North Carolina Newspapers

Indorsed By Every Craft la Charlotte and In The State Tf VOL. V. NO. 50 CHARLOTTE, N C., FRIDAY, JULY 13, 1923 REDS DESPISE TRADE UNION FOR REASONS I ' Reds Want Revolution—-Unions Want Progress. GREAT RECORD -1 = i ' Of Trades Unions—-No Other Movement j^ike It—Revolu lutionists Hate It. “One of those old line trade unions which are interested in getting five cents more per hour for the rank' and file of its membership, but not one of ■* those trade unions which are open to the new truth and -are preparing its members to take control of the future of mankind." I.-i ■ The above sneer is included in a letter by Upton Sinclair in some con troversy he has with a writers’ or ganization. * How familiar it sounds! How it recalls the mildewed phrases^-©l -25t years ago when to morrow’s sun would greet the revolu tion ! And when the deposing of Sam Gompers would be the final push that would bring the preesnt order crashing to the ground! • Except to revolutionists and in telligentsia, such terms as “old line trade unions” have.no significance. Some of the hardest battles in the industrial history of this country have been waged "by so-called “old line trade unions.” They were the rallying point in the fight for. direct legislation, the secret ballot, and free textbooks. Thy started the fight against au tocratic control of industry. They have destroyed the serf ideal—that workers stand with hat in hand be fore the boss. Today there ar^ no more independ ent and assertive citizens than these same trade unionists? Wijio can lead , can cajole them? , This spirit is everything. It ex . cels all the resolutions written, rev olutions blue-printed, and programs urge^. It is the foundation of col lective progress and individual de velopment. It is trade unionism’s (Continued on Page Two.) BOLL WEEVIL AND EXODUS OF NEGROES s Best Thing Ever Happened, Says Editor of The Marshville Home. End Slavery. Thanking his lucky stars for the boll weevil an^i the exodus of the ne gro from thi^south, Mr. Z. V. Green, editor of The Marshville Home, plays , havoc with the many and varied statements about the south going to the bow-wows because the negro is leaving here. It means, Mr. Green asserts, that white men will no long er have to compete with slave negro labor in the south. It means an end to absentee landlordism, which has caused more suffering than all the wars, strikes, pestilences and other forms of evil since the beginning of time. Read what Editor Green says: “The movement of the negroes from southern farms northward- con stitutes to the great delight and ben efit of farmers who remain on our southern farms.* Boll weevils have given absentee landlordism in the south a severe jolt. The big “plant ers” living in towns and cities who have been promoting a rural negro tenant civilization on southern farms have • had an easy time of it, but while they were growing rich the sys tem produced a condition of servi tude for negro tenants and economic slavery ' for ~ every white man, wo man and child that were forced to Compete with industrial slave negro - labor in the cotton fields.- Under boll weevil conditions negro tenant farming on big plantations carries with it an element of too much un certainty to make it a desirable field for further exploitation. A states man has declared that absentee land lordism and tenantry have been more destructive to rural civilization than 'all the wars, famines and pestilences combined. The movement of negroes northward from the big plantation seems to indicate that the south is being relieved to some extent from a very undesirable ! condition. If the boll wevil helps to remove industrial negro slaves from the large farms of the south it will automatically ten,d to free white resident farmers and their families from economic slavery, and we must therefore score another point in favor of the boll weevil. T GASTONIA MILLS RAN ALL DAY ON FOURTH OF JULY <r Boasted Workers Are 100. Per Cent Americans, Yet Have to Work on Holiday. Gastonia, July 10.—You’ve heard a whole lot about the pure American ism of our textile workers in this county, haven’t you? You’ve also heard that the Fourth of July is a patriotic holiday, haven’t you, set aside to celebrate the very beginning of Americanism? Wall, what we’re writing you about Jis that these pure, dne-hundred per cent Americans in the following mills were not allowed to celebrate that greatest of all patriotic Ameri can holidays—the Fourth of July. The mills listed below and many others in the county, ran all day on the Fourth. • ^ How does that look for pure, one hundred per cent Americanism. Keep this list of names, and the next time any^ one says anything about the workers here being pure Americans, ask these mill owners why these pure Americans were not : allowed to take the Fourth of July as a holiday, and celebrate the sign ing of that great Declaration of In dependence. Here’s the Gastonia mills that ran all day on the Fourth of July: Avon, Modena, Ozark, Flint, Groves, Trenton, Gray, Parkdale, Myrtle, Myers, Hanover, Pinknye, Rankin, Ridge, Dixon, Osceola, and nssftstiore.. ~~ / * OFFICERS ELECTED BY CENTRAL BODY J. U. Whiteside was elected presi dent of the'Central Labor Union last Tuesday evening, and J. W. McDon ald was chosen to head the” executive board. With these two active men in the t\vo most important offices of the Central body, the organization is on a fair way to reach its goal. Other officers elected were: George S. Coble, secretary-treas urer. Sergeant-at-Arms, Claude L. Al bea. . - Executive board members to serve with Chairman McDonald, J. N. Mc Knight and WC E. Alexander. Much interesting business was transacted, and pledges were made to the new officials that complete and hearty support would be given them in all -their work. Retiring President Olson has work ed hard and accomplished much for the labor movement while he was in the chair. His work is of such na ture that' he refused to have his name placed before the body for re-elec tion. i At the meeting next Tuesday evening the matter of delegates to the State Federation of Labor, and STATE FEDERATION COMMITTEE BUSY Greensboro, Nj. C., July1 12.—A. S. Deal, formerly of Charlotte, but now connected with The Daily Record, spent the week-end with his parents in Charlotte. He reports to his G-reensljoro friends that the Queen City is coming right along in. the work of organization. Greensboro is gradually growing. Everything is quiet, all workers hav ing jobs. About the most active' people here now are the members of the Central Labor Union committee that has charge of the arrangements for the meeting of the State Federa tion of Labor, which meets here one month from now. On neift Tuesday evening a special meeting will be held by the Greens boro body, at which time James F. Barrett will speak to the Gate City workers. It has been several months since Brother Barrett was here, the last time being the big opeii meeting held in the county court house. It is expected a large crowd will hear Mr. Barrett next Tuesday evening. plans for Labor cussed. • FORD WILL GO IN ON HIGH, SO SAYS SPENCER PARSON Certainly Has As Much Sense as Pen-Pushers Who Are Criticising Manufacturer. ‘ BY TOM P. JIMISON. * This scribe went angling with a gentleman once upon a time., He had a beautiful, rod, a shiny reel, yards and yards of silk line, a plenti ful supply of hooks, a fish basket, and all sorts of paraphanalia and devices with which to ,coa#the finny tribes from the crystal waters. I had an improvised outfit, consisting of one hook, a cotton line, a sourwood rod, home-made sinkers and some home grown angle Woftns. I caught three small fish and he caught none. He told me that my sinkers yvere too he^vy, *my hook was too small and my line was too shprt. “If you had a good outfit, Tom,” quote my friend with the shiny outfit, “you could catch some fish.” He had" it and didn’t get a bite. > - Henry Ford Jooms up as a presiden tial candidate. Everybody knows about Henry. He is the most talked of man in America. But a lot of people whom' the public has never heard of are busily engaged wasting good ink in tilling us what an ignor ant and unsuccessful man Henry really is.' Some penny-a-liner who is unknown outside his voting precinct, rushes - into the press and deposes thusly: “Ford is ignorant. True he has tna^e a great success as a manu facturer.', He htdlevecr in defftmw.ey and peace and brotherhood. He has some fine ..ideas, but he hasn’t suc ceeded in the regular way. If he were properly assembled he would be a great man-. If he had my educa tion and my ability he would be a humdinger.” Ford might make a good president and he might not. But evidently he has more sense than all the pen push ers who have taken the pains to tell us how little he knows. If he were assembled like the preacher who has written a book telling the world why the flivver king should not go to the White House, why he would prob ably be as useless as this particular bookmaker and would) be Sper.di.ng his time boring the public with pvolix ious phrase instead of shaking it with a hunk of tin. Henry probably does not know much about aplitics, but his knowledge of the great American pastime is no doubt as extensive as that of his ferities. The pen pushers admit that Hank has a genius for getting, on. He is a great organizer, a fine executive, and a good judge of men. He gets on famously but he isn’t regular. He buys a defunct railroad, lowers rates, raises wages, and straightway makes it pay; He buys a coal mine and im mediately cuts the price, raises the wages and shortens the hours. It pays. He buys a plate glass factoi'y and follows the same course with the same results. All of which proves that he is a fool. If he were not so everlastingly ignorant of the law of supply and demand, if he only had sense enough to understand the laws which obtain in the realm of econom ics he woi\ld get along so much bet ter. » But somehow Henry manages to mosey along tolerably well in spite of his irgonance. He scoffs, at Wall Street and thosfe who are economi cally wise and proceeds to pile up mil lions where they' are getting thous ands. He laughs'at them as financial ftedgings and keeps on sawing wood. He may be a crank and all the other things that he is being called, but it is Certain that he has more of accom plishment to his credit than those who are calling him names. Anyway he ought to know as much about running the country as a third rate lawyer, a college professor, or a country editor. Throw her in high, Hank, and go to it. EIGHT-HOUR DAY FOR THE SOUTHERN, TEXTILE WORKERS Boston, July 12.—The executive Council of United Textile Workers are meeting in,this city Friaday for the purpose of planning a campaign for the 8-hour day in Southern Tex tile plants. It was also announced that Thom as F. McMahon, president of the U. T. W, of A., will attend the State Fed eration of Labor Convention of North Carolina, to be hied in Greensboro, N; C., on August 13, 14 and IS. ' - Ac* ^ Gary is lining the steel interests up strong for a drive to get wide open immigration. ->' • Just before President Harding boarded ship for Alaska he made public letters from .Gary, Schwab and others, promising that the 12-hour day would be ended just as soon as there is a surplus of labor. That means that the Steel Trust is going to hang onto the 12-hour day until they get unrestricted immigration, or until the country is thrown into a panic. What Gary promised- the President amounts to nothing at all. But it‘indicates something, which is that the steel interests are going to try to get wide open immigration. The Steel Trust wants what it calls cheap labor. It, wants lines of men waiting at the gate. It wftnts a man outside for every man inside. When it can get that it is willing to abolish the. 12-hour day, if wte are to believe what Gary told the President. - ] . . \ ' i As to what Gary will do about the 12-hour day—the best time to believe that is when it happens. Meanwhile the Steel Trust propaganda machine, which is a good one, is oiling up for a drive to get immigration with all bars down. The Steeh Trust can end the 12-hour day wfithout waiting for a panic and it can end it without going after the hungry hordes of southern Europe, j' '' s ' Engineers can tell Gary how! to end the 12-hour day and no doubt Gary himself knows how'. * But Gary prefers to travel the road of the “labor skinner,” the road x>f the unenlightened, the road of jthe middle-ages bourbon. The one effective, constructive answef to Gary is THE TRADE UNION! Cunning Scheme of Harding And Gary to Lower Bars of Immigration for Gary’s Sake ‘‘When there’s a surplus of labor.” A few days ago the daily newspa pers were filled with all kinds of bunk about the ’steel plants were go ing to imuiptftrte die ti-hour day, and President Harding was given the credit by both Mr. Gary and the pub lic. It was all based on the following letters that passed between Presi dent Harding and Judge Gary. Read these letters. Read partic ularly those references by both these gentlemen to the one phrase: “When there’s a surplus of labor.” See the point? Catch the drift? Fill America with Europeans and THEN inaugurate the 8-hour day! The letters follow. Read ’em and weep: The Department of Commerce on authority of Secretary Hoover before sailing has released for publication the following correspondence be tween the President and Judge Gary: The White House. « Washington, June 18, 1923. My dear Judge Gary: I have now had an opportunity of reading the full report of the committee of the Iron and Steel Institute on the ques tion of the abolition of the 12-hour day in the steel industry. As I have stated before, I am, of course, dis appointed that no conclusive ,ar rangement was proposed for determi nation of what must be manifestly accepted , as a practice that should be obsolete in American industry. I still entertain the hope that these questions of social importance should be solved by action inside the indus tries^themselves, for it is only such solutions that' are consonant with American life and institutions. I am impressed .that in the reason ing of the report great weight should Will Rogers Hunks Steel Mills Must Be Health Resort Will Rogers, vaudeville star and movie favorite, writing in the New York Times, commented as follows on Judge Gary’s defense of the twelve hour day: _ “l^e can always depend on Judge Gary for a weekly laugh in his speeches. But last week he had the prize wheeze of his career. "Be had his accomplices make an invsetigation of the steel industry, ^and they turned in a report that it was much more beneficial to man to work 12 hours a day tlian 8., They made this report so alluring that it is apt to make people who read it de cide to stay the extra four hours on their jobs, just through the health and enjoyment they get out of it. “I n.ever knew steel work was so easy till I read that report. Why, the advantages they enumerate in this report would almost make a boot legger trade jobs with a steel worker. “But here is the kick. Judge Gary \ got up to read his report before the stockholders who had made it out. Hie read for one hour in favor of a 12-hour day. Then he was so ex hausted they, had to carry him out, and Charley Schwab had to go on reading the sheet. “Now, if the judge couldn’t work an Hour, how did he expect his work ers to do 12 every day? “After Schwab read for two hours the audience was carried out. “It was the greatest boost for "the 12-hour day I ever heard of. I am thinking of • going out there and working for them, but if it is-such a pleasure to work 12 hours T am going to try and get them to let me work 18, at least, for I don’t believe I would get enpugh pleasure out of just 12. “So if you don’t hear of me next week you will know I just enjoyed myself,to death in Judge Gary’s steel mills in Pittsburgh." be attached to the fact that in the present shortage of labor it would cripple our entire prosperity if the change were abruptly made. In the hope .that this, question could be dis posed of, I lam wondering; if it Would not be possible for the steel industry to consider giving an undertaking that before there shall be any re duction in the staff or employes of the industry through any recession of demand for steel products, or at any time when there is a surplus of labor available that then the change should be made from the two shifts to the three shift basis. I can not but be lieve that such an undertaking would give great satisfaction to the Ameri can people as a whole and would, in deed, establish pride and confidence in the ability of our industries them selves to solve matters which are so conclusively advocated by the public. With a very cordial expression of personal regards, I am, Very truly yours, Warren G. Harding. Hon. E. H. Gary, 71 Broadway, New York City, N. Y. 'i _ American Iron and Steel Institute. ^New York, June 27, 1923. De^r Mr. President: Careful con sideration has been given to your letter of June 18th, inst., by the un dersigned directors of the American Iron and Steel Institute comprising all of those whose attendance could be secured at this time. Undoubtdly there is a strong sen timent throughout the country in favor of eliminating the 12-hour day, and this we do not underestimate. On account of this sentiment and .espe cially because it is in accordance with your own expressed views, we are determined to exert every effort at (Continued on Page 2.) COLD FACTS IN THE COAL SQUABBLING Public in Pennsylvania Towns For Miners. DANGEROUS WORK Earn All They Get, .Says Well ftnowjn Writer—Huge Profits To Owners. If you were a miner, how’d you like to dig 3,300 pounds for a ton? That’s what to. lot of the men are doing at some of the mines in the anthracite'district. “In many of the mines,” says John L. Lewis, International President of the United Mine Workers, ‘‘the men are paid on an ancient rule of 12 stone to a hundredweight and 28 hundredweight to a ton. “That’s some ton for you. It measures up to about 3,300 pounds. “Originally it was intended to cover dockage for ‘unsaleable slack’ and for rock and slate. / ‘Today, however, the operators get a good price for the slack as steam coal. At these mines it’s not costing them' a cent to have it mined. And the proportion allowed for roc)c dock* age, under modern mining conditions, is altogether too large.” Provision for paying on a basis of a ‘lpng ton’ of 2,240 pounds is in cluded in the new ‘ demands of. the miners. " BY HARRY B. HUNT, (In The Danville Bee.) Scranton, Pa., July 10.—Why are anthracite miners demanding a 20 per cent increase in pay, plus improv ed conditions in the mines and the application of uniform .standards throughout the different eolleries of the hard ~coal field? I put this question to scores of miners in a score of mine towns— Nanicoke, Pittstqn, Old Forge, Car bon,dale, Berwick, -Shamokin and many others. I put it also to mine bosses, business men and Chamber of Commerce officials. «The answers, surprisingly near unanimous in their support of the miners’claims, group ed themselves about two main reas ons. Briefly summarized, these are: 1. That present costs of living, for men with families, make higher pay imperative. 2. ' That the men are not sharing, proportionately, in the wealth they are producing. , - A third reason, not stressed by the miners themselves, but put forward by outsiders supporting the miners claims, is that if any occupation de serves to earn more than a iiving wage for its workers it is that which keeps the men for long pieripds buried deep under the ground, shut off from the light of day, breathing the gaseous, dust-filled air of the coal working and in constant danger of a multitude of mishaps that may kill or maim them for life. Wearing on Men. “Conditions under which a large precentage' of the men work make it,impossible for them to put in full time,*” said Rosser Mainwaring of Wdkes-Barre, a former mine-boss. '“A man simply can’t keep at it six days a week. “The general public hasn’t the slightest idea of what this work in volves. “This hard coal comes for most part from deep-lying veins'. There are shafts here that go down 2,200 feet. The average working is prob ably between 800 and 1,000 feet. “The air down there is close and heavy. There is always more or less gas and dust. Often they have to put on a hofce to keep the tempera ture down and to lay the dust to pre vent explosions. "in one mine out here they are working "a 22-inch vein. The men who cut that coal cradd 390 feet back through that shallow -drift to their work. They must work on hands and knees or lying down. There’s a whole mountain pressing down over their heads. Hbw many of the folks who kick at the price of coal would crawl back in there to dig even one bucketful? “Of course that’s an extreme case. Opposed to it there is one vein run-, ning 22 feet thick, where the cham bers are high, the air betetr and the sense of oppression perhaps at a minimum. Earn Wjages. ^“But at best it’s a straining and dangerous life. There’s always the chance of an explosion, of a bad fall, of rock, of the river breaking in., Whatever the men can get I'll say they earn. I put in a lot of years in the mines, starting in as a boy in the breakers. But never again for me— at any price.’’ Evidences of enormously increased, profits to the operators, at present (£oi*tinuM on Page Two.) AND THE CZAR Kill UNIONS , * , i Trade Unionism and Democ racy Grow. Together. NO AUTOCRACY . ■ ' I • " ; V. _ Can Flourish Where Unionism Is Strong—Is Democracy’s Most Important Step. BY' OLIVER E. CARRUTH. Trad'd unionism blooms in the soil of democracy; it droops . and of ten dies in the soil of autocracy and bureaucracy. » i Italy, where reaction reigns su preme under Mussolini and his black- k shirted hordes, gives the latest dem onstration that autocracy is “bad medicine” for labor unionism. Since the Fasqisti have been in power, the once strong Italian trade unions have been losing strength and there seems little chance that they will regain their rightful place in the nation’s industrial life until the Fas cisti are deposed or their rule greatly modified. ‘ • But it was not necessary to wait for Italy to show that labor unions thrive under democracy and languish under autocracy. History for the last (Continued on Page Two.) LOW WAGES DRIVE LABOR FROM GA. Pres. Ga. Bankers Association Says Low Wages Ruined State—rDead As a Door Nail. - By Internatienal Labor Nowa Service. Washington, July 11.—Poop wa^jjS^ make the workers move to pastures*" npw. The truth of this statement, was never better exemplified than by.the sad experience of Georgia,,which is finding that colored and white Work ers alike are rapidly moving where wages are better and living condi tions superior. James S. Peters, president of the Georgia Bankers’ Association, is au thority for the assertion that better. wages to be earned in other states are driving Georgia’s workers to leave their own state. Mr. Petens’ statement contains a straight-from the shoulder lesson for those .short frighted employers who believe in a consistent policy of low wages. It shows that sooner or later the opera tion of such a policy will injure the employers by depriving them of need ed labor and that it’s the poorest kind of business for any state or com munity; - . ' According to a report on Georgia’s labor exodus by Mir. Peters, in the 1 first rix months of this year 77,500 . negroes and 29,513 whites have quit the farms of Georgia and moved to industrial centers of the North and East. In the last three years, the report shows, considerably more than 20(J, 000 negroes have moved from G^eor gia, leaving thte colored population of the state possibly less than it was in 1890. Some 46,000 farm.,dwellings have been left vacant and estimating thirty acres to the plow, there are more than 55,000 idle plows in the state at the present time. Mir. Peters is very frank-about the cause of the exodus( of Georgians. He doesn’t attempt to hide why they are leaving but says : F* “It is useless to. talk about labor agents or to legislate against their activities. It did not require labor agents to t^ke from Ireland almost one-half of her population and trans plant them on the shores of North America., Superior living conditions and higher wages did this. It was often said that if Ireland could stop , letter-writing between the emigrants and the home people it would be an effective means of stopping emigra tion. “The same holds true of the.negro today. Every letter from ihe North brings news of high wages, good liv--^ ; ing conditions, schools and other ad- . vantage—and these are- what js doing the damage.” The report recommends! increased wages, better housing conditions and better educational facilities as a means of keeping labor at hpme and on the farm. Government labor experts poin£ out that it would be hard to find a Stronger statement* of why workers (leave their own sections than the re^ port of Mr. Peters. In short, they say, paying poor wages is popr busi ness, as Georgia is now finding to’its sorrow. __./■. A - ** - ' (' m