Editorial
THE CHARLOTTE LABOR JOURNAL
AND DIXIE FARM NEWS
Published at Charlotte. North Carolina
OLDEST LABOR PUBLICATION IN THE TWO CAKOL1XAS
H. A. SUM*. Editor and Publisher W. M. Witter, Associate Editor
Entered as second-class mail matter September 11, 1931, at the
Pott Office at Charlotte. N. C., under the Act of Congress of
March 3, 1879.__
Endorsed by Charlotte Typographical Union, Number 338, An Af
filiate of Charlotte Central Labor Union and the North Carolina Fed
eration of Labor. •_' __
~_ -gEM_;___
EDITOR SAYS HUGHES EVADES ON GOMPERS
(Following is one view of “The Giant Makes,” by Rupert
Hughes, Borden Publishing Co., $3, which was given the
Tamiment, Pa., Social and Economic Institute Book Award
for 1950). fl
This book is subtitled “a novel about Samuel Gompers.
If “about" means “on all sides” then Rupert Hughes has
done an excellent job of evading his subject. He never
gets to the core of the founder and first president of
the American Federation of Labor. At the same time,
Hughes manages to inject his own bias on labor questions
intp the book.
9 A skilled portrayer of romantic adventures suitable for
the pulp magazines, Hughes has neither the. grasp of the
labor movement nor does he probe enough into the com
plex character and times of Gompers to come up with a
vivid picture of either.
We’ve no idea just how far literary license permits a
writer to wander from a man’s actual life in building his
story. We doubt that Gompers would appreciate the em
phasis on his romantic life or Hughes’ simultaneous jug
gling of 4 br.y-meets-girl situations to use as the founda
tion for a story about a man who had greater impaction
American civilization in the last 100 years than anyone
except Lincoln, Wilson and ‘Roosevelt. Wcrse still—the
author uses a heavy brush to color the present day labor
movement to suit his own convictions—presented without
evidence
in Gompers autobiography— Several Years of Life and
Labor,” he devotes two pages to his wooing and winning
of 16-year-old Sophie Julian when he is 17. In “The Giant
Wakes,” Sophie falls in Jave with his voice on page one,
meets him cn page 26, they have thdrf first date qn page
58 and marry on page 177.
Hughes creates an unreal image of Gompers, intimating
that he was soley responsible for the creation of the labor
movement. Gompers himself said to the Plasterers Con
vention in 1911. “The labor movement did not begin
with my advent into it. The labor movement is as old as
the ills of humanity. The labor movement is the result
of the ills of humanity and a constant protest against
those ills. It is a demonstration of protest against every
wrong which exists and which has been long endured;, it
is a demand for every right to which toilers are entitled
and which they have not yet achieved.”
Hughes manages to get his bitter pills of prejudice into
his sugar-coated treatment of a turbulent era and one of
the truly great minds of the last 100 years.
The net' result is a distasteful mixture of fact and
fiction, made unpalatable by the author’s use of too much
sweetness in the fiction and not enough light on the facts.
There’s a job ahead for a competent writer who isn’t
interested ’ in making a fast dollar out of the publicity
given the centennial of Gompers’ birth. The biography of
Samuel Gompers would fill an aching void on library
shelves.
Until that’s done, we reoommend Gompers’ own “Sev
enty Years of Life and I,abor” or the monumental “His
tory ot Labor in the United States,” by John R. Commons
and his associates.
And for a qiuck look—read “Labor’s National Hero,” by
J. C. Rich in the May issue of Liberty magaizne.
Hughes’ book doesn’t begin to satisfy the requirements
—either as a novel or as biography.
The book’s only identity with the real trade union move
ment is something that Rupert Hughes had nothing to do
with: it bears the label of the Allied Printing Trades
Council of Los Angeles.—By Irwin K. Klass, Editor Feder
ation News, Chicago Federation of Labor.
S 0*
GREETINGS
Barger
**• «*
Construction
Co., Inc.
MOORESVIIIE, NORTH CAROUM
'N
PRICES UP AGAIN
Washington.—Retail prices of!
goods and services bought by:
moderate-income families in large !
cities increased 0.8 per cent be
tween April IK and May 15, 1950.
accordng to the U. S. Depart- j
ment‘ of Labor. This is the i
greatest percentage increase dur
ing any month since July, 1048,
when the index rose 1.2 per cent.
The Consumers’ Price Index!
for May 15 was 188.6 <1935-39
equals 100.0. It was 0.4 per!
cent lower than a year ago, but
26.5 per cent higher than in
June, 1946, and 71 per cent above
the level of August, 1939.
Chiefly responsible for the in
crease during the month was a
rise in prices of fooJs (1.9 per
cent), and especially of meats
(almost seven per teat*, much
greater than the usual seasonal
movement. Fractional increases
were reported for rents and mis
cellaneous goods and services.
On the other hand, fuel, elec
tricity, ani refrigeration prices
declined 1.8 per cent while house
ful r.ishing declined slightly and
apparel prices were unchanged
on the average during the month.
MINTON RE-ELECTED
BY BOTTLE BLOWERS
Columbus, p.—Lee W. Minton
was re-elected president of the
AFL Glass Bottle Blowers Asso
ciation for a two-year - term by
unanimous vote at the union’s
convention.
All the officers and executive
board of the 38,000 member un
ion also were re-elected. Mr.
Minton has been president since
1946. At 38 he is the youngest
president of any international
union in the AFL.
International officers who were
re-elected include Vice President
Raymond H. Dalton, Secretary
Newton W. Black and Treasurer
Ellis Tibbies.
The union convention presented
a number of prominent speakers
included AFL President William
Green, and AFL Vice President
Matthew Woll. * President Green
pointed out that the Glass Bot
tle Blowers Association was an
example of a union which re
futed the basic tenets of the
Taft-Hartley Law.
The Glass Bottle Blowers have
enjoyed large wage increases in
the past five years and better
working conditions while at the
same time maintaining harmoni
ous relations with the employers
in the industry. There has not
been a general strike conducted
by the union since 1885 when
oollectve bargaining was insti
tuted in the glass industry.
Mr Minton’s report to the con
vention contained an innovation
which was designed to get more
union members to register and
vote. He proposed that all new
members who wish to join the
union be required to present evi
dence that they were registered
to vote provided that they met
other eligibility requirements for
voting. The proposal was ap
proved by the convention.
Other speakers at the conven
tion included Joseph *Keenan. di
rector of Labor’s League for Po
litical Education Ralph Wright;!
Assistant Secretary of Labor;'
Nelson Cruikshank. AFL director
I
FACE BIG JOB
New York*—The bigr job of la
bor newspaper editors in the
1950 elections will be discussed
at the 39th annual convention of
the International Labor Press of
America September 16 and 17 at
Houston, Texas.
In calling the editors meeting
on the two days preceding the
70th AFL convention, the officers j
said:
“The reactionary trend at
Washington, as exemplified by
the unholy alliance of Dixiecrats
and Taft-Hartley Repuublicans,
makes our role as defenders of
American toilers more exacting
than ever. The current skirmish
for 1950 congressional elections
is but a preliminary to the maj
or battle against the workers’
enemies in 1952. The labor press
must play a militant part in that
struggle.”
OPPOSE RATE RISE
Washington,—A boost in second
class mailing rates would deal
a crippling blow to small publi
cations and eventually lead to
unemployment in the paper in
dustry, it was predicted by John
R. Jones, first vice president AFL
nternational Brotherhood of Pa
per Makers.
Mr. Jones, voicing the union’s
opposition to the Senate bill to'
'ncrease the second-class rates,
testified before the Senate Post
Office Committee.
of Social Insurance; Lew John
son, Anglo-American Council on
Productivity, AFL; Philip Han
nah, secretary - treasurer Ohio
Federation of Labor, and Bert
Jewell, Economic Co-operation
Administration.
START
/Icc&u+tfi
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