Newspapers / The Alamance Gleaner (Graham, … / Dec. 5, 1946, edition 1 / Page 1
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^ -^i The Alamance Gleaner * 1 ? VOL. LXXII GRAHAM, N. C., THURSDAY, DECEMBER*^ 1946 HO. 44 WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS Labor Eyes Outcome of Miners Walkout as New Wage Guide; Japs Staging Slow Recovery by bntrni Nawspapai Omar , BDITOB'I NOTE I Wku niilw mi mttmm* i> ttm Mima, tbay Ml lb?i ? Waatera Niaiinii Cain's aaws aaalyaia aai M mhmmfr W Ob aimHH'. As miners in Jehnsoa City, 111. (lower panel), and other mining communities sat around to await break in coal strike, John L. Lewis (upper left) fenced with government over new contract Issue. John O'Leary, BMW vice president, is shown with Lewis. LABOR: fiew Crisis One* again it was John L. against the government! This time, Washington appeared determined to force a showdown with the burly United Mine Work ers chieftain, but it had its job cut Out for it as 400,000 UMW members stood steadfastly by their leader and both the AFL and CIO threw fa their support. As in previous UMW walkouts, Lewis held a hand full of aces. Pun ish him as it might try, there were fee 400,000 skilled and irreplacable miners who refused to go down into the pits before clarification of the Status of their contract; there were approximately 13,000,000 mem bers of organized labor who looked Wife disfavor upon government use of fee injunction to break a strike, and the courts were still to decide the legality of terminating fee UMW-government pact. But, encouraged by the country's Overwhelming swing to the right in the recent elections and the possi bility feat the courts might decide In his favor in interpreting the legal Coal Mining Red Style From Russia, where tba Coanaattseisl comamssariat bat its osim method of settling labor problems, somes word of Ibe working of a gigantic new coal field in northern Siberia by slave la borers from Utbasania, Estonia, Lat via, Ukraine and Crimea Consisting mostly of political dissidents, tbt In 1 borers art boasted in wooden barracks and sasbsist on porridge aaad 600 grams of bread daily. Abort 79 miases have been developed In tbe IfiOO miU fUU. ??pact* of the cue, President Tru man was set to push John L. to the limit in his efforts to wring wage and hour concessions from the gov ernment. Under the UlfW-goverament con tract, the miners received $75.29 weekly for a 54-hour week, In con trast to $23.88 weekly for a shorter week in 1938. Lewis' latest demands were said to call for a 40-hour week with earnings approximating those lor 84 hours. Arrival of the latest soft coal srisis saw the government prepared for emergency distribution of bitu minous stocks. Only householders, hospitals, utmtias and other essen tial public ssi iices ware to rooties deliveries. Railroads ware sched aled to heal only toed, elothlng, medicine, teal and other nsrtssi Cos and to reduce locomotive pas senger esrvlos by ? per cant J Boestof again after the crip " piing strikes of last, winter, Indue try laced snotty stow dawn to coo ewr the period eftoe wXewt ClOCcd Like the AFL, the CIO watched Rie^ coal strike with interest, not . fafe&ISvcTS -eSatsuo.,?. .1 ? 2 w'tofy ? car' - ^3 John L. formed the CIO 11 years ago, CIO Pres. Philip Murray sounded the battle cry for another round of wage increases by lament big the rise in prices which offset previous boosts and assailing the uneven distribution of wealth. Seeking to indicate the extent to which recent price rises have crossed out the 18 Vk cent an hour wage raise won by the CIO earlier this year, Murray said that steel workers now are earning $13.04 less a week than they did last March. Pointing to the ability of industry to bear higher wages, Murray said that profits in the last quarter of 1946 would total 15 billion dollars com pared with 10 billions for 1944. JAPAN: On Mend From General MacArthur's monthly report the U. S. could draw a picture of a vanquished nation struggling to its feet after surviving the effects of total defeat. Suffering from postwar abnormalities itself, the U. S. has none of Nippon's prob lems of rebuilding a shattered po litical structure, a war-based indus try and a crippled production plant. MacArthur reported: ?Passage of a bill providing tor election, rather than appointment, of local officials. ?Increases in production of lum ber, oil, paper and aluminum to off set slumps in iron, steel and coke and shutdowns in tin, nickel and antimony plants. Arrangements to boost exports to Russia, England and Australia to pay for needed im ports. ?Expansion of trade union mem bership to 3,745,000, with 24 per cent being women. ?Prospects of improved rice, wheat, potato and barley yields to relieve a severe food shortage, ne cessitating substantial Imports. HOUSING: 'New Wrinkle The public received its first good look at the Lustrom corporation's heralded porcelain enameled steel home in Hinsdale, 111., outside Chi cago, and the showing marked an other step in the battle of the com pany with the Tucker automobile corporation for possession of the Tbe^bsttle took a sensational turn with charges of Preston Tucker, the ante magnate, that a prominent Washington attorney had pi isntasd to use his influence to having the National Housing authority remand its order turning the Dodge-Chicago plant to Lustrom if given the Tuck er corporation's legal business phis a stock interest. Named as toe at torney, Theodora Granik vigorously denied the allegation. In using its emergency powers to help speed vat bowing, the NHA moved to award the huge Dodge Chicago plant to Luetrom after War Assets adrntoltoratton had leased the facilities to Tucker, h eyeing toe Dodge-Chicago plant, Lustrom de clared that it could build It of toe tea totnii radiant heated houses a S&3r?EiS isr 67 JM CAPITOL HILL: Lobbyists Register Lobbyist* ha vs long become a part of the nation's capital, but until paaaage of the registration act re cently the public has enjoyed little knowledge of their identity or worth to the interests they represent. Although lobbyists as s whole have attained a certain notoriety, they exercise the perfectly legiti mate function of protecting the in terests of their clients by seeking passage of favorable legislation or fighting bills considered lnimlcable. While recognizing this function, con gress also realized the necessity for placing the business above board and apprising the public .of the in terests at work in Washington. As the lobbyists registered under penalty of losing their lobbying rights or Incurring fine and impris onment if they failed, Purcell L. Smith, representing the power in terests, emerged as the highest paid, drawing $65,000 a year plus unspec ified expenses. CHINA: Going Backwards While Japan marched back up the road of recovery, neighboring China remained beset by the political in differences and economic evils that have retarded her progress during this century. As both Nationalist and Commu nist forces prepared for a bloody civil war for supremacy, Chinese cur rency took a terrific nosedive, with the U. S. dollar commanding as high as 5,000 Chinese dollars on die black market. Coal Jumped from 350,000 to 450,000 dollars a ton. Housewives scrambled frantically for commodi ties. Throughout the Communist strong hold of northern China and Man churia, Red battalions threw up for tifications and girded for battle as Gen. Peng Teh-hwai predicted stir ring victory over the Nationalist in vading forces. These forces were reported pressing into Shantung province along the Tientsin-Pukow railway. RUSSIA: Struggle for Power From behind the iron curtain came whispers of a mighty tug-of i Malenkov and Zhdanov I ] war between top Ruaiian official! for the driver'! seat when Josef Stalin passes from the picture. While Stalin first favored Andrei Zhdanov, SO, chair man of the Soviet parliament, for the mantle of succes sion, Georfl M. Malenkov, 45, has ilowly come to the fore, recently be ng promoted to he all - powerful jolitburo shaping Russian policy. Also in the strug gle for power are Lavrenti P. Beria, head of the dread secret police, and Gen. Nikolai A. Bulganin, vice min ister of armed forces. Despite his prominence in foreign affairs, V. M. Molotov lacks party support for the No. 1 spot. Writing in the French paper, L'Ordre, Claude Vivieres declared that Russian officials are anxious to avoid war during the unsettled state of party affairs to prevent rival nations' use of bickerings to upset the Communist regime. BUSINESS: Making Money Payments of extra dividends indi cated the general prosperity of American business. $$$?Goodrich brought payments for 1946 to $>4.50 per share by de claring a dividend of $1 and a spe cial payment of the same amount. 6$$?By authorizing an extra divi dend of $1.18 a share hi addition to the quarterly payment of 18 cents, Brigga k Stratton boosted disbursements to $118 this year. $$$?Elgin National Watch com pany declared an extra dividend c< 8# cants a share besides making e quarterly payment af ? cents $$$?Keystone Steel and Wire company increased ha quarterly dividend from $8 to 16 easts and authorised a special payment of $1 $$$?In declaring a 40 cant divi dend, Homestake Mining company brought payments up to $1.40 lor this year after making no disburse ments laat year. Meanwhile, the treasury depart ment ordered all corporations to re port sa their 1944 tax forms if they paid out at laast TI per cent af their fatey"did not. In thia way, the government hepes to prevent with holding af dividends to seals down Tales of the Town: They were a couple of wild kids, and their marriage was made in heaven?like lightning. It happened over night. . . . Blase Broadway was even stunned by the news. Like impetuous kids they didn't plan very far In advance, and when it came time to locate an apartment, they found themselves out In the cold. . . . Imposing on the well wishes of friends, they drifted from one fam ily to another. ... To bystanders it looked like the marriage would wind up on the rocks of Reno. . . . Then a strange thing happened. Her parents, who had disowned her when she wed the guy, suffered a change of hard heart. . . . "Come and live i with us," pleaded her mother. Her father still hated the new son-in-law but allowed him to move in. . . . Well, the marriage is OK now, and pretty soon they expect to have an apartment all their own. . . . Seems her mother and father fought night ly over the new son-in-law, and now mom is Reno-bound! They were both names en Broadway. . . . Then they drift ed Into other fields. . . . Bat he was so busy with his New Tort nite spot ? and she with her magasine articles?that they be gan to see less and less of each other. . . . Came the Inevitable. They split. . . . Didn't see daeh other for years. Only recently he heard from her. . . . She was suing him and demanding a size able hunk ef cash. .. His bet spot, however, Is on the rocks. He is flat broke, and he Md her so. . . . New leek what happens. Instead of collecting alimony, pUgbt thatlo^r1sending Em*t fistful of folding money each week to keep the sheriff from his door. She is a high-salaried buyer for a department store. Been there for years. WeQ liked. . . . Came a strike, and all the sales help walked out. . . . The boss asked her If she would pinch-hit as a salesgirl unfD the strike was settled. ... As a I personal favor she acquiesced. . . . I Three days later she walked into the office with swollen eyes that told of j sleepless nights. "I'm resigning," ; she said. . . . "But look," argued the boss, "you've been with us for years; we've paid you well. Cer tainly you can stick with us through ! this trouble." ... "I want to," came ; the tearful reply, "but for three nights I've been locked out of my ! borne. My husband is a union of ficial, and he refuses to sleep under the same roof with a strike-break er!" Ike town's huh lug agents are gnffawing ever this. ... A asneh being seed because he borrowed several hundreds from a young assistant, got the guy fired and then refused to pay. . . . Came a letter from the lawyer the eth er day, and the hashing agent furiously wrote hack: "1 dare yen to take me to court over the gee f awe " *? havea'taay prest." . AMI tkca the ikni) signed his lull . . . trhiifieh! Although Iki fr??!<>?! hti no In tention of running again, he will not officially announce it until the Bnal moments, if at ell Because "he wants the final say" on the ticket He will oppose Wallace for presi dent and James Roosevelt as vice prex, according to intimates. . . . Political obaenrers say Eleanor Roosevelt is the most popular and respected U. 8. delegate to the U. N. .... SO million white shirts, they say, will be released before the Yuletide holidays. . . . Statistics show that three-quarters of ail sur plus materials being offered do not exist as presented. Mostly aD con version. . . . The beat golfers in the land rate Bing Crosby as a three handicap man. Waifll Bob Hope reads that I seed with a gsid patty-aaee. , , , tar) and Bong Berts are tsaMag far a baaaMM Negro gM to "antes htoMW Mtos Aaaeriea bf lllf MStofts** see ABM? *1* y t ll MM7> see BARTER FOR ?BEANS' ... At Virginia's salves Barter theater, where prednce can he exchanged far tickets, gigs, chickens sag sth er barnyard deal sens, aegetshles and traits pile sg at the hex tRw. Prednce received "tn trade" prs Ttdes meals lee Barterttes FOR BEI AN! BtANS' Unique Barter Theater Plays Significant Role in U.S. Drama WNU Features. ?" ABINGDON, Va.?In these days of wholesale prosperity and bulging bank vaults it is difficult to recall that a mere dozen years or so ago bread lines reached far up the streets, smoke long since bad ceased to billow from factory chimneys, banks clanged shut their doors and threw away the keys, people faced starvation in a land" of plenty, farmers could not sell their produce?and the American theater suffered the worst season in history. It was in this depression setting that the Barter theater < was born in 1933. Returning from a tour with Walter Hamp- I den in "Cvrtlw de Ber**ra<v" Rnh- ? I ert Porte rfle Id scanned the dismal Broadway scene. He {bund hordes of fellow actors out of work and hun gry, with no prospects of casting calls. Recalls Ancient Trades. He thought of produce left in the fields and the problems of econom ics. He recalled that in farming communities considerable business is transacted by the ancient barter system. His family, he remem bered, bad purchased the old Vir ginia home place from the Indians by barter around 1800. Reasoning that there was plenty af talent en Broadway bat ne money end plenty ef feed en farms hot an money? Porterdeld decided to bring the two together by founding the na tion's drat "Barter" theater. As the site for his experimental theater, he decided on Abingdon, first English town west of the Al leghanies and only a few miles from the family homestead at Glad Spring. He arranged to use the buildings of the defunct Martha Washington college for a home. Near this spot Daniel Boooe's trail west crossed the old Wilderness road. When Porta rfleld sounded out some of his stage friends, be was be sieged by candidates willing to for sake Broadway for three months of acting in exchange for bed, beans and salubrious Virginia mountain air. ?elects n Asters. Prom the list of applicants Porter field selected 21 talented thespians. who were willing to double as stage hands, scene designers, seam stresses and general all-around theater people. By wheedling pieces of furniture, eld fabrics, electrical equipment, decorations and other properties on a round ef shops, stores and wholesalers. Porter held finally assembled a freight car af material. By the time Porterfleld got his II actors and carload of equipment to Abingdon, be had one lone dollar in his pocket A canvass ef the community netted kitchen supplies, tableware and other neraaaltloa. Woman of the town made curtains; Bey Scouts cleaned up the grewds. * Ob a saaay Jau day la 1*M, the Barter theater, flrst theater to accept prsdace aa well aa cash at the hex sBee, was d ?etally speasg to a packed hawse aad a fall pastry, the theater I Is located is the aid Mate street opera hoase, erected la IDS aad the secoad oldest la the aatiaa. ] The theater, lac Idea tally, Is part sI the tewa had. K Is Mod with the mayor's eflee aad tho 1 local hut now Is la the rear, with the dress lag rooms acxt to the eelU. Plfs Are PreNfl*. First ticket to Barter theater was traded to a fanner for a baby pig, which became a pet at tho Barter , colony. At tho end at the sea- , son Porterfleld proposed to serve | tho pig at a farewell banquet for , the staif, but tho actors rebelled, g Porterfleld acquiesced and sent the ' pig to his father's farm, whera It | formed the foundation for aa unend- , ing supply of hams for tho colony's g dining tables. Sugar-cured bams \ from descendants at that little pig g also went to playwrights in lieu at \ royalties, Porterfleld never having g paid a cash royalty. -Intrigued by the new theater, I townsfolk and farmer* flocked te the I opening night performance. New* that tickets could be aseased ' "in trade" traveled fast Boon the i town barber arrived with an aflat 1 of haircuts and ahavta for flrst row 1 seats. Live rhirkana and other fowl, ' hooey, potatoes, onions "enough to ! last for a century," lettuce, eon aad 1 chocolate cakes wars Included among tho bartered ttema. - Cif1'!' tee Potter now taslpss wMh wMofc te aao te early years at tee thistir'a e? mwrtdl per e*M srSsMaMflte! ?ometimes more. Porterfleld begged tor money Today, the intui la true, about 10 per cent at tha ra :eipts being in rash Taking caya^ ranee of current shortages. ? terfteld now begs (or produce. Trace GfMf'i ?ietary. History of the Barter theater la Ih-ided into two periods, the prewar barter period and the postwar pew tessional period. Tha ilitiis to. Porterfleld hastens to explain, does sot indicate that prewar companies sere not composed largely of prw [essiooals. During that period, how ever. the actors received no cans* pensatioo except bad aad board. Since raising tha Arst curtain as June 10. 1933, tha Barter colony has presented 144 plays in mora than 1,000 performances. In addition la the regular Abingdon season, tha players have trouped to nearby Vir ginia towns of the "fog circuit." as Jesignated by Barterites because af the ghostlike fog that io whiiped each night through tha maintains if louthwest Virginia. Gets Stata Great. Now, after being closed during ear years when the young founder director entered tha army air forces. Barter theater has resumed iperatkms Aided by a subsidy af 110,000 from tha af Virginia. Barter now ranks aa tea lrst "state thaater" te history af America. Prom this start. Pus tee - laid envisions an repanakai af onch theatrical enterprima tknatfud tha eatioo until aamatehm raaem bling the Old Vic theater af Keg sod has barn achieved. The state grant baa enabled Bar ter to be set up an an tenntl basis with a permanent company. Although now an regular salary, however. tha actors still double aa stage handa, box afflce eaah'era, ush ers and even as caretaker* of docks, pigs, chickens, (oats and other barn yard denizens, aome af which are recent ban office riralpta while oth ers are tear andante of tea ariginal barter animals. At close of the regular seasan ta Launched aa atnahv ?tartorariS tour covering TO Virginia dttaa te m attempt to peosdde retiy dtiaan m opportunity af elanlng the bote la drama aa staged hy tha teantrtcal group which tha state baa mdarwsft tan. Parformancaa la after easte rn ate tea wfD fallow, with two aaaks In Now York dhnaoriag tea "oa tea results af tea tear Manas the famibfltty af state ateaOHaad terante ?MhTtewJoa^Sgraa*'
The Alamance Gleaner (Graham, N.C.)
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Dec. 5, 1946, edition 1
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