The Spokane Press

PARIS IS TIED UP BY STRIKE

Not a Wheel Will Be Turning by Tonight, Prediction - Army Under Arms.

(By United Press Leased Wire)

PARIS, Oct. 12. -- Employes of the Eastern railroad, numbering 40,000, and of the Western railroad, numbering 200 more, joined the strikers on the Northern railroad today.

Eighty thousand workers of the Paris, Lyons & Mediterranean, the largest railroad in France, planned to walk out at 6 o'clock tonight; the Orleans line employes are expected momentarily to quit, and the Central railroad workers will strike tomorrow. By Friday not a wheel in Paris, it is expected, will be moving, and even the Paris underground will be tied up.

PARIS, Oct. 12. - Three hundred thousand French railway employes in all the affiliated branches of transportation service voted last evening to strike tomorrow night. At that time every train in France and every packet steamer and river boat under the jurisdiction of the "syndicate," as the French unions are called, will be tied up.

The government is preparing to take strong repressive measures and hundreds of arrests are imminent.

"This is not a strike that the government faces," said Premier Briand tonight. "It is a criminal insurrection and will be treated as such. We have warned the leaders to be careful. They have not heeded our good advice. They must swallow bad medicine."

STRIKE

Clashes between strikers and troops began early today. The strikers set about disarranging the telegraph and telephone lines. Switches were tampered with and two serious wrecks were reported. Practically the entire French army is under arms, awaiting orders to disperse the strikers whenever they grow turbulent.

The employees of the Western line quit this morning without warning. Trains were abandoned on the tracks when the strike orders were received. Boats were left in the slips and at any convenient landing place. The entire system was paralyzed.