t. ",
Thursday, June 6, 1946
Strikers Fight"
Reign Of Terror In
Southern Plants
Andalusia, Ala. (FP)—In a beauti
fully wooded, grove beside a lake 18
miles from here May 18, 2,000 work
ers, farmers and their families gath
ered together in an allday barbecue
and singing to prove that southern
terror cannot stop the fight of union
ism against sweatshops.
The event was arranged by the
farmers of Covington county on the
1 Florida line with striking workers of
Andalusia’s three factories as guests.
It was staged against a background
of potential and actual terrorism insti
gated in behalf of this community’s
mayor, J. G. Scherf, who owns the
three struck mills.
Andalusia businessmen 132. strong
signed a full-page advertisement in
the local weeklies lauding the “loyal
employes” who are scabbing in the
shops and warning “out of town and
out of state organizers” of thier ac
tions.
Earlier a vigilante mob of more
than 50 men waylaid two automobiles
driven by women in an effort to “get
those agitators” two strikers who
had visited an injured friend in near
by Brantley, Ala. After being insulted
and threatened by the mob, the women
were permitted to proceed without
further incident but were warned not
to come back.
Gov. Chauncey Sparks, visited by a
delegation of strikers, promised the
state would not stand for violence and
that “if industries are afforded pro
tection certainly labor has the right
to demand equal protection.”
Mayor Scherf got an injunction al
most immediately prohibiting more
than five pickets at each of his three
mills. His police gave the workers a
pushing around. The weeklies he con
trolled printed threats and long, bitter
attacks on the ACW, its officers and
organizers.
The newspapers bragged the strike
would be over shortly. But nine weeks
have passed and the solidarity of the
workers is continually increasing. The
mills operate but at increasing loss
of production.
While Scherf hoped his campaign
of terror and intimidation with its
bribery of ministers and key citizens
would drive out the union, he got an
unexpected setback at the May 18
barbecue.
Almost 60% of the workers are from
farm families and drive into this town
of 5,000 to work in either the Alabama
Textile Products Co., with 1,000 em
ployes, the Andala Co., with 200, or
the S & Mfg. Co., which employs
1?5.
.. The farmers turned out by the
^hundreds, coming to the barbecue
ground with trucks and cars loaded
A with their wives, daughters and neigh
bors. A Montgomery minister, the
Rev. A. S. Turnipseed, preached on the
parable of the Good Samaritan, taking
issue with local pastors who abuse
religion by ignoring the daily eco
nomic needs of the people.
Research Dir. Gladys Dickason was
cheered when she declared: “80% of
the merchants who signed the state
ment against the union are sorry. It
was signed in support of one million
aire who hires workers for as little
as $16 a week—with a $13 take-home
pay.”
Whitney Exposes
(Continued From Page One)
day postponement at 3:38 p. m. and
called Steelman at the White House.
Whitney stated the terms while, a
White House stenographer wrote
them down. “We start all over,” he
told Steelman. “The engineers and
trailmen have agreed to postpone the
strike from 4 p. m. May 18 to 4 p. m.
Thursday, May 23, 1946, if the Presi
dent will immediately announce this
action and state that our action is re
sponsive to a request from the Presi
dent with his assurance that further
concessions can be made with the rail
ways and that the negotiations will
not become involved by such postpone
ment under the terms of the Smith
Connally act.” Truman approved this
over the phone and the postponement
was announced in Washington and
Cleveland minutes before the strike
zero hour.
Picking up the story from then*,
Whitney told the New York rhlly that
at the White House’s request he and
Johnston immediately flew back to
Washington, expecting that further
meetings with the carriers had been
arranged. When the two union men
reached Washington May 19 they
were told that all of the railroad rep
resentatives were not there.
“On Monday,” Whitney continued,
“Steelman said the railroads’ attitude
was not of the best and that we had
better defer meeting with them. We
were beginning to realize then that
wt had been doublecrossed. Tuesday
came. No meeting with the railroads.
Wednesday. No meeting with the rail
roads. We modified our demands and
said we would accept the (Presidential
fact-findinfi) board’s award and not
include the rules changes.
“At noon on Thursday the President
told Steelman not to mediate any fur
ther with the workers. In other words,
crush them and make them like it.
We did not meet with the railroads
until five minutes after 4 o’clock on
Thursday. The railroads did nothing.
They made no effort to settle. Satur
day afternoon, through the interven
tion of some friends, we met with the
railroads and reluctantly signed the
decree issued by the President which
stops us from asking for rules changes
or changes in working conditions for
*Sone year.”
8’
.K- y-.r. •V’V1
ON PREJUDICE
.By RUTH TAYLOR
Do you know the story of the
Southern judge who said he could
always tell the way a jury would
vote, provided he knew where lay the
preponderance of prejudice.
He knew his people. Too often we
make up our minds not according to
the facts, even as we know them, but
according to our prejudices, our in
stinctive likes and dislikes.
I once knew a man who always used
to say—generally in the midst of my
most hectic argument—that a wom
an’s intuitions were usually her sus
picions. I resented that. Naturally.
But I have to admit that, if the word
ing is changed to “intuitions are us
ually suspicions”, the fact is correct.
We just don’t use our heads after
we get to arguing. We talk in gener
alities, rather than on specific cases.
We say it is because to be specific is
to be rude. It isn’t. If you see some
thing of which you disapprove done
by afi individual, say so, but keep it
to the individual and don’t damn the
group from which he comes as well.
Don’t lump people into one category.
You wouldn’t like it yourself.
Doesn’t it annoy you when anyone
picks out one labor man, and says
all labor men are crooks because this
or that one isn’t a plaster saint? You
instinctively come to his defense, in
order to defend your group. (And you
usually make matters worse by so
doing, because you make up in heat
what you lack in facts.)
And yet—don’t you often do the
same thing?
Don’t let us be swayed by our prej
udices. Let us keep our own thoughts
clear and above such reprehensible
practices. And let’s not coin phrases.
It isn’t any better than coining money
—and usually the product is just as
false.
Organized Labor has suffered too
much from prejudice throughout the
years for its members to ever be
guilty of this error. Now when, in the
heat of conflict, there is tensity of
feeling, let us be especially careful
in this regard. We must keep cool,
stick to facts, and not allow prejudice
—which in reality is lack of knowledge
—to rear its ugly head among us.
Green Calls For
Support Of OPA
Washington (FP)—AFL Pres. Wil
liam Green carried the price control
fight to millions of American homes
May 21 in a radio address over a na
tionwide network.
Calling on the public to support the
fight for adequate price control legis
lation, Green stressed the danger of
“stabbing OPA in the back with
amendments which would mean its
certain death.”
He pointed to the Natl. Assn, of
Manufacturers campaign to kill OPA
in the interest of higher profits, say
ing OPA adminstrators were “in head
long retreat. Yielding to outside pres
sures and fearing outright repeal of
the agency, the bureaucrats are no
longer holding the line against infla
tion but letting it bulge in every di
rection.
“This must stop at once. Enforce
ment'of price controls must be tight
ened. The black market must be
erased.”
HIT AT DISLOYAL EMPLOYEES
Washington (FP)—The Govern
ment Employees’ Council of the AFL
has announced it had called upon
Congress to rid federal payrolls of all
persons of doubtful loyalty to the
U. S. It mentioned no names of or
ganizations or individuals, but con
demned mass picketing of govern
ment agencies.
4
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8012
*3-8 yru
FLOWERED FROCK Charming
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Send 2Pc in coin, your name, address,
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Union Brought
Good Earnings
To Dixie Girls
Girls whose only notion of the labor
movement came from what they gath
ered through the rural editions of
Chattanooga and Nashville papers
with the spouting of Westbrook Pegler
and other reactionary columnists, soon
saw the light.
Almost a year and a half ago, in
January 1945, the employer, L. N.
Gross Co., signed a union contract ne
gotiated by ILGWU Vice Pres. John S.
Martin. It raised piecework rates to a
point that today the average for the
whole shop is 89c an hour or $35.60
for a 40-hour week—and dress shops
in the present shortage of finished
ready-to-wear goods are working
overtime.
The best girls, and by no means the
smallest number, are earning $1.50
an hour. Martin says that any girl
of average intelligence and with a
mine-run degree of mechanical skill
with a sewing machine will earn $1 an
hour after her first six months in
the shop.
THE POTTERS HERALb
Psychology Thriller
*4
Nigel Bruce, as Major Lacy, and Joan Fontaine, as Mrs. deWinter, share
one of the dramatic moments in “Rebecca,” David O. Selznick Academy
Award emotion-jolting production which is currently to be seen at the
Ceramic Theatre starting Sunday.
On the Capital’s Cuff
By TRAVIS K. HEDRICK
Smiling, Unruffled, Truman Stands Pat
Washington (FP)—You’d never have suspected, seeing Harry S. Truman
May 31, that he had just gotten a terrific walloping from his old cronies
in the U. S. Senate, or that his political mentors were raging at his lack
of tact in his demand for strike breaking legislation.
Walking into the creamy oval executive offices at the White House
with a hundred-odd correspondents, you saw thi President in a natty,
trim blue tropical worsted suit double-breasted. You saw a pert butter
fly bow tie with poka-dots standing out against his crisp white shirt.
Then an attendant yelled “all in” and Truman arose with a big open
smile as the morning sun made his glasses glisten, and he announced he
had no news but was ready for a grilling from the newspapermen.
Right in front of his desk one of the wire service boys asked how
about his labor draft proposal knocked out by the Senate by a 70-13
vote.
There was not a moment of hesitation, for Truman expected that one.
He shot back that he thought the draft proposal was grossly misrep
resented and misunderstood. That all he wanted was the power you
give a county sheriff to deputize citizens. It was not intended as a draft
labor proposal. It was a draft citizen proposal in emergencies.
It wasn’t long afterwards that the scribe turned Truman back to the
labor front, asking him if he was still wholeheartedly supporting his own
legislation.
Of course I am, was the President’s reply. He added he wouldn’t
have recommended it if he hadn’t wanted it. And the House was in the
same frame of mind, and I appreciate that, he said.
How about the maritime strike situation? It looks very dark, he
answered. How was he going to handle that one? With all that is necessary,
the army, navy, merchant marine and coast guard, he said. Do you have
sufficient legislation? Truman replied we’ll go just as far as the present
legislation will allow. The emergency legislation would help a good deal.
The rule is that the gentlemen of the press never quote the President
directly, and none asked him either how special deputy sheriffs would run
coal mines, railroads and steel mills.
‘But organized labor knows something about deputies, both special and
regular, and the difference between being deputized to being a soldier and
being inducted with or without an oath (as Truman's bill provided) is some
thing that Is clear only to Truman Atty. Goh -Torn .Clark and Banker
John W. Snyder who drafted that measure.
We have it on good authority here that Chairman Robert Hannegan of
the Democratic Natl. Committee is up in arms about the Truman speech
to Congress and his strike-breaking bill. So are some of the Democratic
leaders in the Senate, who were ignored like Hannegan and first learned
of the idea when it was presented to the entire nation.
Hannegan’s fear, of course, is not particularly founded on trade union
grounds. He thinks, like many another political strategist here, that the
exhibition of the President in the strike crisis has cost the Democrats
control of the House. It might even cost them the White House in 1948.
Washington is filled with rumors as always, even in the summer heat of
early June. One of the most devilish is that Sec. of Commerce Henry A.
Wallace will resign because of the Truman labor program. He is not going
to quit. Wallace believes that his resignation would almost surely send
John Bricker into the White House in 1948 as the Republican nominee.
A lot of sick Congressmen over on the House side are breathing easier
now that they’ll get another whack at Truman’s emergency labor bill to
hog-tie unions. They’re sorry now they joined the stampede with only
13 holding back (and some of them the most rabid reactionaries). But they
hope the Senate will either kill the bill outright or make enough changes
to let the House members “correct the record” by showing themselves
against the bill. They had that chance once, and threw it away like
frightened high school girls. $
One senior member of the Senate told FP that “there ought to be a
lot more fire from labor on this whole problem.”
Let’s start up the heat now.
Fayetteville, Tenn. (FP)—An ex
ample of what the union movement
can mean to southern workers is dem
onstrated in a dress shop that opened
in this big tobacco market center
seven years ago in the mass-migra
tion of northern manufacturers who
fled the unionized north.
The dress factory came from Cleve
land, O., hired 375 girls from the
farms and cotton fields at 25c an
hour. It was folding money to the
workers but when the wage-hour law
brought a 40c minimum wage and an
organizer for the Inti. Ladies Garment
Workers Union (AFL) who “hired
out” in the shop as a “beginner,” the
trouble began for the boss.
Ask for Union Labeled merchandise.
NEW YORK PAINTERS
WIN 16c HOURLY BOOST
New York (FP)—Ten thousand
members of District Council 9, Broth
erhood of Painters (AFL), won an
arbitration award of a 16c hourly
wage increase, making painters’ earn
ings $2 an hour from Aug. 1 instead
of $1.84. Union request for six paid
holidays was rejected.
Although the wage increase re
quires Wage Adjustment Board ap
proval, Council Secretary Louis Wein
stock said that the boost represented
only a 24%/ increase over 1940
wages, and WAB approval was al
most certain since wage increases up
to 33% above the 1940 scale are per
missible.
Well Pull With You
We feel that in each. banking
transaction whether it be ac
cepting the deposit of a customer
or extending a personal loan
we are not merely serving one in
dividual, but helping to set in mo
tion a chain of events which will
add to the productivity, and wealth
of our entire community.
The First National
East Liverpool's Oldest Bank
Member F. D. C.
Phone 914
2 Million Now
Covered By
Welfare Fund
Washington (FP) Two million
workers are covered by health-benefit
funds similar to that demanded by the
United Mine Workers (AFL) in cur
rent negotiations with soft coal op
erators.
Funds covering more than 660,606
workers under agreements negotiated
by unions in various industries in 1945
are described in detail in Bulletin 841,
U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The
programs are divided into three types:
(1) Those administered solely -by the
union, (2) those administered jointly
by the ui^ion and employer, and (3)
those administered by insurance com
panies.
Most of the plans ’are financed en
tirely by the employer,” the BLS re
port pointed out. “This is true,” it
said, “of all the union-administered
plans, almost all the jointly admin
istered programs, and more than half
of those administered by insurance
companies.”
Among unions which have welfare
funds aje the Inti. Ladies Garment
Workers Union Hotel & Restaurant
Empoles Inti. Alliance, United Textile
Workers, Amalgamated Assn, of
Str*et Electric Railway A Motor
Coach Employes (all AFL), Amal
gamated Clothing Korkers, Textile
Workers Union, Inti. Fur & Leather
Workers United Electrical Radio A
Machine Workers, Industrial Union of
Marine & Shipbuilding Workers and
United Furniture Workers (all CIO).
Randolph Retains
ITU Presidency
Indianapolis (FP)—Incumbent offi
cers of the Inti. Typographical Union
(AFL) were assured reelection after
unofficial tabulation of returns from
more than 900 locals.
Pres. Woodruff Randolph and the
slate of candidates he headed amassed
the largest majorities in the union’s
history.
Randolph led his opponent, Allen
J. Edwards of Miami, Fla., by 28,067
to 11,726. For 1st vice president, Lar
ry Taylor of Dallas, Tex., was running
26,067 to 11,726 for R. J. Highfield
of Akron, O. Elmer Brown of New
York had polled 26,741 to 12,356 for
William F. Glass of Albany, N. Y.,
for 2nd vice president.
In the secretary-treasurer race, Don
Hurd of Oakland, Calif., with 25,251,
was assured reelection over Henry F.
Clemens of Los Angeles, who had
13,812. Total vote is expected to reach
60,000. Official canvass of the vote
began May 25.
I __
I Comment On
“Give us this day our daily
bread..
The beseeching words of an age-old
prayer roll easily from the tongues
of millions of Ameri ans.
In other parts of the world today,
those words or their equivalent tumble
not from the lips, but from the heart,
as hungry peoples cry for food.
In Austria, 5-month-old black bread
is munched on the streets, in stores,
in parks, an American Red Cross cor
respondent abroad reports, not because
of greed but because Austrians are
trying to keep up sufficient strength
to get through each day.
All over Europe and in the Far
East, the spectres of famine and pes
tilence are daily becoming less shad
owy, more of a reality.
President Truman’s Famine Emer
gency Committee, set up in this na
tion so that Americans may literally
help feed the world, said in an April
report, “The trisis abroad is more se
vere than when the committee first
met March 1.”
Utilizing the resources of America
as a nation, and with organizations
such as the American Red Cross
throwing full strength into the food
conservation program, the President’s
committee is acting now—this very
minute—to rush immediate relief to
starving peoples abroad.
Conservation of wheat and saving
of fat are 2 of the committee’s meas
ures which reach most directly into
the kitchens of America, the Red
Cross nutrition service points out. A
“check list” to be distributed to the
families of 22,060,060 school children
—members of the American Junior
Red Cross—will help keep homemak
ers aware of how saving a little bit
in each kitchen will send great
amounts of food to destitute coun
tries.
The FamineEmergency Committee
We appreciate the patience and
cooperation of the public who
were so greatly inconvenienced
during the recent interruption of
bus service.
'The company and its employees
are gratified that buses are once
again operating normally.
We shall make every effort to
provide the quality of service that
will in some measure compen
sate for the inconveniences that
were caused our riders.
Valley Motor Transit Co
PAGE FIVK
World Events
says that if every person saves a slice
of bread a day, the saving will be
some 7,600,000 loaves of bread daily.
A million pound.-, of fat per day can
be saved by Americans if every man,
woman and school child in the U. S.
saves just one teaspoonful.
_________________
New York AFL Group
Fights Truman Bill
Washington (FP)—A delegation of
New York AFL numbers headed by
Pres. Robert Schrank of the state
council of the Inti. Assn, of Machin
ists, visited members of the House
and Sens. Robert F. Wagner (D., N.
Y.) and James Mead (D., N. Y.) May
31 to urge defeat of Pres. Harry S.
Truman’s emergency labor bill.
Included in the group were four
representatives of the Hotel & Res
taurant Employes, Frank Golden and
Steve O’DoniK II of Local 144, Build
ing Service Employes Frank Ibanez,
Local 1, Bakery A Confectionery
Workers Andrew Leredu and Ben
Sher, Jewelry Workers Inti. Union
Sal Fishko, Local 477, Printing Press
men and five other members of the
IAM.
If Union Label “stock” does not go
up—your wages will come down!
3jflu~nflflflHflflfl—■■■—i—flflB
"FERGIE" END SAYS
I
Now Is the Time
to Buy Coal
PHONES:
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Railroad & Belleck Streets
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