Newspapers / The Charlotte Labor Journal … / April 1, 1937, edition 1 / Page 1
Part of The Charlotte Labor Journal and Dixie Farm News (Charlotte, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
The ONLf REALLY INDEPENDENT WEEKLY in Mecklenburg Comity for a Weekly. Ito Readers Represent the LARGEST BUYING POWER hi ChariotAe Official Organ Central Labor Union; standing for the A. F. of L. Chr Charlotte labor Journal Patronise oar Adver tisers. They make TOUR paper possible oy tneir co operation. Irufhf%l, honest, Impartial AND DIXIE FARM NEWS Endeavoring to Serve the Masses VOUS AOVMTIMMINT IN TNI JOURNAL IS A JOURNAL ADVIR1 IRENS OCAIRVI CONSIDERATION OR ▼NR RlAOKR Vol. VI.—No. 46 Investment CHARLOTTE, N. C., THURSDAY, APRIL 1, 1937 S2.00 Per Year DRAFT OF HISTORY OF HOSIERY WORKERS UNION IS INTEREST INGLY WRITTEN, COVERING A QUARTER OF A CENTURY (Taken in Part from Fortune Magazine) (Continued from Last Week) To appreciate the unique quality of the alliance just sketched out, one must view it against the background of organized labor in general. There are plenty of dramatic contrasts—in deed, there is little else. One thinks of New England textiles, where the unions insisted on keeping up wages, even if the continuance of those wages meant that many a mill would have to liquidate and pay no wages | at all. But suppose that the union had taken a drastic wage cut, had forced an offensive and defensive al liance with the unionized manufac turers to fight cheap non-union mills. One thinks of bituminous coal, where in 1923 the union forced through the Jacksonville agreement, establishing such high union wages as to stimu late the opening of countless, non union. low-wage mines. Suppose that in 1927, when this agreement expired, the United Mine Workers had not insisted on keeping wage rates to the same exhorbitant level, thus forcing hundreds of union mines to close down. Suppose it had signed instead such a document as those the Hosiery Union signed in 1929, in 1930 and in 1931! One thinks of the railroads, where the brotherhoods have refused to take a wage cut since the depression started, have recently underlined this refusal despite the terrific decline in even the strongest roads earnings. Suppose, however, that in 1928, when the truck and bus competition became obivous, the bro therhoods had accepted a 10 per cent cut to help fight the truck-bus com petition. All these suppositions are fantastic, and yet they have more than came true in the full-fashioned hosiery industry. The farseeing policies of this Un ion are the result of remarkable lead ership, as we have already seen. But these policies would have borne no fruit had not the great army of Un ion members obeyed their comman ders. Now, as every labor leader knows, it is the rank and file of this Union has followed its leaders through thick and thin, wage cuts to right of them, wage cuts to left of them, with a discipline worthy of the Light Brigade. , The Union army is well-disciplin ed. At* even more important, its morale Ai excellent. For it is a young iHn’s union, with all the pro gressiv<_™ss, energy, and courage of youth. Since knitters must have keen eyesight, since the industry is young itself, the majority of its members are under thirty. They are a comparatively intelli gent lot. | Though their wages are at present ■ deflated, they are more accustomed ] The hosiery workers were, and are, on a mental plane far above what is suggested by the term, “mill hand.” It would be overoptimistic to say that they are educated up to their leaders, as yet. The principle of the mutua lity and cooperation between Union and employer is still somewhat be-1 yond their grasp. They understood Big Frank McKosky when he ans wered a manufacturer’s complaint as to the exceptionally high wage rates in his plant by setting that manu facturer’s rates as the standard for the entire district. But they did not understand Gbs Geiges when in March, 1928, he reversed the process and lowered certain wages a bit in order to achieve for the first time in the history of the Union a uniform wage rate. The army does not wholly under stand, but it is young and progresive and it follows its leaders with enthu iasm. Well do its leaders know this, and well do they know how to direct, that enthuiasm into the proper chan nels. A classic instance of inspir ed leadership occurred a few years ago. The August, 1931, cut, coming on top of the preceeding one, was too much for the youthful enthuiasm of some 5,000 Union workers in New Jersey mills. Indignant, they walk ed out on an outlaw strike. Busi ness agent of the Union in that dis trict was Carl Holderman, first vice president of the Union and a gentle man well skilled in practical phycho logy. With masterly adroitness, he persuaded the strikers that the real enemy was not the Union nor its manufacturers but the Berkshire Mills at Reading, Pennsylvania, the mighty champion of the anti-Union forces. He proposed a campaign against the Reading ’“fortress; the Union sent down some Pied Pipers from its Philadelphia office to lead the excursion; and most of the 6,000 outlaw strikers moved on Reading en masse. After an eight-day siege they returned to New Jersey their in dignation safely vented, and went back to work. Yet there is more to it than dis cipline, more to it than enthusiam. The Union leaders have successfully sold their followers a campaign whose objectives are very much in the future and whose sacrifices are increasingly present. Their _ chief selling point has been “stabilization by unionization.” They have suc ceeded to some extent in making the knitter see beyond his machine into „he broade interplay of economic fofu.3. They have demonstrated to him that if the industry were one hundred per cent unionized wage cuts would be no more, and price cuts (which depend largely on the manufacturer being able to take the cut out of the worker’s hides in the form of wage cuts) would be check ed. What is more, the union claims that with every worker in the indus try organized it would be able to re gulate production by _ forbidding its members to work night shifts or overtime when stocks on hand grew threateningly high. That Labor and not capital should band together to keep down production is a distinctly novel idea, and one which has pro bably never occurred to the harassed copper and oil men, but at least pro mises some measure of stability in a troubled industry. Against “stabili zation by organization” the non-un ion party can advance only the “dog eat dog” theory of competition. A theory which has reduced the indus try to its present state of chaos. (Continued next week) AND WON Billy: Who was the last man to box John L. Sullivan? Silly: The undertaker. ROBINSON SAYS “SIT-DOWN” STRIKES ARE STATE PROBLEMS AFTER A TALK WITH ROOSEVELT W ASHINGTON, March 28.—Senator Robinson of Arkansas, the Democratic leader, said after a conference with President Roosevelt Monday that no condition “has so far arisen” which would warrant Federation intervention in sit-down strikes. The only strike situation in which Federal action might be invoked, he said, are the following: £. Where State authorities under the Federal law ask the service of agencies to preserve law and order and to prevent violence. Robinson said that except in instances where one of these conditions ex ists the Federal government cannot act under the Constitution or under a decree of courts. is improving*" *** ***** tke s>f-«lown strike situation in a general sense Robinson made the statement after he and Vice-President Garner had talked for two hours with Mr. Roosevelt. Speaker Bankhead and Representative Rayburn, Democrat of Texas, "d°eU.L d"»b2d W&L" ^ e*r,ier' G*rner 8*id onl> th»‘ »»* *»s „ B*nkh*«<i said only the general legislation situation was discussed. He dcchned to say whether the conversation touched on sit-down strikes. ***** LABOR JOURNAL ON SALE AT ALL DIXIE NEWS STANDS The Charlotte Labor Jour nal beginning this week will be found on sale each Friday at the following places con trolled by the Dixie New's Company: Buster Brown News stand at the Square; Subway News stand, 315 E. Trade St. Service News stand, 410 S. Tryon St.; Rex news stand, 313 W. Trade St.; Try on News stand, 305 N. Trvon St. If you want real labor news read the Labor Journal MR. AND MRS. FRANK BARR ARE CHARLOTTE VISITORS Last week-end Mr. and Mrs. Frank Barr were back in the old home town j from down Columbia, S. C., way, (where they have been located for some months. For the next four or five months they will be stationed at Summerville, S. C., where Brother Barr’s duties called him. They are both pleasantly remembered and held in high esteem by the craftsmen of Charlotte. Mr. Barr, of the Plumbers and Steamfitters, being president of Central Labor Union until about a year ago. The Union Label ia the O. K .ami of Quality! Only half the battle is won, when you bargain collectively. Don't for-, get to BUY collectively. •N Timcly Topic* CHATTING J 4 l 1 \ BY HARRY BOATE It has been a favorite custom of many communities, expecially those which are in a hurry to boost population by bringing: new industries into their midst, to make many inducements that will allure corporations from one town to another. Dealing on that sbject the Literary Direct of March 27 has a very interesting article, part of which follows: In Vicksburg, Miss., last week, long-faced merchants formed excited knots outtsidc their shops. The Vicksburg Garment factory had shut its doors to thwart a sit-down strike of 200 $7- and $8--a-week girl employes. The shut-down had dried up a payroll of $3,000 monthly. This was bad enough. Worse still, the merchants had dug into their pockets to the extent of $80,000 to finance the plant and so to lure a north ern manufacturer to Vicksburg. Now their $80,000 investment was imper iled. In Raleigh, N. C., 700-odd miles away, state officials knit their brows over tne “go-getter" activities of some of their own municipalities and warned: “There is reason to believe that several North Carolina communities will have the opportunity of landing cotton garment manufacturing estab lishments. The community will be required to put up a few thousand in cash, provide quarters at low rent, or no rent at all, waive taxes for five years, pay water and power bills for the same period. “We most urgently suggest that every community to which such an ‘opportunity’ is offered to be very careful about signing on the dotter line. . . . Many communities in the state are siek of such bargains and wish they had never heard of such establishments.” • To observers the shut-down at Vicksburg and the warning at Raleigh were part of the mounting evidence of the South’s industrial growing pains. At a swiftly accelerating pace factory chimneys are rising in Dixie, where only cotton and sugar cane and tobacco had risen before. The Vicksburg and Raleigh incidents furthermore pointed out another economic phenome non—the migration of industry in general and the flight of Northern cot ton garment factories to the jjouth in particular. The spectacle of industry^bn the march is not new. New England, for example, boasted prior to 1900 of 90 per cent of the textile spindles whirring in this country. Today New England can record only 25 per cent of the active spindle hours. The South, for the most part, has gained what New England has lost. The trek of textiles southward is no less impressive than the march of shoes away from the Atlantic seaboard. Shoe production once centered in Maine, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. By 1914 almost half of pro duction in Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire was reduced to one third of the nation’s output. . . . The paper industry is turning its face southeast where fast-growing pine abounds and may soon become the South’s newest great immigrant in dustry. Production there of kraft paper, according to Business Week, has leaped from zero to one-third of the nation’s entire output. The Union Bag and Paper Co., the Container Corporation of America, the International Paper and Power Co., the Meade Paper and Pulp Co., are putting more than $20,000,000 into plants in the region. Similarly rayon manufacture is making its home in Dixie, to be near sources of pine and cotton-lint for cellulose and acetate. The Viscose Cor poration of America and the rayon division of the du Pont Company are ex panding plant space in Virginia. Silk-hosiery mills, furniture factories and packing plants also are on the move. The $500,000 Cudahy Packing Co. plant at Albany is the pride of Georgia. Swift & Co. is a relatively recent arrival at Moultrie, Ga. Why do industries move? They move in search of less burdensome taxes, of less restrictive labor laws. They move also to be nearer to raw material supplies, transportation and power facilities. In States like Wisconsin, Massachusetts and New York, pioneers in labor and other social legislation, the flight of industry has alarmed gov ernors and mayors and they are endeavoring to stop the flight. Labor in dustries, too, know what it is to worry over “runaway” industries. In Mil waukee the Weyenbetg Shoe Co. posted a bulletin board notice which warned that the company would leave the city if unionization were attempted. Em ploys thereupon promptly droppd a carefully planned unionization drive. But the company moved anyway. Mirrill, Wis., offered it a rent-free, tax free building, and even lent it $10,000 to help move its machinery. In New York City last January the Blue Dale Dress Co. signed a con tract with a labor union, then later packed its machines and made off to Archibald, Pa. A Supreme Court Justice in effect ordered the company back to New York. The dress company’s contract with the union had con tained a clause bindinf the company not to move out of the five-cent street car zone. The article further gives account of cities offering gifts to corpora tions, and some cases where cities have refused offers for corporations. All in all, it is one article of real interest to all laboring men, and regret is here expressed that lack of space prohibits publication of same in entirety. GREEN WARNS AGAINST “SIT-DOWN” STRIKES, SAYING NEW STRATEGY IS ILLEGAL; DETRIMENTAL TO LABOR WASHINGTON, March 29.—William Green, American Fed eration of Labor president, asserted yesterday the sit-down method of strike “must be disapproved by the thinking men and women of labor.” In a statement issued at A. F. of L. headquarters here, Green said “I publicly warn labor against this illegal procedure.” Word came from a White House conference that no condition “has so far arisen" to.warrant Federal intervention in sitdown strikes. Senate Ma jority Leader Robinson, one of four congressional leaders who talked with President Roosevelt, made that comment as he left the White House. Representative Dies, Democrat of Taxas, who advocates Federal legis lation to ban sit-downs, declared that “ the government has made a mistake in refusing to take a firm and courageous stand against sit-down strikes.” Green, in his statment, said the labor federation never had approved the sit-down procedure “because there is involved in its application grave implica tions detrimental to labor’s interest.” He explained this by adding. “First, public opinion will not support sit-down strikes. That means labor loses public support when any part of it engages in sitdown strikes. “Second, temporary advantages gained through the sit-down strikes will inevitably lead to permanent injury. The public generally will not long toler ate the illegal seizure of property.” If persisted in it will through State and Federal law-making bodies force the enactment of legislation providing for compulsory arbitration, the in corporation of unions and other repressive forms of legislation which will deprive organized labor of freedom of association and liberty of action within the limitations of both moral and stattory law. “Labor must be permitted to picket when strikes occur. It may be greatly restricted and perhaps denied the exercise of these elemental rights if it persists in engaging in sit-down strikes.” (Brought out of the records and readopted December 9, 1936) NOTICE TO ADVERTISERS AND BUSINESS MEN A resolution adopted last year as to The Labor Journal and solicitation of funds in the name of Central Labor Un ion was brought out of the minutes and republished as in formation. The resolution reads as follows: “Resolved, That we publish in The Charlotte Labor Journal, that we do not condone any solicita tion of advertising except for The Charlotte Labor Journal, purporting to represent labor, unless over the signature of the secretary of the Charlotte Cen tral Labor Union. GOOGE HOLDS THAT LABOR BODIES WHOSE DELEGATES ARE FROM NON DUES PAYING ORGANIZATIONS TO A.F.L. BARRED FROM CENTRAL BODY (Knoxville Labor News, March 25) Reviewing graphically the history of the differences between the American Federation of Labor and the national and inter national unions which set up the Committee for Industrial Organi zation and subsequently were suspended from the Federation, George L. Googe, Southern representative of the A. F. of L. told the Central Labor Union Monday evening that Central bodies and State Federations could not expect a pledge of ailegiance from local unions whose national or international unions are in good standing with the American Federation of Labor. Mr. Googe has come to Knoxville as the result of complaints of mem bers of local unions cocerning an or der of the Executive Committee that all locals should, in writing, renew their pledge the the American Fed eration of Labor, and which resulted in the delegates of four local unions quitting the Central body. The A. F. of L. spokesman sub scribed specifically to the regularity of this letter, procedure, inasmuch, he said, that the national and inter national unions involved were not dues paying members of the Federa tion and therefore their locals could not consistently continue in Central Labor Unions unless they were loyal to the Federation rather than to their national or international unions comprising the Committees for In dustrial Organization. ~ It was Mr. Googe’s hope that every delegate of the C. L. U. was loyal to the Federation, and “we are going to expect this of you and your of ficers.” “The expulsion of a delegate can only be had,” he continued, “af ter the filing of written charges with the delegate’s local union when his activities are detrimental to the A. F. of L.” he said, “and we are going to expect such action or act ourselves” he continued. Mr. Googe made it plain that dele gates from CIO affilates would be welcomed into the Central and State bodies, if in good standing, despite suspension of their parent organiza tion if they will pledge loyalty to the A. F. of L. and its policies and re gulations. “Certainly," he said later, “we cannot harbor enemies within our ranks at this time.” The speaker foresaw the early convening of a special convention of the American Federation of Labor when a clear-cut policy rule will be developed. Mr. Googe turned from discussion of Federation policy and the rights of the A. F. of L. would not counten ance any censorship of the Labor Press which is owned or controlled in part by Central bodies. “We expect them to print all news concerning Labor, but we do not expect them to color their accounts in any manner detrimental to the American Federa tion of Labor.” “The A. F. of L. and my office,” he continued, “are going to scan the Labor Press closely! from now on, and where the press breaks from the principles of the A. F. of L. policy we will take action even though the Central body or State body does not.” He said that while some members here may have been irked over arti cles concerning the CIO as they ap peared in The Labor News there was no ground for complaint inasmuch as they did not argue for or against CIO, and they are not a circum stance, he said, to what has appeared in numerous Labor newspapers of the country in the past year. Mr. Googe conducted a question forum at the close of his address and cleared numerous points for the dele gates. DANISH PLUMBER USES EELS TO CLEAR PIPES COPENHAGEN, March 27. — A Danish plumber in Jutland has found a new use for eels. He inserts an eel in a pipe clogged with dirt or which has become airlocked. The eel wrig gles through—and the pipe is cleared. HOSIERY MILLS Rock Hill Textile Plants Are Back To 40-Hr. Week ROCK HILL, S. C.. March 30.—Sev eral local textile plants yesterday an nounced a return from. 50 to 40-hour week ahifts/..w"**'ie others revealed plans for C similar readjustment as soon as certain difficulties can be worked out. Making the change today from two 50-hour to two 40-hour shifts were the Industrial and Highland Park mills. It was understood that a notice to the same effect was posted at the Aragon, but no official announcement was made. Two of the city’s textile mills, the Wymojo and the Cutter, have oper ated on 40-hour shifts for the last few years, and will continue to do so. Practically all textile plants here have increased wages within recent weeks. V A. F. OF L. MAKING GREAT GAINS IN MEMBERSHIP SAYS MORRISON; 300,000 NEW MEMBERS IN 7 MONTHS nf ♦ kWiASHI^GT(iN!,D' C.—The successful organization activities of the Araencan r^erat'on of Labor and its affiliated national ^tim£rai Ta4un,0ns 8,nce, iu!y’ 1933’ and specially since SgSKS" }» 1936’ w«re revealed in the following statement by Frank Morri^n, Secretary-Treasurer of the Federation:: ,A. F. of L. membership paid and reported for March 1917 u ’•"r'CinYS.trS.niSr*" 0V“ “* for the sssct Enfms zsnr \!?t- *r».rsJJfi *£ mtPmh?«hin fI*k ;• 3°, 7 p*,d, *nd reported members over the average memlwraMp for the fiscal year ending August 31, 1936. K for organization is running high and we have been re during the past four months a greater number of char ters than has been received since the month of June, 1934. WOMEN’S UNION LABEL LEAGUE TO HAVE PARTY ON WEDNESDAY. APRIL 14 The meeting of Central Labor Un ion, on the second Wednesday of this month, will be given over to the la dies of the Women’s Union Label League for a social meeting. Re freshments, music, probably a little dancing and a good time will be in store for all. Be on hand with the wife and kiddies, '‘or come single handed if you are not encumbered. Some acheologists contend that the Sahara Desert was not a populous country. Supreme Court Goes In Reverse The court reversed itself and, by a five to four decision, upheld the right of states to fix minimum wages for women. It unanimously sustained the re vised Frazier-Lemke farm mort gage act. making billions of dol lars of farm indebtedness eligible to three-year moratoriums. In another unanimous decision the justices upheld the railway la bor act guaranteeing collective bar gaining to rail workers. The minimum wage decision touched off sharp Senate contro versy over President Roosevelt’s proposal to reorganize the high tribunal.—Associated Press. Increased Pay For More Than 111,000 Workers In N. C. Mills A news story Tuesday says that approximately 110,000 Carolina Tex tile workers went to their jobs yes terday under an increased wage scale which will amount to about 10 per cent more money than they have been getting. Most of the wage increases an nounced by textile manufacturers of the Carolinas in the last two or three weeks were said to be increases of 10 per cent. The majority were ef fective March 29 and thus the wage advances will be made in the next pay envelope. The wage increase is said to be general in the industry with the ex ception of the combed yarn mills, which are said to have been paying - better wages and working on better schedules than most of the spinning mills. The probability that an in crease for these mills, which are cen tered in Gastonia, will be announced soon was being discussed by various manufacturers yesterday. Magistrate: What induced you to strike your wife? Husband: Well, your Wuship, she ’ad ’er back to me, the frying pan was ’andy, and the back door was open, so I thought I’d take me chancp.
The Charlotte Labor Journal and Dixie Farm News (Charlotte, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
April 1, 1937, edition 1
1
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75