VOL. XX; NO. 33 SOUTHERN LUMBER WORKERS’ WAGES RISE Single Federation For U. S. Labor Urged By Machinists' Union Chief President A1 Hayes of the LAM last week called cn all American unions to unite their tremendous forces in a single labor body. “The time has come/’ he warned, “to practice the unity we preach to others.” speaking Deiore l.uuu trade union laaden, from every branch of organized labor, assembled for the Samuel Gomper memorial banquet at Chicago, Mr. Hayes declared, “The obstacles which stand in the way of over-all la bor unity at the present time, as serious as they can be made to appear, are petty compared to the obstalces which our disunity creates in the path of all tabor* William Green, president of the American Federation of Labor, and Philip Murray, president of the Congress of Industrial Or ganizations, also participated in the Gompers memorial program, sponsored by Roosevelt College. In his address, Mr. Hayes enu merated the price all labor is paying for disunity in its nego tiations with ^management. in loss of progressive social legis lation, and in the defense of de mocracy both in this country and in the world struggle against Russia. — Pointing to the situation cre ated when two or three of more separate unions compete with each other in an organising cam paign, Mr. Hayes asked: How can any union so conduct its campaign that it does not un dermine the foundations of soli darity on which organized labor stands? How long does It take to heal the mounds of campaign competition bitterness? How tong before the Victorians union can claim a united group? And what about the effect pf Ibis division and bitterness 'at mting table? "unce upon a time consider able energy and money was spent by anti-union employers to shatter the allegiance of their employees to the principle of or ganisation. They would attempt to divide and rule. Now-a-days we divide and shatter our own principles with no prompting from a hostile boss.” Asserting that labor has been on the defensive since the end of the last war, the IAM presi dent pointed out that progressive New Deal legislation which so ben efited all ordinary Americans is now being attacked by those who always opposed the advance of common people as lhti-American. “On every front progressive ideas meet new and growing resist ance,” he declared. As a consequence, Mr. Hayes said, labor has to expend all of its energy and much of its re sources to hold its grounds or to make inch-length advances. He contrasted the present anti-labor political climate with the recent “pro-labor ^ climate which at its peak gave labor the most favor able position it had ever enjoyed in the United States.' “How much of our predicament is due to our own disunity can be measured by the strength we still maintain in our divided con dition," he declared. “How much stronger we would be to deal with (Continued On Page S) UNIONS UR6E0 TO UTNJZE ILL PUBLIC REUITIONS FACILITIES NEWARK. N. J. — Unions must educate the public to a better understanding of their problems. Tools, and techniques for ac complishing this purpose were studied at an all-day symposium conducted by the Institute of Management and Labor Relations of Rutgers University and the AFT. Essex Trades Council. Pointing up the need for local union action in this important public relations field, only one of the 75 delegates present said his union had a publicity chairman and two others reported their lo cals published monthly bulletins. A filmstrip, “Public Relations for Labor,” was shown by Prof. Irvine L. H. Kerrison, who is in charge of the Rutgers labor pro gram. ‘‘Public relations means hard work,” he said in giving a de tailed explanation of what labor public relations is aad how un ions can do public relations which is mainly “getting along with people.” In tjbe panel discussion “Work ing With Radio” led by Harry Stark, extension associate, Rut gers labor program; Lou Frankel, manager Station WFDR, Now York, explained the steps in 4k nJhng writing a labor radio Ben Levin, president Branch 540 Letter Carriers, and vice president New Jersey Labor Ra dio Council, told the delegates that “the time cost of radio is small if someone in yonr organ cation can produce the script.” Irving R. Rosenhaus, president SUtion WAAT-WATV of New ark, said anions should use the smaller local radio stations to get their message across to the public and should use entertain ment freely for such a program. Three labor editors spoke at the conference luncheon which was in charge of John J. Voh den, president Essex Trades Council. They were Damon Stet son, Newark Evening News; Murray Kempton, New York Post-Home News, and Victor Reisel, nationally • known labor columnist for 154 American news papers. “Labor does a great job in com munity service," H. Bruce Palmer, vice chairman Newark Welfare Federation, stated in the discus sion on “Putting Across Labor's Interest in General Community Service” Richard P. Donovan, AFL la bor representative on the Newark Welfare Federation, told of the AFL goals in the United States in civic affairs. He said com munity welfare work by unions should be a year-round program and that members should be edu THANKS! To Officers and Members of All Organizations Affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, Their Families and Friends I want to take this opportunity to convey to each and every one of you the sincere thanks of the officers ami administrative committee of Labor’s league for Political Education for your excellent support and co- . operation during the recent campaign. We have lost some very good friends in both houses of Congress, and some of our enemies have been re turned. However, despite these setbacks the returns show that the ratio of friends retained in an off-year election is very good. Returns also show that we cannot relax, but rather that we should intensify our efforts to bring a true discussion of the many issues confronting the work ing people of this country to our members, their fami lies and friends. v Again thanking each and every one of you for the splendid assistance you rendered, I remain Sincerely and fraternally, JOSEPH D. KEENAN, Director Labor’s League for Political Education. .. ■ -- ■ -■ cated for community work bo* cause “food human relation* is needed by unions on a local lev el." Edward Slater, secretary treasurer, Essex Trades Council directed this panel. J. C. Rich, editor the Hat Worker, and Carl Fisher of Lo cal 111, Chemical Workers, of Bound Brook, described the tech niques for the publication of a local union newspaper. “A country weekly is success ful because it is interested in persons and local matters, q local union newspaper should have the same technique,” Mr. Rich said. In describing how he issues a mimeographed local union paper, Mr. Fisher said this paper’s 1600 circulation is distributed through 60 shop stewards which means that the paper gets direct ly into the hands of the union members. He urged all the un ions to issue such bulletins be cause of the benefits within the union and as an aid to better community service. Lewis M. Herr man, editor New Jersey Labor Herald and state assemblyman, in the discussion on “Labor’s Stake in Public Rela tions,” urged the delegates to in augurate a 6-point program: 1. Appoint someone to furnish information to the press regu larly. 2. See that your publicity chairman or officers read local newspapers regularly and if a derogatory item appears have someone send the paper a letter to-the editor stating the facts without venom. 3. Send items to the labor press as this is also read by management. 4. Tell your story through the utilisation of the small local ra dio station. 6. Organize public forums and speaker’s bureaus to get your story across to service clubs, church and other public groups. IAM OFFICER GETS POST Washington. — P. L. (Roy) Siemiller, Chicago, general vice president International Associa tion of Machinists, was sworn hi November 27 a* director of man power for the Defense Transpor tation Administration. Wages Do you remember the hue and cry that went up from some sections of business when Congress more than a year ago increased the minimum wage to 75 cents? The complaint frequently heard then was that while some business firms could afford the increase, it would vir tually drive traditionally low-wage industries out of busi ness. Some of the loudest complaints came from the Southern saw-mill industry. «r ' Well, the 75-cent minimum wage has been in effect nearly a year. What has happened? This question has been answered by William R. McComb, Wage-Hour Administrator in the Department of Labor. McComb made a special study and he found the industry was able to pay the higher rate with scarcely any trouble at all. Here is what he says: “Higher wage rates appear to have been absorbed through increased efficiency, increased mechanization, the large volume of business in the industry, and increased prices for the industry’s product.” - In fact, McComb found, the industry is ow profiting as never before. —The Machinist. Truman OKs Child Program President Truman urged the nation to “press right ahead” with ways to help children and young people to become mentally and morally stronger, and to make them i better citizens. This is “more important now than ever,” he said in a speech before the Midcentury White House Conference on Children and Youth, which was attended by upwards of 30 AFL officials from all over the country. Mr. Truman said in part: "Our teachers—and all others who deal with our young people — should place uppermost the need for making our young peo ple understand our free institu 1 tions and the values on which they rest. We must fight against the moral cynicism — the mate rialistic view of life—on which communism feeds. "We must teach the objectives that lie behind our institutions, and the duty of all our citizens to make those institutions work mere perfectly. Nothing is more important than this. “And nothing this conference can do will have a greater effect on the world struggle against communism than spelling out the ways in which our young people can better- understand our dem ocratic institutions, and why, we adust fight, when necessary, to defend them. "When the White House con ference was held in 1940, the na ture of the defense problems which lay ahead was not very clear to those who participated. But in the years that followed, we found that the defense pro gram created many problems of migration, divided families, work ing mothers, inadequate housing at defense centers and military camps, lack of community serv ices and of facilities for educa tion and child welfare. “Today we know much more about these problems, and our recent experience in tyring to solve them is fresh in our minds. I know that the work of this con ference will give us some impor tant guide lines as to how wo can handle these matters best. “Our defense effort is all-im portant, but we must do every thing we can to see that It does (Continued Oa Page •) Enactment of the new 75 cents per hour minimum wage legislation in January, 1950, resulted in an average wage increase of 11 cents per hour in the southern sawmilling industry structure, it was announced today by Brunswick A. Basrdon. Regional Director of the U. S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics in the South. TYPOS WIN 2 OF 3 ARBITRATION CASES AGAINST N-SENTINEL Knoxville Typographical Union No. Ill has been awarded two oat of three decisions handed down in arbitration proceedings this week against The Knoxville News-Sentinel. The two decisions awarded to the union concerned payment for vacation at premium rates over and above base rates. Arbitra tor for all three cases was Dr. Prank B. Ward. In commenting on the clafm for vacation pay based on bonus rate for key personnel, Dr. Ward said: “It Is the assumption of the fifth member of the Joint Stand ing Committee that vacations with pay are intended either as rewards or as opportunities for revitalisation or both; that they are not intended as penalties. There is nothing in Section 14 (a) that would suggest that ‘va cations with pay’ means vaca tions with less than full pay. Depriving the vacationing em ploye of any part of what he would customarily receive daring a similar period would mean that he would not be receiving full vacation pay.” *. K, The second decision awarded