It is a pleasure to visit Ashland – and to see first hand your great ore shipping port. I am told it is the largest ore port handling the Upper Michigan Peninsula ore mines, taking care of two to three million tons of ore each year.
I am distressed that we must meet under the cloud of silent steel mills and widespread hardship caused by the strike. The times cry out for effective leadership to prevent further tragic consequences, not only to Ashland – where your port has been one of the first to feel the effects of the strike – but to the entire nation.
Your governor – who joined seven other Democratic governors in asking the President to take action – and Senator Proxmire, who heads your Democratic Delegation in Congress – have shown the kind of leadership we need. But thus far, all we have had is a one-man investigation. There is no sense of urgency – there seems to be no realization of the desperate need.
Source: David F. Powers Personal Papers, Box 32, "Steel Strike, Ashland, WI, 26 September 1959." John F. Kennedy Presidential Library.