Newspapers / The Charlotte Labor Journal … / April 12, 1951, edition 1 / Page 1
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VOU XX; NO. 49 CLOSE OF 1951 N. C. LEGISLATURE NEAR Associate Director Labor Participation Department Community Chests Of America Is Visitor To Charlotte Robert A. Rosekrans To Address CLU Tonight * _ \ North Carolina Labor has a distinguished member of the ' American Federation of Labor staff in its midst this week. He is Robert A. Rosekrans, associate director of the La bor Participation Department, Community Chesta and Councils of America. Bro. Rosekrans came to Charlotte Monday to help prepare the way for a year-round labor educational program concerning Red Feather Services and while here has attended and addressed several meetings of local labor unions during the week. He Is co-operating with both labor and the local Community Chest officials jn establishing labor’s participation program locally. Charlotte Central Labor union will hear Mr. Rosekrans in an address at its regular meeting on Thursday night at the Labor Temple. 920 West Trade street. At this meeting Mr. Rosekrans will explain the part members of organized labor can play in mak ing the annual Community Cheat campaigns successful events. Al so he will explain the ways to develop a successful program in keeping with the four-point pro gram which the Labor Participa tion department is sponsoring throughout the country. The four-point program is as follows: 1. A year-round Labor-Maa 2. Red Feathers Tours. 3. A. F. of L.-Soeial Work Institutes. 4. Speakers from agencies ad dressing union meetings. . This four-point program is being presented to A. F. of L. unions throughout the country and is resulting in broader under standing between labor organiza tions and local citizen committees in promoting local community programs. All local labor representatives are urged to attend this meeting. RFC Gives Loans Bankers Refuse The Reconstruction Finance Corp. (RFC) has wade money for the American people., Walter Cosgriff, a RFC board director and a Republican, 'told the Senate Executive Expendi tures Committee, March 21: “Since its inception (in 1932) the RFC has made approximately 300,000 loans to business, of which at least 9 out of 10 have been to small business. By this, 1 mean Loans of 1100,000 or less. The losses on all loans made have amounted to less than $200 mil lion—or approximately 1 per cent “The taxpayers, through the U. Si Treasurer, have made a profit it nearly $000 million through the activities of the RFC, after payment of all expenses and in terest to the Treasury Depart ment and ‘charge off’ or provi sion for losses.” What that means is that the RFC has proved that in almost ill cases, it has used good judg ment in making loans. Sheet Metal Workers Get Extension Of Jurisdiction The jurisdiction of Charlotte Sheet Metal Workers Local Union No. 238 has been extended to include 61 counties of southern North Carolina, which runs from the Tennessee boundary line to Wilmington on the east. Plans for bring ing Asheville Local No. 8 and other local union jurisdic tions into the Charlotte Local were begun December 11, 1950, and completed March ly this year. All local unions in North Car olina have during* recent months been consolidated into the juris dictions of the Durham and Char lotte ' local unions, according to Phillip Hughes, Charlotte busi ness agent for Local 238. Brother Hughes has been in his present position with the Sheet Metal Workers for several years and, during this time has been very j active in local labor affairs. His efforts to organize the unorgan ized workers is beginning to show up in the form of telling results and The Labor Journal commends him for his active interest in, both his Own local union and al so in the labor movement in gen eral. In recent months Mr. Hughes has been called into not only many local conferences but has been summoned to out-of-state meet ings where- he has contributed much to the cause of his own un ion and that of others. RAILROADS PILE UP PROFITS, WANT MORE Last January, the 125 big rail roads made four times as much money as in January, 1949. On March 14, the Interstate Com merce Commission (ICC) said the railroads could charge from two to four per cent more for freight That’s their 10th freight raise since the end of World War II. PHILLIP HUGHES BIG BUSINESS HITS SMALL FABRICATORS Small businessmen know what trade unionists mean when they say that big business is running the defense program. Iron Age, a magazine for the metalworking industry, reported February 21' small metal process* ors were being hit hard by the defense program. “Hardest hit, as usual, are the small metal fabricators,” Iron Age stated. “They ate being Juicy defense contracts ate not 'being received in quantity. . _ p. HI Jr.. (Uft). (center), looks on. Mr. •f the Charlotte Central Labor Union, director, V F. »f L. division of Labor Partici of America, while Meeklantarg Community Cheat has been in Charlotte this week helping prop* concerning Red Feather Serricea. to Charlotte itioa Depart* ■nliint J ihn the wajr for a year*i RALEIGH — On* irate citizen wrote to his senator cussing. members of the legislature for voting themselves special, low number license plates About the nicest thing he said was that if the; were so bent on being sure that folks recognised them and their importance then they should legislate themselves some special badges to wear, ' identifying them as members of! the General Assembly That won’t be necessary. Mem- | bers—at least most of them—of ; this Legislature can be recognised easily by the bootprint of the lobbyist—professional and politi cal—on their faces. Many of the lawmakers would hare you believe they don't listen to the lobbyists, and claim that the biggest pressure groups are the teachers and state employees. If it hadn’t been for the pressure of the private interest lobbyists— fighting not only for their own clients but also helping selecf committees and generally direct ing the legislative program—the teachers and state employees might not ever have had to or ganise in an attempt to get some thing done for them. This year the teacher-state em ployee organizations didn’t do so good. They even had themselves sneered at by Rep. E. T. Bost of Cabarrus, chairman of the House Finance Committee. Bost was fighting additional appropriations for teacher-state employee pay raises. He labeled the teachers the, most “powerful pressure group of the bunch,” adding "they wor ry me more than anyone else.” A day or so earlier he also had complained of teacher pres sure, swept an arm towrad a gal leryful of them and remarked: "See, they’re even breathing down •wr necks right now.” This same Ifr. Bost—then ob jecting to pressure groups—Sat urday pulled one out of the hat for the wine boys. Whether It was intentional or not, I do not pretend to know or say.’ The House eras considering a bill authorizing tax stamps to be placed on all bottles of wine sold (Continue# On Page 2) AFLers Urged To Buy Bonds With Raises WASHINGTON.— Wages mart be raised to compensate for high er cost of living and increased productivity. The AFL Labor’s Monthly Sur vey says “union members, how ever, have immediate personal re sponsibilities in fighting infla tion” by not rushing to buy scarce consumer goods and by putting higher wages in U.S . Savings Bonds. The survey aaid: Millions of workers will have more money to spend in 19S1. Overtime pay will increase, more will be employed, and wages are rising. Business income wUl in crease, too, but more of this will be taken in taxes and much of the rest must be spent for plant expansion. This new income, earned by workers and management in man ufacturing military equipment for Uncle Sam, will cost at least $20 billion per year under the pres ent program, even after today’s higher taxes have been paid out of it. Organized Labor’s Program for Action Sixteen million trad* unionists arc united behind a six-point pro gram to bring democracy to the defense program. The six-point plan of action was adopted unanimously by 700 representatives of the AFL, CIO and Railroad Brotherhoods at a meeting March 1 in Washington called by the United Labor Pol icy Committee. The program stresses the im portant fact that unorganised, as well as organised workers, house wives, farmers, small business men and pensioned old folks must work together to get a fair de fease program. The most important objective is Congressional passage of a workable Defense Production Act. The present law—cornerstone of the defease program—ends June M. VV, ™ The plan of action calls for the formation of local consumer com mittees, wide distribution of vet* *'**••• ins records of Congressmen on de fense bills, visits to Senators and Representatives, meetings through out the country and wide use of all methods of publicity. Here is the*six-point program: 1. Enlist ee-operation in sup port of this anti-inflation pro gram from all community organi sations which support our demo cratic institutions and are devoted to the anti-totalitarian objectives of America’s defense program. 2. Promote public meetings, ra dio and television programs, speeches before community groups and other appropriate means of alerting every citisen to the need for improved defense mobilisation and anti-infiatioa policies. 8. Forward letters, telegrams, petitions and memorials to Pres ident Truman and Members of Congress in sapport of the prin ciple of equal sacrifice and fair play in the mobilisation program. Our first objective is the improve ment of the Defense Production Act. 4. Help establish local consum er committees through which the people may be fully advised of the developments in Washington, violations of price regulations may be publicised, and to co operate with public-spirited mer chants for local anti-inflation pro grams. 5. Encourage authorised dele gations from labor and other groups to seek appointments with Senators and Congressmen during the forthcoming Easter recess to set forth the problems of the con sumer. •: Secure the widest publicity through the labor press and, if necessary, through the purchase of local radio time and newspaper space, for the voting record of Senators and Congressmen on major bills affecting the fight against inflation and for a better defense mobilisation program. Labor Bills Killed; Pleas State Workers Rejected -The 1951 session of the North Carolina Assembly is scheduled to come to a close early part of next week with many of Labor's proposals buried beneath the debris of rejections made by the lawmakers. Raises for school teachers and other state employes were tossed overboard during the last days of the 1951 gathering as were many of Labor’s proposals, one of which would have modified the North Carolina Right-to-Work law to bring it more in line * with the Taft-Hartley act on the national statute books, and also the 75-cent minimum wasre law nrnnn«al Restaurant Prices Go On Mark-Up WASHINGTON—An OPS order, effective April 1, allows restau rants and other public eating: place* to adjust their prices to reflect actual increases in food costs only, but holds mark-up margins to pre-Korean levels. The same order requires menu price cuts when food prices decline Restaurants that have unjustly raised prices over food costs aince last July I are required to roll back their prices. Ceiling Price Regulation 10 makes it manda tory for public eating places to giye the public the same dollar ,value of JjTood per dollar ef sales as they did prior to July 1, 1050. Menu price roll-backs are re quired if necessary to accomplish this. The order covers the serv ing of beverages as well as fooo. All restaurants, which are now under Hie OPS General Ceiling Price Regulation, the “general freeze” order, must be in compli ance with the new order at the end of each four-months’ period, starting April 1. Violators are subject to penalties. OPS Director DiSalle pointed out the restaurant business is ono of few to experience a decline in dollar volume in 1960, compared with 1949 or 1948, indicating that inflationary pressures have been less prevalent in this line. The failure of the General As sembly to consider modifications to the North Carolina labor law does not by any means mean that North Carolina Labor will discard its efforts in the future to have this law either repealed outright or else chanted to eliminate ths conflicts in the statute with the national Taft-Hartley act. And, too, it is safe o predict that labor will be back in the 1953 Lefts lature with stronger demands for modifications in one of the most drastic laws on the books of any state in the Union. Labor is not st all satisfied with the snubbing given it by legislators of the 195k fathering of the State’s law-mak ing bodies. * TV veterans have a.-erew to Pick too at the next session. Their pleas for s veterans henna was rejected st a recent session, and another measure Introduced by Tom Sawyer of Durham in ths Senate this week will no doubt be left hanging in the hopper when the dock reeerde ths time of adjournment Tuesday (?) It is understood that the farmers art not so well satisfied with some actions. They tried to get sales tax exemptions on farm machin ery and equipment, for one thing, and this was denied them. About 148^000,000 mere than the original budget estimate called for has been provided for various state activities and many lawmakers feel that to go much over this would be disastrous to the state’s financial standing, while others reject this idea. Prices, Taxes, Rents Alarm Citizens, President Green Says AFL President William Green said in a radio address over Columbia Broadcasting System that the American peo pie are alarmed by the failures to control inflation. Speaking for the United Labor Policy Committee repre senting 15 million workers, Mr. Green laid down the reasons for the American people’s dissatisfaction with Defense Mo bilization in these words: High Prices Let me emphasize that labor's aim is to make America stronger, not weaker. Our desire is to halt inflation, not to promote it. Our basic protest is that the American people are not getting an effective stabilization program. I regret to report that so far the government has failed utter ly in the fight against inflation. That failure is obvious. Every housewife knows it. Prices are still going up and up and up. The cost of living, even as meas ured by the conservative official index, keeps climbing higher and higher. The value of the dollar is shrinking rapidly every day. These are immediate and alarm ing symptoms of inflation. The plain people of this country are being hurt by it. Millions of Americans who must depend upon wages for their living, and others dependent upon fixed incomes such as pensions, are being vic timized. The govenment has re peatedly promised them that It will hold the line. It has net done so. The price control law is due to expire June 30. It must be re newed end strengthened. As yet the edministration has made no move to urge Congress to act promptly. The margin-ef-proflt system provides price ladders instead of priee ceilings. Everything is permitted to go up, but nothing Is ordered to come down. Stores are allowed to set their own prices, based upon their own bookkeeping and their own profit margins. There will be no such thing as a dollar-and-centa price ceiling. No customer will be able to check whether the storekeeper is selling his goods at legal Prices. Neither will the govern, ment. Enforcement is obviously impossible, even it if were in tended. Why are such atrocities fcetiff committed in the name of price control? The answer is deer. The nation’s whole defense me bilisation program, from top to bottom, is staffed by the sentatives of big business. Ttoy *re chiefly concerned, ■_ with protecting the public, - hot (Continued On Page t)
The Charlotte Labor Journal and Dixie Farm News (Charlotte, N.C.)
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April 12, 1951, edition 1
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