Newspapers / State Port Pilot (Southport, … / April 2, 1947, edition 1 / Page 2
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Capital Letters By Thompson Greenwood GAGGED ? A letter which . Qdus M. Mull is supposed to have written in the fall of 1840 when | he was campaigning for the Speakership of the House ex plains the origination of the so called gag rule ? which during this Legislature has attracted more attention than health, edu cation, and everything else com bined. As this column is being writ ten, that Mull letter has not been made public. Maybe it will have been by the time you read this. . However, the odds are against it. Mr. Mull, regarded as an ar I dent dry, is said to have written - this letter to a prominent num ber of the Legislature. That man is still a member of the Legis lature". In the letter he intimated he had worked out an agreement with Eastern North Carolina leg islators whereby they would sup port him for speaker if he would fix it so that the State could not vote on whether it wanted liquor. Mull became Speaker of the House, and in 1941. as planned a rule was adopted making it so that any bill getting a minority report in a committee had to receive a two-thirds vote of the House before it could be consider ed by the House. This rule has been continued by subsequent Legislatures. Why hasn't this letter been j made public? Why doesn't Mr. Mull give its secrets? He knows them. The State has a right to J know them. The person ? it was- 1 ? n't Ry Gars ? to whom the letter J was allegedly written has dis-i cussed it and knows that the papers ? some of them at any rate ! ? want it. I When the above paragraphs were typed, the word "wrote" ; was used flatly instead of "sup posed to have written" and "said to have written," etc. The chang es were made advisedly, because this column has not had the privi lege of seeing this letter, but be lieves there is no doubt it was written ? a fool thing for Mr. Mull' to do, incidentally.) If Mull was originally respon- [ sible for the gag rule, he has done more than any other man this century to undermine the people's confidence in their Legis i lature. FEARFUL? The U. S. Em ployment Service has drastically , curtailed "its services in national | and regional offices ? and there art? fears that Congressional cuts in appropriations may reach right on down into offices operating here in North Carolina. The Republicans seem to feel 1 that people who want to work can find work, and that conse quently the maintenance of a i vast array of employees at a ! tremendous expenditure of money is a flagrant waste of the tax payer's dollar. That's why you observe so many of the Federal f workers walking on tip-toe these j days. IAPES MEETING? An "Apes" get-together will be held in Ra i leigh next week-end, April 12, I the IAPES being the Interna tional Association of Public Em j ployee Services, North Carolina chapter, and at that time plenty will be heard about the recent cut in Federal apprapriations for employment services from about $6,000,000 to $900,000. Aside from this, a good time will be had by all ? if past meetings are my cri terion. SURPRISING ? While the GOP's are working to balance the budget, it may interest you to know that of March 1 there were 30,000 citizens of this State in the ranks of the unemployed. Service ? and include only those registered with this agency ? usually about 10 per cent of the actual figure. ON ANOTHER JOB? Theodore S. Johnson, who rattled the bones of OPA violators during the war as head of this work in North Carolina, was last week made liaison officer between construc tion men revamping State Col lege and the officials of the col lege. His salary: $3,9000 per | year. His salary as the efficient OPA bone-rattler: around $8,000. GOING AGAIN ? He may deny it, but Oscax Pitts is in politics again. Yes, the man who was re garded as the Broughton hatchet from 1940 through 1944 when he headed the prison department, is now in Asheville operating the Asheville Livestock Auction Mar ket. He went into this work be fore incoming Governor Gregg Cherry could get around to him ?and has done well. He knows cattle. He will manage Deacon Green's efforts to get back into the saddle in Buncombe Ctounty poli tics by leading the forces at tempting to elect a Green-sup ported GI ticket in the city vote in May. Tnis is interesting in view of the fact that Cherry is supposed to have little regard for Pitts' . . . but Brandon Hodges, Cherry wheel horse for the Legislature, is expected to work hand in glove with Pitts in this new un dertaking . . . strange bedfel lows. NOTES ? There is some chance-' that many of this State's radio! stations will go off the air when the telephone strike goes into ef fect next Monday . . . Eastern North Carolina legislators say Charles Johnson will be the next" Governor, but the Westerners say: "It looks like Ballentine up my way" ... As expected, this Legislature has been anti-labor, i passing the anti-closed shop bill and defeating the minimum wage 1 maximum hour legislation . . . I The State Fair can now borrow as much money as it wishes (if the banks will accept the se curity) on money earned from its operation . . . U,oyd Griffin of Edenton engineered the appoint ment of Chester Morris Qf Curri tuck and John Graham of Eden ton as new judge and solicitor for the Albemarle district ... He could have had either place . . . Sam Blount of Washington, de feated by Morris for solicitor of this district several years ago, is beer lobbyist in the Legislature again . . . {uid is the best of ! the 131 lobbyists registered . . . j most effective, anyway." . . . AT HOME ON LEAVE La verne Hewett, son of Mr. and Mrs. McKinley Hewett, of Shallotte, is spending a 20-day Leave at his home. He is stationed on the U. S.S. Huntington a light cruiser, now in port at New York. THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR A TELEPHONE STRIKE AND WE ARE TRYING HARD TO AVOID ONE Negotiations With The Union Have UjeenGoj^gOp Since February 17. They ar^ Still Proceeding and Your Telephone Company Has .Hopes That A# Agrpenjent Can Be Reached That 8e Fair To Everybody. The Southern Bell Telephone .Company believes .our wages with other wages. that its employees should be well paid, and that their wages should compare favorably with those paid jby In the present negotiations with the Union, we other concerns in the community for wojrk requiring have offered a renewal of our present liberal contract similar skill and equivalent .training. To make su^e ?h$t but the Union insists upon unreasonably large wage this policy is carried out, we are ^continuously comparing jaereases. Wage Rate Increases b 1945 And 1146 Amounted to Approximately 26 Million Dollars Telephone employees wage rates are now the ftl&sps gjy^n owfjemployees. This is an important point highest in history. They have been increased 75 per & twqn&ftbpi' in discussion of telephone wages, cent since January, 1941. The largest increases have ^gglar raises have been an advantage to been in recent years, and only last year and in 1945, ^employees for many years wage increases granted added approximately 26 million , ^ t Mnt(.aqtj thousands of our era dollars to the annual pay of our employees. ^ wge increases ? often as every !h ?e These are increases in wage rates and are in #ftQ$?frs. $jtlw thousands receive increases every six addition to millions of dollars in regularly scheduled <of &ve*7 year. HEIE ABE SOME TYMCA1 SAfEf Of FAf A five-day, 40-hour week is the basie work p&M.- i&>n-9#peryisory employees, such as operators, linemen, installers and repair^#? .overti^ pay for work beyond eight hours a day, 40 hours a week, and also recede ^premium pay for Sunday, holiday and eve ning and night work. The following table shows some of the present wages paid, according to the size of the telephone exchange? Lara* KifffciMflfi Operator Installer-repairman Stenographer Operator Installer-repairman Stenographer Operator Installer-repairman Stenographer $28 m Medina m m i m Small (kfa*?*9 to *0 to jto to to $<*2 $190 Top per (flglk m m mw#i jto to m $iao m $56 m m per m' per week week week week Not usually needed These rates do not i&clude premium pay mentioned .above. We believe most people would agtee that these are good wages. There are, in addition to good wages, many other advantages in working fpr th? Telephone Company, including pensions (with full cost paid by the Company), sickness and death benefits, attractive work ing conditions, holidays with pay, and vacations with pay of one, two or three weeks, de pending on length of service. UWON DEMAHPS TOTAL $65,008,800 A YEAB THIS IS EMJAL TP AS INCREASE OF $3.39 A MONTH W THE AVElAtt TELEPHONE BILL M - The demands of the union on wages and other mat ters would increase the cost of providing telephone serv ice by about $69,000,000 a year. Thjs pomes to 7j0 per cent of the Company's wage payments in 194)6. It is more than 6 times our net income in 1946. ft woul4 make our payroll alone over 2 million dollars more than the total of all the money we took in last y^ear. In terms of the average telephone bill, it amounts to $hout $3.30 per m.onth' for every one of a little more than 1,731,000 telephone subscribers, and it is the tele phone user, after all, who pays us the money that we pav out in waged. Wages that are too low .are not fair to the employees - who do the work. Wages that are too high are not fair to the public - who buy the service. FURTHER INCREASES IN WA?|S WOVIP NECESSITATE ABIJTION AL IMfBEASZS 1H OJJB BATES We earnestly desire to go as far as possible in meet ing the wishes of our employees and the Jinion. JBu? their demands must be practical and realistic. The earn ings of the Company are such that we are now appearr ing before the Public Service Commission throughout the southeast asking for increases in rates to help meet the cost of wage increases granted last year. Should present negotiations resjrft in large wage increases, we must immediately seek additional telephone rate in creases to meet the increase in expenses. It is with this ?in mind that we are -praeeedteig in our present negotia tions with the U^ion. AH OBLIGATE* TO THE PUBLIC WELFARE The Telephone Company is asking union leadership to recognize the obligation of all of us to you - the public. We are pointing out to the union in our meetings that only by rendering a constantly improved service in the most efficient manner possible can the .employees, the union, and the management continue to deserve your good will. We must not disregard the welfare of the public, either in our charge for service or the quality and continuity of the service we render. In view of the facts presented here, there filpes jwt seem to be justification for a complete revision erf pur working practices as requested by the union, nor for s.U?h large wage demands. Consequently, we have of fered the union a year's renewal of the present liberal contract, but with the right to re-open the matter of wagep at a time wljen gftapges in conditions may justify. We sineerely hope the union will accent this offer. We want to keep x>ur employees happy about their wages and their jobs. We want to keep you pleased with your telephone r$tes and service. And, we want to keep our investors satisfied about the money they have put in the telephone business. Per it jtakes three - telephone user, worker and investor - to keep this business going. ^ A Telephone Strike Would Bp Such A Serious TM pq for Von, Pop Telephone Employee* And Far Thf Telephone Company The* ?v*ry. thing Possible Is Being Done To Prevent It. THERE If NO J5JT C\JSE FOR A TEI&FHWB Ifi USC. SOUTHERN BE U, TEJLE WONg AW TELEG RAPH COMPLY, INCOHPORAT1SP
State Port Pilot (Southport, N.C.)
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April 2, 1947, edition 1
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