Newspapers / The Charlotte Labor Journal … / April 23, 1936, edition 1 / Page 1
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The ONLY REALLY INDEPENDENT WEEKLY In Meek An bur* County For a Weekly, Its Renders Represent the LARGEST BUYING POWER in Charlotte Cht Charlotte labor Journal Patronise our Adver tisers. They make YOUR paper possible by their co operation. 1 rutkful, Honest, Impartial AND DIXIE FARM NEWS Endeavoring to Serve the Masses Vol. V.—No. 49 YOUR ADVIRTIRIMINr IN TN« JOURNAL !• A Investment CHARLOTTE, N. C., THURSDAY, APRIL 23, 1936 * JOURNAL AOVERTIRERa DDIIVI CONSIDERATION Off TNR READER $2.00 Per Year FEDERATION OF LABOR STATEMENT WARNS AGAINST A NEW CRASH CAUSED BY TOO RAPID A GAIN WASHINGTON, April 20-—The American Federation of La bor last week reported the country was “on the threshold of the next industrial boom.” “With the month of April, business has again swung into its upward course this time with more confidence in the future than in any period since depression began,” the federation’s monthly business survey said. “Business observers who have theii ears to the ground now feel that the rising tide of business expansion is becoming irresistible; many even fear a sudden boom, which would be followed by a collapse . . . “But so far industry is depending largely on the government to raise buying power. “With a growing conviction in the business world that we have at last turned the corner toward recovery, the present becomes a time of great est significance. “As we stand at the threshold of the next industrial boom, we see on the one hand a great army of unem ployed which in spite of all the gains of the last three years still numbers more than 12,000,000; on the other hand we see a rising stock market, and easy money rates tempting to speculation. “We know that the buying power created by industry is not keeping pace with production; that re-em ployment has fallen behind rising business. “We have reached the moment when industrial income has recovered enough to make possible substan tial wage increases in a large num ber of industries . . . “If wages are not increased, we may well fear a runaway stock mar ket where fictitious values, without basis in production, will bring a boom and then a crash worse than the last. “The President goes straight to fundamentals when he stresses the need of increased purchasing power and shorter hours without reduction in weekly pay.” WOMEN’S LABOR AUXILIARIES FORM AMERICAN FEDERATION; MEET IN WASHINGTON APRIL 10-11 WASHINGTON, D. C„ April 14th.—Representatives of the women’s auxiliaries of the national and international labor unions met in Washington, D. C. on April 10th and 11th, and formed an international auxiliary to be known as the American Federation of Women’s Auxiliaries of Labor. It will start out with a mem bership of over two million members of the recognized women’s auxiliaries of the entire American Labor movement, which includes the national and international unions of the American Federation of Labor and the Railway Labor Brotherhoods. The Conference was called by the Union Label Trades Department with the approval of the Executive Council of the American Federation of Labor and the women’s auxiliaries of the Railway Labor Unions. It was clearly understood that the American Federation of Women’s Auxiliaries of Labor is not a new women’s organization, but a coordinating movement to unite the general activities of the individual women's auxiliary units officially recognized by their respective national and international labor union. Matthew Woll, President of the Union Label Trades Department, acted as Chairman of the conference and outlined the purposes of the meeting as set forth in a resolution passed at the Twenty-eighth Annual onvention of the Union Label Trades Department, held last year at Atlantic City. I. M. Orn burn, Secretary-Treasurer of the Department will act as temporary secre tary until the regular convention of the AFWAL, when the President, Vice President, Secretary-Treasurer, and Board of Directors will be elected from th membership. The conference appointed committees to draw up a con stitution and by-laws to be submitted at the next meeting. The sentiment of the women representatives in attendance was unanimous and enthusiastic for the women’s auxiliary federation. All women’s auxiliary organizations that had no representatives pres ent sent messages approving the plan. The keynote address, by Mr. Ornburn, well expressed the general senti ment of th meeting, and received the approval of all the speakers at the Conference. True Picture Of Red Propaganda Tactics In Tabloid A tabloid picture of Communist propaganda methods was _ recently given by Raymond H. Reiss, presi dent of the International Tailoring Company, in an address in New York City before the New York Chapter of the National Catholic Alumni Feder ation. “In all their writings and speeches,” Mr. Reiss said, “the Com munist workers insist upon the nec essity of a revolution. This can best be accomplished through constant sabotage, by tearing down existing institutions, by finding fault with Federal, State and local govern ments; by defaming the legitimate labor unions, by reviling their lead ers as betrayers of the working man; by condemning wages and working conditions regardless of whether they are good or poor; by inciting to riot and fomenting industrial discord.” Mr. Reiss asid the Communist agi tators were well trained and thor oughly disciplined in workers’ schools established in “every impor tant city of the country, extending from New York to San Francisco,” adding: “In every factory of the country you will find these agitators spread ing their cancerous doctrine; in groups of unemployment, in the PWA, in the CCC camps, in the Army, in the Navy, in the post of fice, in the mines and on the farms this paltform of Communism is be ing put before the workers.” Your o*_ pocket book will swell in last the degree that you buy Union Label Goods The Pacific Coast Longshoremen’s Strike Continues SAN FRANCISCO, April 20.— This big Pacific port of call fell back into the paralyzing grip of a labor dispute last night just when it seem ed a settlement was near. A tentative agreement reached last night with the Waterfront Employ ers’ Association was repudiated to day by the longshoremen’s negotiat ing committee in a statement explain ing its members inadvertently ex ceeded their authority. Because of the labor ddispute, only five of the 22 ships docked were be ing worked by longshoremen, num bering 288. The daily average is 35 to 40 ships and 2,000 or more men. C. Lyn Fax, spokesman for the em ployers, commented tersely that Har ry Bridges, an outstanding labor leader in two years of waterfront controversy, “has stymied all peace efforts.” Bridges, heading the local longshoremen’s union, did not sign the agreement. The tentative agreement would have reaffirmed adherence by both sides to the arbitration award that followed the blodoy 1934 strike. Requirement that the agreement be underwritten by district officials of the International Longshoremens’ association was pointed out as a ba sis for the repudiation. The com mittee said such would constitute au tomatic surrender of autonomy “con trary to the instructions of our lo cal.” The Union Label is the greatest ASSURANCE of quality and the best INSURANCE for Trade Unionism. OUR ANNIVERSARY EDITION On Thursday, May 14th Tlie Labor Journal will issue its Fifth Anniversary Edition. We hope to make it an edition in keeping: with our previous effort, but can only do so by having: the support of our business concerns. This edition will have wide distribution and will prove of value as an ad vertising: medium. The publisher asks that our solicitors be given due consideration. P KMT I MUTT Ol .? < CHATTING ■V HARRY BOATS 11 yyyyyyy Here is another very interesting story from “The World Outlook,” under the heading, “Chit-Chat on a Dining Car.” There is very little doubt that this story contains much of truth, and it surely does give one the opportun ity of seeing this question from the side of the Negro. The author will state here that one remark is not entirely true, that to the effect that the Amer ican Federation of Labor does not admit Negroes, since a number of col ored workers in the McClaren Tire Company in Charlotte were organized into their own union and had seats as delegates in the Charlotte Central Labor Union, and their delegates were in attendance regularly. How ever, read and form your own opinion: CHIT-CHAT ON A DINING CAR Recently I had an unusual experience in traveling. Save porter and conductor I was the only person on a delightfully air-conditioned Pullman. On going in to lunch I found I was the only customer on a very hot non air-conditioned diner. The interesting thing about the situation in the diner was the fact that te entire force was Negro. The Negro chef made his requisitions for necessary supplies, the Negro steward did all the necessary clerical and supervisory work, and when the situation demanded, aided the one waiter in looking after the comfort of the passengers. Since he had no other customer, this one waiter gave me his full and undivided attention. My meals are usually a slow process, and in order to pass the time in a more interesting manner than by gazing at the scen ery through the window, I engaged him in conversation. We were nearing a German settlement where formerly no Negroes were allowed. The situation furnishd an opening topic—the unfairness of discrimination against Negroes in favor of foreigners. The Negro, he said, was here; had been here. He ought to be allowed to have jobs for which he was prepared. It ought not to be a matter of color o rrace, but of preparation and ability. He did not want anything of white folks but to be allowed to make a living for himself anfr his family. Negroes were just what white folks made ’em. If they lived around good white folks and had a chance to learn to read and write and to think, Negroes weren’t bad. It was according to the white folks they lived around. An ignorant Negro was a bad Negro. If he couldn’t think, he could be led into all kinds of things by bad white folks. His own grandmother had cooked for white folks for fifty years, and his mother for over twenty-five years had done the same thing. He was 42, and he had been working around the table ever since he was tall enough to reach up and put the plates on. He had worked with hotels several years, and he had been with the railroad nineteen years. From this we came to the subject of labor unions. No, he didn’t be long to a union. <He didn’t believe in ’em. The Pullman Porters’ Union had recently been admitted to the American Federation of Labor; but he didn’t work for the Pullman company; he worked for the railroad. He couldn’t be free if he belonged to a union. Why should he belong to the American Federation of Labor? They discriminated against Negroes. There were only certain jobs the Negroes could get. Here he returnd to his former thesis. A man ought to be allowed to hold the job he was prepared for. If he could stand a better examination than the other fellow, he ought to get the job, regardless of color. This thought seemed to stir him up against the foreigner again. The Negro, he said, made his money in America and spent his money here. He was a part of this country. When war came he did his part of the working and fighting. The foreigner sent his money back to his home county and when war came went back to fight for his native land. Yet when it came to jobs the foreigner was given the prefer ence over the Negro. “How," I asked, “when the NIRA *4m' !b force, had it affected the wages and standing of the Negro in the hotel service?” Well, their wages were raised, he said, but then to even up matters for the employer they were charged board. The hotel waiter had a hard time. He was paid little by the management on the ground that he would make a lot on the side through tips. But then the hotel patron or the public felt it was up to the hotel management to pay its own help. The result was that the Negro hotel servant was caught between the two. “We got mighty little out of it,” he said, “when you think of the big laundry bills, for they expect us to keep clean. Our families find it hard to make ends meet; for, living in town, everything has to be bought. It is not like living in the country, where you can have a little garden to help out.” I had reached now the finger-bowl stage, and it was about time to go back to my place in the car ahead. I gave him my tiny tip, contributing my share toward help ing to pay his wages and said my little thank you for his courtesy. He was the typical, average American Negro, representing the great mass of hard-working, faithful men and women with families dependent upon them, faithful, and true to the standards set them by the white people among whom they work; struggling to get a little ahead to educate their children; battling always against odds, heavy odds, the dice loaded against them because of their color. What a challenge to our sense of justice! THE LIBERTY GUARD It is an old American saying that “money talks” and this might well be the slogan of the Liberty League. It combines mountains of dollars with a rather low type of stupidity. It is almost childish in its behind-the-curtain activities, reminding us of boys who put on a mask and shout “boo.” Almost every move of this Swiss Guard of upper class reaction has been exposed. Its aptness in employing hamfats is notorious. However, its connections with munitions and with firms pro viding industrials spies are dangerous while many of its high hat sponsors anti-union magnates. The Liberty League is a phase of upper class of “lower” class intelligence.—Maryland Leader. The Journal does not think the newspaper straw vote poll in this section is very indicative. The member is not large enough and the names skipped are more than likely, could they be reach ed, to change the faee of the poll STRIKE THREAT IS HURLED BY UNITED MINE WORKERS IN PENNSYLVANIA FIELD NEW YORK, April 20.—Major W. W. Inglis, chairman of the joint con ference of anthracite coal operators and mine workers, said Monday that spokesmen for the United Mine Workers had “served notice” that 106,000 Pennsylvania coal field workers will not work beyond April 30 if no new wage and hour agree ment has been reached at that time. dr. McDonald will not POST COUNTRYSIDE WITH BILLS TO LITTER LANDSCAPE RALEIGH, April 8.—W. L. Lump kin, campaign manager for Dr. R. W. McDonald in hia gubernatorial campaign, has requested friends of the candidate not to place posters and other advertising matter on trees and fence posts or anywhere they would “litter the landscape.” REPUBLICAN CONVENTION BOOK IS TO BEAR THE UNION LABEL An announcement of considerable interest to Trade Unionists generally, and to printing trades workers in particular, has just been made by John B. Haggerty, President of the International Allied Printing Trades As sociation, to the effect that the Republican National Com mittee has awarded the contract for the program book of the Cleveland Convention to a firm in that city that will print and bind the book under Union conditions. Hie Al lied Printing Trades Label will appear on the cover. This is a substantial order which will give considerable work to members of the various Allied Printing Trades Unions in Cleveland. The Republican National Committee is to be com mended for this recognition of the principles of collective bargaining. NATIONAL FEDERATION OF TEXTILES DECIDES TO SUPPORT NATIONAL ACT BEFORE HOUSE OF CONGRESS NEW YORK, April 2.—The National Federation of'Textiles has decided to support the national textile act bill pending in the House of Representatives, President Peter Van Horn announced yesterday. I'1' j - In his letter to Preisdent Roose velt which he left at the White House Saturday, Van Horn said the action by the board of directors on Friday was the first response by an indus trial organization to the President’s recent request to “do something” about unemployment. “This Action was taken for two principal reasons,” Van Horn wrote. “First, because we have found it im possible since the discontinuance of codes to control effectively unfair competition within the industry through voluntary agreements, and second because of the desire of our membership to offer their small bit of constructive assistance in reducing unemployment thereby increasing purchasing power and lowering taxes.” Van Horn said a comparison of 100 mills for the last six months of 1934 under NRA codes and for the last six months of 1935 without it showed production increased 30 oer cent but sales only nine, prices were reduced from five to seven per cent, hours of operation increased 13 per cent and employment was reduced 18. Wages were reduced 5 per cent. '“In some rayon and silk weaving districts today weavers are paid as little as $8 a week, whereas in other districts employers are maintaining wages of $20 to $25 a week for weaving similar patterns,” Van Horn said. dr. McDonald digging away AT HIS OPPONENTS IN THE EAST, SEEMS TO BE GAINING GROUND (Special To Labor Journal) RALEIGH, April 22.—Support of Ralph*-W. McDonald and his platform is being solidified in eastern North Carolina this week as the candidate for governor carries his campaign into a section that has bene hard-hit by the sales tax. In the border counties, from War ren to Pasquotank, Dr. McDonald found countless concrete examples of the injustice of the sales tax, with many merchants reporting their busi ness being ruined because prospective customers crossed the State line and traded in near Virginia towns to avoid the three per cent tax on consumfp tion. , ) Large crowds are hearing Dr. Mc Donald in the east, and they are prov ing particularly pleased with his pro posal to abolish the sales tax alto gether and put a fairer share of the tax burder on walth, without restor ing the State tax on land. As substitute sources of revenue, Dr. •McDonald,* proposed that the in* come tax be raised to 10 per cent, on incomes in the higher brackets, sug gesting that the higher rate be levied upon incomes of $25,000 a year and upwards. He also proposed a tax on income from stock dividends, surpris ing many of his hearers with the fact that some North Carolinians enjoy an income of a million dollars annually from dividends but pay the State noth ing in income taxes. Dmiimig muuium puituviauo lobbyists for conniving to relieve wealth by imposing the sales tax upon consumption, Dr. McDonald charged that “from 1928—the year that the present regime got control of the gov ernment of North Carolina—corpora tion taxes in this State have been re duced ten and one-half millions of dollars.” He said: “At this rate, in 16 years corporations will be paying no taxes to the State.” “While the machine has been dili gently seeking new methods to tax the little man,” continued Dr. McDon ald, “it has been building fences around wealth and guarding walth from an equitabel share of the tax htwtea.” ■ - < 7 * . v “If I am else ted Governor I snail tear down fences built around wealth by machine politicians and lobbyists who would tax the Jittle man nearly out of xistence to protect their own selfish interests.” Dr. McDonald’s speaking itinerary for the remainder of this week fol lowsi: Friday noon, Babyoro; Friday night, Wilson; Saturday noon. South port; Saturday night, Whiteville. Thankful For Help Of Resettlement Administration RALEIGH, N. C., April 20.— Straight from the heart come expres sions of thanks from former relief families now working their way to in dependence with the aid of the Re settlement Administration, reports Homer H. B. Mask, regional director of the Resettlement program in North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Vir ginia and West Virginia. Letters are being received daily from these rehabilitation clients— victims of the depression, tenants, stranded groups found on land unfit for farming—telling of the new hope brought them by the helping hand of the government. The following was quoted by Direc tor Mask from the letter of a North Carolina client who has already been provided with a farm: “Just one year ago you reached out to me a helping hand and lifted me out of misery . . . School bus passes our door and it is a pride and joy to any true parent’s heart to see his children go forth to school and Sunday school and church feeling that they are really somebody and not bound down to a life of slavery . . . The debt of gratitude I owe the government can never be half told.’’ .v “Kid Party” Tonight By Women’s Union Label League As we are mailing you The Jour nal the Women’s Union Label League is giving the children of the organ ized labor movement in Charlotte a rare treat in their hall, on South Tryon street. Arrangements have been made to handle a large number and is in capable hands. Assessment Of Five Per Cent Of Wages Is Proposed By Hose Workers PHILADELPHIA, April 23.—A five per cent assessment of members’ wages to finance unionization of the industry in the South was proposed yesterday at the 25th annual conven tion of the American Federation of Hosiery Workers. The resolutions committee pre sented the proposal in the form of a constiutional amendment which must be approved by branches of the fed eration to be effective, i Federation officials said they hoped to finance 100 organizers in an extended campaign. It was stated the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America would join the .Hosiery Workers in its campaign of organization in the South. It was stated that the clothing workers and the International La dies’ Garment Workers’ union “are determined to make the southern or ganization campaign a long term drive.” A resolutio nproposed by the Phil adelphia branch to have organizers considered as members-at-large and not delegates to the convention was defeated. A resolution was proposed urging the creation of Federal credit unions in the branch units. McMAHON SAY8 SOUTH FOR ELLENBOGEN BILL PHILADELRHIA, April 20.— Thomas F. McMahon, of Providence, R. I., president of the United Textile Workers of America, told the con vention of the American Federation of Hosiery Workers today that it would be "political suicide” for any candidate in the South to oppose the Ellenbogen textile MU. TO ADVERTISERS SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL LABOR PAPER. It serves the territory thoroughly of those who buy your wares and make a local labor paper possible for the workers. THEY READ IT. ENDORSE IT. AND PATRONIZE ITS ADVER TISERS.
The Charlotte Labor Journal and Dixie Farm News (Charlotte, N.C.)
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April 23, 1936, edition 1
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