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They're making demands that we can't fulfill. We pay the going wage, but they make trouble.”

The President would turn to me, asking, “What about it?” I would give the latest news I had, which was never very much, because there had never been a full strike. There would be a little flare-up for a day, or half a day, on one dock, with regard to one ship. From the point of view of the conciliators of the Labor Department, it was a nuisance, but not serious. It was something they could handle very quickly and very easily. All the strikes settled themselves, anyhow. I would try to give that report to the President, but the Secretary of the Navy was nervous about it.

Then there began to be more serious walk-outs, “stoppages,” as they called them. They would be out for two or three days. The situation was altogether a little uneasy. There was something going on all right. It was an attempt to organize. Again, I tried to get Ryan to go out, but he wouldn't go.

The President was proposing to go off on a cruise, where he went to Hawaii. He went on a naval ship with a naval escort. He was making an inspection of our outer defenses, of the navy yards, installations, naval methods, and so forth. He was going to be gone for some time.