Newspapers / The Charlotte Labor Journal … / March 18, 1943, edition 1 / Page 1
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Ihr Charlotte labor Journal Endorsed by the N. C. State Federation of Labor AND DIXIE FARM NEWS Official Organ of Central Labor Union; Standing for the A. F. L. 12 YEARS OF CONSTRUCTIVE SERVICE TO NORTH CAROLINA READERS VOL. XII—NO. 43 YOU* ADVCIiriHMKNT IN TWS JOURNAL IS A OOOS INVESTMENT CHARLOTTE, N. C„ THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 1943 JOURNAL ADVIRTIBCRt DEIERVI CONSIDERATION OF TNI READIRS $2.00 Per Year Labor Is On the Job For Victory The ONLY REALLY INDEPENDENT WEEKLY m Mecklenburg County Sum tmCn8LK?n««rTFor » Weekly Its Readers Represent the LARGEST BUYING POWER in Charlotte AMERICAN INDUSTRY, MANAG’MENT, LABOR HAVE DONE STUPENDOUS JOB IN THIS WAR DESPITE ATTACKS BY A LABOR HATING PRESS AND SOME “OBSESSED POLITICIANS” Excerpts From An Address By L. METCALFE WALLING, Administrator Wage and Hour and Public Relations Divisions, U. S. Dept, of Labor before the Joint Labor Industry Meeting, Springfield, Mass., March 5th, 1943. American Industry, management and labor together, have done a stupendous job in this war. We have to do better. We have to have more production and still more production. But in getting it, in setting ourselves to the stern task of getting stiU more production, there is no reason we should blind ourselves to the really splendid job we have done to date. When you are climb ing a hill and you still have a distance to go to get over the hump, it may hearten you to consider the progress you have already made. As 1 read tne newspapers, now ever, it sometimes seems to me as if a good many of them feel as if all our toil so far on the home front had been a flat failure. I see denuncia tions of American labor. Sometimes I see denunciations of American Man agement. Now I say to you that neither of these furthers better pro duction. I SAY TO YOU THAT THESE GENTLEMEN WHO USE THE PRESS HAD BETTER TRY TO REMEMBER THAT IT IS HITLER AND TOJO THEY OUUGHT TO BE FIGHTING, NOT TRAINING THEIR SIGHTS 6N FELLOW AMERICANS. Actually, though we must do bet ter and we all must do better to bring a free world to free men, our war production has already astonished our enemies. They thought we couldn’t stick to our last. They thought we would get to fighting among our selves instead; and some of our cur rent controversialists in the press seem to be doing their best to fulfill their fondest hopes. I say to them, let’s have just one war at a time; let’s save their private war, if they have one, until after the victory. It all reminds me sometimes of the story of the Georgia boy who had won his way to Officers’ Candidate School and had passed all the tests and then came up before the psychol ogists to have his mental reactions tested. They shot him a tough one. They said, “What would you do after you became an officer if your State of Georgia seceded from the Union?” Without a pause the boy said, “Don’t you think we ought to get this war over first, Suh?” I don’t think there is any question that the great ma jority of Americans agree with that boy from Georgia. The great ma jority of us are dedicated to getting this war over first before we go out after any private, personal targets. Let’s look at the record. Let’s look at the record of the last war and compare it with what we are doing today. You know what you are doing here in Springfield. You have read, above the tumult and the attacks on Labor or on Management, what the rest of the country is doing: How our war materials are supplying our allies in all the comers of the earth and how we produced four and one third times more thanks and guns and planes and ammunition last No vemDer tnan we naa proaucea in ine month before Pearl Harbor. Some time ago I had occasion to look back at the old newspapers of 25 years ago, the newspapers of early i918 when the world war had been in progress three and one-half years, about the same length of time as the present war. We ourselves had been in the war just a little less than a year. I wish you yourselves would some time go to a library and go back and look at the headlines of those | papers. You would find it a hearten ing experience and you would find it made you proud of the war effort on the home front that you have been able to contribute to today. Twenty-five years ago the day I happened to look, all industry east of the Mississippi River had been order ed shut down for five days and for nine ’subsequent Mondays — 14 days out of production altogether—to save fuel for railroads and homes and for ships to carry abroad the munitions desperately needed by our allies to withstand the coming German spring drive. This was the coldest winter in the history of New England. The coal famine had become steadily worse since before New Years Day, the sec ond coldest day ever recorded, which had found many cities with less than a days supply of fuel. On that day, incidentally, the pap ers had reported the Chief cf Ord nance testifying “That within ten days there will be enough rifles for every man in camp” if they could only be transported where they were needed. The headlines told of a scorching reply by President Wilson to the Dem ocratic Chariman of the Senate Mili tary Affairs Committee—long since forgotten—who was using Congres sional investigations of the war effort to try to force a War Cabinet on the President and who charged that “the military establishmetn of America has broken down” because of “ineffici ency in every bureau and every de partment of the United States Gov ernment. The day after that your headlines were to tell you that a Republican Senator, the most powerful political boss in the country “Sees a Halt in Blanket Authority; suggests, now that President has Raised Issue, Congress will hold up extraordinary powers.” Free Labor Will Out-Produce Nazi Slaves LABOR FOR VICTORY ^mm LARCEsr pumumc/ 7i BILLION DOLLAR) ARE BEWfr DOT WTO WAR BOND OY UNION WORKERS ANNUALLY/ a I lOg SAVED NOW OR mg TAKEN IV THE AXIS UTERI >MY WAR BONDS m POND DOLLARS -T&IPLE DUTY CD PtJTROV HITLER/ <0) R£OUCE INFLATION ( VAIAHCE LI If WO COM ©PREVENT DEPRESSION you SAVE TO BUY AFTTK TUT WAS A CONSERVATIVE LABOR MAN WRITES INTELLIGENTLY UPON SUBJECT OF “ABSENTEEISM” By L M. ORNBURN, Secretary-Treasurer Union Label Trades Department American Federation of Labor Even before Pearl Harbor labor was fully aware of its re sponsibility in the national policy of making this country the arsenal of democracy. In fact, since the beginning of Lend-Lease shipments; labor knew that upon its efficiency and co-operation rested the success of production and delivery to those of our Allies who were then fighting alone. After Pearl Harbor this sense of responsibility on the part of labor has been infinitely strengthen ed, and our productive expansion is proof of that. ... 11 _ a. _ _ _ 1 mma _ I nliniinnfo nil +l%n nkofanlnc tVlot we are atvaic uiat. **«*»,***»•*•• r— duction has not been as good and as rapid as we want it to be. Anxiety oi this subject is legitimate, because we must all be determined to overwhelm the enemy and to win this war as quickly as possible. But we should not fool ourselves about difficulties, so that when our goals of predation are not realized we must not be led to desnair Rather must this failure serve as a stimulus for overcoming obstacles and for further .ntengf^ tion of the war effort! Labor knows as well as, if not better than, any other group that this war for the survival ol democratic '^'tutionsja its own war for life or death. becau upon these institutions rests it er> eXUteisCbecause of this awareness of . ur war aims that organized labor often loses patience with its cntics^ aebaouth‘‘0absen?ePeisam”e'and point an ac professional faultfinders heard of the word. For months we have been thinK inu of ways and means of eliminat ing it completely. We know as well as^anvbody else that absenteeism may niean victory or defeat in North Afuca ™ the Solomons, and every individual worker knows that absentedsm may mean the life or death of his own son in the services. We d« not need self-appointed guardians to tell us that. Our concern with the poibiem was not prominent in the past, be cause we were looking for thfe £ause^> that'spceches »ould A Mir up uriju ments at a time when action was necessary and so we tried to find out first what were the drcumstances nroducing absenteeism and second how we could help eliminate them. h°WitTou? throwing accusations Sent or against other groups as some people are invariably -tempted to do, we discovered that there were a few concrete, specific factor.> wh^ch lead to this national weakness. We found out that workers lived in crowd ed conditions, often away from home without any of the conveniences and relaxations that the home officers. We found out that the workers in many industries had no time to do their shopping because of overtime, they hadP no decent recreation, no decent meals and few eating fac'^'esatthe (factories or around them. Then theie is also the fact that the wage-earne 'works overtime and that his task i more intense and more *atMJu*I\g than before. We discovered, in ad dition. frequent difficulties m trans portation. W’e also found that every war industry today employed a large number of women who often have re sponsibilities of home and children on their shoulders and are likely to have divided loyalties. Women in general are responsible for twice as much ab senteeism as men because of difficul ties in the home and in providing for the home. All of these problems are real and not imaginary, but they can be handled by true cooperation among labor, management, and the govern ment—but not by reckless accusation and loose talk. , . . .. Labor has done and is doing its share in the solution of these diffi cult problems. It must have, however, the cooperation of management, the public and the government. Just as we are fighting for a common cause, we must pool our common efforts to Six weeks would pass before Food Administrator Herbert C. Hoover, was to announce that temporarily people could forget about the mealtess meal a day and porkless Saturday. He asked the people to abstain from beef and pork only on Tuesdays thereafter but to continue wheatless Mondays and Wednesdays and one wheatless meal with no bread all other days in the week as they had been doing. Does any of this sound reminiscent to you? Does ij sound more orderly than the present? Do you think of reading of their own files would lead newspaper editorial writers really to want to go back to that halcyon last war If you go back to the newspapers of 25 years ago you will read of the waves of strikes in 1918, the millions of man days’ of lost production. Twenty-five years ago the War La bor Policies Board of that war had not yet even been appointed. After it got going, to end the labor disloca tions, labor pirating and stoppages that were hampering war production, it recommended a change over in the midst of battle to a universal eight hour day with time and a half for overtime. The war was over before this could he put into effect. [us on the production line. We must Imake life easier for the women work ers at home and in their tasks of providing for the home. We must co operate with the community to do its very best for the living conditions of new workers in overcrowded. areas, for their recreation and nutrition. We must cooperate with management . to make safety, sanitation and eating conditions in the plant as effective as possible in the face of increased ac tivity. In all of these efforts much head way has been made. The experience of the British people in handling the same situation has shown that much can be achieved if the problem is ap proached in a cooperative and con structive spiirt. Every report from Britain indicates that wherever the problems mentioned above are recog nized and relieved, absenteeism not due to inevitable causes vanishes al most completel. Only last Sunday Edward R. Murrow, reporting from London, described fully the disappear ance of absenteeism in England be cause concerted aetion by trade unions and the government was taken to overcome the evils here cited. The thing to do now is to get busy on these problems. In some instances labor has perhaps paid more atten tion to hangovers of power disagree ments than to these new tasks. But such hangovers have practically van ished now and a good start has al ready been made toward a solution of the problems cf absenteeism. Volun tary cooperation as in Britain has proven more effective than all the coercion of Axis dictatorships. Let us rive this democratic cooperative meth tJ a fair chance here and now. -V FLY A BOMB TO BERLIN- PUT 10 PERCENT OF PAY IN WAR BONDS. OPA LABOR ADVISORY UNIT . HAS BEEN ESTABLISHED HERE; COMMITTEES HAVE BEEN NAMED The A. F. of L. Railway Brotherhoods, Typographical Union and the C. I. O. have representatives on an advisory committee to aid the Office of Price Administration in an effort to control living costs and prevent inflation, this being the first body of a like nature to be formed in the South. L. W. Driscoll is district office. manager. Robert R. Brooks, of Wash ington; labor representative on the OPA board was present and addressed the meeting, having been loaned the Government by Williams College, where he is serving as professor of in dustrial relations. He also has taught at Yale University, from which he received a degree and attended Oxford ! as a Rhodes Scholar. Mr. Brooks went from the Char lotte meeting ot Atlanta to partici pate in a similar assemblage of rep resentatives of organized labor there. He was delighted not only with what the group of about 90 persons from the 48 counties of the Charlotte OPA district accomplished in the forming of their advisory committee but also with the spirit of those attending. In many communities labor groups still fail at times to co-operate with each other in advancing programs of mu tual interest, he declared. “Labor unions can no longer best serve their members by getting wage increases or shorter hours,” he told the assemblage, “but by exercising control over prices. Organized labor finds itself in ah unusual position. For a generation organized labor in what apart. But now is the time some communities has stood some apart. But now is the time for it to face the price control program from the standpoint of the consumer be cause everybody is a consumer.” Named on the executive committee were H. G. Fisher of Salisbury, sec retary-treasurer of the North Carolina Federation of Labor; J. H. Fullerton of Charlotte, C. I. O.; T. V. Griswold of Charlotte, railway brotherhoods; and Howard L. Beatty, of Charlotte, International Typographical union. Members of the advisory commit tee, named at recess meetings of the four labor parent groups, are: A. F. of L.—H. G. Fisher, of Salisbury, J. A. Moore of Charlotte, and Cy Chis holm of Winston-Salem; Congress of Industrial Organizations—L. B. Hold en and H. A. Bean, United Rubber Workers of America, and J. H. Fuller erton, all of Charlotte; International Typographical union—H. L. Beatty of Charlotte, O. S. Trigg of Greensboro, and Henry A. Stalls, of Charlotte; Railway workers—T. V. Griswold of Charlotte. In the past union participation in OPA’s program has been negligible and labor has been represented on OPA boards only as a result of well organized pressure campaigns. If labor takes advantage of the opening offered by Brown there will be oppor tunity to work inside OPA for a real price control and rationing program. Journal Editor Appointed To War Panel Board William M. Witter, Editor of the Charlotte Labor Journal for the past 13 years and one of the founders of the Charlotte Typographical Union, has been appointed as the Labor member of a panel to sit in on hearings concerning labor disputes in this area. The appointment comes from the National War Labor Board through the Regional Director at Atlanta, Mr. Carl K. WettengeL The panel will consist of a representative of management, labor and the pubuc. The other two members will be named shortly. |_ I 10% EACH WEEK FOR WAR BONDS The Least You Can Do fSAvYES) FOLKSii I S&ity&tS I TAKE YOUR CHANGE I IN WAR STAMPS I COAKJL& ' i* vi?y *3 CLEARANCE SALE W&® -—- ...... BUY Bonds NOW
The Charlotte Labor Journal and Dixie Farm News (Charlotte, N.C.)
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March 18, 1943, edition 1
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