Newspapers / The Charlotte Labor Journal … / July 5, 1945, 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
Cte CttBFlotlE laboF jouFnal Endorsed by tko N. C. Slota AND DIXIE FARM NEWS O/fM Organ of Control Labor Union; Standing __ Federation of Labor > for tko A. F. L. VOL. XV. No. 8 *— CHARLOTTE, N. C., THURSDAY, JULY 5, 1945 ~ $2.00 Par Yaw THE CHARLOTTE LABOR JOURNAL ADVOCATES LOYALTY TO THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR;* PROMOTION OF INDUSTRIAL PROSPERITY, AND CO-OPERATION OF ALL WORKERS ALONG EVERY LINE. AMERICA INCORPORATED By RUTH TAYLOR What is America? On this Fourth of July, 1946, are we sure we know Just what America is? ... We are America. America is all of us—incorporated, for our government is a people’s government, made for the people and answerable to the people. ftwas Carlyle who said: “History is the essence of innumerable bio graphies.” America is the sum total of the lives and ideals of millions of seekers after freedom—not of freedom for themselves alone, but of freedom for all men. They realised the truth that no man is free unless all men are free That all men jure created equal is not just a high sounding phrase. It is the keynote in the Bill of Rights that has made America the greatest na ti°n The bert*!)rophet of the future is the past. What we will do and where we will go is determined by our past and by the ideals that shaped both past and present. Our national expansion has not been the result of blood conquest or plundering. We bought Alaska from Russia, Louisiana from 'France The constant goal of the American people has been the attainment 'of a sodety marked by the individual liberty granted to all men, regardless to race, creed or economic status. ,. Dean Acheson, our Assistant Secretary of State, said oyer the radio recently: “We are individualists. For that reason we love freedom—freedom to be ourselves. We don’t think brutality is a sign of greatness. We want a world that is free from bullies going around and beating people up and tak ing things away from them, or making them do what they don t want to do. Today all of us have a state in our foreign policies. Tolerance and fair ness. sound judgment and understanding are just as essential in us as they are in our diplomats and statesmen, because they are but the reflection of OU”As^m«iwis^w^hold1M our £asic thesis that the good of the majority is the good of all, that all men are entitled to equal treatment and to equal responsibility. As Americans, we value duty above privilege, truth above petty phrases; wisdom above cleverness; tolerance above prejudice. Democracy is conduct, and it* only stable foundation is character. What America is, is determined by what its citizens—you and I and the man next door—are. We are America.__' __ WALDMAN HITS “WORLD LABOR” GROUP AS DISRUPTIVE COMMUNIST TAMIMENT, Pa.—Louis Waldman, New York labor lawyer and . author, told the final session of the Camp Tamiment Social and Economic Con ference, of which he is permanent chairman, that “the great task of la bor and liberal forces who take seri ously the principles of democracy in the United States is to unite against the Totalitarian forces.” ML Waldman also stressed the need for “unity among all truly progressive forces in America and Europe which have a common democratic objective, as opposed to any united front with communists.” He declared: "We need unity, not with the to talitarians, but against them.” The labor lawyer assailed the newly organized World Federation of Trade Unions as “an international Political cratic International Federation. He continued: “The WFTU will serve as another channel through which the Soviet trade unions will exercise influence jpon the trade unions in the demo :ratic countries while we are unable to exert any influence whatever upon them. Unity cannot be a one way street unless there is reciprocity, mu tual cooperation and compromise. “The WFTU is not a step toward iabdr unity. It deepens the cleavage between the APL and CIO, and with out labor unity on the domestic scene there_cannot be international unity. " Mr?WaldmancharacterixeJ’the So riet trade unions as “agencies of the Soviet government” and predicted that leaders of British and American unions will “find their honeymoon Action Committee.” He stated that die new federation has the avowed purpose of destroying the old demo srith the communists suddenly ending in a divorce.” EMPLOYMENT RALEIGH. July 3. — Employment dropped slightly more than one per cent from April to May in 573 identi cal plants in North Carolina, classi fied as the larger and more important activities, but exclusive of lumbering and logging and fertiliser operations, it is revealed by Dr. J. S. Dorton, State director of the War Manpower Commission. These 673 plants had a total em ployment of 302,113 in April, as com pared with a total of 299,010 in May, a decrease of 3,102. This slight drop is attributed to military withdrawals movement of workers to other states and only slightly to cutbacks, which has had and will probably have tittle effect on overall employment in North Carolina. The proportion of women to total employment continues to increase slightly, while total employment con tinues a gradual decline. The May re port showed that 46.76 percent, or a total of 139,784 of the workers in these plants, were women; 169,227, or 63.25 per cent, were men. The proportion of women workers has in creased during the past four or five years from about one-third to almost one-half of the total labor force in the activities reported. The percentage of Negro workers has continued to fluctuate between 12 and 13 per cent during the past year in these activities. The May report shows that 13.3 percent, or 39,769 of the total employment in these plants, were Negroes. Previous reports indi cate that approximately 10 percent of the total employment in such plants in the earlier war dap were Negroes. S«^bees Name Comp ^ After Dead AFL Hero U. 8. Base in the Marianas.—Water tender First Class Charles P. Pinkes, former shop steward of the B. ft W. Federal Labor Union Local 20186 (AFL). who was killed July 14, 1944, somewhere in the Pacific, when a flame thrower he was repairing ex ploded, was remembered by his for mer officers and mates as they named the camp they are now occupying, Camp Pinkes. Pinkes was employed by the Bab cock ft Wilcox Co., boiler manufac turers, and he was a member of the AFL union in that plant since the union organised in 1936. He enlisted in the Seabees on June 24, 1943. -V In the darkness of today we need the assurance of abiding guidance. JAMES F. BYRNES OF S. C, IS NAMED AS SEC. OF STATE WASHINGTON, July 2.—At long 1st, Harry S. Truman managed to nominate James F. Byrnes for public office last Saturday. Mr. Truman originally was sched uled to perform that function at the Democratic National convention in Chicago last summer. As senator from Missouri, he had agreed to place the name of Byrnes in nomination for the vice-presidency. His chance never came. A boom de veloped for Mr. Truman himself; he had to withdraw as a sponsor of Mr. Byrnes, and before tre evening was over, Harry S. Truman had won the vice-presidential nomination which was to carry him into the White House some nine months later. -y Holidays On Way Back The movement for restoration of holidays for federal government em ployes has gained momentum and there is a feeling in Washington that President Truman will restore the July 4, Labor Day and Thanksgiving holidays. Before this is printed, his decision may have been announced. International Labor News Service and this paper have repeatedly point ed out that government workers’ ef ficiency would undoubtedly increase by restoration of the holidays and the nation thereby would be tne gainer. The government is encouraging vaca tions for war workers; the argument recently made by Chairman Krug of the War Production Board for grant ing vacations applies with equal force to holidays. As the Government Stan dard, official organ of the American Federation of Government Employes remarks: “Everyone needs a rest of two weeks or more at some time during the year, but there is equal need for breaks in continuous labor on other occasions. Holidays have come down< to us from the most ancient times; popular wisdom established them in Greece and Rome and indeed in every country that has a recorded history. :-V ROAD TO MILITARISM Peacetime conscription of the youth of America would lead to militarism in the United States just as certainly as it did in Germany and Russia and Italy. Nor is there assurance that its ultimate end and goal will be less than it was for Germany and Italy-r-catas trophe and ruin—or than it may have been in Russia also but for allies of the Soviets who came to their rescue. |—Henderson Daily Dispatch. • r1 . “FIGHT - WORK - SAVE” OUT OF EVERY PAY ENVELOPE BUY WAR BONDS UNION LABEL AND POSTWAR L M. Ornburn, Secretary-Treasurer Union Label Trades Department American Federation of Labor Every year on the Fourth of July we celebrate the birthday of our independence. This holiday is a milestone in the progress of these United States and in a larger sense it is a marker for the beginning of political democracy in the entire world. It is well that we have an annual reminder of the day when our beloved na tion won its freedom because our attention is Called to the basic principles or foundation stones upon which our great republic was built. Each year, our fournttaft forefathers stead out more and more as the greatest statesmen of all times. The example that they set could well be followed by many of our leaders and diplo mats today. we nave Deen engagea in two world wars to defend our American institu tions. With the aid of the Allied armies, the United States has won a final and unconditional surrender from the Nasi and Fascists in Europe. The Western World has been freed of the evil forces that violated their church es, destroyed their homes, corrupted their children, and murdered their loved ones. Our armies of liberation have restored freedom to millions of suffering people whose bodies and spirits can no longer be imprisoned by the oppressors who had enslaved these freeAiorn men. We have won victory in only one part of the war. We must still con quer the same evil forces in the Pa cific; and our third battle will be U preserve our American standard of living. The workers of our nation have per formed miracles in production. We have broken all records for turning out war equipment, 85 per cent of which is union-made. We will con tinue to work for victory. In addition to the actual work of making munitions, ships, tanks, planes, and all the other equipment of modern warfare, the members of the American Federation of Labor have liberally invested in War Bonds. Since the beginning of the war, at each aii nnal convention, the American Fed eration of Labor has pledged to sub scribe for one billion dollars in War Bonds each year. Officials of the United States Treasury assure us that this quota for the American Federa tion of Labor has been well over subscribed. Added to this, over half of the wage earners have subscribed to the payroll savings plan of buying War Bonds, which adds a large sum to our investment in the security of America. The purchase of War Bonds absorbs excessive buying power and prevents wholesale inflation. We all know that every rise in prices is equivalent to a wage cut. Therefore I urge the pur chase of War Bonds to stabilize the buying power of wages and prevent dread inflation. I also urge support for the measures passed by Congress setting up ration ing programs.. They will prevent price rises to a great degree and will also make it possible for our citizens to share and share alike in all avail able food. Another good reason why we should invest our savings in War Bonds is that they will eventually form a mighty reservoir of purchasing power, which, when released, will create em ployment for our returning fighters and war workers dismissed from mu nition industries. The best way to maintain American labor standards and to assure postwar prosperity whi n the bonds are cashed is to spend this money for Union Label goods. It is the only way that America can return to normal conditions and stabilize our economy so that we shall not have a repetition of the depressions which occurred after the First World War and during the early thirties. During the postwar period our gen eral policy should be to raise the standards of our workers in America. We must create greater purchasing power if we are to sustain our indus try in the high-geared mass produc tion of the war period and keep our war workers employed at steady jobs with adequate purchasing power to absorb the products of American in dustry. In this effort to maintain American labor standards we should not take part in any scheme to lower the wages of our workers to a level with the workers in various foreign lands. On the other hand, we should make every effort to raise the stan dards of workers in other countries to our level. Our tarif laws should be so drafted that we will admit goods and farm products duty free from any country in the world which maintains living standards equal to our own. America has taken a major part in winning two great wars. We furn ished the greater number of fighters; we supplied the greater amount of the munitions; we produced a greater por tion of the food, and finally, we raised s greater portion of the money. If we bad not had the manhood and woman hood, the wealth, the resources and the manufacturing facilities, we could not have won one of the greatest vic tories against the oppressive forces of slavery in Europe and we should not be able to win against Japan. It was all done under our American sys tem and for my part and for the sake of every person who loves America, I believe we should stick to the basic principles upon which we established our supremacy. We should not adopt any of the wild schemes of interna tional theorists through whom we would lose our political stability. Unin Labels, Shop Cards and Serv ice Buttons are the best guarantee of American labor standards. They are the only assurance that the goods are made in America and the necessary services are performed by members of labor unions. This means higher wages and better working conditions. Better wages mean higher purchasing power and adequate purchasing power is the only insurance that employment will be sustained on a wartime level. If we do not accomplish this result, America will be plunged into another period of depression. The heroic fighters who won the war and the loyal workers wjio made the muntions will be walking the streets. America will have bread lines instead of pay roll windows. We prefer to see the United States and Canada take a posi tive stand and adopt a constructive Policy through which we shall main tain our economic status and from there on establish higher wages and better working conditions. After winniiig the war, let’s not lose the peace. -V An elephant’s trunk is said to have forty thousand muscles. It is one of the wonders of nature. -V— A great divine said, “Today I will look into my own life for the faults I find in others.” POSTWAR PLANS CALL FOR HIGH WAGES AND TAX CUTS, SAYS VINSON, DIRECTOR OF WAR MOBILIZATION AND RECONVERSION IN STATEMENT WASHINGTON, July ^Declaring that the United States must be prepared against the possibility that Japan will fall quick* ly, Fred M. Vinson Saturday outlined a “postwar economic chart er’’ stressing high wages, lower taxes and public works. Vinson, director of the Office of War Mobilization and Reconversion, declared the drop in munitions produc tions production will be rapid from now bn and “will be accompanied by increases in unemployment” in the near future. His message, the quarterly report which OWMR must submit to con gress and the president, for the first time dealt at length with VJ—day and after. 50 Per Cent Better “The American people are in the pleasant predicament of having to learn to live 60 per cent better than they have ever lived before,” Vinson stated. “Only the defeatist can scoff at this inescapable fact that we must build our economy on that basis.” The bulk document proposed lift ing the national minimum wage to “at least 50 cents” an hour and broad ening old-age and unemployment bene fits, but it laid greater stress on the urgency of the armament production job still ahead. It hinted also at the fury to be vis ited on Japan. American flyers will “drop as much as 10,000 tons of bombs upon Japan in a single day, or double what Germany got during the days of heaviest assault,” the mobi lization chief Baid. “We shall move three million troops out of Europe and many of them half way around the world, together with the necessary materiel and supplies. Soon we shall have nearly six million men in all branches of the service in the actual theater of combat.” “UNION MADE” FIRE BOMBS BURN JAPAN Labor-Haters should give American Workers the credit due them for theirj great part in helping to subdue Ger many and “giving the works” to the treacherous Japs. For instance, around 100,000 Workers are engaged in making the new “Goop” and other fire-bearing bombs which are credited with dropping more devastation on Japan than even the bombed-out Ger man cities felt, according to Army Chemical Warfare Service. The roll of Workers includes members of num erous Unions at Army Ordnance Cits, as well as AFL members at e-Cummins Company, Louisville, and the Lonergan Company, Albion, Mich. Incendiary bombs, the Army ex 51ains, are especially devastating on ap targets after explosive bombs have ripped open a factory or other building and left it vulnerable to fire. The incendiaries, dropped by a second wave of bombers or on days after high' explosives have hit, finish the destruction of bomb-hit targets by starting fires virtually impossible to extinguish. Four principal types of thickened gasoline incendiaries are disclosed to be in use against the Japanese, rang ing from small six-pound bombs drop ped in clusters of thirty-eight each' to the 600-pound block-burner which, needing only a light-weight shall cas ing to enclose its firey ingredients, contains three times as much destruc tive force as a 600-pound explosive bomb. The 10-pound “Goop Bomb” which spouts a fire-making jelly is the re cently-revealed secret weapon of Army Chemical Warfare Service. The vio lently inflammable chemicals in this bomb come over the target like lava erupting from a volcano, and are as difficult as volcanic lava to extinguish. One of the ingredients, a mixture of magnesium and asphalt called “goop”, gives the bomb its name. Goop was discovered when a mag nesium product stored in a Kaiser plant in California, employing AFL Members, inexplicably burfst into flames. “Goop” is manufactured some what as cake is baked. Workers dump a mixture into a kettle, cream it, add a small amount of several chemicals, and paddle to a preliminary brew. This is put into a dough mixer, gaso line is added and the mixture is beaten to a pastry batter. This batter is then placed in a churn, diluted with jellied gasoline, and mixed to an even mass. The resultant lava is a strong, rubbery material which sticks in glue like gobs to anything it reaches, and because of its magnesium content pro duces the hottest flame ever known. These fire bombs made by Ameri can Workers are carrying blazing de feat directly to the heart of Japan. -V- ' Daniel Measimer Returns Daniel Measimer S/le who recently participated in the battle of Saipan, Leyte and Luzon and many others, and after having seen almost 3 years of service has received an honorable discharge. He will soon be coming home to see his parents, Mr. and Mrs. S. D. Measimer at Concord. Last week Daniel had a happy reunion with his brother, James Measimer, S/2c , now stationed at Port Hue meme, Calif., at the home of their sister, Mrs. Butie Rogers in San Francisco, Calif. It was the first time the two brothers and sister had been reunited since July 1942. Bertie Rogers, , 1805 Pine St. San Francisco, Calif. \ * » ' . ‘ ‘ T Reconversion Is A Somersault In the first place the word recon version has many similarities to Con stantinople, famous as “a very hard word and you can’t spell ‘it’.” Some of our leading columnists and edi torial writers nave tried to dig them selves out of the dilemma of words by talking about “pre-conversion.” There are millions of problems to be straightened out. In the first place all of our returning soldiers, and all the workers in war production, and the tangled affairs of every large and small community will have to be “re constructed” along the old framework of normal American living. There have been many official or ders issued by the Government to manufacturers to “cease production” of war supplies. The largest auto mobile corporation has been employ ing more than 400 thousand men and women in war production, and it is ' safe to say that General Motors, Ford and Chrysler have had over a million workers engaged in war production in their factories. In a year or two per haps as large a number of men and women will be employed in these same factories turning out motor products. The automobile industry gets raw ma terials from every state. From Ala bama comes coal, iron ore, cement, and stone ;Arizona furnishes copper, sil ver, and sine. Connecticut and Dela ware fill orders for clay products, sand, gravel and raw clay. Kentucky and states north, up into New Eng land, furnish exceptional stone, clay, and lime products. Michigan, Minne sota and Wisconsin produce iron ore and manganiferous ores, and lumber mill products. The entire south contributes cotton and this raw product furnishes cloth for car cushions and for the manufac ture of tires and paint. A majority of natural products from nearly all the States are included in regular sup plies necessary in the making of an automobile.. Besides, no one needs to be reminded that the highways, hotels, and restaurants, the sales stations and all the services supplied by dealers in gasoline, rubber and parts keep the automobile wheels going ’round in every State in the Union. While con sidering a return to our old ways of life in peace time, we must never forget that farming is tht basic indus try of our country, and that in vil lages and cities the newspaper pub lisher, the local merchant, the bank er, and all citizens are concerned about the future. There is nothing more nor less than the straight path way back to family life, with the ex soldicrji and the ex-workers back home. The aboye is only a bird’s-eye view of “reconstruction” in which every living soul in our country has a part to perform. We will make the come back! -V TRADE WINDS (Louis M. Schneider in Charlotte Ob server.) LABOR: Treasury department rec ords show that industrial leaders dis placed Hollywood top earners for 1943 and corporate fiscal years ended in 1944. General Motors’ president was at the head with $469,041.38. That will be labor’s talking point for increased wages. APL and CIO heads predict higher pay for an hour’s work, and sooner than generally believed. BROKE: This will never happen, but did you know that despite the gov ernment’s vast hoards of gold and silver, it hasn’t enough to fill the de mands of foreign nations should they ask at one time for return of all thenr | ear-marked gold and demand payment lin specie of their credit balance?
The Charlotte Labor Journal and Dixie Farm News (Charlotte, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
July 5, 1945, edition 1
1
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75