A* ONLY REALLY INDEPENDENT WEEKLY in Mecklenburg County.
For a Weekly. Its Readers Represent the LARGEST BUYING POWER in Charlotte
Official Organ Central
Labor Union; standing for
the A. F. of L.
Clip Chaflottp labor Journal
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tiser*. They make YOU*
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f rutkfui, Honest, Impartial
AND DIXIE FARM NEWS
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VOL. VII.—No. 33
* CHARLOTTE, N. C, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1937
$2.00 Per Year
CENTRAL LABOR UNION COMMENDS
STAND TAKEN BY N. C. GOVERNOR
AGAINST LOW-WAGE ADVERTISERS
(The following resolution means in no sense of the word an endorsement
of .Mr. Hoey, as Central Labor Union is non-political, but is merely recog
nizing the governor’s stand, which is in accord with organized labor in
Charlotte. Along with The Journal it has ever fought the “cheap labor,
long-hour” advertising done by this state.—Ed.)
The letter transmitted by William S. Greene, at request of
Central Labor Union, to Governor Clyde R. Hoey, is self-explan
atory/
“Governor Clyde R. Hoey,
“Raleigh, N. C.
“Dear Sir:
“A few days ago, the newspapers of Charlotte carried an' item relative
to a speech you made disapproving low wage advertising for the purpose
of attracting certain industries to North Carolina, and the South in general.
“The Charlotte Central Labor union, in their regular weekly meeting,
instructed me to write the Governor commending him highly for this action.
Th motion to do so was passed unanimously.
“Kindly accept this letter as an oficial action of the Charlotte Central
Labor union, affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, commanding
you, as Governor of the State of North Carolina, for your speech disapproving
the use of low wage advertising in order to attract industries, into our
State.
“The instructions given me by the Central Labor union of Charlotte, also
ask that capies of this letter of praise be given the Charlotte nw'spapers for
publication.
“North Carolina is gaining a place in the sun for its fair lawTs governing
child labor, social security, unemployment compensation, and other recent
legislative action indicating the social progress of otir* working people,
“North Carolina has many natural advantages for manufacturing in
dustries, including which is a highly skilled, English-Speaking labor market.
“Your efforts to have unfair differential freight rates adjusted to a
reasonable basis for North Carolina, is also a fine move in the right direc
tion. Our experience in Charlotte has proven to us that abnormally high
freight rates have lost this city some very fine heavy industries. If we can
be of any assistance in helping you attain this objective, kindly call on us.
We would consider it a privilege to be allowed to help.
Very truly yours,
“WILLIAM S. GREENE,
“Secretary, Treasurer, Charlotte Central Labor Union.”
FOR THE PRICE OF ONE CIGARETTE!
How expensive is electricity?
Facts prove it is about the cheapest thing we use. For the price of a
single cigarette—not a package—the average home owner can light a 40
watt bulb for almost 4 hours, or operate a radio for nearly 2 hours, or perco
late coffee for 21 minutes, or run an automatic refrigerator for 3Yi hours,
or run an electric clock for 3 /j days, or operate an electric fan for more than
2*/i hours, or operate a washing machine for 31 minutes, or toast bread for
21 miiiiiwsrot run an electric dishwasher- for 42 minutes.
For the price of an entire package of cigarettes the average home owner
can pay all his electric bill for more than a day. For the price of a movie
show the family can use electricity for two weeks or more. For the price of
a Sunday driving trip it can pay its household electric bill for a month or two.
Here are simple comparisons anyone can understand. They refute
better than anything else the stale and fallacious argument the cost of elec
tricity is one of the most burning problems of the: day. To the average
citizen the cost of almost anyhing else in hi sdaily life is more than the cost
of power.—Labor Exchange.
NO ISSUE NEXT WEEK
The Labor Journal goes to
press earlier this week to give
our advertisers the benefit of
Thursday ad Friday buying,
therefore Central Labor
Union meeting and other late
labor developments are omit
ted. There will be no issue
the week after Christmas, as
it is our custom to “lose” one
week each year. Look over
the ads and remember those
who during the year have
made your paper possible.
GOOD JOKE
A passenger in an airplane was far
up in the sky when the pilot began
to laugh hysterically.
Passenger: ‘I1 What’s the joke?”
Pilot: “I’m thinking of what they’ll
say at the asylum when they find out
I have escaped^”
And Lost
“I don’t feel at all like a parachute
jump this morning. I’m too tired.
I tossed all night.”
“Insomnia ? ”
“No, dice.”
Forty thousand men in more than
1,500 American industrial laborator
ies are researching at the rate of
$300,000,000 a year.
Christmas Shop With Our Advertisers
LI
j CHRISTMAS CRIB—1937
f Once again yon may come and behold her, this night of Star-shining,
i You may kneel where she loves, where she sighs;
See? Here she has found a still place in the shadows.
' Come close, Christian. Look in her eyes.
For all time has been leveled, and even our twentieth century
Is now nothing, is folded and furled
Before this fair crowning of woman, the ending
Of all the roads in the world.
Will you yearn for great books when within her young arms is all
Knowledge?
Will you reach for high triunfph and gold?
The loves of great men are but dead twisted candles
To hers that can never grow cold.
O young Maiden, look up and behold not strange shepherds bewildered
By a Star they do not understand—
No Bethlehem dwellers, no wise men, no princes
Who hail from an Orient land—
But instead just we poor men, we workers, we humble of humble,
With our young ones to rear and to raise;
We Christians of village and city with question
Surrounding our nights and our days.
For our hearts are afraid, are unsteady; we feel the winds blowing
Of a storm wherein Love shall meet Hate.
The serpent in scarlet is massed on our doorstep
And Herod has knocked on the gate.
And our brothers are young, they are tender, and know' not of exile.
Watch us. Maiden, who fled from steeled might.
For Egypt is far and we have not your angel
To warn us, to lead us tonight.
—MARY FABYAN WIN'DEATT, Spirit.
A MERRY CHRISTMAS
AND A
HAPPY NEW YEAR
TO OUR SUBSCRIBERS
ADVERTISERS
AND FRIENDS
—THE JOURNAL.
d
!*" IS THERE NO SANTA CLAUS?
The most widely read editorial ever written appeared 36 years
'n,the New York Sun, has been reprinted by the Sun annually
at Christmas time ever since, and is quoted in a score of languages
the world over This world-famous “Santa Claus editorial,” printed
below, was an answer to the following letter:
Dear Editor:—1 am eight years old. Some of my friends say
there is no Santa Cluas. Please tell me the truth.
—Virginia O’Hanlon.
Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have
been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They
do not believe except they see. They think that nothing
can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds.
All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s' or children’s,
are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere
insect in intellect, as compared with the boundless world
about him, as measured by the intelligence of being ca
pable of grasping the whole of truth.
Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as
certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and
you know that they abound and give to your life its high
est beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world
if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as
if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike
faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this
existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense
and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills
the world would be extinguished.
Not to believe in Santa Claus! You might as well
not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire
men to watch all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch
Santo Claus, but even if they did not see Santo Claus
coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santo
Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santo Claus.
The most real things in the world are those that neither
children nor men can see.
You tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes
the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen
world which not the strongest men, nor even the united
strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could
tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can
push aside that curtain and view the supernatural beauty
beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world
there is nothing else real and abiding.
No Santo Claus? Thank God! he lives, and lives
forever. A thousand years from now, Virgina, nay, ten
times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to
make glad the heart of childhood.
Christmas Shop With Our Advertisers
Right To Work At Starvation Wages;
Head of Am. Tobacco Company Gets
More Than President in Six Years
This is the story of bonus vs. Wage:
In 1936 the American Tobacco Company paid the following
compensation to three of its chief officers:
George W. Hill, $246,173; Paul M. Hahn, $125,742; Charles
F. Neily, $125,692.
Total, $497,607.
Just in passing, it may be remarked that this one year’s “compensation”
of three tobacco tycoons, no one of whom has ever been accused by any re
sponsible person of ever doing a real or unselfish day’s work in his life
would pay the salary of the President of the United States for more than
six years, or the yearly salareis of 9 United States Senators, with a good bit
left over. There would seem to be a sort of mistift here—but let us come
back to wages.
The average wage in the tobacco industry last year was $15.86 a week.
The “compensation” of George Washington Hill, therefore, was equal
to the weekly wages of 15,534 of his employees.
The combined compensation of the three tobacco tycoons would have paid
a week’s wages to 31,375 of their employees.
Unfortunately, the yearly earnings of the average tobacco worker in
1936 are not to be had at this time. They cannot be computed on the basis
of 52 weeks’ work a year; for steady work is what the average tobacco
worker has anything else but. The best we can do is to go back to the
latest year for which reliable information is available on the yearly income
of tobacco workers.
That year is 1933, and the average wage for tobacco workers that year
was a shade over $583. Use the good old lead peancil for a few minutes and
you will see:
That the'“compensation” of Mr. Hill was equal to the yearly earnings
of 422 able-bodied tobacco workers.
That the “compensation” of Paul M. Hahn was equal to the yearly earn
ings of 215 tobacco workers, the “compensation” of Charles F. Neiley the
same.
That the combined “compensation” of these three ineffables was equal
to the annual income of 852 of their workers.
And these are some of the gentlemen who cry wolf when workers at
tempt to organize and of those who are vociferous in their clamor for the
“right to work” (sic.) at “starvation wages.”—Official Journal A. F. of M.
George L. Googe
Expresses Xmas
Sentiment To Labor
ATLANTA, Ga., Dec. 20.—“I
wish to express through our labor
press my most sincere wish for a
Merry Christmas to all men,
women and children of Labor
throughout our Southern teni«
tory, writes George L. Goodge,
Southern Representative of the
A. F. of L. “The fundamental
principle and purpose of the
American Federation of Labor is
to imprpove and maintain condi
tions under which wage-earners
may be happy at all times, and
especially to enable fathers and
mothers to provide not only the
necessities of life but be able to
obtain those comforts and lux
uries so essential to the happi
ness of home-loving people.
“From the very depths of my
heart I wish this to be the hap
piest, sweetest Christmas you
have ever known. It is impossible
for me to send personal greet
ings to all of our members and
friends in the Southern territory,
so I ask that each of you accept
this statement as a direct person
al message from me, for it is so
intended, truly and most sincere
ly, as an earnest wish for a
beautiful Christmas to you and
yours.”
Subscribe for The Journal
ONE MANIFESTATION
Love and electricity have never been
satisfactorily defined. But we can
name at least one manifestation they
have in common. When a high volt
age of either permeates a human be
ing the victim is rendered senseless.
PATRONfeE THOSE
WHO ADVERTISE IN
THE JOURNAI
[
TRY IT
If you want to win a race,
Try it.
If you long for a honored place.
Try it.
Men have lost and men have won
’Twen the settings of the sun;
There’s a chance for everyone.
Try it.
You'll not win unless you start,
Try it.
Keep the faint out of vnnr heart,
Try it. ^
Cut your pathway straight away^
Choose to go, or choose to stay;
Men move mountains every day,
Try itj
—Exchange.
THE CHRISTMAS HARVEST
By ALSON SECOR
in Sucessful Farming
Some don’t believe in him because
He makes them spend.
They like to borrow, but never lend
That Christmas cheer
Which permeates this time of year.
They are tight-fisted cynics, these
They never know how presents please
The little kids, and others;
The sisters and the brothers;
The care-worn dads and weary
mothers
They rtever leadner to live
Because they never learend to give.
You’ve got to plant before you reap.
If all you get you keep
Your soul gets barren, sterile, sour.
It takes the power
Of cheerful giving
To give a zest to living.
Here’s a New One
“ “Say,” said the woman customer
over the telephone, “the next time I
order chicken, don’t'send me any more
airplane fowls.”
“What do you mean — airplane
fowls?” asked the butcher.
“You know what I mean! all wings
and machinery, and no body.”
IF YOIH SUBSCRIPTION
IS IN ARREARS
SEND TN A CHECK
TELL SANTA “I’M NOT AFRAID”
“I’m not afraid,” the small boy said,
“That Santa Claus will be misled
Because we have no fireplace deep
Or chimney broad down which to creep*
A radiator seems too small
To let him climb or even crawl;
But none the less on Christmas day
We’ll know that he has found his way.
“For when our radio near by
Borrows the lightning from the sky
And brings, to chase away our gloom,
A brass band, right into the room.
I know that such a clever Saint
Will never let his heart grow faint.
Some new improvement, never fear,
Will bring him here for Christmas cheer.”
—Washington Star.