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Then, when they've digested that, announce the appointment of Ickes.”
What about the operators?
We didn't bother about them. Well, what could they do? They were struck. I did at some point-- Of course, one of the very first things that Ickes did was to call the operators into his office. He did this as soon as the announcement was made. It was very important not to have anything spilled until the announcement was made.
I'm not positive, but I think I did call in Charlie-- this fellow who' name I've forgtten. He represented the northern operators for years and died a few years ago. He was the one who made the agreement with John L. Lewis at the Information Booth of the Grand Central Station on one occasion when they'd had a long, bitter struggle. He and John met, and on the back of an envelope they wrote out the terms and agreed to them in ten minutes. I mean, that was the way things were done. The end had come. John wasn't going to go on any longer, and Charlie knew it. Charlie had been a coal-miner himself and a member of the United Mine Workers, and then he'd worked himself over to the management side, and he had come to be their general representative. He always represented them. He was the spokesman for the northern mine operators--spokesman was what he was called. He was employed by the Northern Mine.
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