“Unless they return to work by day, they will be terminated.”

Those were former President Ronald Reagan’s words in regard to his interference with the collective bargaining process between the airlines of America and the union of the workers that guides airplanes in and out of America’s airports.

To hell with the safety of the American flying public. This evil act by the president of the United States sent the long-awaited message to American industry: Terminate all strikers! This administration and its Labor Department will stand behind you 100 percent.

And so we, here in Maine, saw the workers of paper manufacturing companies being replaced by professional strike-breakers.

These workers depended on a “private army” to get them on and off the job. This private army was a so-called security private police department. These so-called private armies clashed with the police departments in some of the paper-making towns in this state.

It became very necessary to tell these “scab protectors” that their jurisdiction of law applied only to their employers’ property and not on the streets of Jay, Rumford, and other paper mill towns.

As for the Republicans and their labor relations; it has smelled from the time of Mr. Republican, Robert Taft of Ohio, to Ronald “Fop” Reagan. Winston C. Judkins Ellsworth