view raw text
CIO SUED FOR ,500,000 CLEVELAND, Ohio, May 23.— Declaring it was subjected to a deliberatly-planned reign of terror in the "Little Steel" strike of 1937, the Republic Steel Corporation, one of the nations largest independent producers, today filed suit for triple damages of ,500,000 against the Congress of Industrial Organization and its principal affiliates and officers, headed by John L. Lewis. The suit, filed in Federal Court under provisions of the Sherman and Clayton Acts, alleged that strike violence in the steel centers of Ohio, in South Chicago, Buffalo, Beaver Falls, Cumberland and elsewhere grew out of a C. I. O. conspiracy to force Republic Steel to sign a collective bargaining contract. The damages sought were thrice the ,500,000 the corporation claimed was lost through the forced closing of its plants, abnormal costs entailed in operating them under strike siege, expenditures for protection and the attendant decline in business and inability to contract for future deliveries. Under the Clayton Act triple damages can be claimed.
