Editorial CHARLOTTE LABOR JOURNAL & DIXIE FARM NEWS Published Weekly at Charlotte. N. C.__ if A. Stall*. Editor end Publisher W. M. Witter, Associate Editor Entered as second-class mail matter September 11, *1 the Office at Charlotte, N. C., under the Act of Congress of March 3. 1»7» SUBSCRIPTION RATES: *2.00 per year, payable in advance or 5c per copy. ADVERTISING RATES for commercial advertising reasonable. Official Organ of the Charlotte Central Labor Union and Approved by The American Federation ot Labor and the North Carolina Federation of Labor _ Address All Communications to Post Office Box 1061 Telephones 3-3094 and 4-5502 Office of Publication: 118 East Sixth Street. Charlotte. N. C. The Labor Journal will not be responsible for opinions of corre spondent*. but anv erroneous reflecting upon the character, standing or mutation of any person, firm or corporation which may appear in tfce columns of The Labor Journal will be gladlv corrected when called to the attention of toe publisher. Correspondence and Open Forum •pinions solicited. TOBIN SCORES NEW LAW AND REPORTS MEMBERSHIP GAIN The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the largest AFL affiliate with a membership of 900,000, plunged into a backlog of work at its convention in San Francisco last week, the first held since* 1940. Daniel J. Tobin, general president of the union for 41 years, delivered a ringing address to the opening session in which he urged a sustained drive to repeal the Taft Hartley law and a constant battle against the influence and activities of Communist agents seeking to disrupt the labor movement. In his attack upon the Taft-Hartley law, Mr. Tobin warned that although he had always opposed the general strike, “because it is cruel to break contracts with 99 em ployers to punish one employer,” he might be “compelled to change” his views as a result of the new labor legislation. “You can goad a man or a nation only so long,” he said. “The teamsters have not one man on strike in the State of California or in the nation. What I’m afraid of, and I m not a pessimist, is that this new law will increase our strikes. Men will not be chained to their posts when they feel in their conscience they are justified in striking. “I happen to have been fighting jurisdictional disputes since the first day I came into office and I happen to know you cannot settle jurisdictional disputes by law.” Commenting upon the formation of a third political party in sympathy with labor’s aims, Mr. Tobin said: “There is no hope for a third party until this labor movement in America is cemented into one organization. In my personal judgment, 95 percent of the trade unionists of America want one organization. Let me say that if we had had one organization of labor, the Taft-Hartley Bill would never have become law.” Mr. Tobin charged some CIO leaders with efforts to block AFL-CIO unity, although the AFL had made concessions and reasonable offers in attempts to bring about organiza tional unty between the two labor groups. He charged Communist agents were “working night and day to help destroy the labor movement of America and to bring about strikes which cause discontent and hatred” and “of laying the foundation for revolution.” In his formal report to the convention Mr. Tobin re ported a paid-up membership of “900,00 or better” and a treasury or “around $17,000,000, compared with correspond ing figures of 450,000 and 6,000,000 seven years ago. He said the union had only scratched the surface in organizing ^workers within its jurisdiction. In other convention actions a representative of trucking employen advocated the formation of a country-wide labor management committee to “combat the lawyers holiday which is seemingly just ahead of us” as a result of the Taft-Hartley law. Mr. Tobin abvised the employer repre sentative, Mr. Philip A. Smith, president of the National Conference of Local Cartage Operators, that his proposal would receive serious consideration by the teamsters. Joseph A. Padway, AFL General Counsel, presented an analysis of the Taft-Hartley law and cautioned the team sters against the belief that they could violate the law “with impunity.” "If you do,” he warned, “you will be out of business as a union. The anti-closed shop measures are a tragic reality.” A move on the part of the convention to increase Mr. Tobin’s $30,000 salary was thwarted by Tobin himself when he said he would not seek re-election if the increase were put through. COST OF LIVING SOARS AGAIN Like the thermometer responding to a heat wave, the cost of living soared again as the appetite of Big Business for protits, and more profits, remained insatiable. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the consumers’ price index for June 15th stood at 157.1 for a record high, eclipsing the former level scored in March. Retail prices of living essentials in mid-June were 18 percent higher than a year ago, and 59 per cent higher than the August 1939 level. It is doubly discouraging to wage earners to realize that this record does not include increases likely to result from the new rent control law foisted upon them by the 80th Congress. Nor does it reveal a true picture of the situation today. Because of the time lag required for the gathering of the material and analysis thereof prior to publication, the price index does not reflect the rising food and meat prices noticed especially during the last month. ' What about profits? The answer may be found in the magazine, ‘"fime” owned by a millionaire and itself a busi ness institution. , “Time” was amazingly frank. It said the truth about profits is stranger than fiction. Earnings of corporations, it claimed, “had almost reached the realm of fable.” On the basis of figures for the first six months of 1947, corporations were “making $33,000 a minute,” the maga zine pointed out During that period, aggregate profits nun at an annual rate of $29 billion before taxes, up $8 billion over 1946, and of $17.4 billion after taxes, up 28 " per cent above 1946. “Increases of 100 per cent to 300 per cent were not un common;’ declared “Time.” ' MU» 3 mmum 5£S|Y PMMCMT OP MAMMOTH... Murt at na« Km.. BMW t* JACK WLOK. ~ TO TIC CUM «TJ in JOI 0*1 iraifN LOST NO TIMC IN •tMTMt Ml* TISr. MOW WILL a -u ty,■ KXUEB, REACT* 'factory workers paid RELOW 65-CENT RATE Washington, D. C.—More than one million, or 8 per cent, of the 12 million workers employed in manufacturing industries in Oc tober, 1946, earned less than 65 I cents an hour, according to a re ; port issued by the Bureau of La* | bor Statistics. j Over half of ttiese were in the lumber, furniture, tobacco, and j apparel industries, which are im | portant in the economy of the South. I Workers earning less than 75 cents an hour numbered 2,100, 000, including from 30 to 50 per cent of the wage earners in the lumber, furniture, tobacco, appar | el, leather, and textile industry groups. Nearly three-fifths of the work ers in manufacturing industries earned $1 or more an hour, and 15 per cent were employed at rates amounting to $1.50 or more. The numbers of workers at the lower rates have been reduced substantially as a result of im portant “second round” wage in creases that have been granted since the time the estimates were prepared. AFL1947 Convention Calendar (Following is a list of conven tions scheduled for this year by National and International- Un ions and State Federations of La bor under the banner of the American Federation of Labor. | This list is not( complete. Addi tion will be announced later.) Sept. 8—Amal. Ass'n Street and Electric Ry.—Los Angeles. Sept. 8—International Chemical Workers—Washington, D. C. Sept. 8—Nebraska State Fed eration of Labor—Hastings. Sept. 8—Kentucky State Feder ation of Labor—Bowling Green. Sept. 9—Connecticut State Fed eration of Labor—Undecided. feept. 9—United Ass’n Plum bers and Steamfitters—Undecided. Sept. 15—Ohio State Federation of Labor—Cincinnati. Sept. 15—Int. Bro. Pulp, Sul phite and Paper Mill Wks.—Mil waukee. THE OLD STANDBY Ml YOU KNOW SO MUCH MOOT, THEY ROOT WEAR OUT They just last on on. This choir vary thing for Sunooy School rooms, [\| porch, kitchon where o r o u i house that o l V •N i • khM. Wo, bought too ffiony ond thoy novo V $1.39.. will mere 41 the price we eve offering them H»l» week. Cmm early end get you 6 or 12 er •uaf ham maajI |wa w nvi jwv nwi« STERCHI’S EXCHANGE STORE At Any Strreki Store in the Carolina* 129 SooHi CoNoge 425 S. Tryo* St. Nnm 1-1751 Sept. 16—•Minnesota State Fed eraton of Labor—Hibbing. Sept. 16—Brotherhood Railroad Trainmen—Miami Beach, Fla. Sept. 20—New Hampshire State Federation of Labor—Concord. Sept. 20—American Wire Weav ers Protective Assn’--New York City. Sept.—Mssissippi State Federa tion of Labor—Jackson. Sept. 22—Illinois State Feder ation of Labor—Peoria. Sept. 11—Oklahoma State Fed eration of Labor—McAlester. Sept. 11—Arirona State Fed eration of labor—Tucson. Sept. 12 — Int. Union Wood, Wire and Metal Lathers — Los Angles. Sept. 25—-West Virginia State Federation of Labor—Charleston. Sept. 29 — Metal Trades De partment—San Francisco. Oct. 1—Building and Construc tion Trades Dept.—San Francisco. Oct. 2—New Mexico State Fed eration of Labor—Carlsbad. Oct. 3 — Union Label Trades Department—San Francisco. •Oct.—Railway Mail Associa tion—Jacksonville, Fla. Oct. 6—International Asbestos W orkers—U ndecided. Oct. 20—Commercial Telegraph ers Union—Los Angeles. Nov. 17—International Auto mobile Workers—Milwaukee. Dec. 6—International Bill Pott ers—Chicago. •Date not definitely set. Send in your subscription to the Labor Journal today! “Did "TfoU 'fyout '/Way 7 a hum* waim i* an aia 10 better health. becauM tta htf h content of mayneatum and eal> clum ~~ramliteraliies tho body tor vltafenerfy Free to un la wmm natural. Caao of U qte_ (Ut, delivered to your home. Alio in bjjiaUM'dendJoha for um la TELEPHONE 2-102* ae write te 9. O. Son » Cbartette. E C. MIDAS WATKR Only at Oh Warlitxar Spmatta Piaaot —ComwiMt Tana«— PARKERGARDNER CO. 8iaea 1889 lit W. Trata Pkoaa 8X87 FOREMOST PASTEURIZED MILK Farm Fresh Milk—Foremost Ice Cream . Foremost Farms, Inc. 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