Che Charlotte labor Journal
Endorsed by the N. C. State AND DIXIE FARM NEWS Official Organ of Central Labor Union; Standing
Federation of Labor for the *4. F. L.
12 YEARS OF
CONSTRUCTIVE
SERVICE TO
NORTH
CAROLINA
READERS
VOL. XII—NO. 46
YOUR AOVIRTISIMENT IN TMS JOURNAL IS A OOOO
INVUTNINT
CHARLOTTE, N. C., THURSDAY, APRIL 8, 1943
JOURNAL AOVIRTIMRI DESERVE CONSIDERATION OF
▼me Readers
$2.00 Per Year
Job For Victory
The ONLY REALLY INDEPENDENT WEEKLY to Mecklenburg County *wC*m11£rai£? For a Weekly Its Readers Represent the LARGEST BUYING POWER in Charlotte
RATIONING ADMIN. J. A. SCOGGINS
ANNOUNCES HEADQUARTERS WILL
BE MOVED TO LIBERTY LIFE BLDG.
The Mecklenburg rationing headquarters will be transferred
to the Liberty Life building on South Tryon street in quarters
formerly occupied by the Federal Reserve bank, and plans call
for the new headquarters to be in operation as soon after May 1
as the details of the project can be worked out, according to J. A.
Scoggins, rationing administrator.
The final decision to move to the
excellent quarters in the large up
town office building marks the end
of months of work on the part of
rationing and OPA officials to ob
tain more suitable quarters for the
rationing board than have been used
since the organization began func
tioning more than a year ago.
The new office space was designed
for use as a bank, and will be well
adapted to use as the rationing head
quarters provide some 1,000 square
feet of space more than was available
in the present quarters at 432 1-2
East Fourth street. The new quar
ters also have the advantage of be
ing largely on the street floor, so that
the crowds of people which must visit
the rationing offices will not have to
climb stairs as has been the case in
the present quarters.
The central location also will be
an advantage. The Liberty Life build
ing is only about three doors from
Independence Square where all buses
take on and discharge their pas
sengers. In this day of restricted
automobile travel, having the ration
ing offices at the center of the bus
system should* prove a real advantage,
Mr. Scoggins commented.
The administrator emphasized that
the whole plan of the officials respon
sible for the move is to increase the
efficiency of the rationing system,
and improve the whole program from
the standpoint of conveneince to the
public which is vitally affected by the
whole business of rationing.
Mr. Scoggins already has conferred
with Chairman S. Y. McAden of the
board of county commissioners about
obtaining the necessary equipment for
the new offices. Chairman McAden
yesterday said that plans call for
donation of the necessary lumber
which is to be worked into counters;
desks and the like by the National
Youth Administration which main
tains workshops in the county.—Ob
server, Wednesday.
NEW LABOR-MANAGEMENT
AGRICULTURE POLICY COMMITTEE
SET UP BY WAR MANPOWER COM.
WASHINGTON — On its own recommendation, the War
Manpower Commission’s Labor-Management Policy Committee of
17 members has been replaced with a new and more authoritative
9-man committee made up of three top-ranking leaders each from
labor, management and agriculture.
This step was decided and announced at a conference of the
organization leaders from the three groups, who stated that the
new committee would have more authority to speak for their
groups.
The members of the new WMC Labor-Management-Agricul
ture Policy Committee: \
William Green, President, American Federation of Labor.
Philip Murray, President, Congress of Industrial Organiza
tions.
A representative to be named by the Railroad Brotherhoods.
Eric Johnston, President, U. S. Chamber of Commerce.
Frederick Crawford, rPesident, National Association of Man
ufacturers.
R. Conrad Cooper, Vice-President, Wheeling Steel Corpora
tion.
E. A. O’Neal, President, American Farm Bureau Federation.
James Patton, President, National Farmers Union.
A. S. Goss, Master, National Grange.
Four Sons Join
Navy To Avenge
Father’s Death
The four sons of the late John
Joseph Breen, Sr., of Brooklyn, N. Y.,
a former N. M. U. member, are serv
ing in the Navy to avenge the death
of their father who was lost last July 1
when his ship was torpedoed in the
Caribbean. He was a merchant sea
man aboard that ship.
When word of his death came, his
son, William, 22, was already in the
Navy. Within four weeks after the
telegram arrived from the Navy De
partment, notifying them that their
father was listed as missing, John
Joseph, Jr., 24; Martin Thomas, 31,1
and James, 29, all joined the Navy.
Each one told the Navy recruiting (
officer the same story: “I have to get
in—they got my father.”
THE MARCH OF LABOR
ORE THAN $ lOOO- WAS
A'SEO fo* UNITED oiwlA
RELIEF THROUGH THE SALE OP
Pictures painted ay membhb
Of H..fi.W.U ART CLASSES.
^3)f i6 ce/mncAres or co*memd - (
AT/Ort TO tVO«*£fi$ /S3 USD BY THE (
»AX PAoDlfCTKtH AOAJfO fW ACTitfTHS
JAD/H6 TO MCA£AseV PHODOCTHW,
MME VENT 70 OHIO* PLANTS.
WfARTHC BAMCOf
UMl> W****AT*
THIS IS 1MC UNION
•UfT LABtL.
JOURNAL READERS PATRONIZE JOURNAL ADVERTISERS
This Week,
This World
-by Ted Friend—
IT IS DIFFICULT to imagine it, but Gerald L. K. Smith,
the notorious filthmonger, once sported the title of “Reverend,”
no less! Which should have indicated that Smith had7or should
have had, the advantage of some teaching in religion, ethics and
morals! Which should have, in turn, pre-supposed a compassion
and understanding for his suffering fellowman! Which should
have, further, implied a measure of idealistic adherence to the
nrinrinlea of libertv. fraternity and equality!
Of course, the history of G. L. K.
Smith, as of others who have de
veloped a money making racket out
of intolerance, bespeaks no compas
sion for anyone.
But the moral and political deprav
ity of Smith becomes even more clear
as one notes that his effusions of
hate are enunciated at almost the
precise moment when the casualty
lists, issued by the United States War
Department, record the names of
members and communicants of the
very minority groups which he ma
ligns and attacks.
It is one of the shameful tragedies
of the current American scene that
the solemn announcement of American
non-Aryan dead, wounded or missing
on the battle lines in North Africa
and in the Pacific, is besmirched and
slandered by Smith and his cohorts
by the holding of meetings in which
plans for the further smearing of
reputable American minorities is con
nived.
Nor is Smith, who long ago should
have been denied the use of the Unit
ed States mails, the only or the foul
est confusionist doing business while
American citizens of every sect, race
and color are in a depth-grip with the
totalitarian enemy. Harry A. Jung,
labor-baiter, strike-breaker and anti
Semite, who boasts that he receives
free office space in the Chicago Trib
une building, is another typical mem
ber of the subversivist bund. Yet an
other Copperhead figure is Earl
Southard, who wns recently exposed
by the Anti-Nazi League as a priS. e*
mover in the effort to unite various
fascist-like elements in a single or
ganization' having political ambitions.
Other subversivists, putting ia a
lick for the saboteurs of democracy,
are Allen Zoll, not long ago indict
ed for attempted extortion of a radio
station, who has been distributing a
Southard letter to attract new sup
port; Merwin K. Hart, a Gen. Franco
supporter and former associate of the
recently indicted John E. Kelly; and
Joe McWilliams, the would-be Storm
Trooper, who has turned his activities
from New York where he was exposed
and jailed, to Chicago where he is
being groomed as a Congressional
candidate by Middle West pro-Fascist
forces.
The Department of Justice and the
Treasury Department have done good
work in ferreting out and placing on
trial the more dangerous borers from
within, in spite of the Copperhead
contingent in Congress which is al
ways on hand to go bail for its fav
ored subversivist sons, but until fry,
such as Smith, Jung and McWilliams,
is curtailed the job cannot be said to
be completely done.
* * *
QUOTE-OF-TH E-MONTH CLUB:
“Our joint task will be hard. But,
for our part, we are proud of the
company with which we march. No
one flag, no one government, no one
language unite the peoples of our
great alliance. We have one pass
port, freedom; one objective, victory,
total and unmistakable; one purpose,
a just and lasting peace.”—Foreign
Minister Anthony Eden.
* * *
BEG IT, or borrow it, or buy it.
. . . RUT READ IT! “Education for
Death,” by Gregor Ziemer (Oxford
University Press) a startling revela
titon of the molding of Nazi youth.
Carefully documented from Nazi text
books, military manuals, song books,
catechisms, etc., Dr. Ziemer’s book
indicts the German educational system
which had so great a part in attempt
ing to foist Hitlerism on the world.
* * *
RUMOR OF THE WEEK! . . .
That Henri Petain died on March
21st!
* * *
THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO
COME: . . . Herbert Lehman is slated
to head a United Nations relief or
ganization . . . Compulsory courses
in English is in the offing for Puerto
Rico . . . Gen. Giraud has selected Ad
miral Robert’s Martinique successor
. . . Industrialists wasting manpower
will be shut off from vital materials.
FREE SPEECH
By RUTH TAYLOR
Free speech is the life blood of the Republic of the United States. From
the Bill of Rights to the Four Freedoms, it has been a symbol of democracy,
so completely an accepted right, that we came to take it for granted.
We could not fully realize the existence of the totalitarian regimes be
cause we could not sense a nation without the right to “speak out.” Dic
tators always gag the people and stifle the opposition just as quickly as
possible. Without free speech no man knows the ambitions or ideato motivat
ing his neighbor and fear keeps him quiescent under the tyrant’s sway. The
abolition of free speech precedes by just a moment the enslavement of man.
But how may we preserve free speech? ... . ..
If speech is free, if free speech is to be desired enough to fight for it, if
its loss is one of the greatest a nation can suffer.we should cherish it and
use it wisely—for free speech is a responsibility as well as a right. Free
speech must be true speech. Free speech means the right to disagree and
to state the reason for dissent, without recourse to slanderous abuse and all
men frown upon demagogic shrieks of hatred.
While we fight to protect freedom of speech, we should not employ that
freeom in the tactics of the enemy, destroying unity by sniping at each
other. No one group, whether it be of class, employment, state or section,
of race, national origin or of religion, should carry free speech to extremes.
If one side does it, the other side is not justified in following suit. Free
speech should not mean mud slinging.
Liberty must never degenerate into license; freedom of assembly must
never in mob rule; and free speech must never lower itself to vituperative
slander of those with whom we are not in accord or against any group of
our population. If we so misuse free speech, we sink to the depths of de
pravity of the Nazis who are trying to wipe out a religion, as of the Jews—
or a nation as of the Poles whom the latest decree refuses to recognize as
“human beings” or as “fellow Christians.” %
Free speech should only be exercised by free people—those of mature
thought who have learned self-restraint, who can study the facts .weigh the
source and then state their own position clearly and calmly—ready to listen
as well as speak, open-minded to arguments but not willing to comprise with
intolerance.
A F W A L ALL-OUT FOR VICTORY
MRS. HERMAN H. LOWE,
President American Federation of Women’s Auxiliaries of Labor
The American Federation of Women’s Auxiliaries of Labor is
broadening its policies to include active participation in every war and
peace effort. Our members are cooperating with the American
Federation of Labor in an all-out effort to win an early victory, to
secure a just peace, and by economic planning to obtain greater se
curity for workers in the postwar period.
Since the adoption of the “War Activities” program at our con
vention in St. Louis, last June, a voluntary campaign of collective
effort has high-lighted the activities of AFWAL members. Of
course, it is supplemental to' and compatible with the emergency
program evolved by the various governmental agencies.
As president of the AFWAL, I have accepted invitations to serve
on consumer-advisory committees of the Office of Price Administra
tion, Standards Division and the War Production Board.
Secretary-Treasurer I. M. Ornbum has been appointed by the
Office of Price Administration to serve on its Labor Policy Commit
tee. He is also a member of the Labor Advisory Committee of the
Office of Defense Health and Welfare Services.
No greater incentive to double and redouble civilian efforts of the
women’s auxiliaries of labor unions could be given than a cablegram
from General Douglas MacArthur, addressed to the American Fed
eration of Women’s Auxiliaries of Labor, in which he said: “Without
the inspiration of the women of America, victory would be impossible.”
I The AFWAL is all-out"for that Victory!
BROUGHTON LAUDS MEMORY
OF “DEMOCRACY APOSTLE”
m A CALL FOR OBSERVANCE
RALEIGH, April 6.—Calling Thomas Jefferson “the great
est apostle of democracy in the history of our nation,” Governor
Broughton asked the people of North Carolina today to observe
April 13 as the 200th anniversary of Jefferson’s birth.
Josephus Daniels, former ambassador to Mexico, to whom
Broughton referred as “the foremost exponent of Jeffersonian
democracy in the public life of our nation today,” penned a tribute
to Jefferson which the Governor included in his proclamation.
The proclamation:
“The 200th anniversary of the birth of Thomas Jefferson recalls the
historical record of North Carolina’s consistent devotion to his teachings and
its whole-hearted support of the great reforms he fathered. It is the proud
distinction of our state that it made a supreme renunciation when it listened
to and heeded the request of Mr. Jefferson that a few states should postpone
the ratification of the Federal constitution until provisions guaranteeing the
four freedoms had been incorporated in that immortal document. North
Carolina and Rhode Island alone gave the full measure of devotion to the
bill of rights when they elected to remain out of the new government until
the right to speak, to worship, to assemble, to print were embedded in the
greatest document ever struck off at one time by the hand of man. From
its earliest settlement this state battled when fighting was necessary for
freedom of religion and freedom of the press.
“In our day a successor of the sage of Monticello calls for the addition
of the other essential rights in a democracy—freedom from fear and free
dom from want. They are the essential and logical corollaries of the four
freedoms which Jefferson’s wish embalmed forever in our national chart.
“On this anniversary, on the occasion of the dedication of the Jefferson
memorial in our national capital on April 13, the people of the whole country
will pause to do honor to' the author of the Declaration of Independence who,
more than any of the fathers, set the new republic upon the road to the
character of government which has become the example to all liberty-loving
people of arr eras. North Carolinians need no urging to make this anni
versary a day of new dedication to freedom and peace."
DEFINITIONS
(Contributed to the Mine Workers Journal by Kern Dodge,
Link-Belt Director, Philadelphia)
A Coordinator is a man who brings organized chaos out of regi
mented confusion.
A Conference is a group of men, who, individually can do nothing, but
as a group can meet and decide that nothing can be done.
A Statistician is a man who draws a mathematically precise line from
an unwarranted assumption to a foregone conclusion.
A Professor is a man whose job it is to tell students how to solve the
problems of life which he himself has tried to avoid by becoming a professor.
An Efficiency Expert is a man who knows less about your business
than you do and gets paid more for telling you how to run it than you
could possibly make out of it even if you ran it right instead of the way
he told vou to. ... , . <...
A Consultant is an ordinary guy who is a long way from home.
-innnr
American People Face Acid Test in
Treasury’s 2nd War Loan To Raise
13 Billion Dollars in Three Weeks
The Nation Dare Not Fail in This Greatest
Financing Task in History—**They Give
Their Lives— You Lend Your Money
Washington, D. C.—Coming as it does upon the heels of
income tax payments, the people of America will face an
acid test this month when the Treasury’s Second War Loan
drive opens April 12 with an objective of thirteen billion dol
lars to be raised through sale of Government securities.
A substantial part of this huge financing, the most stu
pendous ever undertaken by any government in the world’s
historv. must be loaned bv people in ordinary walks of life.
High Government officials have<
pointed out that the nation must not
fail in this duty to our men on the
battle fronts who are now carrying
the offensive to the enemy at every
stage. It is obvious to every thinking
man and woman that as the United
Nations take this offensive against
the dictators, the cost of war opera
tions increases in proportion.
The American people must no
longer think of war costs In terms of
equipping a soldier, building a tank
or plane or a ship. We must now
think in terms of the cost of bat
tles, invasions and new offensives.
Attacking armies cost more money
than equipping that army and we
must meet that increased cost by
buying more War Bonds and Second
War Loan Securities.
They Give Their Lives.
It is not only necessary that the
American people left here at home
assume this additional participation
in the war effort—it is an honor to
do so . . . for we here at home can
do no less than attempt to approach
the sacrifices of our brave men out
on the fighting fronts to whom the
last great measure of sacrifice is
feut a daily offering. They give their
Mra ... we are asked only to
land our money.
And that is the theme of the Sec
Ad War Loan, "They Give Their
lives—You Lend Your Money.”
Financial experts who know mone
tary conditions in the nation point
out that at the present time there is
in liquid funds, cash and commer
cial bank deposits over and above
taxes and present investment in
Government Bonds, and over and
above what can be bought this year
because of restrictions and ration
ing ... approximately 40 billions
of dollars which should go into Gov
ernment Bonds. >
It should be the objective of every
American to invest these loose dol
lars, idle dollars, in Government se
curities, not only from a patriotic
standpoint, but from the standpoint
of their own financial security.
There is available during the Second
War Loan a type of Security to fit
every pocketbook.
Are Wild Dollars
Every dollar of these forty billions
of dollars available, which is not in
vested in Government securities
during this War Loan Drive is a
‘‘wild" dollar which, together with
its mates, will tend to increase infla
tion. Uncontrolled inflation might'
raise the cost of living to a point
where the dollar is worthless. It
can happen. It happened in Ger
many after the last war when the
price of a loaf of bread cost more
than an annual wage.
Invested in Government securi
ties, your dollar will work foi you. It
will hold down inflation because it is
harnessed in war work; it will help
buy food, transportation, munitions
for our boys on the front lines and
it will be earning interest that, to
gether with your original loan, will
come back to you later to help you
buy the things you cannot buy today
... to insure your peace of the
future.
Remember those boys out there
... in Tunisia ... in the South
Pacific . . . They give their lives—
You lend your money.
Free Labor Will Out-Produce Nazi Slaves
t