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PRESIDENT MAY INTERVENE Soft Coal Strike Likely to Paralyze Traffic and Business in New York City. WASHINGTON, D. C, April 17. With a coal shortage threatened, the White House said today that President Roosevelt probably will intervene in the deadlocked soft coal negotiations in New York, if other avenues of mediation failed. That the President would act if the United Mine Workers Unioi and the soft coal operators failed to reach an early agreement, was revealed by Stephen T. Early, secretary to the President. Early stated, "If it comes to a point, which we hope it wont, where the regular machinery of the Department of Labor and various boards break down, the White House probably will act, but the President wants to try those avenues of mediation first." Early made known Mr. Roosevelts stand as he commented on the wire sent to the President by Mayor LaGuardia of New York. The New York mayor appealed to the White ! House to intervene, saying that the city of New York faced a possible coal shortage in about ten days. Such a coal shortage, may, LaGuardia pointed out, halt the ranid transit systems in New York and virtually paralyze traffic and business in the nations largest city. Public utility plants and hospitals might also be affected.
