The potters herald. [volume], June 09, 1938, Image 3

About The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982

Image provided by: Ohio History Connection, Columbus, OH

                
Thursday, June 9, 1938
Child Workers In Tiff Mines Labor
Ten Hours Daily Paid $2.87 per Week
One of the strongest arguments yet
presented for the prompt ratification
of the Child Labor Amendment to the
Federal Constitution by the eight ad
ditional States required to make it a
part of our fundamental law is con
tained in accounts given in recent
documents published by the National
Child Labor Committee regarding the
intolerable and inhuman exploitation
of children by the business groups who
operate the tiff mines irf Missouri.
Tiff, or barite, is a mineral sub
stance used in the manufacture of
many common commercial articles,
such as window shades, stiff paper,
paint and toothpaste. "Of the quan
tity used in the United States," the
Child Labor Committee says, "57 per
cent is mined by hand processes in
Missouri. Holes are dug from five to
thirty feet deep and the barite sep
arated from the clay and flint which
is thrown out. Even very small child
ren can learn to distinguish the lumps
of tiff and collect them in buckets or
piles."
The interest of the Child Labor
Committee in the Missouri tiff mine
situation was aroused in the Spring of
1937 when the Legislature of that
State, at the request of representatives
from the tiff mine area, enacted a law
exempting boys and girls working
with their parents from the statute
prohibiting the sale in interstate com
merce of goods mined by children un
der 18 years of age. School attend
ance laws in the tiff mine section were
"just forgotten."
On the basis of a thorough investi
gation conducted during 1037, the
Child Labor Committee reached the
inescapable conclusion that the tiff
mine area of Missouri is "a sore spot
in the industrial life of the United
States. Poverty, ignorance, illiteracy,
child labor, with children from six or
seven years up working regularly in
the tiff diggings, child marriages
malnutrition and disease characterize
this section of Missouri where exist
ence is dependent upon and dominated
by the tiff mine iindustry."
With regard to education, "Children
were found who had never attended
school."
Ten-Year-Old Children Enter Mines
The Child Labor Committee esti
mated that during the school year 8.4
per cent of all children of school age
(7 to 15 years, inclusive) are employ
ed in the mines, either during or out
side of school hours, and in the sum-
WAGE AND HOUR- BILL
SENT TO CONFERENCE
Washington, D. C.—The long-de
bated and vigorously fought Wage and
Hour Bill, passed by the Senate last
year, locked up twice by the House
Rules Committee, twice blasted from
that committee by a large vote of the
House of Representatives, once recom
mitted to the House Labor Committee
and then passed by the House by a
vote of 314 to 97 and sent back to the
Senate, finally landed in the hands of
a Congressional Conference Commit
tee, which is understood to have the
power to completely rewrite the meas
ure.
With no objection voiced, the Senate
adopted the motion offered by Senator
Elbert D. Thomas, of Utah, chairman
of the Senate Committee on Educa
tion and Labor, to "disagree to the
amendment of the House, ask for a
conference with the House on the dis
agreeing votes of the two Houses
thereon, and that the conferences on
the part of the Senate be appointed
by the Chair."
The Senate conferees are Senator
Walsh, of Massachusetts: Senator
Murray, of Montana Senator Pepper
of Florida Spencer Ellender, of
Louisiana Senator Borah, of Idaho
and Senator La Follette, of Wiscon
sin and Senator Thomas of Utah.
Senate parliamentarians agreed
that inasmuch as the House struck out
everything after the enacting clause
in the bill originally passed by the
Senate, the conferees of the tw
Houses have authority to completely
rewrite the measure, in accordance
with a ruling made by Vice President
Garner at the time the farm bill was
sent to a conference committee of the
two Houses.
The bill passed by the Senate last
Summer included a wage scale with
Sin upper limit of forty cents an hour
and an hour scale with a lower limit
of forty hours with varying rates to
be determined by a government board
The House Bill provides for a wage
floor of 25 cents an hour to be in
creased to 40 cents in three years, and
an hours ceiling of 44 hours to be
reduced to 40 hours in two years.
The House Bill authorizes the Sec
retary of Labor to determine what in
dustries are subject to the law, in
stead of the government board pro
vided in the Senate Bill, with enforce
ment of the Act vested in the Depart
ment of Justice.
In addition, the House Bill estab
lishes the floor for wages and the ceil
ing for hours as national provisions
without differentials either between
sections of the United States, between
industries, or between employers.
By far the greater part of the op
position to the House Bill in the House
of Representatives came from south
ern congressmen, who insisted that
employers in the South should be per
mitted to pay lower wages and work
their employes longer hours than em
ployers in other sections of the
qountry. The American Federation of
Labor opposed the differentials and
insisted on the universal standards for
wages and hours.
mer the percentage is much higher.
The Committee selected for intensive
study 80 families where, school rec
ords revealed, one or more children of
ompulsory attendance age were out
of school digging or scrapping tiff, its*
report stated:
Paid !^ss Than $2 Per Week
"In these families there were 8G
hildren 15 years and younger work
ing in tiff mines of whom 32 were 13
years or younger. Nine of the child
ren were girls. Exactly half stated
that they had started work in the tiff
mines before they were 12 years old
and 21 before they were 10.
The average number of hours
worked per day was 7.4 but 20 per
cent of the children worked 9 or 10
hours, including some of the younger
ones. The earnings of the 80 children
averaged $2.87 per week, with 20 earn
ing less than $2.
"Although 54 of the children were
14 and 15 years of age, only 7 had
completed the eight grade. Half of
the children 12 years and older had
not completed the third grade.
"A supplementary school attendance
study, covering records of 1801 child
ren between 7 and 15 years in the com
munity, revealed that 217, over 10 per
cent, had not been in school at all this
year. Of this number 128 were work
ing, of whom 80 were in tiff mines, 58
were idle, 14 married, and in 17 cases
absence was due to physical or mental
incapacity, etc.
'Even among the 1584 who were
enrolled in school, 52 children had
been out for work in the mines, the
average number of days missed be
ing 15, or 40 per cent of the total
time school had been in session at the
time of the study."
In connection with the existence and
continuance of this economic slavery
imposed on child tiff mine workers, it
should not be overlooked that, accord
ing to the Child Labor Committee, the
National Lead Company, officered by
prominent business citizens of the
United States, "is the leading owner
of tiff land and purchaser of its
products."
AGRICULTURAL WORKERS
COUNCIL ELECTS VATUONE
Marysville, Calif.—Romeo F. Vatu
one, secretary of Cannery Workers
Union No. 20852, San Jose, the largest
Federal chartered union in California,
was elected president of the National
Council of Agricultural Workers at
the monthly meeting here.
Vatuone is succeeded as first vice
president by Mrs. Leona Lema, busi
ness agent of Cannery Workers Union
No. 2067G, Stockton.
The next meeting of the Council,
and all meetings thereafter unless
otherwise specifically decided, will be
held in San Francisco because of the
more central location, Vatuone an
nounced following the meeting.
Plans for an intensive organizational
campaign among all classes of agri
cultural workers were mapped at the
meeting after Edward D. Vandeleur
secretary of the California State Fed
eration of Labor, addressed the Coun
cil. He pointed out that in the can
nery industry in particular the work
ers were benefitting under contracts
negotiated for the A. F. of L. Unions
by the Federation, and should immedi
ately affiliate with Unions in their
districts.
"We will start a campaign at once
to line up all fruit and vegetable can
nery workers in Northern and Central
California under the banner of the A
F. of L. Unions already existing,
Vatuone said.
"We will also seek to have cannery
operators who are not covered by the
recently negotiated agreement sign
similar ones so that all workers in
the industry will be employed under
uniform wages and conditions," Vatu
one said.
Delegates to the Council reported
that workers were gradually being
employed with the opening of the can
ning and other seasons, and that
membership was increasing steadily
Numerous local matters were discuss
ed and advice given delegates by
Vandeleur and the officers.
U. S. AIDING JAPAN
(By Eliot Janeway in Harpers
Magazine)
Japan is the one nation in the world
whose aggression we fear. Japan is
the unashamed attacker of a country
with whom we sympathize, whose
magnificient defensive stand we ad
mire heartily. In this attack have oc
curred atrocities—the bombing of
universities, for example—which shock
the world.
American industry is selling Japan
the goods which permit her to do this
and to rear grandiose schemes for
continuing to do this on a scale so
huge that all western Asia will be re
duced to the level of the Japanese sub
jects in Korea. Seventy-five per cent
of the gasoline Japan used last year
gasoline for tanks and bombers and
warships, came from the United
States. One-third of the steel she
made last year, steel for shells
bombs, dum dum bullets, was made
out of American raw materials.
Here, then is the paradox. The Jap
anese menace is made possible by
American exports. Because of the
Japanese menace our Government is
building battleships with money which
might otherwise go for housing or to
ease the tax burden of our people
What is to be done about this situa
tion is up to the American people.
Home Education
'The Child's Firtit School is the
Family"—Froebd
Issued by the National Kinder
garten Association, 8 West 40th
Street, New York City. These arti
cles are appearing weekly in our
columns.
Buddy Learns About
Doodles
EDITH BRANDIS
What shall I do with this little boy
who asks questions all the time?"
wondered Mrs. Sandusky. "If I answer
his questions I shall get nothing else
done all day. This is never going to
do."
She asked other young mothers and
found they could not help her very
much. Then she asked the kindergar
ten teacher to whom Buddy would go
in another few months.
"Be glad he has an active mind,"
said Miss Gaines. "If he were a stupid
little boy you wouldn't like that either.
My guess is that part of his urge is
the desire to be noticed, but that by
far the most of it is what \ye call in
tellecutal curiosity, and that is the
base for the quest of all knowledge.
So then, the first thing to do is, at all
legitimate times, to satisfy his desire
to be noticed, and gradually replace
that with an interest in the objective
things around him. This will give his
mind the food it needs."
She made other suggestions which
Mrs. Sandusky carefully noted.
The next morning Mother gave
Buddy his breakfast in peace and har
mony, having waited until his older
brother and sister had gone to school,
so he could have her full attention.
After breakfast, his face and hands
washed, his little playsuit on for an
hour out-of-doors, his questions began,
and it was not hard to see that he did
not want to go away from her. But
this was her problem, and she set
about solving it at once.
She remembered that she had heard
the older children mention a colony of
"Doodle Bugs" in the soft sand of the
driveway. When Buddy's barrage of
questions began, she took him by the
hand and they went to visit the
"Doodles."
She showed Buddy one Ant Lion's
funnel-shaped trap. Then she sat
quietly on the grass by the driveway
and allowed him to find all the rest
of them for himself. When he had done
this he counted them and told her how
many there were.
Next she told him that when she
was a little girl she used to talk to
the Ant Lions, or "Doodle Bugs."
"Could they talk to you?" he asked
"No, but they minded what I said
I said: 'Doodle up! Doodle up!' and
Mr. Doodle would come up out of the
ground, where I could see him."
"Show me, Mother!"
Mother and son knelt in the clean
sand and spoke to a Doodle in the
largest funnel-shaped trap. Mother
said it first and Buddy repeated her
words: "Come Doodle. Come Doodle
Doodle up! Doodle up!"
The sand at the bottom of the trap
stirred. "Oh, Mother, he's coming.
And he did come—a small brown bug
all dusty from the sand in which he
lived. He waited at the bottom of the
trap, then went back.
"You see, Buddy, you can call the
Doodles, too. You don't need to have
Mother. Now I'm going into the house
to do the dishes, and you can go to
every Doodle house and call them all
Tell them it's time to get up for
breakfast."
Intermittently while washing and
wiping the dishes, Mrs. Sandusky
watched the small earnest figure kneel
ing with nose close to the Doodle
traps. When her work was finished
she went out to him, happy in the re
alization that her son had taken a step
in the transfer she so much wished for
his development. He had found for
a little while an objective interest
apart from her.
He said, "I called them, and every
one came up."
Editor's note: In our next issue
"Buddy Learns More About Doodles
and his mother learns more about little
boys.
FIRMS MUST REINSTATE
164 FIRED CARPENTERS
Washington, D. C.—The Kuehne
Manufacturing Company, of Mattoon
and Flora, 111., was ordered by the
National Labor Relations Board to
offer reinstatement with back pay less
earnings 164 employes at its Flora
plant, "who, following occupation of
the plant on March 22, 1937, to en
force demands for wage increases
were discriminatorily discharged and
locked out by the company on April
1, 1937, because of their membership
in United Brotherhood of Carpenters
and Joiners of America, Local No
1791, AFL."
The company closed its Flora plant
shortly after the sit-down strikers
evacuated it on March 31, 1937, a few
hours before the issuance of a man
datory injunction against them by the
Circuit Court of Clay County. Among
the reasons for closing the plant the
company included the sit-down strike
The Labor Relations Board, after ex
amining the evidence, overruled this
claim and held that the company
"would not have shut down the Flora
plant had it not been actuated by a
desire to crush the union."
The board said the reinstatement
provisions covering the 164 employes
"are to be effective at the Flora plant
in the event it is reopened, otherwise
at the Mattoon plant, about 60 miles
from Flora."
THE PQTTEPS HEPALD
Trenton Potteries
Head Passes Away
ohn Campbell Dies After
Year's Illness 82
Years Old
Trenton, N. J.—John A. Campbell,
82 year old head of the Trenton Pot
teries Company died early last Thurs
day morning after a year's illness.
Mr. Campbell developed the Inter
national Pottery Co., as part-owner in
the latter part of the previous century,
lie and a Princeton class mate, Wil
liam Burgess, purchased an interest
in the plant in 1879 and later bought
the remaining stock from English in
terests. Mr. Campbell became the
treasurer of the pottery until 1900
when he was made general manager
of the Trenton Potteries Co. He was
elevated to head of the firm in 1910
In 1924 the plant was taken over by
the Crane Company of Chicago, but
Mr. Campbell remained as president.
A graduate of Princeton University,
class of '77, Mr. Campbell was a resi
dent of Trenton since 1879, becoming
in addition to the head of the Trerton
Potteries Company, chairman of the
board of directors of the Trenton Sav
ings Fund Society president and
chairman of the board of the Trenton
Banking Company one-time member
of the school board an officer of the
Trenton Library Board from its in
ception in 1900 and its president since
1910 member of the State banking ad
visory board winner of the Times
cup-award for outstanding service to
his community, and for more than a
half century an officer and mainstay
of Prespect Street Presbyterian
Church.
Princeton, where he was president
of his class for four years, honored
him by naming Campbell Hall after
him.
Services were held at his late resi
dence Saturday morning at 11 o'clock
The Rev. William T. Hanzsche, pastor
of the Prospect Street Presbyterian
Church, officiated. Interment was at
Cambridge, N. Y.
Add reasons why railroads want to
cut wages: The Alleghany Corpora
tion, a railroad holding company, took
a cash loss in January of this year of
$29,012,125 on railroad stocks bought
in the gay Twenties for "consolida
tion."
CORRECTION!
In last week's advertisement for
the Somerset Hotel in Atlantic City,
European Plan rates were given at
at $18.00.
This should have read, $5.00 per
person,
tvrjf
irr a room.
TAKEeconomicallyFind
a
i
Errol Kiyiii!
THEY MADE HISTORY AND LOVE
a- R-.i/t, !«-.• i
a.vi /...
Turners and Handlers Name
Wetzel, Emerling, Gibson
For Offices
Local Union No. 10, meeting in
regular session last Monday night
held election of officers for the latter
half of 1938. Thomas Cartwright
was re-elected president for another
term.
Other officers chosen by the mem
bers are as follows: Joseph Wetzel,
vice president Charles Emmerling, re
cording secretary James Gibson,
financial secretary Alfred Jewell,
treasurer John Rigby, inside guard
Thomas Ramsey and Louis Siliman,
trustees.
A $100X0 cash prize is offered to
the holder of the lucky number drawn
at the picnic Saturday. All you have
to d^4o register is to*, show a Dues
Book" paid up to date.
chance! out for yourselves
how two people can live with
modern ELECtric Cookery. Shrinkage of
roasts is negligible and further savings are ef*
fee ted through accurate results which eliminate
wasted food materials. Vitally important to health
are the
conservation of vitamins and perfectly
cooked food and AUTOMATIC ELECtric
Cookery gives Her freedom from kitchen drudg
ery. Inquire about
our 5-Star Plan today!
mti
I OHTO POWER Co.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
w*
i :e
Ha v.
the Technicolor production, "The Adventures of Robin Hood" which opens
Sunday matinee with a continuous show at the Ceramic. Critics everywhere
acclaim this great spectacle.
Local 10 Reelects
Cartwright Leader
a Ma':
Maria:!
in
Tuscaloosa, Ala. (TLNS)—By action
of the annual convention of the Ala
bama State P'ederation of Labor, a
committee is being formed here to co
operate with Florida and Georgia
State Federations in their effort to
define the course of tax legislation
which may affect living costs or the
objectives of labor. Announcement of
appointments will be made shortly, it
is stated.
Demand the Union Label on all your
purchases.
Atlantic City's Best
Moderate Price Hotel
HOTEL ELBERON
Special Convention Rates
From SI Daily, Per Person
EUROPEAN PLAN
ROBERT B. LUDY, Inc.
Pacific and Tennessee AT«9.*
ATLANTIC CITY
$15.00TRADE IN ALLOWANCE
for your old cook stove or,
$15.00 FREE CREDIT TO NEW
HOME BUILDERS.
LOWEST FINANCE CHARGE
IN HISTORY.
MODELS COSTING AS LITTLE
AS 10c A DAY.
LOW 2'/2 CENT RATE AVAIL
ABLE FOR COOKING.
PAGE THREE
Where the Potters Eat
WE EMPLOY UNION HELP
Special Dinners. Lunches and
Sandwiches
WORLD'S BEST HAMBURGEM
E I E
Lunch Car
Phone 9138 Sixth at Jackson
"Best Plac* In Town to Eat"
You Can See the Cream
ALWAYS USE
Cream Top
MILK BOTTLES
THEY
ARE SANITARY
Used Exclusively By
Golden Star Dairy
Phone 3200
Vi~:t Our
,neral
Home
^earning the
Facts Bring
Peace of
Mind
Martin Funeral Home
Cor. 5th & Jackson
Phone 365
Don't Say Bread
Say BETSY ROSS
Goddard
Bakers
Your
Borrowing Needs
are of interest to The First Nat
ional Bank just as your need for
protection for funds at interest or
for current use.
This sixty-four-year-old
bank
makes
SPECIAL PLAN LOANS
at regular bank rates to men and
women whose character and credit
standing entitles them to such as
sistance.
Let us explain the monthly pay
ment basis we have worked out for
your convenience.
The
FIRST NATIONAL
BANK
SPECIAL LOAN DEPT.
"East Liverpool's Oldest Bank"
Member of Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation
We Make the Oldest Shoes
Look Like New
Our experienced craftsmen us* only
the best oi materials, yet our pricM
are extremely low
FOR YOUR SOLES SAKE—SEE
JOHN D. DALLIS
The Man Who Soled East Liverpool'
DRESDEN AVENUE
Ten Steps From the Diamond
Kind Bros. Coal Co.
Pittsburgh and W. Va.
Splint Coal
PHONES Office 934
Home 693
Railroad and Belleck Streets
Wheeling Ready
(Continued From Page One)
promise you the best demonstration
you can think of, but exceptionally
well-informed speakers, whose talks
will be interesting as well as educa
tional. President James M. Duffy of
the National Brotherhood of Operative
Potters, the man who started the
movement by introducing a Japanese
boycott resolution in the last A. F. of
L. convention, and M. J. Gillooly,
president of the Flint Glass Workers,
will present the main addresses of the
evening. Tom Cairns of the West
Virginia Federation of Labor will also
be heard. These men will be able to
enlighten you on many points. Be
sure to be present.—Secretary.