Newspapers / The Charlotte Herald (Charlotte, … / March 7, 1924, edition 1 / Page 5
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PROBLEMS OF A LABOR EDITOR BY NORMAL THOMAS, Recent Editor of The New York'Leader ' - i V1: H. , • . ' -■ * * 'J'HE problems of the labor editor cover a broad field, for different editors have different problems. Much depends upon whether one is editing a monthly, a weekly, or a daily. Much depends upon whether one is editing the official organ of a labor union or a publication appeal ing to labo£ in general rather than to a particular union. Nevertheless, in a broad sense ail labor editors have certain problems in common which can be set down in black and white. ' Monuments to Dullness. To begin with, there is the prob lem of turning out an interesting i. ' paper. I don’t mean that labor news jB^and serious discussions of laboj; tac PP*tics can always be jazzed up. I do mean that labor papers have Poo often been written, edited and printed as if with the intention of discouraging readers. That remark sounds harsh, but it is born out of the experience of a number of years in keeping track of labor papers. A dot of them are monu ments to dullness. In appearance, typography and subject matter they are no credit to the labor move ment. They are scarcely more than * bulletins of routine party or union news with a few ill-considered, stereotyped editorials and articles. I imagine their chief use (in the homes of the workers is to light the fire in the kitchen stove. For this situation the editor is not always the only or even the prin cipal man to blame. He gets no encouragement and little money. He has no staff. His is a one-man job. He is not expected to put out an attractive looking paper. He is not chosen for his ability in that line. As long as he is a good, reg ular supporter of the administra tion, warranted never tfc stir up trouble for it, little more is asked. It used to be said in- days when some of the old church folks were shocked at the catchy style of gos pel songs that “the devil ought not * to have aid the good tunes.” By the samd token the workers ought to realize that the bosses and million aires and self-seeking politicians ought not to have all the good papers. Fortunately, on this point the last few years have seen an - enormous improvement.J tabor*' papers are going in for attractive typography, good pictures and high grade arti cles. If may be said without flat tery that The Journal of the Broth I erhood of Locomotive Engineers has been a pioneer along this line. No one who has not tried can know hbw difficult it is to handle this mat ter of turning out an interesting paper, and therefore how jnuch credit must go to the editor who succeeds and to the union which en courages and supports him. Loyalty, to Labor’s Ideals. Another "problem of the labor edi tor is the problem of loyalty. That sounds simple, especially if the paper is the organ of a party or a union. But, it is not so simple as it sounds. Of course, the editor is the servant of the party or the union; he owes it the best he has; he must work in harmony with, and under the general direction of, the chosen officers of the union. Yet , ' T = *¥&*"»* O the problem of loyalty is not solved by this rather obvious statement. Is the editor of a labor paper merely the literary errand boy of some political chief or Union offi cial? Is it not his duty by virtue of his position to remember his loy alty tp the labor movement as a whole and, interpret that loyalty to his readers? Here is a movement with an heroic history and glorious aspirations. Can the labor editor let his mind or his columns be so crowded with routine' material that none of this thrills and pafiMon of a great loyalty is conveyed to his readers? * * Again, does loyalty to a particu lar union or party mean such loyal ty to a given administrations as to shut the doors of discussion on im portant issues? I know the journal of a powerful union which has re fused space not only to Individuals of that, union but to officers and committees for discussion of mat ters of the most vital interest. Only what the president and edi tor like gets into the paper. Is that true interpretation of loyalty? Does it make for the health of the labor movement? Truthfulness - and Fair Play. Closely related to the problem of loyalty is the problem of accuracy, truth and fair play. And that may be the hardest problem of all. Any labor paper worth its salt is dealing with live controversial issues. It is in the thick of labor’s battles. Those battles are not only against anti-union employers and against a j wasteful, exploiting Social 'order. They are often factional between ‘different unions or parties within the unions. And factional fights are the bitterest of all. There js an old maxim that “all’s fair in love and war.” On that maxim labor’s factional battles too often are carried ‘on. “Fair? Only liberals and other damn fools talk about being fair,” was the way one labor leader put it. Nbw I believe that even in conflict it is possible to fight fair. No good society can be built on the foundation of lies, un warranted attacks on one’s enemies, false innuendos, misrepresentation or concealment of facts. Victories won that way substitute one despo tism for another. Society is a ma chine more complex than any en gine and to go at it < blinded with hate, prejudice, or ’ preconceived dogma, is as disastrous as the same tactics would be for an. engineer. Of course, it is harder to ascertain and interpret social facts than the objective facts of the laboratory or of the engine. “What is truth?” is never an easy question to answer. We need the scientific habit of mind which learns by trial and experi ence ; which holds theories subject to rectification by new knowledge. I am not pleading for a futile open mindedness that never believes any thing with enough fervor to act. I am not forgetting that one’s view of truth must depend upon one’s background of experience and con viction when I urge that courage and vigorous opinion are consistent in the editorial office with the effort to give one’s views truthfully and to deal fairly with one’s opponents. Many, perhaps most, labor editors will agree on this point. But the Victroia Entertains hour or occa&bh. Whether it be tiie great arias from a great opera by the. Ifdreifidst artists, or the “jazz” hits by the most popular dance orchestras, all is yours in per fection with Victor Records played on your Victroia. Choose your model today, then \ Let Us Send Your Yictrola Home f PARKER-GARDNER CO. musi£ department Nearly 10,000 Records to Select From fact Remains that one sometimes finds in labor papers as gross imic- : curacy on certain issues and as de- i liberate misrepresentation as in the capitalist press. Surely truth is on : the side of the workers. Their cause , and'ftor. ap<fl they can trust A to ttpthland fairness. / „ tfc&?m*y sbhnd as if I had j little but criticism for labor’s papers, j On the contrary, I greatly admire ( «many pf them and am much im- ^ press^T by theit steady' improve- i m«htif:A^u I know the hard work ' afid lt>y*M^ to ideas to be found in > editorial Offices. Let the critic ex- i change pl&ees with the editor and < face the distractions, interruptions ] and pressure of petty things and petty complaints, and he may think « more kindly of those now in charge 1 of labor’s papers. : The Dearth Labor Dalles. The exception to the generally ' forward looking condition of the 1 labor press is to be found in the j field of English language labor dai- •< lies. Very few of them exist in all of the United States; only one, The ’ Milwaukee Leader, so far as I am i aware, is in a satisfactory financial i condition. * I cannot profess to write i on this subject as' a disinterested 1 ^observer. As editor of the short- i lived New York Leader I was, party So an effort that failed. Doubtless, ( readers will bear that fact in minid :j in judging' whatever I may say as • to the problem of the labor daily. We will probably all agree that the present newspaper situation from the viewpoint of labor and of fair-minded citizeps is a menace to democracy. The business of news dissemination and interpretation is Controlled by millionaires for profit. Monopolization and standardization of newspapers grow by leaps and bounds through the chain paper sys tem. Standardization may be a good thing in Ford cars; it is a bad thing in newspapers. And this standardization tends to be socially conservative and anti-labor. Not even demagogic papers that make loud professions of devotion to the “pee-pul” can be trusted by labor in certain emergencies. Every rail road man knows how unfairly most of the press treated the recent shop men’s strike and how this misrepre sentation helped the railroad execu tives. To some extent this attitude of the capitalist press can be counter acted by labor weeklies and month lies. But not wholly. Everybody reads a daily. It is part of the at mosphere we live in. It is one of the educational factors in bringing up our children. And that press is inaccurate devoted to th^ §reat $od .piroiit. .. . f Make lists of comics, cartoons, fea tures, even articles about sports; you may be surprised, as I ufas, to find how the anti-labor bias creeps in. For instance, a clever writer in a New York paper describing a world series game said that the teams which had often played as if they wore overalls instead of uniforms, went to their work with snap and energy as if they were non-union men! Is it any wonder under such conditions that boys and ■ girls grow up to smile at their father’s union enthusiasm? The only remedy is : for labor to establish its own dailies. But how and what sort? Any daily is an enormously expensive thing to establish, but, the cheapest , sort is one which does not attempt to com pete in fullness of news or in fea tures with the established dailies. It will specialize in news of inter est to labor and in propaganda for the group behind it. Such a paper was The New York Call. At its best it was very useful. Si\ch a paper will prpbably be The D,aily Worker, soon to commence publica tion in Chicago. Even those who, like myself, emphatically do not ac cept the philosophy or tactics of the Communist Party ^tfithin the Ur'vted States, will probably find much ability and force in the con duct of The Daily Worker. But such a paper, if it gets any circulation to speak of, will prob ably be for,, most of its readers an “and paper;” that is, a paper bought in addition to the “regular paper.” To counteract the inflence of the commercial press we want a paper as broad as that of the mil lionaires’ organs. No purely prop aganda daily will fill the bill for the average American worker. He wants news, features, sports. ,1 hope he does not want the sensation alism of the Hiearst organs, but I know from experience that he wants a paper that interests as well as instructs hiin. Does Labor Want an Independent Press? y Can labor afford such a paper? Yes, if it wants it. Newspapers, to be sure, live on advertising, and a labor paper loyal to its principles may have trouble getting advertis ifig.- Yet o.ur experience with The ! Leader convinced us that in ordi | nary jtimes a labor paper without | compromising its principles canyget 1 considerable advertising, provided , it can first get enough circulation ! among workers who can ottly be | reached through its columns. In ! other words, vigorous labor sup port of itk own paper \will probably get it enough advertising to come somewhere near self-support or to leave a deficit which labor organi ! zations could handle. But does labor at present really want a labor daily? There’s the rub. If we were all agreed on a (political policy! and on one general | labor philosophy, it might be differ ‘ e'n£. But w;e aren’t. Each different group or faction is suspicious pf any paper that does not shout its j slogans. And all ,Wodld unite in be-f ring suspfeious of a paper that tried ’‘t*" *** 4" "ifeaiiMlI '“w ■ ‘ ::m~' to be so neutral that Jt bad no policy. While labor quarrels it reads thp commercialized press. It was our hope that we , could make ‘'rtie New "fork Leader so ac curate and fair in its news columns, So loyal to labor as a whole, so in teresting, so impartial to conflicting jabbr opinions in its reads’ forum, so vigorous yet reasonable in its editorial policy, that it could win ^general support even from groups not in accord with every editorial. We failed. - Doubtless the failure was partly ,our fault. Yet if labdr was united and as keen for a labor daily as for labor banks, it could have surmounted our mistakes. As it was, we had an able staff; we were, ttiming out a paper Which those workers who knew it regarded as worth while. Our directors dif< fered in opinion, but cooperated.. The unions, however, put on no in tensive campaign for circulation, and finding the sort of paper they wanted too expensive to support without more circulation and ad vertising, they let it die. Some of the lieutenants in New York’s labor forces were rather relieved to be so easiy rid of a paper that tried to be fair to labor rather than the mouthpiece of qne faction. The story suggests the problem of the editor of the labor daily. Must he wait for his chance until labor has become more united? Must he make himself the spokes man of one faction even to the ex tent of censoring his own news columns by factional 'standards? Or can he help to bring about ‘greyer unity and strength by edit ing' a paper that has' a vigorous policy and yet somehow transcends; factionalism? It is a very difficult problem. Perhaps it is insoluble. ; The answer is up to labor. It is* labor that will be sorely handicap ped if the day of the strong labor Newspaper must wait for the estab lishment of one accepted policy for -organized labor bn the economic and pontical field, or for the increase of the principal factions in labor to sii&i strength that they can support tHfeir own warring daily organs. When all is sajd and done, the problem of the labor editor^ and of the1 labor movement is the problem of''keeping clear before one’s eyes in the midst of the pressure of routine things and in the heat and dust of the day’s strife, the vision bf-that better world which it lies 'within the power of organized, dis ciplined and intelligent workers to jereate. The latter editor at his best is the prophet of the world without poverty, without war, without ex ploitation. PAINTERS TO MOLD AN OPEN r MEETING ON WEDNESDAY NIGHT Pbintrs Local Union 1123 will hold an open meeting next Wednes day,, flight to whifih all .non-union [ppiinterfi({jaB4{p]J.<ppntBfli^9rs and em, ployers will , he incited. ft is ex* peqted. that a large crowd will be present Sqr this-bpopter occasion. Ir.;; Springjtime is coming. *nd spring t ; • ■ i •'_n__- ■,■.^ time is always paint time, and this meeting is for the purpose of get ting all the froces interested jn painting together and discussing the ways and means for best advancing the interests of those who are re sponsible for the outward appear ances of Charlotte and vicinity. BONUS SYSTEM FOR SOUTHERN Washington, March 5.—A new principle of co-operative effort In the relations - of railways with . their employes was introduced in the agreement of the Southern Railway system with its conductors, ti^in and yard men, announced yesterday by Vice President H. W] Miller, in charge of operation of the South ern. The agreement established an ad ditional community of- interest be tween the Southern and 1 its train operatives. The men arei given the opportunity to earn a bonus through increased efficiency by decreasing expenses whcih are directly under their control, s The agreement cov ers a period of three years with an increase of approximately five per cent in the base rates of pay for the entire period and a bonus for the second and third year, dependent upop the degree of efficiency reach ed by the train employees. The bonus is to be gauged by an agreed ratio of expense of train operation to gross revenue. In this way, the Southern and the train employees will share in the benefits arising from increased efficiency and the control of such expenses as are to a great extent in the hands of the men. PROFITS OF 56 PER CENT. Detroit, Mich., Feb. 27.—Last year’s profits of the Paige-Detroit motor car company increased 56 per cent. The amount is $3,181,971, af ter all charges were paid. f BELK’S BELK’S Fashionably Speaking— SPRING is I ■ lgt>, >>« : » -Jfr? •» HERE I^ere and there may still be seen the rem nants of the fast ending winter season. It marks the passing of a season that ushers in a new; one—one of earth’s awak ening. Throughout the store this spirit prevails—spring’s f^ay, colorful modes is displacing winter’s sombre types—a new fashion season has4 come in reality. The store presents a truly delightful sight with scores of spring raiments and . . .. mx -■v'V'-v & 'hcces^o^iedi. j HAVE YOU SEEN THE NEW BLACK COATS? i They, are very smart and we have an exceptional line ipade of pretty quality Charmeen and Poiret | Twills. Straight line apd braided— i $24.95 $75.00 CLOTH DRESSES IN THE NEW \ TAILORED MODE Like in all tailored styles, cut and workmanship must be perfect to assure the success of the mode. This is noted to a marked degree in these frotks. Styles are diverse, ranging from the perfectly plain coat frocks to frocks richly embroidered. These in the new wools, silk and satin and the new colors and trimmings— $16.50 -to- $35.00 T l i Coats, Long in Line, Whose Simplicity Is Smartness Quality of fabric and finesse of workmanship are their distinguish ing marks. The novel draping of the collar lends a trigness becom ingly smftrt. In pretty Charmeen, Poiret Twills, etc. All the new col ors and styles. The leading shades $24.75 $85,00 Handsome Three Piece Suits Smartness and practicability unite a three-piece s,uit—twb virtues that continue them, in favor. The new season’s versions possess a new jauntiness and combined with our usual good tailoring, one is assured of a long term, of smart service ability. We have these in all the new; Spring shades with exquisite blouses-1- I $75,00 $139,50 tswjW? ■ -W £ ill 1 1 ^ .»■■■■ 9 ■• ^—X*^^- '\X 1' m lV^X X X XI_-jX
The Charlotte Herald (Charlotte, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
March 7, 1924, edition 1
5
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