Newspapers / The Charlotte Labor Journal … / Sept. 6, 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
THE CHARLOTTE LABOR JOURNAL ADVOCATES LOYALTY TO THE AMERICAN FEDERATION^ / PROMOTION OF INDUSTRIAL PROSPERITY, AND CO-OPERATION OF ALL WORKERS ALON<S EVERY LINE. A ' : * - — - I *' ' .— ■ ■' —‘ — -" ■ PRESIDENT TRUMAN PAYS TRIBUTE TO LABOR - RECOGNIZES DIGNITY AND IMPORTANCE OF LABOR AND THE RIGHT OF A LIVING WAGE WASHINGTON, Sept. 2.—President Truman said last night in a Labor Day statement that the nation recognizes the import ance and dignity of labor and the right of every American to a wage which will permit a dedmt living standard. The president’s comment was echoed ny other leaders in the country, as the United States orenared to celebrate the Labor Day holiday. Concern was voiced by some lead ers, however, lest the process of re conversion and attendant unemploy ment might not be promptly solved. Meanwhile the nation’s war work ers, who have been urged since the start of the war to regard Labor Day as just another working day, were told to have fun on Monday. “Each year since the battel of 5induction began,” WPB Chairman . ft. Krug said in a statement, “American labor has responded nobly to the repeated urging* to stay on the job until victory is won. Now, at last, thanks to labor's jatriotic steadfastness, this year it is a pleas ure to invite labor to celebrate its magnificent accomplishments in win ning the war.” In his tribute to labor Mr. Tru man said: “Six years ago the workers of the United States and of the world, awoke to a Labor Day in a world at war. The democracies of Western Europe had just accepted the chal lenge of totalitarianism. We in the United States had two years of grace, but the issue Was squarely joined at that hour, as we noW know. There was to be no' peace until tyranny had been outlawed. “Today we stand on the threshold of a new world. We must do our part in making this world what it should be—a world in which the bigo tries of race and class and creed shall not be permitted to warp the souls of men. > “We enter upon an era of great problems, but to live is to face prob lems. Our men and women did not falter in the task of saving free dom. They will not falter now in the task of making freedom secure. And high in the ranks of those men and women, as a grateful world will always remember, are the workers of all free antions who produced the vast equipment with which the victory was won. “The tasks ahead are great, and .the opportunities are equally great. Your government is determined to meet those tasks and fulfill those opportunities. “We recognize the importance and dignity of labor, and we recognize the right of every American citizen to, a wage which will permit him and his dependents to maintain a recent standard of living.” Secretary of the Navy Forrestal said Labor day provided a fitting occasion “for the armed services and for the citizens of the nation to express their gratitude to the American working man for his con tributions toward victory. . . . "TTbe German and Japanese war lords have complained bitterly that all their imperial spirit was inade quate to oppose America's material superiority — a superiority ham mered out by labor’s strong arm.” RADICALISM IS SWEEPING WORLD By DANIEL J. TOBIN It was somewhat of a joke to those of us who know the situation to pick up the newspapers, especially the con servative, Republican, big business newspapers, and read in the editorial columns about the labor victory in the British elections. I read one paper in Boston which said: “There is no need of the busi ness interests of the United States being in the least disturbed over the British elections." And it went on to say: "The leaders of the Labor Party are very con servative men, mild Socialists, who do not believe in any such doctrine as is practiced and prevails in other coun tries of the world, such as in Russia." Well, let us analyse the platform on 'which the Labor Party won out. First, nationalisation, or the taking over by the government of public utilities, and especially coal mining. Railroads will b<e taken over by the government. Also electric light com panies, and I think tramways, or street ears and busses. But the platform on which they were elected goes further and says the Bank of England will be taken over by the government. Now the Bank of England is the oldest pri vate banking institution in Europe, much older than any of our banks in New York. At one time the Bank of England defied the government and refused to make loans that the gov ernment had endorsed, especially around the time of the purchase of the Sues Canal. What would oUr business people in this country think if al lthe big, pow erful national banks in the United States were taken over by the gov ernment? There if no individual or institution as blind as the individual or institution that refuses to see the light. Personally I do not favor radical ism, or doctrines that would destroy honest and legitimate trade and enter prise. But you can rest assured that the victory in England for the Labor Party, which, by the way, was away beyond the anticipations of the leaders of the Labor Party—I repeat, you can rest assured it is the first important step toward the disestablishment eventually of private enterprise in all large interests and industries. What are we going to face in this country? Are we going to be the only large country in the world with powerful invested interests that will permit private enterprise to exist? France has gone thoroughly Com munistic, as it now appears. Germany will never ' be a power again in the industrial world, or if it is, you can rest assured that pri vate enterprise will hot have much to say in the affairs of Germany. Poland, Czechoslovakia and Italy all have gone farther and farther to wards the doctrines of extreme-ism. And remember this: that there are large investments of American capi tal, of big business, in nearly oil the countries of Europe. What about China? It has been claimed—and has not been satisfactorily disproved—that in a referendum vote of the so-called Free China they would favor the dis establishment of free enterprise. In other words—let us be plain with each other—China, especially northern China, is leaning strongly towards Communism. Spain is not a great, important nation + and is almost bankrupt, and no one knows what is going to be the ending in Spanish affairs. This we do know: that Franco and his form of government are ready for the junk pile. Where do we stand, then, as the one great, outstanding financial and business nation of the world? I will tell you where we stand. We are going to stand alone for the prin ciples of free enterprise. And how long can we stand alone Perhaps five or ten years! The pity of it is that big business and the big, powerful newspapers are goading and ready to fignt against labor whenever labor raises its head in behalf of justice for the masses a>f the people. And on the heels of the two insti tutions in our country, big business and the newspaper industry, we have our political leaders, many of them, trailing along, ready to get up in the Congress and advocate the adoption of unfair labor laws to further chain the hands and feet of the toilers. I repeat, they are blind to their own interests, because the greatest friends of honest business and of free government that there are now in our country, or that there ever have been in our country, are the masses of the working people who follow the trade I unions and the doctrines of justice 'and freedom now practiced and ad vocated by trade unions. And the unorganized workers and the small farmers and small business men of the nation follow the leader ship of labor. What happened in England? Six million organised workers in England ; educated for years the small busi ness interests, the small farmers, the so-called middle classes, and led by the trade union leaders, they went to the polls and repudiated so over whelmingly the British aristocrats that the results were similar to an earthquake. ...‘ I know former Prime Minister Churchill personally, and in my analy sis of him, although he comes from the so-called upper class, he was a Democrat at heart and he did every thing within his power to be helpful to the masses of the working people of England. But his efforts were blocked by the leaders of his Con servative Party. Churchill saved England from de struction by the German conquerors in the darkest hour that England > had ever seen. The British people | were not fighting Churchill. They I were fighting the system of govern ment and the interests he represented { We are not opposed to honest busi- : ness or to honest political leaders,! but we are opposed to leaders in either party who are going to be! used by the enemeis of labor. Any party that believes that in this pro gressive, dangerous age they can con tinue to fight the masses of the people and take it all for them-1 selves are just simply cutting their own throats. They are going to destroy not only their class, but destroy their system in this country as they have done in France, in Russia, and are on the road to do in England unless a ; r < BROTHER FRANK BARR DIES The Journal is in receipt of a Telegram notifying ua of the death of our beloved brother, Frank Barr, a veteran member of the Plumbers’ and Steamfitters Union, affiliated with the American Federation of Labor. Brother Barr was a veteran of World War I, a past president of the Plumbers’ and Steamfitters Union, and Also a past president of the Char lotte Central Labor Union. In this time of bereavement, we would like to extend to his wife, his family and all who knew him, our heartfelt sympathy. In these last words we say, farewell Brother Barr, though you have' left our midst in body, your spirit wifl forever live in our hearts. A man that served his God. bis Country, and mankind. Funeral rites will be held at the cemetery at Union, S. C. Thursday afternoon at 5 p. m. a FLETCHER SEES UNEMPLOYMENT AS ONLY “TEMPORARY” IN N. C. DUE TO ABANDONED WAR PLANTS RALEIGH, Sept. 2.—Unemployment in a major portion of the state’s industries will be only temporary, and “if the old world keeps on an even keel. North Carolina will do all right during the reconversion period,” Chairman A. L. Fletcher of the state unem ployment compensation commission said yesterday. Any displace ment of labor in the state’s textile, tobacco, hosiery and furniture industries will be temporary and a steady employment over a long period of time is fairly certain, he said. ncvuuvtrisiuii wi ^wun iui uviiuiii use, of which there is a distressing shortage throughout the world, will take only a few days for our textile plants. Tobacco, furnture and wood working plants generally have no problem at all.” In the matter of establishments that may be classified as 100 per cent war plants, Fletcher said, “we are experiencing now the effects of mass lay-offs. About 15,000 people have been laid off in North Carolina since announcement of the end of the Jap anese war. These people must find jobs among us somewhere, and it is my hope that North Carolina indus try can absorb them.” He said that industry should not be called upon to absorb a great many of the displaced workers—espe cially boys and girls of high school age, housewives who had never work ed before and should now go back to home-making; and many older workers who were called back to ma chine and work bench for the emer gency and who should now retire. “In every community where one of the war plants has mushroomed itno vast proportions overnight and has now collapsed just as suddenly, there is considerable fear and un certainty. In over a dozen com munities great factories, filled with expensive machinery, stand idle. There is no sign of life around them. One plant, which had over 5,700 workers 10 days ago, there now are three people in the office, three watchmen, and six mechanics.” He was referring to the National Car bon company plant at Winston-Sa lem. What to do with these great plants, he said, is a problem. Left vacant, “in a year they would bo haunted by rats and bats.” “It seems to me that our depart ment of conservation and development and our state planning board ought to be thinking and planning to make use of these buildings and as, much of their machinery as can be used for peacetime production.” CHURCHES BACK LABOR IN LABOR DAY SERMONS —v— WASHINGTON, D. C.—Churches j throughout the nation held special Labor Sunday services this year up holding the right of the workers to the opportunity for gainful employ ment and a better life in the future. Typical of the pre-Labor Day re ligious observances, was the message of the Federal Council of the Church es of Christ in America which was read in many houses of worship. Holding that the pattern of the fu ture will depend very largely, on the policies and the strength of the or ganized workers, the statement called for a guaranteed annual wage for all workers; an adequate and secure standard of living for all, based on full employment, a high level of pro duction. good housing and adequate social insurance; elimination of dis crimination in employment because of sex, race, creed or color; extension of workers education; and effective re location of war workers in a peace time economy. -V “I’m sorry," said the diner, who hoped to get away with it, “but I haven’t any money to pay for that meal.” “That’s all right,” said the cashier, “well write your name on the wall and you can pay the next time you come in.” “Don’t do that. Everybody will see it.” “Oh, no, they won’t. Your coat will ,be hanging over it” _________ Mose: “Did you know dat Jonah was three days in de stomach of a whale?” Rastus: “Dat ain’t much. Mah uncle was longer dan dat in de stomach of a alligator.” Mose. “Yo don’t say! How long? Rastus: “He’s dere yit!” -V Prejudice: A lazy man’s substitute for the drudgery of thinking. e ______ __ they can be saved now by the Labor Party, which is beginning to travel down the road towards extreme-ism. The handwriting is on the wall. Business, capital, political labor haters beware! The days are not far off when the masse* in our coun try may say “You and your systems have failed. We are not going to be isolationists. We will join up with all the other nations, where the masses have Jaken over.” BATTLE ON BETWEEN A. F. OF L. I AND THE C. 1.0. FOR CONFERENCE ^ SEAT AT PARIS L L. 0. MEETING WASHINGTON, Sept. 1.—A behind-the-scenes struggle be tween the AFL and CIO for 4 he American worker’s seat at the forthcoming International Labor organization conference in Paris is being waged within the administration. The appointment will be made by President Truman, on the recommendation of Secre tary of State Byrnes and Secretary of Labor Schwellenbach. The conference begins October 15, and the choice must be made so<m to permit preparation of the,delegate and his advisers and for the necessary inoculations before travel. ^ Both big U. S. labor groups have high stakes in the outcome: 1. The American of Labor, which has furni lele erate since 1934 as this nation’s only representative in the ILO, needs the place of order to hold onto its in ternational role. 2. The Congress of Industrial or ganizations, repeatedly rebuffed in the past in efforts to gat a voice in the ILO, wants it more than ever this year as part of its effort to take the lead among American labor groups in the international field. The AFL itself is reducing its par ticipation in international affairs, although its leaders emphasise this does not spring from any desire to be isolationist. It is permitting the International Federation of Trade Unions, (IFTU) in which it also held the lone American seat, to dissolve without a fight, and it won’t enter the new World Trade Union con ference with the CIO and Soviet groups. SOVIET TRADE UNIONS Behind this is the emergence of the Soviet trade unions, with a total of about 25 million members, from the ashes of Europe to a dominant place in the international labor picture. The AFL wont tie up with the Soviets, saying the Russian trade unions are not free, that they are dominated by the government. The CIO is work ing closely with the Soviet labor lead ers, inviting them to visit American war plants and is joining them, with British, French and Mexican groups, in the formation of the new World Tarde Union Congress. The IFTU likely will be dissolved at meetings in London September 3 and 4, in the opinion of AFL leaders, although President William Greene is watching with interest the action of the powerful International Transport Workers union, headed by Ernest Bevin, now Britain’s foreign min ister. This group has repudiated the proposed constitution of the World Hrade Union Congress, which is to be acted upon in Paris at its all-important constitutional conven tion beginning September 25. The International Transport Workers are a power in the British trade union conference and in labor federations throughout the world. In the past, they have, with the British and the 1 AFL, dominated the IFTU. The American worker’s seat in the ILO has been occupied since 1937 by Robert J. Watt, the AFL’s in ternational representatives. Along with him representing the U. S. over that period have been Henry I. Harriman, New England power com pany chairman who represents em ployer groups, and several govern ment delegates. Former Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins and Carter Goodrich have been frequent repre sentatives of this government. SOCIAL. ECONOMIC PROBLEMS The ILO was founded largely through the efforts of Green, the late Samuel Gompers and British labor leaders, as an adjunct to the League of Nations at the close of World War L Failure of this coun try to participate in the league kept the AFL — then the only nation wide general labor organization in the U. S. — from joining up formally until 1034. Its principal function has been to keep abreast of social and eco- . nomic problems throughout the world, exchange plans for coping with them, and by joint action of government, labor and employers represented in its machinery, to raise the standard of living throughout the world. The AFL leadership feels the loss, ef the worker’s seat in the ILO con ference might ultimately lead to the death of the ILO itself. With the CIO in, and the Soviet groups pos sibly pulled in by the CIO, the AFL says the ILO might be junked in favor of the new World Trade Union Congress which is more a creature of World War II. Efforts to make the WTUC a part of the security conference machinery at San Fran cisco failed, however. CIO leaders say they have asked Schwellenbach for the worker’s seat, or at least to share the vote with the AFL. A similar request to Miss Perks and the late President Roose velt in advance of Hie Philadelphia conference of ILO last yaer eras turn ed down, after Mr. Roosevelt per suaded CIO President Philip Murray that to press for a voice at that time would create too much hard feel ing. In addition to the actual worker delegate, however, there are five to eight advisers, whose expertness in given subjects in the conference agenda gives them practically as much influence (and frequently the vote) on questions in those fields, Schwellenbach might decide to re appoint Watt as the delegate, nam ing CIO and other labor represent atives to the adviser jobs. The importance with which the whole international theater is viewed is indicated by the departure of the CIO’s Sidney Hillman, chairman of the Political Action committee, for Paris last week, in preparation for the World Trade Union Congress ses sions. He also would be available in the French capital for the early committee and organisation meetings of the ILO. -V WE ALL MAKE MISTAKES Fungus—“You mean they threw you out of the theatricals for no good reason?” Wingus—“Well, I was acting as eelctrician, and in the quick-change scene the star called for her tights and I thought she said lights.” -V Never taking a chance is the chief , way of making a failure. ^INWIBM AND 19*9 EW« MAS ANAVgWflV BA* IN »RflOVM**rOB SSffiOO ftoflft A YEAR. DM ENURE INCREASE WENT M1DORR H«AO SERVICES l OFFICE MOWERS, INSURANCE, Real. ESTATE, VIC.. THERE MAS NO GAIN IN l ^ TW NUMBER OFPSOfie PHD BUY BONOS i tv6RY*»V BW > — —-w w [Vrs *MT*mVMNMtKT wrtH ^ UNION LA6EC at BOMWVAN FiUS>, ICY. IHf tOUiSVI ue central labor union has A 6R£FZY S0N0AMDTMNCB ££*ur wmiACA«roA WORKERS, AND SoM€S AND SCRIPT*/UNION MEMMM WHICH rf _ fvrs oNPoAmesaftAX'^; ABN IH 1W8 VICINITY. VS iao6 VL-yb ictar-wR* fr SnSffP [/ ARAtr-neiAisop F COROWAlMBRS <N ^MCSlCA |CRiMi*Wt CONSPIRACY WING TWfe CHANGE (N EACH CASE. IN at LEAST TWO OP TWE CASES TWE EMPLOYERS RAISED LARGE FUNDS 1b ASSIST iN-tWe P«OSECL/pa
The Charlotte Labor Journal and Dixie Farm News (Charlotte, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Sept. 6, 1945, edition 1
1
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75