Under the threat of a general strike in support of ninety imprisoned teachers, the board of education sharply reversed its previous position and offered substantial contract concessions. These were included in an agreement approved by a union vote of 431 to 90 on November 23.

The impressive victory in New Haven sets an example for teachers around the country, who are more and more often being hit with injunctions and jailings when they try to defend education and their standard of living.

The confrontation here had been building up for a year and a half, ever since negotiations for a new teachers' contract began. Claiming it had "no money," the board's final offer included only a $200 rise in pay scale in a three-year contract.

Increments--wage increases given to teachers based on number of years' experience and advanced degrees--were included for only two years. In addition, there was no provision for reduction of the maximum class size, one of the teachers' main demands.

Fed up with this kind of treatment from the board, 1,000 of the system's 1,200 teachers and related employees voted overwhelmingly November 9 to strike the following morning.  
 
December 4, 1950
Three factors are now playing a central role in the acute and hourly aggravation of the international crisis, which was inherent from the beginning in Truman's "police action" in Korea and which has now brought this country and the whole world so perilously close to the outbreak of a major war in Asia, if not to another world war.

The first fact is the abrupt change in the military situation on the China-Korea front. Things have turned out in a way entirely unforeseen either in Washington or Tokyo.

Second is the blind alley into which the diplomats of Wall Street have maneuvered themselves. They had deliberately stalled all along in the expectation of dictating the terms of a possible settlement, with a "strong" military position on the China-Korea border as their trump card. This diplomatic "strategy" blew up in their faces with the military reverses. And they are now improvising from day to day, if not from one minute to the next.

The third major factor is the sinister role of General MacArthur who continues to press for a showdown in Asia and whose political and military strategy has been from the first directed toward this end. It is widely recognized that his removal from command would greatly alleviate at least the diplomatic situation. On the other hand, his remaining in command can easily precipitate an even graver state of affairs.  
 
 
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