient. The statutes of Michigan provide that a five day notice and a 30-day cooling off period must precede any strike against a public utility, yet the A. F. of L., street railway workers gave notice of but four hours.

The other municipal employees are organized under CIO. They sought, among other things, right to equal use of bulletin boards in trolley barns and bus garages for display of notices. The street railway workers acted promptly to the utter collapse of municipal transportation.

This came despite the fact that only recently motormen, conductors and bus drivers were granted a substantial wage increase by a sympathetic municipal administration.

Officials of the city and Michigan, as stated, appear to be overly patient while the patronizing public suffers inconvenience due to union rivalry.