North Carolina Newspapers

The ONLY REALLY INDEPENDENT WEEKLY in Mecklenburg County. For a Weekly. Its Readers Rep resent the LARGEST BUYING POWER in Charlotte Official Organ Central Labor Union; standing for the A. F. of L. Chr Charlotte labor Journal Patronise onr Adver tisers. They make YOUh paper possible by their co operation. Truthful, Honest, Impartial AND DIXIE FARM NEWS Endeavoring to Serve the Masses Vol. VII—No. 10 aov.......... ,« T.. joumal >. A nw CHARLOTTE, N. C„ THURSDAY, JULY 15, 1937 JOURNAL AOVUTItIM DUUVI COMBI OBRATION OB ▼MB RCAOKR $2.00 Per Year A. F. L. GIVEN CONFIDENCE PLEDGE BY SIX PAST PRESIDENTS OF STATE BODY IN A FORMAL STATEMENT Six past presidents of the North Carolina Federation of Labor have cast their lot with the American Federation of Labor as against the Committee for Industrial Organization in the State, in a joint statement issued Sunday through W. M. Witter of Char lotte, publicity director for the American Federation of Labor in North Carolina. These six men are the only ones who have headed the State Federation since it was organized, with the exception of Roy Law rence, president since 1930 until he was ousted at a meeting called some time ago by George Googe, southern representative of the American Federation of Labor. Mr. Lawrence was not asked to sign the statement since “of course, he would not have sisrned it.” In the statement, the six former presidents urged all organized work ers to join the A. F. of L., and for all labor unions and all central bodies to send delegates to the State Fed eration meeting in Salisbury on July 26, 27 and 28. The C. I. O. was not mentioned by name, but the statement said, “Our long experience in the labor move ment gives us absolute assurance of the fact the American Federation of Labor is the only force or influence prepared to properly safeguard the rights and interests of the men and women of labor. The six who signed the statement were O. R. Jarrett, Carpenters’ union, Asheville; W. E. Shuping, Machin ists’ union, Salisbury; Major W. F. Moody, Musicians’ union, Raleigh; James F. Barrett, Typographical union, Asheville; C. P. Barringer, Railway Clerks’ union, Salisbury; and T. A. Wilson, Typographical union, Winston-Salem. FORMAL STATEMENT The statement of the six past presidents follow: “We, whose names appear below, have each had the honor and dis tinction of serving the State Federa tion of Labor in North Carolina as president. Each of us has served our respective union and city central labor union throughout many years. Our terms as president began in 1903, and ended in 1930, covering a period of 27 years, and our geog raphical locations cover the state from the east to the west? “Individually and collectively, throughout all of these vears, we have been proud to be enrolled as members of the great American Fed eration of Labor. We have preached its gospel, taught its philosophy, sung its praises and gloried in its achievements. We are proud of the economic and patriotic record of the A. F. of L., and rejoice in its ex cellent reputation for keeping invio late its contracts and agreements. “We have seen the hours of labor in North Carolina reduced from 84 to 40 hours a week, and witnessed improvement of working conditions that is most gratifying. We have sponsored social legislation, free schools and compulsory school attend ance, with free text books as part of a free school system, all of these have been obtained by the State Fed eration of Labor under the banner of the A. F. of L. A POWERFUL FORCE “The American Federation of La bor is a powerful force, working year in and year out for the eco nomic and social advancement of the men and women who work for wages. “We proudly point to the fact that the American Federation of Labor meets all challenges of changing con ditions, and through the Federal La bor unions directly affiliated with the A. F. of L., provision was made years ago for organization and protection of mass workers in mass production industries, thus safe-guarding the interests of all workers, regardless of craft or condition. Our long ex perience in the labor movement gives us absolute assurance of the fact that the American Federation of Labor is the only force or influence prepared to properly safeguard the rights and interests of the men and women of labor. “We urge all unorganized workers to join the American Federation of Labor, and request all local labor unions and city central bodies af filiated with the American Federa tion of Labor to send delegates to our State Federation of Labor conven tion which meets in Salisbury on the 26th, 27th and 28th of July. Brother C. A. Fink of Spencer, is president of the State Federation of Labor in North Carolina, and Brother H. G. Fisher, 527 West Liberty street, Salisbury, is secretary-treasurer of the Federation.” Labor Notes Central Labor Union will meet next Wednesday night at 8 o'clock. Election of officers will be the prin cipal event of the meeting. A. J. Dumas is a new delegate to Central Labor Union from the Plumbers and Steamfitters, rather an old delegate who has “come back.” All the locals in Charlotte are re porting new members and increased interest in the A. F. of L.. which is a healthy sign for the legitimate labor movement. Don't forget the State Convention at Salisbury. July 26-28, and get your delegates set. If you are not a dele gate be a visitor at the convention. Labor history in N. C. will be made News reaches us that Mrs. W. EL McKamey. who has been critically ill at a hospital in Newport News, has passed the crisis and after several blood transfusions hope is held out for her recovery. The board of directors of the Inde pendent Grocers has endorsed the new Grocery Store Clerks Union recently organized in Charlotte under the A. F. of L. banner. They are advocating a half holiday Wednesday of each week throughout the year. The Patriotic Sons of America hold their meetings every Tuesday night. A large number of A. F. of L. men are numbered in their ranks, as they are making a fight along the same lines as the A. F. of L., and with them it is a fight to the finish on Communism, and everything that is not 100 per ctnt American. A "late letter” from Lenoir tells The Journal of seven delegates from Cornelius Boy Wins First Prize In B. & L. Contest Herman Howard, of Cornelius, won 1st prize of $100 with this essay in the state Keesler Memorial Essay Contest held at the recent convention of the North Carolina Building and Loan League at Blowing Rock. The League annually sponsors the con test among high school students of the state. Mr. Howard was success ful in school, county and district elimination contests, and represented Mecklenburg count, District 7, in the final contest, competing with eight other contestants from various parts of the state. the Federal local at that place to the State Federation convention, as fol lows: J. J. Bush, Clyde Thonbug, Lee Abernathy, Jonas Clark, John Tilley. Albert P. Beck, Raymond Hart. The week is filled with meeting dates and Sunday will be given over to the unorganized workers. They are also planning tfr pat the Negroes into a Union on Thursday night of this week. ‘The Boates” are due to tie up in this harbor before our next issue ap pears, and we hope they will have had fair sailing and make a safe landing in Charlotte. But the Colonel can only stay in port a short while, ere he will be bound Salisburyward for the State convention of the A. F. of L. “A word to the wise is sufficient,” so the saying goes, applies to the new clerks union of the grocery stores in Charlotte. This organization will eventually broaden into the field of other stores, and promies to give Charlotte labor its greatest union or ganization. as far as membership goes. ubscribe for The Journal * t -i LABOR CONDITIONS ARE PUBLIC CONCERN ] do not prize the word cheap. It is not a word of hope, nor a word of cheer, but it is a badge of poverty and a signal of distress. Cheap merchandise means cheap men and cheap men a cheap country. EDITORIAL ARE THE TEXTILE WORKERS SEEING THE LIGHT? It seems to be gradually dawning upon the Textile workers of the Carolinas that the C. I. O. organization contracts are not best for them, and many notes of dissatisfaction are already being heard from those enrolled in the present setup. A note of discord of recent date is eminating from Bennettsville, S. C., (and there are others) and the A. F. of L. has been asked into that territory, but, from what this wirter can learn, the management is vitriolic against all forms of organized labor, of whatever type, or character, so we have no particular concern in the matter. The A. F. of L. textile organizing campaign is going forward, but it does want both employer and employe to understand that the cause being espoused is strictly one that will give benefit to the employe and employer, relinquishing nothing for which the A. F. of L. stands, asking for nothing impossible, but safeguarding the rights of the worker at any and all times, yet not assuming a position of dictatorship, leaving it up to the employe if he de sires to join a union, and not making it mandatory that his dues be extracted from his pay envelope. The A. F. of L. has endeavored for more than half a century to educate the workers to the point that they could see the benefit of organization, and millions have learnt the lesson in the slow but steady climb from semi-serfdom to a stats' of independence of both thought and expression. This condition was not built by bullying, coercion or confiscation, but by argument, perseverance, and the ballot. It was not the fantastic dream of Communism, it was the yearning in the hearts and minds of patriots whose de sire it was to benefit their fellow workers, casting aside all per sonal ambition, not caring for the loaves and fishes, as it were, but a love for their fellowmen and the children of men. The solid rock was the basis of the A. F. of L., and it will en dure, for the principle is right, its leaders have been men of honor, and men who have been honored. Its past record can be looked back upon with pride, and it is building for the future upon the same principle that its founders and its membership have sacri ficed both life and money. The A. F. of L. has no apology to make to Capital, or to any man, for its actions or its course, and each and every loyal mem ber of its army of nearly four million workers stands true for America, and American ideals and the Flag and Constitution of the United States is the banner under which it is fighting. So let’s gird up our loins, put on the armor of faith and justice, and go forward into the battle for true Americanism and the A. F. of L. The Textile Workers of the South are 100 per cent American, their forefathers were the bulwark in our fight for freedom; they love their country and their flag, and it is to them, along with other true Americans that the A. F. of L. is looking for support. miNKMT CO <4 Ml ON Timblv Topics ! ! CHATTING f t v I BY HARRY BOATE The following notes of comparison and changes came under mv notice some time ago and were thought worthy of reproduction, so here it is for your instruction or pleasure, according to your individual ideas' ^881 Fifty years ago women wore hoopskirts, bustles, petticoats, ruffled cotton drawers, high buttoned shoes, flannel nightgowns, puffs in their hair, did their own cooking, baking* cleaning, washing, ironing, raised big families, went to church on Sundays, were too busy to be sick. Men wore whiskers, square hats, Ascot ties, red flannel underwear, brass-toes boots, big watches and chains, chopped wood for stoves, bathed once a week, drank 10-cent whiskey and 5-cent beer, rode bicycles, buggies or sleighs, went in for politics, worked 12 hours a day, and lived to a ripe old age. Stoves burned coal, oil lamps, carried everything from a needle to a plow, trusted everybody, never took an inventory, placed orders for goods a year in advance, always made money. 1931 Today women wear silk stockings, short skirts, low shoes, an ounce of underwear, have bobbed hair, smoke, paint and powder, drink cocktails, play bridge, drive cars, have pet dogs, and go in for politics. Men have high blood pressure, wear no hats and some no hair, shave their whiskers, shoot golf, bathe twice a day, drink poison, play the stock market, ride in airplanes, never go to bed the same day they get up, are misunderstood at home, work five hours a day, play tennis, die young. Stores have electric lights, cash registers, never have what the cus tomers want, trust nobody, take inventory daily, never buy in advance, have overhead, mark-up, mark-down, quota, budget, advertising, stock con trol, annual, semi-annual, end of month; dollar day, founders’ day, and rummage sales, and never make any money. • • • And here is another item from a recent publication of more or less interest to all, under the title, “Women’s Clothes’’: Moralists, satirists, humorists and gossips from the beginning of his tory have busied themselves with the extreme styles of women’s dress. Even the writer of the story of the Garden of Eden, like the satisfactory reporter of swell social functions of today, tells how the lady was dressed. Isaih, the prophet-statesman, towered among the politicians of his day as a giant in the midst of pigmies; yet this great statesman-seer notes “The bonnets, and the ornaments of the legs, and the head bands, and the ear-rings, and the nose jewels, and the mantles, and the wimples, and the crisping pins” of the women of his day. Men and women in middle life can remember the days when American women bound their waists and Chinese women bound their feet, and the women with insect waists shed tears over the cruel customs of foot-binding in China, yet never pitied themselves with displaced vitals. But with a change of style the Chinese women do not bind their feet and the American women do not bind their waists. Not so long ago the skirts swent the around and one woman wore half a dozen skirts at one time, but now a single iskirt reaching to the knees is a Hent" And amid ^ll these mutations in dress through the centuries, tongue and nen have been bus" in a vain attempt to take '■are of the situation. What are we going to do about it? Just like we have been doing—let the "female of the species” as she will. Fortunately, it is hardly a moral question anyhow. * * * How can you expect the working men and women to be reiligiously reverent of the letter of the law when the mighty and powerful who want the rest of the community to consider them models act this way to the law?—Ferdinand Pecora. * •. * Civilization could never advance without the liberals; it would fall into anarchy without the conservatives.—Dr. Charles A. Browne, U. S. Depart ment of Agriculture. SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL LABOR PAPER. It serve* 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. SOLID BASIS FOR ORGANIZED LABOR MOVEMENT IS DEMOCRATIC SELF GOVERNMENT, SAYS WM. GREEN By WILLIAM GREEN President, American Federation of Labor (As told to Fred Pasley) (Editor’s Note.—The following statement by William Green, president of the American Federation of Labor, was published on the “Economic Battle Page” of the July 8 issues of the New York Daily News, the Cleveland News, and other newspapers.) One handed and seventy-one years ago the people of America joined together against the rule of absolutism to safeguard their future security. They declared themselves independent to end the mounting injuries inflicted upon them by an absolute, arbitrary and tyrannical government. Having achieved that independence they proceeded to perfect a nation upon the foundations of de mocracy, freedom and justice. Built upon the solid foundations of liberty and self-govern ment America has attained a place in the family of nations that is characterized not only by its industrial and technical supremacy, but most of all by the enduring quality of its political organization which made it possible for the people to achieve better living as well as the greatest degree of freedom in self-government. A. F. OF L. STANDS ON VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLES Fifty-six years ago the workers of America joined together to cement an effort extending over a period of years—to form a thorough Federa tion which would embrace every union in America into one national labor movement. That marked the begin ning of the American Federation of Labor, conceived as one great national organization to which all unions should belong and which could speak and act with the strength of all. Striving to attain freedom and inde pendence from economic oppression through union organization, the American Federation of Labor, like the nation itself, was founded on the principles of voluntary, democratic self-government. The enduring qual ity of democratic organization of the Federation was forcefully demon strated to the workers in the suc cessful growth of the Federation from a modest beginning into the best Labor movement in tha world. The American Federation of Labor has successfully weathered all the crisis it encoutered in the’ fi/ty-six years of its existence anc V"' out lived all its competitors, it Jid that because it has been an organization that abhorred arbitrary and dictator ial action, an organization that had no authority and no power except of a voluntary character. The volun tary coming together of unions with common needs and common aims has proved to be a stronger and more lasting bond than could be welded by any autocratic authority no matter in whom such authority were vested. GOMPERS VISIONED SELF SEEKER MENACE That the future advancement of Labor depends on its adherence to voluntary principles was recognized with solemn emphasis by Samuel Gompers, who dedicated his whole life to the service of Labor, in the last word of counsel he left for the move ment which he had led and helped to build. “The very success of our organiza tion has brought additional and seri ous dangers,” said Gompers. “Office in the labor movement now offers opportunity for something in addi tion to service—it offers opportunity for the self-seeker who sees an in strumentality for personal advance ment, both in the economic and in the political field.” Speaking as one who with clean hands and with a singleness of pur pose had served the labor movement honorably, he urged devotion to the fundamentals of humanity liberty— the principles of voluntarism. “No lasting gain has ever come from compulsion,” he said. “If we seek to force, we but tear apart that which, united, is invincible. There is no way whereby our labor move ment may be assured sustained prog ress in determining its policies and its plans other than sincere demo cratic deliberation until a unanimous decision is reached. This may seem a cumbrous, slow method to the im patient, but the impatient are more concerned for immediate triumph than for the education of construc tive development.” C. L O. LEADERSHIP FLAUNTS DEMOCRATIC PROCEDURE The danger to Labor which Gompers foresaw did not confront the movement until there came for ward a man who has proved himself to be a self-seeker and who saw the Labor movement as an instrumental ity for personal advancement. That man was John Lewis. He has defied the democratic processes; he has rejected tne ma jority rule; he has flaunted the vol untary principles of unionism. Hav ing broken his oath of allegiance to the American Federation of Labor, which he had taken voluntarily when he entered the Labor movement, he by persuasion and compulsion has made others violate their trust. The record of what followed is well known. Surrounding himself with men he had previously considered so unfit as to denounce, John Lewis pro ceeded to build political capital on the bitter resentment of the workers hpf their economic oppression. Hav ing gathered a following, he at tempted to rule unions, not serve them. He discarded union self-gov ernment and brushed aside the demo cratic majority rule. He replaced i union democracy with union dictator j ship. No matter what the means before him he never turned and never stayed. TRIES TO RULE BY MINORITY CONTROL He always possessed a minority complex. He attempted to dominate the American Federation of Labor through minority control. % rough the force and coercion exercised by a minority he carried that same prin ciple into his attempt to win strikes. He endeavored to win strikes with only a portion of the workers organ ized. He neglected to essential, fun damental, primary principle neces sary to success, and that is, organ ization of the workers first. With out asking the workers whether they .wanted to strike or wanted to work he called them out on strikes, even when he knew that such action could only lead to violence and in the end to defeat. The lawlessness and anarchy wreaked through the nation by his Committee for Industrial Or ganization have produced bitterness and resentment on the part of work ers, employers and the public alike. RESPONSIBLE FOR REPOSSESSIVE LEGISLATION The only ultimate result of this could be restrictive and repressive legislation from which all Labor will suffer. A bill restricting the free dom and independence of trade unions has already been voted out of the Michigan legislature. Other and* even more dangerous measures are now pending before legislatures of other states and before congress. Just as the responsibility for the present division in the ranks of La bor fujly rests on John Lewis and his Committee for Industrial Organiza tion, so the responsibility for any and all damage to the trade union move ment by the current flow of restric tive legislation will fall on him and his. Daniel Boone who opened up and thousands of miles of territory was twice stripped of all the lands he owned and died without owning enough land to be buried on. The leather used in the automobile industry m one year would make a pair of shoes for every person in 8 states Washington, Oregon, Mon tana, Idaho, Wyoming, Nevada, Col orado and Utah. IF YOUR SUBSCRIPTION IS IN ARREARS SEND IN A CHECK State Fedeation Convention Dates: July 26, 27, 28—at Salisbury. Be sure and have your delegates present on time. (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.