i
PAGE TWO
The strike brought “government
by injunction”, and the theory of
“property rights” was stretched
outrageously. Loss of the strike
taught labor leaders they must
seek “correction of industrial ail
ment at the ballot box.”
Pullman, Ill., near Chicago, was
a “model company town.” George
Pullman owned the churches, the
shops, the homes, the hotel. After
the panic of 1893 he cut workers’
pay 30 per cent but did not reduce
their rents. The workers had to
meet in a neighbaring town to form
a union.
They later affiliated with the
American Railway Union, organiz
ed in June 1893, with membership
open to all railroad workers. The
moving spirit was Eugene V. Debs,
a member of the Brotherhood of
Locomotive Firemen who had risen
by 1880 to secretary-treasurer and
editor of the Locomotive Firemen’s
Magaafne. After the engineers lost
the 1888 strike on the Burlington,
Debs was convinced of the need of
one big railroad union. So was
George W. Howard, former grand
chief of the Railway Conductors,
who tried to interest others. He
failed. After the failure of the
switchmen’s strike in Buffalo in
1898, Debs quit the Firemen to
form the American Railway Union.
He was helped by Howard and
Silvester Keliher, of the Conduc
tors.
The new group tangled in 1894
with James J. Hill, president of
the Great Northern Railroad, call
ed a strike, and won some con
cessions. Membership leaped, and
by June the ARU claimed 150,000
members in 465 local lodges.
A grievance committee of the
Pullman workers called on Pull
man, who refused to yield, but pro
mised no discrimination against
members of the committee. Next
day thn*e were fired. The 19 Pull
man lodges decided to strike. After
la few weeks the strikers' offered to
‘jarbitrate. Pullman refused. The
ARU, then iri cortMention, told
Pullman that unless he settled in
four days a sympathy strike would
be called. Pullman refused to
budge.
Debs then announced a boycott
of all Pullman cars. The General
’Managers’ Association ordered that
cars carrying the mail be attached
to Pullman cars that all men who
refused to haul Pullman cars be
fired. Thus, a boycott to Pullman
turned into a general strike.
Management then called on the
US marshal to prevent “obstruc
tion of the mails” and to protect
their property. The marshal hired
3600 deputies, including known cri
minals. They were armed and paid
by the railroads. Then management
went to US Attorney General Rich
ard B. Olney, a- farmer Burlington
director, a former railroad lawyer,
and a former member of the Gen
era! Managers’ Association. He
named a “P'-cial counsel Edwin
Walker, a ladroad lawyer.
WalkeF filed a complaint July
2, 1894, in federal court charging
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Pullman Strike of 1894-5
Washington (LPA)—Recent and+------------------------------------———-.
current disputes between the rail-*
road unions and management recall
to students of labor the nation’s
most famous railroad walkout—
the Pullman strike of 1894-5.
The villains were George Pull
man, President Gjover Cleveland,
who sent in federal troops, and his
Attorney General, who got a fed
eral injunction. The heroes were
Euguene V. Debs and Gov. John
P. Altgeld of Illinois.
(conspiracy to interfere with trans
portation of the mails, etc., and got
an injunction from US Judge Peter
S. Grosscup restraining the union
from interfering with any of the
business of railroads entering Chi
cago, or any trains carrying the
mails. ..
Olney did mofe. He talked Pf^
ident Cleveland into sending four
companies of the 15th Infantry to
the yards near Chicago to enforce
the injunction, despite the protest
of Governor Altgeld, who charged
the action was a violation Of states’
rights. The presence of the troops,
the behavior of the deputies, led to
rioting, and in the end AJtgeld
sent in the militia, which restored
order.
Olney was not satisfied. He got
Judge Grosscup to summon a grand
jury and charge it, in effect, that
the strike was an insurrection
against the state. That very day
the grand jury indicted Debs, How
ard, Keliher, and Rogers, an
director, charging" criminal
spiracy.
ARU
con-
sym-
That did it. An attempted
pathy strike in Chicago fizzled. A
conference called under direction
of the AFL’s Samuel Gompers to
discuss a nation-wide sympathy
strike decided against it. Debs of
fered to call off the Pullman boy
cott if the strikers were taken
back. His offer was ignored.
A week after the grand jury in
dictment, the four men were ar
rested again, charged with con
tempt of court by violating the in
junction. Two days later, 75 men,
including the original four, were
indicted again. In all, more than
700 strikers were arrested on var
ious charges. The strike was called
off officially Sept. 6, 1894.
But that was not the end. The
criminal conspiracy charge went tn
trial six months later before the
very same Judge Grosscup, with
the same Walker representing both
the government and the railroads.
Clarence S. Darrow appeared for
the union men. He subpoenaed
Pullman, declared he intended to
quiz the members of the General
Managers’ Association to show how
they conspired to destroy the
union, and their actions brought on
the strike and interference with
the mails. Pullman left the state
to avoid testifying. Members of
the. association lost their memory
on the stand. Darrow demanded
they produce their records. Court
adjourned for lunch, and after that
the judge'announcer! a juror was
ill and adjourned the case. There
were more adjournments and the
case was finally dropped. The gov
ernment and the railroads had ac
complished their aim. They did not
want their dirty linte washed in
public.
Not so with the contempt charge.
That was pressed, and Judge Will
iam A. Woods on Dec. 14, 1894,
found the defendants guilty and
sentenced them to jail. They ap
pealed to the US Supreme Court,
lost, and the four had to serve thtrir
jail terms. “Government by in
junction” in labor disputes had
been broadened. Debs later appear
ed before the US Strike Commis
sion named to investigate the
strike. He charged flatly that it
was the US courts which broke the
strike.
The strike had its echoes in the
1896 platform of the Democratic
party, which denounced “arbitrary
interference” by US authorities in
local affairs as a violation of the
US Constitution and “a crimo
against free institutions.” The
platform added, “Ami we especial
ly object to government by injunc
tion as a new and highly dangerous
form of oppression by which feder
al judges, in contempt of the laws
of the states and the rights of the
citizens, become at once, legisla
tors, judges and executioners.”
DOCTOR SHOES
FOR FOOT COMFORT
FLEXIBLE AND RIGID ARCH
STYLES IN OXFORDS AND
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(X-RAY FITTING)
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BENDHEIM'S
East Sixth Street
Money Loaned
FOR PURCHASE AND IMPROVEMENT
OF HOMES
5% Monthly Reduction
The Potters Savings & Loan Co.
WA3MNGTON 4 BROADWAY EAST LIVERPOOL. OHIO
OFFICERS:
JOHN J. FURINTON, President
CH AS. W. HENDERSHOT
Vics President
ALWYN C. PURINTON, Secretary
JOS. M. BLAZER, Treasurer
W. E. DUNLAP, Jr.. Attorney
News and Views ....
Following exploratory talks with#
Chairman W. Stuart Symington of
the National Security Resources
Board, a committee of 9 top lead
ers of the AFL/ CIO, Railway Bro
therhoods, United Mine Workers
and Machinists has been formed
for the purpose of charting the
unions’ course in the present inter
national emergency and helping
government to mobilize, if neces
sary, the nation’s economic and
man-power resources.
At the same time, the spokesmen
of 16 million organized workers
have made clear that such all-out
participation, according to a com
mittee statement, calls for “full
and adequate union representation
in the planning and operational di
visions of the government agencies
involved.” In other words, the trade
union movement, in exchange for
assuming responsibilities, must be
granted full and equal participation
on all government boards and
agencies—a far cry from World
War II when labor shared repre
sentation and responsibility on only
one agency, the War Labor Board.
Precise details of the program
whieh would place organized labor
on an equal footing with industry
in policy-making and administering
the national defense program re
main to be ironed out. Whether as
signment alone of the now vacant
$16,000 a year vice-chairmanship
of the Resources Board and a few
other jobs to leading unionists
would allow labor to achieve its
aims is questionable. The late Sid
ney Hillman’s co-directorship in the
production effort during World
War II is not too happy a preced
ent.
The committee members must
also painstakingly weigh the ques
tion whether issues not connected
with the Korean or any future
crisis should be brought into the
framework of such government
union-industry cooperation. This is
especially significant in the light
of the New York Times report that
John L. Lewis intends to use labor’s
participation in emergency plann
ing as a springboard against the
Taft-Hartley Act and Robert N.
Denham, NLRB general counsel,
for his “harassing and labor-per
secuting policies.”
Among the most serious pro
blems confronting the committee is
an eventual man-power draft and
the subsequent subordination of
our working people to a regimenta
tion of which World War II gave
them only a vague inkling. Most
likely, another world-wide conflag
ration will almost immediately lead
to restriction of civil rights to an
extent American democracy has
never known before.
However, the fundamental issue
Remains whether the nation’s'se
curity and survival will not best be
served by voluntary means, instead
of a resort to measures as abhor
rent to American traditions and
principles as they are deadly to the
very purposes which we profess
and for which we are determined
to fight.
This challenge to the nation and
its labor movement has been
squarely met by another trade
union leader. At the opening ses
sion of the 44th annual conven
tion of the New York State Coun
cil of the A FL United Brotherhood
of Carpenters and Joiners of Am
erica, in Binghamton, N. Y., Coun
cil President Charles W. Hanson
told the applauding delegates and
guests:
“If there is to be war, 1 be
lieve that American organized
labor must have a direct voice
in the mobilization and direc
tion of our country’s economic
and manpower resources
Labor must make its influence
felt in the shaping of defense
policies and production and
all other measures necessary
to protect the interests of the
nation at home and abroad.
This is not only important from
the viewpoint of national de
fense. It is equally vital in re
pelling the twin monsters of
communism and Soviet imper
ialism.
‘‘In helping to organize and
direct the nation’s productive
By ALEXANDER S. LIPSETT (An ILNS Feature)
energies in the event of a third
World War, we of labor must
make sure that a maximum
measure of freedom is re
tainer!. We must see that the
rights of the working people
are as fully protected as cir
cumstances allow. Whatever
may happen, I am convinced
that the use of voluntary met
hods in meeting the man-power
needs of industry will be more
successful and in the long run
more valuable to national se
curity and victory than a labor
draft or any similar step con
templated in government cir
cles.”
Charles Hanson punctuated his
demand for a clear-cut labor policy
with the further remark, in his
annual report, that American or
ganized labor and the Carpenters’
brotherhood in particular “has
never been slow in assuming re
sponsibilities in proportion to the
influence we have won and con
tinue to maintain.”
Organized labor, by laying down
these principles, has show itself
willing to assume responsibilities
and the rigorous consequences
flowing from them. Moreover,
voices such as Hanson’s, together
with the unions’ understandable
distaste for a compulsory man
power draft prove that the under
lying onuses of the conflict have
been and are best untjprstood by
organized labor.
By instinctively rejecting any
anti all measures—outside of
those dictated by an emergency so
desperate as to endanger the na
tional existence—that tend to place
severe limitations on the freedom
of the working man and the dig
nity of the individual, the Ameri
can labor movement has again de
monstrated its unwavering belief in
democratic methods and a free
world that seeks nothing but peace
and brotherhood among mankind.
O’Conor Reports On
Geneva Conference
Washington (LPA) It is no
surprise that the Soviet Union is
continually attacking the Interna
tional Labor Organization. Senator
Herbert R. OConor (D, M1.) so
told the Senate in his report on the
1LO Conference at Geneva last
month at which he was a* U. S.
delegate.
O’Conor said the Communists at
tack 1LO because it is making a
tremendous contribution toward
eliminating the causes of unrest
and despair which are fertile breed
ing grounds for Communism.
He reported that the majority of
the conference representatives
seemed to understand that Com
munist tactics “call for the explo
itation of legitimate as well as un
founded worker grievances for
their own political objectives.” “In
view of this”, he said, “everyone at
the conference recognized the tre
mendous significance of the activ
ities of 1LO, which is designed to
raise the working and living stan
dards of men and women through
out the world.
The Senator said, that the U. S.
delegation used the opportunity af
forded by the Conference to “dem
onstrate by word and deed that
the underlying hasis of American
success is in the ever-expanding
area of cooperation between gov
ernment, management and labor
for solution of the human problems
of 20th Century industrial living.”
DEBT-COLLECTING
GIMMICK HIT BY FTC
Washington (LPA) De jay
Stores, Inc., of New York, will have
to answer to the Federal Trade
Commission about its schemes to
track down delinquent debtors. FTC
charges the methods are unfair and
deceptive. FTC says Dejay sends
out form letters using “fictitious”
names, and which represent that a
letter or package ia being held for
the debtor or that information is
desired in connection with employ
it of personnel. Actually, says
Fl’C, the corporation has no such
letter to forward.
THE POTTERS HERALD, EAST LIVERPOOL, OHIG
LABOR WANTS VOICE IN PRODUCTION PLANNING^-A group of 22 top labor leaders met with
National Security Resources Board Chairman W. Stuart Symington July 11 and agreed to set up a commit
tee to discuss labor representation in any present or future war planning and production agencies. Left to
right: President George Harrison, Railway Clerks AFL President WilRam Green Labor Secretary Mau
rice Tobin Symington Mini Workers’ Secretary-Treasurer John Owens? Auto Workers’ President Walter
Reuther G. E. Leighty, chairman of the Railway Labor Executives’ Association.________________ ___
’w
15-Hour Session
Averts Strike At
Automobile Plant
Milwaukee (LPA) A 15-hour
bargaining session brought agree
ment on a pension and hospital
medical-insurance plan and full
upion shop at the Hudson Motor
Car Co. here. Agreement removed
th- threat of a strike by 20,000
members of United Auto Workers.
Total cost to the company is 15
cents an hour, according to Del
win Craig, local president, and
Joseph Ferris, international repre
sentative. All workers get 3 cents
increase, 1500 skilled workers get
2 cents more, 7000 get increased
vacation pay, and there are 20 im
provements in
the contract,
effective August 1,
years, with annual
wages and other
The contract
runs for three
reopenings on
economic provisions except pen
sions. The pension plan, non-con
tributory, fully funded and jointly
administered, is for five years, with
1400 eligible to retire during that
period. Ceiling is* $117.50.
Union Convention Boycotts Reno
San Jose, Calif. (LPA)—In re
sponse to a call by organized labor
in Reno for a citywide boycott,
tie Laundry Workers and Dry
'Gleaners held their convention here
last week instead of in Reno as
planned. The schedule was chang
ed also because there were no
“fair” hotels there to accommodate
tW convention.' The boycott in
Reno is labor’s reaction to the mer
chant’s concerted efforts to smash
all organization. Labor there has
sent out a nation-wide plea for
tourists and vacationists to stay
awgy from the city until the mer
chants cease their anti-labor cam
paign.
Buy Union-Made goods from
others as you would have them
pay Union wages unto you!
B:
BARBARA
BELL PATTERN
NO. 3152
Young and pretty and a definite
asset to the vacation wardrobe is
this sleeveless halter neckline dress
with tiny button trim, low cut. in
back. For cover up add the nicely
fitting cardigan jacket.
Pattern No.1 3152 is a sew-rite
perforated pattern for sizes 12,
14, 16, 18 and 20. Size 14, dress,
requires 514 yards of 85 or 38-inch
fabric jacket 2*4 yards.
For this pattern, send 25 cents,
in coins, your name, address, pat
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Barbara Bell, Labor Press Asso
ciation, PO Box 99, Station G, New
York 19, N. Y.
Send an additional twenty-five
cents today for your copy of the
Spring and Summer STYLIST.
This latest issue has 48 pages fill
ed with special features, wearable
styles for all the family—gift pat
printed inside the book. Don’t
miss it!
Even Ite Friends
Cool T» Tax
Plan of The RAM
Washington (LPA)—The Nat’l
Association of Manufacturers
'didn’t get a very cordial hearing,
even from its usual friends, when
it appeared before the Senate tax
writing committee July 10. Charles
R. Sligh, Jr., a Michigan furniture
manufacturer, said NAM would
prefer the present tax law to the
changes proposed by the House,
which would lower sales-type
taxes, and increase the taxes on
big corporations.
Instead of cutting down on sales
taxes, the NAM proposed that an
excise tax be levied on all manu
factured goods other than food, at
a rate of about five percent. Before
any tax changes that would lose
federal income are considered,
Sligh urged, the federal budget
should be balanced. He endorsed
proposals for slashing the budget
advocated' by Sen. Harry F. Byrd
(D, Va.).
Senators Francis Myers (D, Pa.)
and Eugene Millikin (R, Colo.)
both questioned* the NAM man’s
absolute certainty that the House
bill should be scrapped, and his
proposal replace it. Millikin
brought out that the proposed ex
cise "tax would be on the manufac
turers’ price of the item. In the
furniture business, where the
.markup from manufacturer to con
sumer runs from 85 to 90 percent,
this would mean an increase in
price of nearly 10 percent for the
purchaser, it was brought out.
Sligh said he thought “competi
tion” would take care of that mark
up, though he agreed that the in
tention was to pass the tax itself
on to the consumer.
“I’ve never been able to under
stand this theory of the NAM,”
Millikin said sadly. “It seems to
me to be unsound.”
The NAM, spokesmen for state
manufacturers’ associations and
the Committee for Economic De
velopment all attacked* the increase
in taxes on big corporations. While
the NAM favored the sales tax,
the CED, which generally speaks
for the more liberal part of the
business community, called, for
balancing the “cash” income and
spending of the federal govern
ment through reduced expendi
tures, increased efficiency of gov
ernment operations, and closing
tax loopholes as urged by President
Truman.
A vehement protest over one sec
tion 'of the House-approved tax bill
Was registered by spokesmen for
the oil industry. They attacked the
provision making it impossible for
the oil industry to write off as a
QU*
ft*
LEARNING- THE ROPES—
Jehuda Maryment, 2-year-old IMP,
arrives in U'S aboard the General
Greeley. Some of the newcomers
refused to give their names to re
porters for fear of Soviet reprisals
against relatives. A recent survey
showed displaced persons are set
tling into American life quickly as
useful members of the community.
complete loss its abandoned wells
(some of which, it was conceded,
'might be picked up on leases by
other producers and made to pro
duce oil). Under the House bill,
such abandonments would be treat
ed in the same way as a sale of
the lease or property—and could
be used only to offset any capital
losses in calculating taxable in
come.
Although they already receive
very generous handouts through
loopholes in the tax''laws dating
back to 1926, under which they can
write off, over and over again, the
cost of developing oil properties at
the rate of 2716 percent a year,
they still claim that “in the oil in
dustry, the finding and developing,
of new oil reserves to replace those]
consumed is the normal and major
activity. This can be continued only
if there is adequate provision for
the losses that are necessary and
unavoidable in this activity.” That’s
the way it was put by General
Counsel Russell B. Brown of the
Independent Petroleum Ass’n of
America. He, like spokesmen for
the American Petroleum Institute
and a mid-continent oil associa
tion, warned that the change
would result in “immediate and
drastic curtailment in leasing and
exploratory activities.”*'*’"-’’''
Buy Union-Made goods from
others as you would have them
pay Union wages unto you!
The New Philip Sporn Plant
Graham Station, Virginia
PHILIP
SPORN
PLANT
7 St.
Ji
jyikegHxiw
DO '"■'I****
tChor Itston
Haw te get to Sporn Plant.
Saturday & Sunday, Julv 29-30:10 to 12 am, 2 to 4 pm
Yoh are cordially invited to see one of the
world’s great electric power plants in action
Thursday, July 27, 1950
Texfile Workers
Win Pension Plan
Winnsboro, S. C. (LPA)—A pen
sion agreement for 1500 workers,
has been negotiated by the AFL/^
United Textile Workers and the US'
Rubber Co. here. The plan calls for
$100 at 65 after 25 years’ service,
with smaller sums for those with
less service at 65, and a minimum
disability pension of $60 after 20
years, for those totally disabled.
.About 250 employes
to 50 years’ service.
have 20
now
The company will also pay for
$2000 life insurance
ployes. The company formerly paid
for $1000 for men, $500 for women.
for all em-
Union negotiators were headed
by Joseph Jacobs, southern direc
tor Dorsey Moseley, international
representative and the local’s
Charles Emerson, Herman Will
iams, W. M. Hall, Elvin Pylant,
Joe Velasco, Andy Boyter, Claude
Smith, and Lonnie Barefoot.
EWING MEETS AGED
AT AFM CONCERT
New York (LPA)*—Oscar Ewing,
Administrator of the Federal Se
curity Agency, got a look yester
day at how the people live whom
it’s his business to help. Ewing at
tended a concert sponsored by
Local 802, American Federation of
Musicians-AFL at the Home for
Dependents on Welfare Island. He
went there to get first hand ma
terial for the conference of 8()Q^
experts his agency is sponsoring
next month on problems of the
aged.
Ewing told the concert group,
“the conference is to collect all the
best information in the field of
care for the aged, so the local com
munities can apply it in solving
the housing, health, economic and
psychological problems of the
growing number of old people.”
The concert was one of a series
of 75 the union is giving in private
and municipal homes for the aged.
Demand the Union Label.
WE ARE EQUIPPED TO RENDER
COMPLETE FUNERAL AND
AMBULANCE SERVICE
PROMPTLY
MARTIN
FUNERAL HOME
145 West Fifth St. Phone 365
OHIO and WEST VIRGINIA,.
LICENSE
Be our guests this week-end at the new
Philip Sporn Plant. We are conducting
interesting tours, lasting about 40 min*
ales each, between 10 am and noon and
between 2 and 4 pm. All our employees
Spom Plant is easy to get to and we're
sure you'll find your visit instructive
and enjoyable. You'll see boilers ten
stories high, mighty turbines making
the electricity that lights your home and
powers farms and industries for miles
around. You'll see every fascinating step
from coal to kilowatts, all explained on
the site and in an illustrated souvenir
booklet you can take home.
Yon need give us no notice—just come.
We’ll be delighted to see you, your
family, and your friends.
The
OHIO OWER Ce