The 1944 Time Magazine Story On The Sewell Avery Arrest

[WillyT]

U.S. At War: Seizure!
Time
Monday, May. 08, 1944

<snip>

Serene and calm, Sewell Lee Avery sat down in the green leather chair in his paneled office, and waited. Day before, he had sent a telegram challenging the authority of the President of the U.S. to seize the Chicago plant of Montgomery Ward & Co., the $295,000,000 mail-order house of which Mr. Avery is the absolute, unchallenged boss. Mr. Avery had not long to wait.

The U.S. Government arrived, in the person of an old-family Chicagoan, Under Secretary of Commerce Wayne Chatfield Taylor — a rich man's son, product of St. Mark's and Yale, onetime investment banker, and by no means a wild-eyed New Dealer. Sewell Avery rose from his chair, his thin lips parting in an amiable smile, and courteously, gravely asked the U.S. Government to step in. The door closed.

With Wayne Taylor came short, balding Ugo Carusi, executive assistant to the U.S. Attorney General; with Sewell Avery were two top company executives. Out of his briefcase Wayne Taylor drew a certified copy of the Presidential order directing the Secretary of Commerce to take over operation of Montgomery Ward & Co. "for the successful prosecution of the war."

An hour later Wayne Taylor emerged, informed newsmen that Sewell Avery had bluntly refused to turn over his plant. Messrs. Taylor and Carusi seemed nonplussed. They telephoned Commerce Secretary Jesse Jones in Washington, huddled with U.S. District Attorney J. Albert Woll in Chicago's old Post Office. Presently they returned, accompanied by U.S. Deputy Marshal William H. McDonnell and eight gun-toting deputies. Facing the armed squadron, Sewell Avery politely told Marshal McDonnell that he would not surrender. Then a call went out to Camp Skokie Valley, just north of Chicago.

Time to Go Home. Shortly after 6 p.m., three olive-drab Army trucks rolled up to Montgomery Ward's main entrance. Out jumped a 44-man unit of battle-helmeted Military Police under command of Lieut. Ludwig Pincura. Bayonets glinted in the afternoon sun. Followed by four enlisted men, Lieut. Pincura began his bloodless invasion. On the eighth floor the five pairs of Army brogans clattered across the green-and-white-squared linoleum, then moved noiselessly through the deep-carpeted executive offices.

Sewell Avery was not surprised to see them. He smiled. After a moment's embarrassed silence, Lieut. Pincura said: "Under authority vested in me by the President of the United States I am taking over this plant."

Asked Sewell Avery: "Does that mean I have to leave?"

"Yes," said the commander of the Army of Occupation.

"No," said Sewell Avery, answering his own question.

Sewell Avery, a tall, thin man with long thin hands, glanced calmly at his watch. "Well," he said, "time to go home anyway." He left by a rear door, ducking reporters, jumped into his waiting black Cadillac and drove to his Lake Shore Drive apartment. Lieut. Pincura's men posted the President's seizure order on company bulletin boards, began alternating on four-hour shifts in front of the eight-story brick office building. For the 16th time in World War II the U.S. Army had seized private property, at the direction of the President, as the result of a labor dispute. But this time there was a difference. That night on the radio, in the early editions of morning newspapers, in news offices and corner drugstores, the questions were asked: Is Ward's a war plant? Do the President's wartime powers cover seizure of a mail-order house?

<snip>

Much more: http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,933315,00.html

Thanks sixmile !!!

:hi:

:kick:

[Joe Chi Minh]

1. Please tell me he didn't get it back. And why wasn't he roughed up a little, when he was ejected?

Ah, well, today, he wouldn't be a taserable nobody, either, would he?

[OutNow]

2. And the present day equivalent is....

1. we are at war, two of them in fact
2. the owners of companies all across the country are sitting on billions of dollars of cash and refusing to hire new workers
3. there are millions of people with no jobs and benefits are running out or have expired


Therefore it's time to take over some companies and put people back to work.

What's wrong with my logic?

[petronius]

3. That was a really interesting article, and the bit about the Blue Eagle was new

to me - the fact that the Philadelphia Eagles were named for it is my useless trivia acquisition for the day...