UNDER INTENSE PRESSURE and in the face of vigorous opposition and prolonged debate, the General Strike Committee moved still further on the third day (Wednesday, July 18) to ease the crunch of the strike. The executive committee authorized all union restaurants and butcher shops to reopen. Hugo Ernst, head of the culinary workers, voted against reopening the restaurants, he said, but, if the committee ordered it, they would return to work. Hotels that had closed their restaurants to all but guests announced they were again open to the public. Butchers returned to work and meat deliveries began almost at once. The strike embargo on gasoline and oil was lifted. C. T. Dixon, representing the taxi drivers, resigned his vice chairmanship, saying he was absolutely against raising it. He did not want to "to tell his men to go back to work; he did not want to be crucified." The oil companies, organized into an emergency committee, had announced earlier they would reject union permits and operate under police protection. They claimed only some forty deliveries in the preceding week but now, full service allowed service stations to reopen. Samuel Kahn, president of the Market Street Railway, with a vice president as conductor, took out the first of a string of four cars in defiance of the striking carmen. He promised more cars the next day and restoration of night runs soon. The strikers, though, renewed their demand for arbitration. Normal service did not return until the following week when the company reluctantly agreed.

"San Francisco business has suffered a 65 per cent loss on account of the general strike," the Chronicle reported. Department stores were empty, it said; restaurants and shops, closed because of the strike, took "staggering" losses. "San Francisco was in no shopping mood." "Lady Teazle" reported in the Chronicle that "society" had been "staying at home and being very, very quiet." Some "lucky ones" have gone traveling, but at home "entertaining has ceased .... no matinees, no afternoon teas ... going places and doing things have been suspended for a lack of places to go and things to do." The municipal golf course, though, reported lines of golfers waiting to tee off. Attendance at Pacific Coast League baseball games jumped. Sporting goods stores reported brisk sales.