Newspapers / The Charlotte Labor Journal … / Feb. 21, 1935, edition 1 / Page 1
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The 0\LY REALLY INDEPENDENT WEEKLY Far a Weekly, Its Readers Represent BUYING POWER m Charlotte Truthful, Honest, Impartial AND DIXIE FARM NEWS the Masses VOL. IV.—No. 42. m Tm CHARLOTTE, N. C, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 21,1935 $2.00 Per Year FEDERAL LABOR UNION PLANS SHOW TO RAISE MONEY FOR MUNICIPAL WADING POOLS IN CHARLOTTE Arrangements are being made to stage a heal :h; beauty and safety show March 18-23 at the Armory-Auditorium under the name of the “Queen City Exposition” and the sponsorship of the Federal Labor Union with the approval and indorsement of Cen tral Labor Union. Lacy Ranson, formerly superintend | ent of parks and recreation, member of the Federal Labor union, is mak ing the plans for the exposition. The project will not be conducted to make money but all of the funds will be used to complete the building of wading pools for children, a con struction program that was started during the time Mr. Ranson was serv ing as superintendent of parks and recreation. __ Exhibitors of commodities pertain ing to health, beauty and safety are being invited to display their wares during the exposition, and prominent speakers are being extended invita tions to appear Experienced exposition men and women will aid Mr. Ranson in plan ning the show, and thousands of per sons are expected to attend Dur ing the last month many large or ganizations have been approached with an outline of the proposed ex position, and they have expressed con siderable interest. To stimulate interest in the high school essay and poster contest Idl ing conducted in connection with the exposition, Leonard Atwell, president of the Federal Labor union, an nounced that in addition to the many valuable prizes, every child enter ing the contest will receive a compli mentary ticket of admission to the exposition. The essay contest is open to all children in the high schools of Meek lenburg, Iredell, Stanley, Cabamis, Union, Anson, Rowan, Gaston, Cleve land, Lincoln and Catawba counties in North Carolina and York, Lan caster,. Chester, ant! Cherokee coun ties in South Caroliia. Children are beinf asked to submit a short skit in the form of a pageant, play pr essay of a scientific nature dealing with either Health, Beauty' or Safety or a combination of the three. Posters may deal with either of the three above subjects or they may be treated as a combination. Principals of all schools in the above counties that have not received complete informaticn pertaining to above contest are asked to communi cate with the Queer City Exposition offices at 309 Int ependence Trust building in Charlotte, said Mr. At well. Members of the Q leen City Exposi tion committee attended a meeting in the Masonic hall in Belmont Sat urday evening, asking the support of those present to mal:e the Queen City Exposition a success. Mr. Atwell, Lacy Ranson and L. E. Johnson made talks and were well received and the full support of the entire gathering, was pledged. Sunday afternoor, the same men appeared before over 700 citizens of Rock Hill assembled in Aeolian hall with the same message, inviting them to come and bring their friends to the Armory during the dates of March 18 and 23. , Auto Workers Submit Model Contract To the Fisher Body Co. Cleveland, Ohio.—A proposed work in* agreement embodyingof the features which the American Federation of Labor believes essen tial to peace and progress in the au tomobile industry has been submitted to the Fisher body Corporation, a Gen eral Motors subsidiary, by United Automobile Workers’ Federal Union local here, affiliated with the A. F. of L. The contract has not yet been signed It provides that when new jobs “are created or occur in the respective de partments, the oldest employe laid off shall be the first to be re-employed.” Another clause asserts that employes who have given long and faithful service and who have become unable to handle heavy work “will be given preference to such light work in their line as they may be able to do.” An annual minimum wage of $1,560 for unskilled workers, and $1,820 for skilled workers is asked, as is a thir ty-hour week, of ,-fiye six-hour days. Wages of time and sne-half for Sat urday work and double wages for Sunday work would be required. Other- clauses call for arbitration of all difficulties which can not be settled by mutual agreement of the company and the union, and rein statement with full pay for all time lost by the discharge of any employe who may be judged to have been un justly discharged. Textile Hosiery Workers Rally At . Rock Hill, S. C. ROCK HILL, S. O., Feb. 19.—Union organizers addressed a rally of tex?, tile and hosiery workers at Unidn Hall here Saturday. The speakers in cluded F. L. Widen douse, of Concord, representative of lie Federation of Hosiery Workers; H. D. Lisk, of Con cord, organizer foi the United Tex tile Workers and C Lester Adams, of Charlotte, ‘also a representative of the Federation of Hosiery Workers. RALEIGH.—With approximately 300 delegates from local unions throughout the State present, the State Highway Ccuncil, met in Ra leigh last Sunday. The following of ficers were elected and will serve for the ensuing year: C. C. Mimms, Whiteville, President; S. G. Gallo way, Rocky Mourt, vice president; C. M. Beasley, Loiisburg, secretary treasurer; and George A. Brihkley, Sgt.-at-arms Fayitteville, R. R. Lawrence, Paul R. Christopher, S. H. Scott, and T. A. Wilson were princi pal speakers. President Addresses American Labor (Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States, made the ■ following statement to the Executive Council of the American Federa tion of Labor, following their recent conferences:) “I have been particularly glad to receive and discuts common prob lems with the Executive Council of the American Federation of Labor, and to congratulate them upon their enlarged executive council, bringing into co-operation more units of the labor movement. The American Federation of Labor has been helpful and co-operative in the develop ment of the programs for the rahabiiitation of industry and of opr eco nomic life over the past two years, and I hope their (o-operation will continue active and effective. “Co-operation with labor as well as with businesr, ir essential to continuation of the programs we are working out for a more stable and more satisfactory industrial life in this country. I have on a number of occasions urged the necessity, as well as the soundness of furthering the principle of collective bargaining as between Iab>r and manage ment. This is my personal point of view, but it is also set forth in the National Industral Recovery Act. ‘‘In pursuance of this policy as referred to, we must fully under stand the difficulties attendant to its accomplishment lay reason of the absence, in many respects of a disciplined order both as it refers to labor and industry. Notwithstanding this, it must be obvioas that the best possible results in rehabilitating our economic structur;, is to be found in the well-organized and highly developed organizat on of both em ployes and employers, with their relationship resting i pon the founda tion of conciliation and arbitiation and the full and frank recognition of the unescapable community of interests to be found in the industry itself.____-__ “The Federal Government has indicated through he National In dustrial Recovery Act its desire that labor and management organise for the purposes of collective bargaining and the furtherance of indus trial peace and prosperity, but the Federal Government cannot, of coures, undertake to compel employes and employers to organize. It should be a voluntary organization. “To you of the Eecutive Council of the American Federation of Labor, permit me to very definitely assure you of ray appreciation and recognition of the Federation in the work of rahabiluting industry and in the protection of our country itself. No one on disregard the importance of the American Federation of Labor as me of the great and outstanding institutions of the country. It has teen my purpose to recognize this in every practical and logical way, and I have no in tention of changing my point of view. , “My impression is that our difficulties are found largely in the heretofore totally unorganised field, both as it affects employers and employee. In such cases we mast have patience. Finally, permit me to say that we are seeking to promote peace, co-operation and understanding in all of the industrkm of the United States between labor and management, to the end that we can elimi nate the inequities and institute practical and sdentifk stabilization for the common good of all those engaged in industry at. well as far the nation iteelf.” UNION NEWS \ pkiitinemt Comment on TtMSLY TOPICS In glancing through the February issue of Typographical Journal sc many interesting articles' were discovered it has been decided to pass some of it on in weekly effort to present something readable. For instance: In Pretoria, Union of South Africa, the man in charge of the public print ng is Major J. J, Kruger. (He may be a blood relative of Gen. Paul Kruger, of Boer War fame.) Mr. Kruger employs some 500 persons, none of whom are black. While admitting that matters in the printing industry of his country have been very difficult the past few years, he says there has been noticeable improvement. For example, in May, 1933, there were 452 journeymen printers unempolyed, whole on June 20, 1934, the number had been reduced to 139. In speaking of economic relations between employer and employe in South Africa, Mr. Kruger has this to say, according to The Brit ish a id Colonial Printer, London, England: 7 * In South Alrica printers have one great advantage that printers in no other country have. The printing industry Chore has been governed by a national agreement since 1919. Every alternate year the employers and employes meet and enter upon an agreement covering wages, conditions of employment, and practically every phase of :,he industry* The meeting of these two sides takes place through the National Industrial Council of the Printing and Nerwspapei industries of South Africa, the Newspaper Press Union of South Africa, and the South African Typographical Union. The wjMfes fixed by the council are compulsory thioughout the industry (whether the employing printer is a member of the federation or not) under the In dustrial Conciliation Act. “The printing industry," he added, “is the best organized of all South African industries, and, as a matter of fact, it was the first industry to operate under the Industrial Conciliation Act. The act came into operation in 1924, but the printing industry has had an agreement since 1919. The Typographical Union embraces every branch) cf the industry^ and the fed eration employs 100 -per cent union labor. { "In South Africa no provision is made for the relief of the unemployed, any such relief depending entirely upon the individual industry. For the four years 1930-1933 approximately 147,000 pounds was paid out in unem ployment relief; 73,000 pounds, or 50 per cent of that sum, was paid from a joint unempolyment fund to which employers and employes contributed. The benefits received by the men are one county each week for aperiod of 13 weeks each half year. “Another innovation made in the last nat onal agreement, to alleviate to some extent the hardships of unemployment, was that instead of taking two weeks’ leave per annum, the men should get four weeks’ compulsory holiday and draw from the employer full pay for the first two weeks, and from the t>int unemployment fund half pay for the remaining two weeks. The scheme ad a very beneficial effect. j “The industry in South Africa finds employment for about 10,000 people. There are * number of large printing houses, but there are also a great many of what are commonly known as ‘bedroom’ printers.” (The British pound is valued at somewhere between $4.50 and $5.00 in Ameriacn money.—Ed.) Sincfe the printing fraternity in South Africa first entered into these agrements in 1919, and the later agreement sprang into being in 1924, it will be observed that our own NRA was not merely a mushroom growth, but ap parently took root either from this or some similar agreement of which we have all along been in dense ignorance. However, the idea seems good, else it would not be spreading so rapidly as it has in recent years. Employers in the United States might well consider this, and help along in the efforts being made by organized labo • to make life’s pathway easier for all, rather than standing in ,the way and blocking traffic. Another item in Typographical Journal says a bank clerk in Toronto, Canada, was found guilty of embezzling $50,000. His "salary” was $2,000 a year. The judge in sentencing the prisonei scolded the bank officials for “failure to give proper moral support” and, incidentally, a decent wage. LEGISLATIVE MIRROR f:_1 __'t RALEIGH, Feb. 19.—Following the recent hearing of the Highway work ers who appeared before Appropria tion, Roads and Salaries and Fees committees at the State Capital re cently, officials of the State Federa tion of Labor and Legislative com mittee have been conferring with members of the committees and the General Assembly on legislation af fecting the pay of State employes in general and the highway workers in particular. It is thought that all State employes may receive added com pensation for the last six months of the present biennium. Chief inter est, however, probably lies in the leg islation for the next biennium, in which it is hoped that permanent laws will be enacted setting forth a standard and satisfactory wage rate for various classifications of high way employes. Interest is at high pitch and the highway unions in all sections of the State are keeping close ly in touch with developments and lending assistance. The occupational disease bill (H. B. 293), under which such disease will become compensable under the work men’s Compensation Act, has been in troduced by Representative Ernest Gardner of Cleveland. Action on this measure is expected momentar ily. Another bill affecting the^Work men’s Compensation Act ha&^oeen in troduced by Senator Powell Cf White ville. This bill will allow the State to write all insurance coming: under the Act and will reduce rates and add to the effectiveness of the law. Representative Scholl of MeckJen burg will introduce the bill designed to outlaw the “yellow dog’’ contract this week. This bill, of course, has the endorsement of all organized la bor and is expected to be enacted, I but may require a fight. Many other labor measures will be introduced this week in which organ ized labor is deeply interested, many of them being sponsored by Otgan ized Labor. The Legislative commit tee has been busily engaged in the tasks of drawing up and examining various bills, many of which are ready for presentation at a time agreed upon as most advantageous m view of certain conditions known best to members of the committee. A hot fight is being quietly waged over the Child Labor Amendment. Certain interests are spreading malicious misinformation by which they hope to prevent passage of the amendment. In the face of this fact, passage of this law will come about only as a result of surtained work on the part of friends of the meas ure, which includes members of Ox ganized Labor and some twenty other organizations in the State. It is to be hoped the Amendment will be rati I fled by North Carolina. LABOR RACKETEERING IN CHARLOTTE CONDEMNED BY CENTRAL LABOR UNION d__ Racketeering in the name of Organized Labor in Char lotte in the advertising, publicity And co-operative field brought forth the following resolution, which was unanimous \ { ly passed Tuesday, January 21, by Central Labor Union : "Resolved, That the Charlotte Labor Journal is recognized in Charlotte as the only official paper of this section, and that merchants and business con cerns are warned against outsiders soliciting adver tisements or funds in the name of Labor, unless they i ' ■ ^ ! , ■ I Jtit-'l ' have secured the sanction of Central Labor Union. For information merchants and business men may may call The Journal at 3-4855, or Central Labor Union, 9185. The motion carried unanimously." ! ■ ■ i CHANGE IN PRESENT TEXTILE CODE IS APPROVED BY THE PRESIDENT WHICH EXTENDS “FREEZING PERIOD” WASHINGTON, Feb. 20.—The President has approved an amendment to the code for fair competition for the cotton textile industry extending the so-called “freezing period” until 30 days after the work assignments board has submitted its recommenda tions for a permanent plan which deals directly with the “stretch out” system and the work load. By executive order of October 16 last year, the work assignments board was created and rules and regulations established for handling work assign ments in the industry until February 1. On December 27, last, another executive order gave the board until a reasonable time after January 1, to submit its recommendations. Un der the new provision work assign ments shall not be increased until 30 days after the work assignment board has submitted its permanent plan for handling the machine load issue, one of the vital questions that figured in the textile strike of last September. The amendment stresses that the number of looms, frames1 or other machines required to be tended by any class of employes shall not be in creased where the character of the raw material, yarn, construction of the cloth, preparatory processes, type of equipment used, or character of finish or put-up, is not changed. Where such changes do occut the number of machines tended by the employes may be increased or de creased in such manner as will not increase the amount of effort requir ed of the worker. Where, during the period referred to, a mill resumes the manufacture of any specific product which it has made within six months prior to 55ep tember 2-1, 1934, then the work oad formerly used on the product shall be the guide in determining the proper work assignment, i Where on September 21, a :iew style of yarn or cloth or any o.her new type of product was in course of introduction or 'thereafter intro duced into a mill or finishing plint, only a tentative work load nwy be es tablished and this: to detejinine the proper work load. The amendment concludes with the statement that prior to one month after the report to the President as to a permanent plan of work assign ments the cotton textile work assign ment board may investigate any as signment increased since July 1, last, upon petition of any employe or his representative. CHARLOTTE CENTRAL LABOR UNION HAS GOOD ATTENDANCE AT REGULAR WEEKLY MEETING TUESDAY NIGHT The meeting of Central Labor Union Tuesday night was well at tended, with President Albea and Vice President Kiser splitting time in the chair. Secretary Bqaer was absent, but Recording Secretary ■ Boate was on the job and handled both ends. Reports of locals struck an average as to woiking conditions; the Label committee reported prog ress, and, for a wonder Chairman Ful lerton, of the Grievance committee re ported a clean slate; Mrs. Fullerton, of the Woman’s Label League, made a report for that organisation, and stated that at the next meeting the League was giving a ‘shower” to fit up a dining room al the hall, of which more will be given out at a future date; Lacy Ranson talked on the ex position at the Armory-Auditorium in March, which is being sponsored >y Federal Labor Union, and the dele gates promised support :n the sale of tickets; three members of the Teachers’ local made wonderful ta 'is, appealing for support of the werk ers in the school tax election, which was promised, as ihis ic a matter in which organized labor has alw;ya taken a keen interest; Piesident it* bea was given a vote of confidence and endorsement of the Labor Move ment in Charlotte should he see fit to again become a c indidate for Conr cilmanic honors. He has served the citizens of Charlotte faithfully and well for ?vv) term*, and Labor l as fated v*cihis ilaiido. . ... The meeting adjourned about 10:30, „ and good will and harmony was '.Se order of the meetini. NOW HERE’S A RED HOT ONE TO PONDER OVER - COMES FROM BESSEMER CITY, N. C. Bessemer City, N. C, February 18, 1935 Editor Labor Journal. Dear Editor;—Was glad to see our article last week ini your paper I am proud of your paper and am al ways looking for to it for true knowl redge of the movement that is going on, which is of vital interest to the workers. I have always thought the trouble with labor is not because we do not have any sense but because we do not use what we have got. But I notice that the mill heads are hav ing some trouble that, resembles ours, there is some of them that I believe would do the right thing if it were not for the rest of them; there seems, according to their views, that there is about ten or twenty peir cent of them that will not work with the rest of them for the betterment of them selves, they call them *all kinds of names such as cut-throat competition We call those kind in our ranks as Scabs. Why do we have these? Be cause we are not organized and work ing on an even and a balanced basis. A basis which is carefully worked out that will let all have a square deal. Why do the mill owners have the trouble with some of their num ber? I believe that one of the big gest things that caused their trou ble is because there has been no or ganization of their workers. In most cases where one mill or company takes an order cheaper than the other is because he can get it produced at less cost than the other fellow. Now he can not get cotton cheaper, so he has to hand that to his help, he ex pects to stretchout and cut wages to make up the difference in price, he does not intend to loose anything-him self. Now if labor was on a stand ard basis they '-muld not try to under bid one another; but the way it is now ar has been there is always some one that will take your job for less. Sometimes he can run it and some times he just makes a bad mess of it, and the rest have to suffer for it. Now if cotton was 8 cents in New Orleans and 10 cents in New York, there would be a big howl from the one who raises it. Now let us go back to the mill officials, they do not want each company to deal separate as it pleases with the market regardless of what effect it might have on the ethers, and they do have an orgt m zation and most all of them work to gether to have a representative to look out for their interest and to get all advanages they can from the gov ernment , But they say their help ought not to do that, they say that we should deal with them separately that they do not want to do busiress with an outsider that they want to talk things over with their own h;lp. They think they can out-talk Us They don’t want us to have an ad visor and council to plead our case, yet they employ the best and highest priced ones for their "council. I my self worked for a company here 'or many, years and the president of the company made us a speech after he had cut our wages seveial times : nd he said he had not mads a nickel in four years, and he had lost sleep :nd money, scratched his eyes tried to get tears to come in them; said he lid feel so sorry for us that he had most broke himself trying to five us a liv- • irig, but, if we would stick to him, he would stick to us. I was sevry that I had worked for hin four ye?rs, and had not made him a nickel, but in a few months they began to install more machinery in that mill and my several new cars and then bought three more mills and st 11 our wages were being eased off e 'ery week or two. I began to see tie reason for the speech. Labor was still a little stirred from the Reds w iich had been through. But some of is fools kept sticking on, and they stuck to us until our belly stuck to our b ickbone; then they let us drop. I tlink that the null owners see that w<: are not go ing to put up with w lat we have been, so they, come with the company union to us: “Look out boys a negro in the woodpile.” I liki to have our grievance between capi-al and li bor settled by arbitration, a committee of „ equal number of workeis and capital and the government se: in and ad judge. I admit that Libor migh be in excess one way and :apital in ex cess the other way, bit when they talk things over most tines they ’ind justice and common seme between the two extremes. This is from Besse mer City Local 2000. Wish to hear from th » others. Let us keep moving forward not back ward. —B. C. 2000. ine long awaited McDonald-Lum km plan by which it is hoped to elimi nate the Sales Tax was last week presented to the Finance committee and has received much favorable men tion. Labors Legislative committee is studying the proposed substitute whLvliru _in* *ew days announce whether it will support the substitute as opposed to the Sales Tax feature of the revenue bill. BALEIGH (SFLNS)—At a meet ing of highway employes at Cary, near Raleigh, numbers < f workers ex pressed a desire to become members of the American Federation of Labor. Interest was such that arrangements are being made for the ;arly installa tion of a Local of these workers. WILMINGTON (SI LNS) — In stallation of a progressive local union , of highway workers wai effected here Friday night, February 5, with Presi dent R. R. Lawrence of Jie State Fed eration of Labor the master of cere monies.
The Charlotte Labor Journal and Dixie Farm News (Charlotte, N.C.)
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Feb. 21, 1935, edition 1
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