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VOL. VII. No. 38
“ * — CHARLOTTE, N. C., THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1938
$2.00 Per Year
GREEN, HECKLED FROM SIDE LINES,
ASKS HOWARD, LT.U. PRESIDENT, FOR
A REFERENDUM OF THE PRINTERS
TYPOGRAPHICAL PRESIDENT ADMITS THERE IS NO
“CONSIDERABLE SENTIMENT” IN HIS ORGANIZA
TION FOR WITHDRAWAL FROM THE A. F. OF L*—WAR
OF WORDS NOT SIGNIFICANT SEEMS TO BE PRE
VAILING IDEA.
MIAMI, Fla., Feb. 2.—Irked by
what he considered to be heckling
from the sidelines, William Green yes
terday renewed his dare to Charles
P. Howard, president of the Inter
national Typographical union, to call
a referendum of the printers on the
question of joining the Committee for
Industrial Organization.
Howard, who is secretary of the
C. I. O. although his outfit is affili
ated with the American Federation of
Labor, is not a member of the A. F. L.
executive council, meeting here, but
has been prominent about the hotel
lobby.
He charged in a typewritten state
ment the accusation of fostering dual
unionism on which Green faces ex
Sulsion from John L. Lewis’ United
line Workers was true—that the
charter the A. F. L. granted the Pro
gressive Miners of America which
Green terms a local Federal charter
in Illinois, was identical with the cer
tificate the A. F. L. issued to the U.
M. W. and other international unions.
“Mr. Howard speaks as an official
of the C. I. O.,” was Green’s reply
when apprised of the statement.
Howard also pointed out that the
council adjourned daily at 1 p.m., as
“the races at Hialeah track begin at
2 p. m." This was in connection
with Green’s decision not to appear
personally before the miners’ conven
tion in Washington to answer the
charges, saying the press of work
here prevented.
“Mr. Howard is not called upon to
make decisions for the president of
the A. F. L. or the executive council,”
Green remarked. “The council felt
it could not interrupt its work for
three days while 1 journeyed to
Washington and back.”
Howard's reply to Green’s challenge
on a referendum, voiced originally
after a similar challenge from David
Dubinsky of the C. I. O. was that
there was no substantial sentiment
in the I. T. U. for withdrawal from
the A. F. L. Howard added that, if
any move were made, it would be up
to the A. F. L. first to suspend the
printers, as it has the G. I. O. affili
ates.
The war of words between Green
and Howard was not expected to have
any significant effects, but it enliven
ed the sessions pending consideration
by the council of expelling the miners
and other C. I. O. unions.
The council yesterday:
Telegraphed Chairman Ashurst of
the Senate judiciary committee re
questing a public hearing on the con
sttuitional amendment granting equal
tights to women before it was re
ported.
Protested to Senator Wagner
against his opposition to restoration
bf the prevailing wage amendment
■'to the housing bill.
Announced a: national exhibition of
goods and service carrying the union
label to be held at Cincinnati May
16-21 as a merchandising plan.
WORLD EMBARGO AGAINST JAPS
REJECTED BY AM. FED. OF LABOR
BUT FAVOR BOYCOTT OF JAP GOODS
. , . M AMI. Fla.—The Executive Council of the American Federation
"*—»”» her«- rejected the propo als for an organized Financial
J,P*n °y oU‘er government*, recently sug
Tr“" Unto"*’ A-ri
, JJ* •ct*?n fhe Council was taken in connection with a cablegram re
the BriuTh Tr,^ nr • r *’ president ,of the L F. T. U. and secretary of
the British Trades Union Congress, urging the A. F. of L. to exercise its
nf mtuniB«KeC“r,/,K “IS co-operation of the Government of the United States
,n *»•. !!* international embargo effective.
While declaring that American labor desired to go as far as possible in
'fKl J\PwnT *oods /nd services, President William Green of the
f; * “**■£*• Councl1 not in favor of any step that
might lead to involving the United States in war.
r lV“b,Ta" Sir *’a,t?r Citrine, Mr. Green declared the Executive
Council was reluctant to make the representations urged by the International
Federation of Trade Unions to the United States Government, but said the
Council would consult with Government officials in the near future
WORKER VS. INVESTOR
ly DU CHARLES STELZLE
Executive Director, Good Neighbor
Mr. Tom Girdler, Chairman of the
Republic Steel Corporation, recently
stated that “more than $50,000,000
would have to be invested to build a
single complete, intergrated new steel
plant, ready to meet the demands of
present-day markets. He then added
that “for every man employed in the
steel industry $11,500 must be invested
by someone. It takes at least that
much money—$11,500—to make a job
for a steel worker.” \
Mr. Girdler is probably correct. At
any rate, we will take his figures for
granted. Of course, the amount of
money required to “make a job” for a
worker varies in the different indus
tries in which the workers in America
are employed. In many cases an
investment of even five million
dollars would employ as many
workers as would be employed in a
$50,000,000 steel plant, because of the
difference in equipment required and
its operation.
But let us confine ourselves to the
steel worker'for whose job an invest
ment of $11,500 is required. What is
he contributing to the success of the
$50,000,000 plant? According to sta
tistics furnished by life insurance act
uaries on the cost of maintaining an
average person un to the age when he
becomes a useful producer, it is jpst
about as much as Mr. Girdler says the
investor pays to give the steel worker
a job. This does not mean that the
steel plant would be just so much
junk without him—it means that he
and his family and the State have act
ually spent so much money to raise
' him, to educate him, and in general to
I prepare him to become a steel worker.
In other words, he is matching the
} investment required to give him a job,
1 with the investment that has been nut
I into him to make him a steel worker,
i and for which his employer pays noth
ing. Meanwhile, the steel worker has
used most of his wages for his “up
keep,”so that he may continue to be an
effective “producing machine.” He has
paid for his own “repairs,” and other
wise maintained himself, so that he
may be a profitable worker.
There are too many debatable ques
tions entering into what the investor,
the management and the worker should
receive from their combined profits—
although this may be arrived at upon
a perfectly reasonable basis. How
ever, all that is desired to point out
just now is that the individual worker
who is given a job in a steel mill is
making as much of a contribution to
Mr. Girdler’s $50,000,000 steel plant
as is the man who invests the 11,500
which is said to create a job for him.
ARTICLE BY PRES. FINK OF
STATE FEDERATION OF LABOR
APPEARS NEXT WEEK
An article appeared in the Salis
bury Post recently by Pres. C. A.
Fink, of the State Federation of La
bor, which, in fact, is a review of the
year’s endeavor of that organisation.
It is necessarily omitted from this
week’s issue because it was received
too late, but will appear next week.
If you have trouble with omelets
that lose their fluffiness and fall flat,
try adding a pinch of powdered sugar
and a pinch of cornstarch to the egg
mixture when you are beating it.
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. Hie 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.
CHATTING
PERTINENT COMMENT ON TIMELY TOPICS
By HARRY BOATE
REGARDING RECENT LABOR LAWS PASSED BY CONGRESS
—A SURVEY AS TO WHY LABOR LAWS BECOME
NECESSARY—ALSO A WORD OR TWO ABOUT COTTON,
WINDING UP WITH A TALK FROM A COLORED CANDI
DATE FOR THE MINISTRY—THE “COLONEL” TAKES IN
MANY SUBJECTS.
Much has been said in recent
months concerning labor laws which
have recently been passed by Con
gress. Comment has been pro and
con. Some people are thoroughly
familiar Vith the subject discussed;
others know little or nothing, bat
just talk for the sake of argument.
The following article of Beulah
Amidaon, in Survey-Graphic, will
give some idea of why labor laws
become necessary.
“There are geographical as well
as industrial areas where labor stand
ards have been notoriously low, and
where children have never had the
protection of adequately enforced
education laws.
“Thus a recent survey by the Na
tional Child Labor Committee brought
out a grim story of exploitation from
the ‘ninpy woods’ of South Carolina,
Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, and
Louisana. The study covered not
only the woods where the trees are
tapped for turpentine or cut for lum
ber, but also local plants making
crates, barrels, and wooden baskets.
“Child labor is the rule in turpen
tine camps. Boys, and a few girls,
10 to 14 years old, work as ‘chippers,’
scarring the trees, and setting the
pans to catch the gum, and as dip
pers,’ collecting the gum. Wages
seldom run as high as 8 cents an
hour—8 to 5 cents is much more us
ual. A 12-hour day is the rule. Many
of these children are illiterate; few,
if any, have gone beyond the primary
grades. School is a luxury for all
of them.
“Youngsters who spend their early
years as ‘chippers’ or 'dippers’ are
usually hired with their fathers in
getting out timber when they are 13
or 14 years old. The work is heavy.
In hauling, a man and two boys can
earn about $2.50 a day—less thaa
20 cents an hour for all three.”
The following from the Wall Street
Journal may help some of us to
thoroughly understand cotton:
“Cotton is the overcoat of a seed
that is planted and grown in the
Southern States to keep the producer
broke and the buyer crazy.
“The fiber varies in color artd
weight, and the man who can guess
the nearest the length of a fiber is
called a cotton man by the public, a
fool by a farmer, and a poor business
man by his creditors.
“The price of cotton is fixed in
New York, and goes down when you
have bought, and up when you have
sold. A buyer working for a group
of mills was sent to New York to
watch the cotton market. After a
few days’ deliberation he wired his
firm to this effect: ‘Some think
it will go down, and some think it
will go up.; I do, too. Whatever you
do you will be wrong. Act at once.’
“Cotton is planted in the spring,
mortgaged in the summer, and left
in the fields in the winter.”
Two Textile Labor
Groups Split On
Wages In Mass.
FALL RIVER, Mass., Jan. 30.—
Two textije labor groups were divid
ed last night on a proposal by the
Fall River Cotton Manufacturers As
sociation that cotton mill workers ac
cept a 12 H per cent wage reduction,
effective February 1.
William Harwood, secretary of the
Fall River Textile council of the Am
erican Federation of Textile opera
tives, said members of that organiza
tion voted to accept the proposal made
last week, “pending an improvement
in business.” Statistics of the ballot
were not announced.
Mariano S. Bishop, president of
the United Textile Workers textile
council of the Committee for Indus
trial Organization, announced that
members of his group voted seven to
one against acceptance of the pro
posal.
Googe Urges Locals
To Affiliate With
Their Central Bodies
ATLANTA, Ga., Feb. 1.—George
L. Googe, Southern Representative
of the American Federation of La
bor, is stressing the importance of
having ALL eligible Local Unions
affiliated with the State Federations
of Labor, and is instructing A. F. of
L. organizers to visit Local Unions
and urge their affiliation with State
bodies. Mr. Googe is likewise re
questing officials of City Central
Labor Unions to lend their influence
to this important matter. State con
ventions will be held in some South
ern states in April, and it is Mr.
Googe’s desire that ALL local unions
chartered by Internationals affili
ated with the A.. F. of L. be also
affiliated with the state bodies and
represented at the Conventions.
Subscribe for The Journal
Thus far this article is more or less
of a mixture. Perhaps the following
from the Methodist Recorder (Lon
don) will make things straight:
“Not every candidate for the min
istry is found fit for acceptance, a
notable case of unfitness being that
of a colored young man who, years
ago, offered nis services to one of
the churches in America. It was soon
discovered that he was unable to
read, though he professed to know
the Bible ‘from lid to lid.’ His favor
ite book in the New Testament, he
told the examiners, was the 'Book of
Parables,’ and of its contents his
favorite was the story of the Good
Samaritan, of which he gave this
highly original rendering, when sc
requested:
“ ‘Well, sah, once upon a time a
man went down from Jerusalem to
Jerico, and’ fell among thieves, and’
de thorns grew up an’ choked dat
man, an’ he went on an’ didn’t hab
no money, an’ he met de Queen of
Sheba. An’ behold, she gave dat man
—yes, sah—she gave dat man a
thousand talents ob gold and a hun
dred changes of rainment. An’ he
got in a chariot straightway an’ drove
furiously. An’ when speeding along
under a sycamore tree, his hair got
caught in a limb an’ left him hangin’
dar. An’ he hung dar many days
an’ many nights an’ ravens brought
him food to eat an’ water to drink.
An’ one night while he was hanging
dar asleep his wife Deliah came along
an’ cut off his hair, an’ de poor man
dropped on stony ground. An’ it be
gan to rain, an’ it rained forty days
and forty nights, an’ he hid himself
in a cave until de rain stopped. An’
when he left the cave he met a man
who said, “Come an’ take supper
wid me," but he said, “I can’t. I
done married a wife an’ can’t come.”
So de man went into de highways
an’ byways an’ compelled dem to
come in for supper. He went on an’
came to Jurusalem, an’ when he got
dar he seen Queen Jezebel sittin’
high up de window, an’ when he saw
her he said aloud; “Trow her down,"
an’ they threw her down. An’ he
cried again: “Trow her down some
more,” an’ dey trew her down some
more. An’ dey trew her down seven
ty times seven, an’ ob de fragments
was picked up twelve baskets. Now
whose wife do you all think she will
be in de ressurrection?’ ”
TEXTILE MILLS IN MAINE
CUT WORKERS WAGE SCALE
TO MEET COMPETITION
PORTLAND, Me., Feb. 1.—Offi
cials of six Maine cotton textile mills
tonight announced 12% per cent wage
reductions, effective next Monday,
involving thousands of workers. Man
agement representatives attributed
the slashes to similar action already
taken by competitors in other sec
tions of New England and to market
prices which, they said, had fallen be
low production costs.
The announcement affected 1,300
workers at the York Manufacturing
Company, Saco, and about 1,000 at
the Edwards Manufacturing Com
pany, Augusta.
GREEN REPLIES TO LEWIS CHARGES;
SAYS HE IS “DECEIVING THE U. M. W.
TO HIDE FAILURE IN LEADERSHIP”
HE ASKS MINERS:—“WERE NOT THESE ACTIONS ON HIS
PART MERELY A SMOKE SCREEN, TO HIDE FROM YOU
FAILURE OF LEADERSHIP AND STAVE OFF THE DAY
OF RECKONING FOR HIS RECKLESS SQUANDERING
OF MONEY.
MIAMI, Fla. Jan. 31—William
Green, President of the American Fed
eration of Labor replied in detail last
night to charges on which he faces
ouster from the United Mine Workers
Union and at the same time accused
John L. Lewis of deceiving the UMW
“to hide the failure of his leadership.”
Green said he was unable to appear
in person before the miners’ conven
tion in Washington, as he had hoped
to do, to face demands that he forfeit
his card for sponsoring dual union
ism. So he said he was mailing his
3,000-word reply to Thomas Kennedy,
secretary-treasurer of the UMW, with
the request it be read from the floor.
The AFL chief charged Lewis
vetoed the formula for peace between
the AFL and Lewis’s Committee for
Industrial Organization agreed upon
last month. Green claimed also that
Lewis misrepresented the number of
members in the CIO with “his empty
chalelnge to have these 4,000,000 mem
bers ride into the AFL if only they
were taken in without challenge.”
He concluded with the inquiry to
the miners:
“Were not these actions on his part
simply a smoke screen to hide from
you the failure of his leadership, to
ward off the day of reckoning for his
reckless squandering of your money?”
dual unionism by chartering the Pro
gressive Miners of America in rivalry
to the NMW in Illinois, Green said
he followed the mandate of the AFL
executive council to which the mine
union itself was subordinate and that
the resulting charges against him
were “mere attempts by those who
are dissatisfied to coerce me to violate
my oath.”
While denying charges “un Uo*u
While denying the charges “un
qualifiedly and without equivocation,”
Green maintained that the interna
tional convention and the executive
council of the UMW had no authority
to try him.
The answer dwelled at langth on
the UMW auditors report consider
ed by the AFL executive council here
yesterday which Green held to show
that the United Miners made “a total
of expenditures labelled loans to the
CIO and its subdivisions in the last
two years of more than $2,000,000”
which he said represented “a very sub
stantial portion of the entire re
sources” of the union.
Green declared Phillip Murray,
UMW vice-president and head of the
CIO committee at the peace conference,
placed the CIO membership at not
over 1,600,000.
Green said in an interview he was
challenging the UMW expenditures
in behalf of the CIO as a stockholder
in the union and cited his continued
membership in the Coshocton, Ohio,
local since 1890.
BARKLEY WRITES OF MACHINISTS
SAYS ORGANIZATION BORN IN SOUTH
ON SOUTHERN RAILWAY SYSTEM
OLD SHOPMATE, CARRYING CHARLOTTE CARD, BUT RE
TIRED MEMBER, NOW LIVING IN PETERSBURG, VA„
WRITES HIS LOCAL—SOME INTERESTING HISTORY
GIVEN, AND A FEW REMARKS BY ONE OF THE OLDER
HEADS IN MACHINISTS LOCAL OF CHARLOTTE.
Dear Brother Witter:
Greetings from the Machinists Un
ion.
Bro. S. J. Poarch (Billie), an old
retired machinist now living in Pet
ersburg, Va., writes us he is still
thinking of his old friends and shop
mates. He still retains his member
ship in our local and was a member of
the machinists local since its birth in
1888.
Brother Witter, we often hear peo
ple, some of them, honestly declaring
that unions are of northern origin and
the ideals are not in accord with the
people of the South. Now this is not
true with the machinists union. The
I. A. of M. was born in a drop pit of
what is now a nart of the Southern
Railway System in 1888 in Atlanta,
Ga. And the first nine out of twelve
local lodges organized were southern
lodges and Atlanta still retains its
original No. 1. The first international
grand lodge president was from At
lanta. The first grand lodge conven
tion was held in Atlanta in 1889 and
the second grand lodge convention
was held in Louisville, Ky., and the
third was held in Richmond, Va., and
the grand lodge headquarters was, for
a number of years, in Richmond, Va.,
until removed to Washington, where
it still is. Several of our grand lodge
officers are southern men. Brother
Robert Fuuchtner, general vice-pres
ident, who has been drafted by Presi
dent Roosevelt as head of the National
Conservation Corps, is a southern
man and is a member of the local in
Savannah. So you see the I. A. of
M. is almost as southern as the
southern Confederacv itself and fur
ther, the machinists organization holds
dear the ideals of the old south and
will never be led astray by the rad
ical tactics of John L. Lewis and the
C. I. O. We still believe in the A. F.
of L. and the principles of trade un
ionism that has already done so much
for the workers of our great country
and we have an abiding faith will
continue as long as oppression shows
its ugly head whether it be a capital
ist or a labor dictator.
Yours for the workers of America.
E. L. BARKLEY.
Int. Asso. Machinist, Charldtte, N. C.
SHIFTY
Shoemaker: “This is the first com
plaint we have ever had about this
make of shoe. Didn’t they fit you?”
Macintosh: “Aye, they fit me all
right, but they’re a wee bit tight for
my brother on the night shift.”
“WHY WASTE WORDS”
(This cartoon, with the above capption, reproduced from The Washington Evening Star, Washing
ton, D. C., Monday, January, 1938.)
i J
“THE BOY STOOD ON THE BURNING DECK WHILE ELIZA CROSSED THE ICE”