Editorial
CHARLOTTE LABOR JOURNAL & DIXIE FARM NEWS
Published Weekly at Charlotte, N. C.
Address All Communications to Post Office Box 1061
Telephones 3-3096 and 4-5802
Office of Publication: 118 East Sixth Street. Charlotte, N. C.
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H. A. Stalls, Editor and Publisher W. M. Witter, Associate Editor
Entered as second-class mail matter September 11, 1931, at the Povt
Office at Charlotte, N. C., under the Act of Congress of March 8, 1871
Official Organ of the Charlotte Central Labor Union and Approved by
■jSe American Federation of Labor and the
North Carolina Federation of Labor _______
The Labor Journal will not be responsible for opinions of corre
spondents, but any erroneous reflecting upon the character, standing or
mutation of any person, Arm or corporation which may appear in
tho columns of The Labor Journal will be gladly corrected when called
to the attention of the publisher. Correspondence and Open Forum
opinions solicited. ___■■■
does danger lie ahead?
If North Carolina is to be governed by laws made by
men who represent the people in the same manner that the
House passed the anti-closed shop bill last w*ek the people
of this State are in line for hectic times. The Journal refers
to House BUI 229, an anti-labor measure, which was rushed
through the House committee and the House itself last
week. According to The Journal’s observation,. Labor s
was presented in a very able and statesmanlike man
ner before the House committee on Labor and Manufac
turing, not only by members of organised Labor but by
great and patriotic North Carolinians who are not affili
ated with the Labor movement. Josephus Daniels, our
grand old North Carolinian, told the House committeemen
that such a drastic law would not work In North Carolina;
Frank Graham, president of the University of North Car
olina. told the members that “We must not use our powers
of government to forbid the freedoms of contract and col
lective bargaining;” E. B. Jeffries, publisher of The Greens
boro ReA>rd-News, criticized the wisdom of such a proposal
in no- uncertain terms; and Capus Waynick of Raleigh .told
the committee that “for this General Assembly to enact
this bill and, go on record as unfriendly to unions, which
live raised the weekly pay of workers from 913 to several
times that amount, would be an attack upon the principle
of organization itself.” *
Following presentation of the testimony of men whom
we have every reason to believe are North Carolina’s great
feeders, the committee stormed over a vote of 21 to 6 in
favor of ond of the most drastic pieces of legislation that
has ever been introduced in this state. Many reasons have
been talked around the Capitol halls in efforts to justify
the committee’s vote, one being that the General Assembly
representatives from Eastern Carolina farming counties
are tired of “Old Man” Daniels dictating to the North
Carolina General Assembly.
. A legislator who would “fall” for propaganda of this
nature evidently does not know Mr. Daniels and on top
of that he imust not be capable of passing judgment on
the merits or demerits of any piece of legislation. Such
* a legislator should be denied a seat in our law-making
body; he should be ostracized by friends^and abhorred by
the electorate as an abomination.
When the bill reached the House floor it was given over
to the “special interests" by a weak voice vote. No Legis
lator had the fortitude to ask for1 a roll call vote, because
of the seemingly prevailing “cut and dried** attitude favor
able to the bill’s passage; no legislator had the guts to call
for a rising vote, and it required only one to bring this
about. In Labor’s opinion this was somewhat of a let
down for the workers of North Carolina. It is no wonder
that Unionists are expressing bitter disappointment over
the House action.
North Carolina Labor has had a belly full of pussyfoot
ing. Throughout the years Tar Heel Labor has been
both “used and abused.” It has had friends and it has had
critics; it has enjoyed fat years and it has enjoyed lean
years—ever trying to present its problems to its employers
in a dignified and pacific manner. We say this without
fear of criticism from intelligent thinking people. Com
paratively speaking, this State has been almost free of
Labor-Management strife throughout its long history.
There has been no need for a drastic* anti-closed shop law
here; there has been no need for North Carolina legislators
accepting pressure from outside interests to enact drastic
anti-labor laws here; there has been no need for the en
emies of Labor to endeavor to enroll the services of min
isters of the gospel and allay them against Labor in North
Carolina; but there is a crying need for North Carolina to
be more careful in the future as to, who they elect, to the
highly responsible State offices in the North Carolina Gen
eral Assembly.
If farmer representatives are to go to Raleigh arrayed
against Labor; if managementrepresentatives are to go
to Raleigh arrayed against Labor; if other classes are to
go to Raleigh arrayed against Labor, a form of “warfare”
has been declared here and the period of battle will un
doubtedly take us through the chaos of many dark days
and many hot political battles, which may continue until a
balance is achieved, whereby this drastic piece of anti
union legislation is wiped off North Carolina’s statute
books, along with some others.
CLOSED SHOPS
(Reprinted from The Colombia Record. Columbia, S. C.
Monday, February 24, 1947)
There ought not to be in the law any requirement that
a union and an employer must put into ‘effect the closed
shop, the union shop, maintenance of membership or any
other like contract provisions.
There ought not to be written into law any prohibition
of the closed shop.
These things are mattters for honest collective bargain
ing and all the law should require is that both sides should
bargain in good faith and that any and all changes in the
contrs&t shall be produced by collective bargaining, not
unilaterally, by either union or employer. Both compul
sion and prohibition are negations of collective bargaining.
And why all the furor about the closed shop and the
“individual’s basic right to work?” Labor unions are not
the only agencies that maintain closed shops in South Car
olina. The state itself has set up a closed shop in the law,
in medicine and pharmacy. You cannot practice law in
South Carolina until you are admitted to the bar after
passing the scrutiny of the board of bar examiners. You
can not practice medicine until you get the approval of the
%%What a Wonderful World It Would Be---"
Court**? Appreciate America- lac.
_I
mediral examiners, or pharmacy until you get the O. K.
of the pharmaceutical examiners. You can not practice
dentistry, chiropractic, veterinary, medicine or embalm
ing until you get the approval of the dental examiners,
chiropratic examiners, veterinary examiners or the board
of embalmers.
You have to belong to the union, or society or fellow
of licensed attorneys, physicians, pharmacists, chiroprac
tors, dentists, embalmers before you can get a job in any
of these professions and there is no collective bargaining
about it. Nor is this all. You have to have a license to
practice the business of the cosmetics arts, barbering, i
chiropody, naturopathy, optometry, osteopathy, to be an (
engineer, a contractor or a public accountant—every one
of them closed shops set by the state of South Carolina.
South Carolina even maintains a closep shop for hunting!
and fishing. You must belong to the union of licensed
hunters and fishermen and pay your union dues, which you j
have nothing to do with fixing, before you may hunt nr
fish, using artificial lures. You can not drive an automobile,
even if driving be a necessary part of your job, unless you
belong to the union of motor vehicle driver’s license
holders. V
What is the matter with this “individual’s basic right
to work” if it applies only to cotton mill workers, printers,
carpenters and and doesn’t apply to barbering or law,
beauty shop operators or doctors, public accountants or
contractors.
The state of South Carolina if it is to pass the anti-closed
shop law should in k>gic"repeal all of these statutes estab
lishing closed shops in these professions and businesses.
Sauce for the lawyers and the beauty-shop operators is
still sauce when the cotton mill workers and the carpen
ters use it.
But why enact the one or repeal the others? The state
can be logical by permitting free collective bargaining on
the union shop while it continues to maintain these closed
shop professions.
There are reasons for all of these—-some of them not
so good reasons—and no denial of any basic right is in
volved in them any more than there is involved any denial
of any basic right in the union shop. All that is necessary
for a person to get a job as a lawyer, a beauty shop
operator, a chiropodist, pharmacist and so forth is to meet
the conditions that have been established for admission to
these jobs. And that is all that the closed shop amounts
to, with the additional precaution that it cannot be estab
lished. generally—there are a few exceptions to this rule,
which might itself be written into law—without the con-,
currence of both employer and workers by collective bar
gaining.
Finally, of course, the Democratic party in South Car
olina is a closed shop to top all closed shops.
(Written by George A. Buchanan, Editor of The Colom
bia Record, who has had 10 years experience negotiating
Union contracts with the Columbia Typographical Union;
International Sterotypers Union and Printing Pressmen
and Assistants Union for a good many yearn.) \
INTERFERENCE W TH LABOR’- RIGHTS AND PRAC
TICES HOTBED. FOR COMMUNISM
implores you, gentlemen, to look upon this piece of
legislation as you would upon an adder ready to strike at
your best friend and co-partner in business.1 He is your
employe back home. You have it within your power to
protect the ideals for which Jhe has worked. His way has
been a bulwark to keeping America free and the wheels
rolling. His toil has helped win on the battlefields, v
Similar laws have been steam-rollered through in other
States and lest our judgment is wrong such laws will be
come a boomerang some day and strike down the propon
ents of this un-democratic and un-American legislation.
TEAMSTERS GET RAISE
Philadelphia, Pa. — 'the Phila
delphia branch of the U. j>. Con
ciliation Service has announced
the settlement of a threatened
strike against the American Oil
Co: of Baltimore, involving 125
employes, members of Local 3b
of the International Brotherhood
of Teamsters (AFL). An agree
ment was reached with the grant
ing of a 10-cent wage Increase to
the teamsters, retroactive to De
cember 31. .
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