Newspapers / The Charlotte Labor Journal … / June 8, 1939, edition 1 / Page 1
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, The ONLY REALLY INDEPENDENT WEEKLY la Mecklenburg Comity. For a Weekly Ita Readers Represent the LARGEST BUYING POWER In Charlotte Che Charlotte labor Journal gsw* Truthful, Honest, Impartial Endorsed by^ajs^N.^cjButo r«d«r»- AND DIZ-ZE FARM NEWS Endeavoring to Serve the Masses VOL. VIII—No. 4 *ou* >• » •••• CHARLOTTE, N. C., THURSDAY, JUNE 8, 1939 “»"|*L A****T**”, °VT7il w $2.00 Per Year ANDREWS SAYS PROPOSED CHANGES IN THE WAGE-HOUR LAW WOULD RESULT IN REPEALING SOCIAL GAINS WASHINGTON, June 7.—Elmer F. Andrews, wage-hour administra tor, today flayed proposed amend ments to the wage-hour act proposed by Representative Graham A. Bar den, of New .Bern, and a majority of the members of the House labor committee. “In my judgment,” said Mr. An drews, “this legislation should be en titled ‘A Bill to Lower Wages and Es tablish Longer Hours of Work.’ A vote for this bill is a vote to nullify teh act . . The wage-hour administrator charged that “every workingman in America has real cause for immediate concern because this legislation is be ing supported by well-financed lobby groups who are hell-bent oir taking from crelical and industrial workers the social gains which hayp been made during the last year.” He denounced the bill as attempt ing to emasculate the law at a time when it had been in effect for only seven months. The reaction to Mr. Andrews’ state ment among some on Capitol Hill was that it was probably gratuitous since the porposals to change the wage hour act now appear bogged since Chairman Mary T. Norton, of the La bor committee, has already announced that she will make no further effort to obtain any change in the wage hour act, even as originally asked by Mr. Andrews. * * *—Jesse S. Cottrell, in Charlotte Observer. Retired Railroad Men In Charlotte For Convention Approximately 800 delegates from 22 states were present at the opening of the Annual Convention of the Nat ional Association of Retired Railway Employes at Hotel Charlotte today. J. W. Murray national director is in charge. Registration was under the direction of Capt. Tom Rowland. Mayor Ben Douglas delivered the address of welcome. Judge Heriot Clarkson, of the State Supreme Court was on the program for an address. It was reported that there are now 125,000 retired railway employes in the U. S., and 200,000 more are eligi ble for retirement. The convention will lost through out the week. I « 4 $ * w m W v v Central Labor Union The regular meeting of Central La bor Union. .Wednesday night of this Week was fairly well attended. The regular routine of reports, obligation oil delegates, etc., was gone through with. The different organizations re ported working conditions as good. Obligation of delegates from a newly chartered local was postponed until a few “kinks” could be straightened out. There seems to be some confusion as to the meeting dates during May, June, July and August, they being the first and third Wednesday of each month. The Women’s Union Label League takes over the second and fourth Wednesday nights. Miss Vernette re ported for the league and asked a full attendance for the meeting next Wednesday night. Construction Gains In May Construction activity in Charlotte during May increased slightly over the corresponding month last year, according to figures on file in the of fice of the building inspector. Last month there were 102 permits representing a total expenditure of $197,856 as compared with 75 per mits and $177,457 in May of last year. During April, this year, 77 permits were authorized for jobs estimated to cost $873,417, including the permit for the Charlotte Memorial hospital. Patronize Journal Advertiser? Claim Increase For Unemployed City Of Charlotte Unemployment benefit claims in creased slightly in North Carolina during the month of April over the preceding month, but payments drop ped precipitiously, according to data issued yesterday from the Social Se curity Board in Washington. Claims increased 10.6 pet- cent; 26, 080 filed them. Payments of $331,381 were 36.9 per cent less' than those made in March. Total payments made April 30 since payments be gan Jan. 1, 1938, amounted to $10, 048,078. In July, when Illinois and Mon tana began their benefit-paying pro grams, job insurance wil lbe in full operation in every state of the nation. —News. Typo Auxiliary To Elect Officers At Metting On June 13 The Ladies’ Auxiliary of Charlotte Typogranhjpal Union, No. 338, will meet Tuesday night at the home of Mrs. H. P. Carriker, 416 Pecan ave nue. The meteing will be important on account of the election of officers. Three candidates, Mrs. W. R. Cash wel land Mrs. W. M. Bostick, are in the field for delepateship to the Wom an’s Auxiliary National Convention at Fort Worth, Texas, in conjunction with the I. T. U. convention. This promises to be a lively meeting. On Friday night of this week, at the (home of Mrs. H. F. Carriker, bin^ro wil lbe the order of the eve ning, but other games will be played and refreshments served. The object is to finance the delegate to Fort Worth. Women’s Label League To Meet Wed’day, June 14 The Women’s Union Label League will meet at Central body hall Wed nesday, June 14, 8 P. M. there being no meeting of Central Labor Union on that night, they meeting the first and third Wednesdays. The ladies are an xious to have a full attendance, as there is business of importance to be transacted. IP YOUR SUBSCRIPTION IS IN ARREARS SEND IN A CHECK PROBE OF LABOR BOARD IS DUE IF VOTE IS FURTHER DELAYED; WAGNER ACT IS DUE FOR ACTION WASHINGTON, June 4.—Presi dent Roosevelt has been told by some of his closest Congressional friends that unless Congress gets a chance to vote on Wagner Labor Act amend ments this session, a House investi gation of the National Labor Rela tions Board is inevitable. This became known as influential. House members started a quiet cam paign to obtain support for an inves tigation resolution which Represen tative Cox, Democrat, Georgia, has in troduced. Some Democrats expressed the opin ion privately that the House would certainly adopt, if brought to the floor, a resolution to create a special committee to inquire into the board’s activities during the summer and fall and report back Jan. 1. The inquiry would look into quali fications of the three board members and all regional directors and trial examiners and the arguments that the law should be amended. wwvwwessssmwvwwvww Representative Anderson, Democrat, Missouri, already has introduced leg islation for such an investigation and informed persons said a similar one was being drafted by other legisla tors. Cox said either would be approved by the Rules Committee, of which he is a member, and he predicted the only floor opposition would come from stanch New Dealers. Representative Martin, Republic an, Massachusetts, the minority lead er, agreed with Cox. He expressed the opinion that “about 95 per cent” of the 168 Republican members would give their approval. That would mean the resolution would have to receive the support of only about 60 of the 260-odd Democrats. Advocates of changes in the law have complained that it appeared neitheir complained that it appeared neither the Senate nor the House La bor Committee intended to report amendments at this session. Journal Readers Co-operate With Those Who Advertise In It. *r sr* * Facing' the Facts With PHILIP PEARL With hot weather here, the vermin hunting season is open. Last year the Dies Committee focused its glare on the rediculous plague of the Commun ists. Now it is turning over a few stones and exposing the Nazi-Facist bugs. While the public’s first impulse 1b to yell for the exterminator, a flit gun is not really necessary. The best way of dealing with these crawling creatures is to expose them to the light. They thrive only in the dark. Enough has been revealed by the Dies Committee and in the illumi nating articles by Stanley High ill the Saturday Evening Post to war rant a few comparisons between the habits and activities of the Commun ists and the Nazi-Facists, as well as their relative danger as pests. It is our opinion that the Commun ists are more clever, more subtle and more dangerous. Like termites, they bore from within established in stitutions. They extol democracy, al though in Soviet Russia they have killed the last vestige of freedom. They pledge allegiance to the Consti tution, although they recognize no law but their own. They have even made overtures to religion. A wide follow ing of fellow-travelers (they used to be called parlor pinks in the old days) are, placed in influential positions. They operate from within the schools, the press, the Government and the C. I. O. Moreover, the Communist Party appears to be well-financed and well disciplined. GRUBBING GRAFTERS The Nazi-Facists in this country have no central organization. The propaganda groups are widely scat tered and disassociated. Many of these organizations are run by fly by-night grafters who are in the busi ness of selling misinformation to suckers for their own profit. Their ideology of hatred and their heroes, Hitler and Musoslini, are repungent to the vast majority of Americans. One would have to entertain a very low opinion of public intelligence to fear that the bund-boys will make much progress in this country. Nevertheless it would be folly to underestimate the potential menace of Communist and Nazi-Facist prop aganda in this country. The investi gations must go on and must be pursued thoroughly. The American Federation of Labor has given its full support to the Dies inquiry, wheth er directed against Communists, Nazi-Facists or any other un-Ameri can group. It is interesting to note that the Communists, who screamed blue murder when the Dies Commit tee stepped on their toes, are ap plauding its present activities. PROSPERITY NOTE Secretary-Treasurer Frank Morri son tells us that he expects to be able to report to the Cincinnati convention in October a paid-up membership of a four million in the American Feder ation of Labor. Best estimates place the C. I. O.’s paid-up membership at not more than one million. They don’t give out any official figures. It is important to remember that the C. I. 0. ’s public claims do not specify paid up membership, the only kind that counts in any organization. Even the smart-alecks who thought the extreme sensationalism of the C. 1. O. was going to sweep the country by storm are beginning to revise. They have seen the A. F. of'L.’s numerical strength grow steadily even in depres sion times. That’s a sure sign of health. They have seen the C. I. O. pull in its horns at the first depres sion scare and its membership dwin dle rapidly under pressure. Those are unfailing symptoms of congenital anemia. -4 ' BUT ANY JURY WOULD FREE US We could be arrested for what we think of the way labor news is pre sented (or misrepresented, take your choice) in the Daily Worker, the Washington Merrv-Go-Round Column and the C. I. O. News. POSIES Roses are blooming In Washington and bouquets are plentiful and inex pensive. So we think it’s timely to bestow a few of them on some of our deserving but unsung sirs and broth ers and sisters in the Federation. Here they are: To the Legislative Bureau of the A. F. of L. (Bill Roberts, Bill Husing and Paul Scharrenberg) because of their efficient service and because they are so influenced with and high by the lawmakers on To Chief Organizer Frank Fenton and his aides in the field, for their fine work in recruiting membership even in hard times. To the Research Department (Miss Florence Tohrne, Miss Margaret Scatterfood and Boris Shiskkin) for the preparation of regular reports on unemployment, business conditions and legislation which command the high est regard in labor circles and in of ficial and journalistic Washington. To Editor Julian Pierce and Assis tant Mary Gibbs, for turning out the American Federation of Labor Week ly News Service on a uniformly high and informative plane. bubecribe for The Journal TOM COOPER, WILMINGTON'S MAYOR HOPES TO BE GOVERNOR OF N. C. AND THE JOURNAL HOPES HE WILL % _ * W. A. S. Douglas, columnist for the Washington Times-Herald, recent ly published the following story in his column, “Rollin’ Along,” about Wilmington’s mayor, Tom Cooper: WILMINGTON, N. C.—I talked today for more than an hour with the only ex-convict who has climbed out of a slough of despair as that record must be to the position of mayor of an important American city. What is more, my ex-convict is a candidate for the governorship of the State of North Carolina—the election comes next spring, and he is given an excellent chance of winning. Tom Cooper, mayor of Wilmington and director of public safety, is a wiry, dark-haired, fiftyish man of medium size with a dynamic person ality. He resembles Mayor La Guar dia in about everything except the extra poundage the New Yorker car ries around his middle. Cooper was sentenced 15 years ago to a three year term in the Federal penitiary at Atlanta as a result of the bank :rashes in the minor panic of 1922. He was president of two Wilmington institutions and also what he terms a ‘figure-head” president of a savings bank. All three went under. On the State Hharge concerning the savings bank he was sentenced to eight years with the North Carolina con vict load gangs. * * » Mayor Cooper blames his troubles on the Ku Klux Klan, at that time in practical domination of State poli tics. He never joined thu organiza tion and incurred the wrath of the State Klan leaders when, as a mem ber of the board of education, he per mitted Knights of Columbus to use the Wilmington public schools for night instruction in reading and writing. There is still considerable illiter acy among grown-ups in this sec tion. There seems ground for the mayor’s assertion of no knowledge of wrongdoing in the fact that he and a brother bank official were acquitted at their first trial. Cooper accepted the sentence and went to Atlanta. The other man ap pealed and was granted a new trial. When that was announced President Coolidge ordered the banker freed. But he had already served more than two years. * * * He came back to Wilmington to start his eight-year sentence on the roads. He was freed by the then Governor of North Carolina, A. W. McLean, after serving 14 months. “It was while I was in Atlanta,” - - - - ... V 1 9 9 W W W 9 IIM SOUTH CAROLINA AUTHORITY TRADES AND LABOR CONUCIL DOING CONSTRUCTIVE WORK Sitting, left to right: Marion Hedges. Research Dept, of the In ternational Brotherhood of Electrical Workers; W. P. Hooker, Charleston, Secretary of the 8. C. Authority Trades and Labor Council: A1 Flynn, president of the Council and president of the South Carolina Federation 8tate Federation of Labor; R. D. Clowe. Labor Relations Director, Santee-Coo per project; Alex McDonald, International representative of the Engineers; L. H. (Lib) Jones. International representative of Common and Con struction Laborers’ Union. Standing: James Coles, Charleston, representing Carpenters and Joiners International Brotherhood!; John Frock, International representative Plasterers and Cement Finishers; A. C. McGar ner. Internatonal representgtve I. B. E. W.; Charles W. GU. Internatonal representatve of Panters and Decorators; F. T. Cornelius. International representative of Machinists; John Briscoe, International representative of Bricklayers; Arthur P. Smith. International Representative of Boilermakers; J. W. Cain and J. Paul Fine, International representatives of Iron Workers. CHARLESTON, S. C., June 5.— Public reaction to the announced pur pose of the South Carolina Author ity Trades and Labor Council, meet ing here last week, has greatly en couraged the labor representatives who have worked so diligently in ob taining fair labor conditions on the big Santee-Cooper project just start ing near here. “We insist that all work on the big South Carolina project be done as nearly as possible by South Carolina labor and we are most anxious to es tablish a labor relationship between I our Council and the Authority and contractors on the job which will promote peace and make possible completion of the job with no labor disturbances or misunderstandings,” was announced as the policy of the Council. Pictured above are many represen tatives of many International Unions whose members are now, or soon will be, employed on the Santee-Cooper project. Other International repre sentatives who have participated in all past work of the Council were not present at the last week’s meeting, hence they are not in the above photo graph. For more than a year these representatives, with A1 Flynn, presi dent, and W. P. Hooker, secretary, and other South Carolina labor offi cials, have devoted much time to es tablishment of a decent wage rate for this big job, and in looking after the interests of labor in other lines. Work done by these International represen tatives and State Federation officials has raised wages of Southern labor to an extent of many hundreds of thou sands of dollars in the aggregate, and at the same time established labor relationships of still greater value. said Mayor Cooper to me this morn ing, “that I got the idea of going into polities. There, as in no other line of effort, you can find out what peo ple think of you—whether they want to kick you when you’re down or lend you a hand up. My mother—she died while I was in prison—used to write me letters that showed through her at tempts at comfort how horribly she had been hurt, “They hurt me, too, these letters. So I wrote and told her if she would just think of the future and not the past that I would show her the faith of my fellowmen could return to me and be almost though never quite as sound as her faith in me. I told her the highest office in the gift of the State, of North Carolina was the gov ernorship. And that, some day, I would be Governor.” Mayor Cooper cracked his fist down on his desk. “And by God I will be, too,” he almost shouted. * * * But the term on the road gang, with the dust from the automobiles of for mer friends and acquaintances churned in his face as he sweated with pick and shovel, came near to breaking his spirit. His wife sup ported herself and their two children during the long dreary prison terms. And when Tom Cooper was freed he felt like shaking the dust of North Carolina from him, despite his prom ise to his mother. He went first to Florida, where he sold mules for a living. He was born on a farm and knew mules from the hooves up. He sold insurance, too, and sold it so well that he was offered an agency in Miami. But be fore the deal was closed, his prospec tive employers learned of his past— and there was nothing doing. So he went to Texas, selling mules again— and, once again, he was recognized as an ex-convict, a branded man. “What’s the use?” he told me he said to himself—and in his extrem ity he remembered the promise to his mother. So he came back to Wilmington, his head up, but his heart low down. And he found to his as tonishment that men and women did not avoid him, that they came across the street to meetv’.'im, to shake his hand, to wish him well. * * * In 1930 Tom Cooper ran for sher iff—and was defeated by a narrow margin. But he found that his friends were many and were increasing daily. In 1934 he ran for the State Legis lature and was elected. There he authored the State parole system and the liquor sales law—both now in operation. In 1937 he was elected mayor of Wilmington by the biggest majority in the history of the city. “My one regret, that night of vic tory,” he said, “was that my mother was not alive to see that I was on my way to carry out my promise.” Everybody in Wilmington acclaims Tom Cooper as a first-class mayor. He has revamped the police and fire de partments, completely re-equipped the latter, installed the modern two-way radio system on all police cars, has secured $1,700,000 from the Federal government for slum clearance and $1,100,000 for the deepening of the river channel from Wilmington to the sea. * * * * Mayor Cooper lives with his wife and two daughters in a cottage that cost him $2,900. He is an ardent new dealer, a Rooseveltian back to the President’s Navy days when he first met him through Josephus Daniels, a mutual friend. The mayor corresponds regularly with a number of the men he met in the days of his misfortune. A let ter from one of them lay on his desk during this interview. Among other things, the man wrote: “I have regained my health, thanka to you and through the grace of the Goof! Lord.” Frisco Printers Leave Hie Non Partisan League SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.—The San Francisco Typographiacl Union, by a majority of 218 has voted to with draw from the Communist dominated Non-Partisan League. The question of withdrawal appear ed on the ballot for the regular bi ennial election of local officers. S. C. Federation Convention At Beaufort June 30 and July 31 COLUMBIA, S. C., June 5.—Sec retary Fred E. Hatchell, of the South Carolina State Federatio nof Labor, is busy these days sending oat cre dential blanks for delegates to be authorized to attend and participate in the convention of the Federation. The convention will be held in Beau fort, S. C., beginning Friday, June 30 and ending Saturday, July -1; Sec retary Hatchell reports that many new affiliates have been added to the convention roll during the past year. Patronize Journal Advertiaera
The Charlotte Labor Journal and Dixie Farm News (Charlotte, N.C.)
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June 8, 1939, edition 1
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