The Butler County press. [volume], June 18, 1920, Image 1

About The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946

Image provided by: Ohio History Connection, Columbus, OH

                
VOL. XX. No. 9.
KANSASSTRIKES
Despite Law of the "Can't
Strike" Governor
Topeka, Kan.— Strikes in this
state continue, regardless of the legis
lative edict to the contrary. The
Kansas Trades Unionist says:
"Gov. Allen knows that his indus
trial court law has not prevented a
singel strike in Kansas. He knows
that one strike after another has
taken place in the coal fields, and
neither he nor his court have dared
to lift a hand or arrest these strik
ers. His whole gang hide behind this
expression: 'Howat and the union of
ficials called the strike.' He knows,
and so does his court, 'that neither Ho
wat, Gompers, nor any international
officer can call a strike. The rank and
file orders a strike, and that it is the
only time it is effective."
HEREimiCH
ONE, "SCABBING
ON THE SCABS"
Movies Should Get Pictures
In Hamilton
(By Special Correspondence.)
Hamilton, O.—The novel sight of a
set of scabs scabbing on their fellow
scabs is something of which this pro
gressive city can boast.
On account of its factory being va
cated by the strike of the local ma
chinists, one of the machine tool com
panies here imported a lot of strike
breakers and proceeded to start to be-
Porch Swings and Rockers
at KREBS.
STORE
FOUR WAYS
TO
GET MONEY
FIND IT, BORROW IT, WORK FOR IT, OR
SAVE IT AT OUR
NO PROFIT
SALE
When we cut, we cut to the quick, as our prices
are never inflated at times, in order to make big re
ductions later,
True, on small purchases the amount saved
small, but on large ones it counts big as the reduc
ions are from 20% to 35% on all items. The kind of
clothing, etc., which you see in abundance in our
store would not be out of place on a millionaire s
lack, but that is not the fellow we are after. We're
after the workingman's trade and have been ever
since we started, and that has been a long time.
When a house like ours of unlimited resources and
unbounded ambition decided to set the pace in both
quality and price and choose the working man sis
heir customers. Who can compete with this? Ar!
when we offer you our entire stock at cost, as this
liig No Profit Sale is doing, who will dare to follow
us? Every item in our house offered at jjjst sufli
ient above cost to pay actual expenses.
THE OLD RELIABLE
RED TRUNK
The Workingman's Store.
249 HIGH STREET
Oar Store will eloM at noon every Wednesday daring Jan*. July. Aag.
gin to get ready to operate the plant,
but a disagreement arose between the
scabs and the management with the
result that the scabs went on strike
and the company is trying to turn out
some Work with only six men on the
job.
Scab Pickets
This particular bunch of scabs that
struck in this particular factory had
peculiar ideas. They got so sore that
instead of going out and looking for
more advertisements for more scabs
in other places they decided to stay on
strike at the plant against the scabs
inside, and so went out and made an
agreement with the union pickets to
allow them to help win the strike for
union conditions, and now we have the
picture of union pickets on one side
of the street and scab pickets on the
other.—Cincinnati News.
ALBERTJENZEL
Has Entered the Race For
Conress From This
District
Albert Fenzel, the Middletown at
torney, has entered the race for the
democratic nomination for congress
from this district. This adds interest
to this race and comes as a surprise
as it was thought that Pickrell, of
Dayton, and who has been endorsed
by the organizations of Montgomery
and Butler counties, would have no
oppostion and clear sailing for the
nomination.
But Fenzel is in the fight to stay,
and he is likely to make it interest
ing. He is very popular in Middle
town and Hamilton, and in fact
throughout the entire county of But
ler, where he is well known. Being
a Butler county boy. naturally he will
get a big vote in this neck of the
woods.
i s
CLERKS
The annual convention of the Amer
ican Federation of Labor opened Mon
day at Montreal. This is the second
convention to be held on Canadian
soil. The first was held in Toronto in
1009. President Gompers called the
meeting to order, and after the for
mal opening the officers made their
report for the year.
A membership on April 30 of 4,078,
740 was reported, showing a growth
of 818,o72 during the year. The re
ceipts were $929,255.95 and the ex
penses were $917,765.65.
The report of executive council
which includes that of President
Gompers was exhaustive and com
plete. It deals with reconstruction,
labor's non-partisan political cam
paign, the high cost of living, profit
eering, hostile labor legislation, child
labor, sedition bills, immigration, edu
cation, the cold storage question, steel
strike investigation, convict labor,
strikes, compulsory military trainings
the meat packing monopoly, the rehab
ilitation of cripples, compulsory arbi
tration, the Mexican situation, the coal
strike and the Lever act, extremist
propaganda and movements, the
Mooney case, political prisoners and
many other questions.
Bolshevist Propaganda and Move
ments
"During the year just past," says
the report, "the labor movement has
stood its ground solidly and main
tained the progressive, constructive
policy which has marked it apart from
most of the labor movements of th#
world throughout the whole period of
the world war
"But the nation has witnessed spor
adic outbreaks of extremist sentiment
and has been compelled to deal with
extremist propaganda in a number of
cases since the war period came to an
end. This tendency toward unreason
ed thought has been most unfortunate
for the nation and still more unfor
tunate for those who have been the
participants.
"Bolshevism has been a lure for
some of our people and its doctrines
have been propagated with great vig
or. This hideous doctrine has found
converts among two classes of people
principally—those intellectual, so
called, who have no occupation save
that of following one fad after another
and those so beaten in the game of life
that they find no appeal in anything
except the most desperate and illogical
schemes. The rank and file of the or
ganized labor movement, as was to
have been expected, has given no
countenance to the propaganda of Bol
shevism, but has, on the contrary, been
its most effective opponent in Amer
ica.
The One Big Union
"The propaganda of revolutionary
thought has not been limited to the
propaganda of bolshevism. It has
taken other forms. The 'one big
union' idea has had its adherents, de
spite the disastrous results of the ex
periment in Canada with its treicher
ous machinery during the year pre
ceding our 1919 convention. It is grat
ifying to note that everywhere the
ostensible strength of this propaganda
has been lost and that its fallacies
are daily becoming clearer to its for
mer victims.
"Of more importance than the re
sults of studied propaganda of revolu
tion and extremism is the feeling of
unrest among our people which is due
to abuses in our political and indus
trial life and which seeks relief and
freedom and not revolution and catas
trophe.
"So long as this unrest finds it ex
pression in the orderly, constructive
And Points Out Causes For Sew*
ing Of Its Seed==Big Interests
and Unrest Responsible
NEARLY ONE MILLION MEMBERS
JOIN THE RANKS OF AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR
DURING THE PAST YEAR-CONVENES IN MONTREAL S
ive Council Hakes Strong
Report Covering Wide Range
of 3mbjects
Bolshevism
and democratic activities of the bona
fide trade union movement it is of in
calculable benefit to the nation. So
long as it finds the trade union move
ment an effective weapon for the
righting of industrial wrongs and for
the enlargement of opportunity and
the extension of liberty, it is an asset
to the national character and stabil
ity. It is the expression of the masses
of the people against injustice and in
action and an expression of their un
alterable determination to persist in
the constructive effort to press home
to a successful conclusion the fight
for rights too long denied and for the
abolition of wrongs too long enudred.
Protest is Still Protest
"The greatest disservice that the
great interests of reaction and bour
bonism can do for America is to re
press and deny the legitimate aspira
tions of the workers and to seek by re
strictive legislation to make ineffect
ive their bona fide trade union organ
izations. Protest denied will still be
protest.
''Upon the signing of the armistice
it became clear some employers and
some reactionary forces in our politi
cal life were bent upon a career of
exploitation and suppression, regard
less of the needs and just desires of
the masses of our people. The nation
has already witnessed effort after ef
toi*t to enact legislation of a restric
tive, coercive charcater, in defiance of
the interests of the people and in de
fiance of American liberties guaran
teed in the constitution of our repub
lic. The Esch-Cummins railroad law
and the Kansas court of industrial re
lations law are examples of bour
bon success. The Graham-Sterling
peace-time sedition bill and other pro
posed legislation was of a similar
mould, but was defeated by reason of
labor's energetic and angry protest.
The injunction in the case of the coal
miners was another example of the
lengths to which employers and gov
ernment officials were ready to go in
suppressing the aspirations of the
workers and in making effective their
lawful and constructive trade union
organizations as agencies of pro
gress.
The "Open Shop" Fight
"There was immediate evidence of
the same trend in the purely economic
life of the land. The position assum
ed by the United States steel
Discusses
corporav
tion typified a spirit too prevalent—
a spirit of bludgeoning wrath and en
raged opposition to all progress for
the working people, a spirit of intoler
ance of the rights of man and of arro
gance in the face of a struggle for
elemental justice.
"In a score of communities employ
ers' associations have reopend the
struggle of a decade ago for what
they term the open shop—in reality
the shop which is closed against
union men and women. At a time
when vision and statesmanship should
guide the employers and the political
authorities of the country there has
been a resurgence of the concept of
brutality and oppression.
"During the whole period since the
armistice price inflation has contin
ued. Profiteering, for which construc
tive remedies are recommended else
where in this report, has run wild.
It has scourged the land like a plague.
It has burned through our arteries of
trade like a fever and ravaged our
people like a pestilence. Profiteers
have been insatiable "devourers of
men, women and children," intent up
on heaping up hoards of gold without
precedent, at the expense of human
life and happiness.
have merely constituted comic inter
ludes in one of the great tragedies of
the post-war period.
"The written and spoken propagan
da of unreason and extremism can be
met and defeated by truth. But legit
imate unrest, growing out of condi
tions of injustice can be met and over
come only by intelligent dealing with
conditions. Those who drink from a
poisoned well will be poisoned until
the well itself is cleansed.
"Your executive council has given
constant attention to the whole matter
in contemplation here. It has caused
constant attention to be given to the
work of exposing the fallacies of false
and misleading propaganda. But
those who by means more effective
than any propaganda have brought
disturbance upon our country and
suffering to our people must be dealt
wth directly by forces which they can
not escape. They are afflicted with a
madness, and reason has ceased to
affect them.
"The powerful economic organiza
tion of the American wage-earners
offers to the workers their most po
tent agency of relief, but not in every
case can relief be had before desper
ation begins to make itself felt. The
opposing forces are strongly intrench
ed and seem to know no sobering
sense of responsibility or conscience.
Hope is in Union Labor
"During the year the officers of
the labor movement have issued re
peated warnings to the people and
have put forth definite suggestions
for remedial action. Congress, which
might have done much, has done noth
ing. Great industrial leaders have
laughed at warning words and have
gone back to their counting rooms.
"Keeping pace with the extremist I
propaganda and with the forces gen
crative of unrest there has been what I
appears to have been a studied at-!
tempt to discredit the organized labor
movement and to throw upon it the
onus and burden of most of our na
tional ills. Employers and their pub
lications have sought steadily to
spread the belief that the labor
movement is responsible for high
prices, responsible for unrest and an
antagonist of the public welfare in
every strike.
"Your executive council believes
this convention should utter a solemn
warning to the country, calling upon
it to demand of congress measures of
fundamental relief from oppressivei
legislation, measures of fundamental
character looking toward currency de-
flation and reduction in cost of living
and warning the nation that if the
just and reasonable demands of the
working people, presented for orderly
negotiation through their properly I
accredited representatives, are not'
given consideration and made the sub
ject of prompt action it is but logical
that it should face the disordered pro
test of unorganized masses driven to
desperation by the disdain and autoc
racy of those in control of industrial
management and political parties.
Profiteers Rob People
"Your executive council believes
this convention should call upon all
(Continued on page two)
Jk
Palmer is Joke "''.••v.-.:
"Inflation in staple commodities has
reached a point of all but unbeliev
able extremes. Efforts of the depart
menfc of justice to reatrict moftieeriiik'
Name
E. Route or Street
City
And Purchase
HAMILTON, OHIO, FRIDAY, JUNE 18,1920. ONE DOLLAR PER YEAR
i
MATHES-SOHNGEN COUPON
Washignton.—"The public has no
rights which are superior to the toil
er's right to defend himself against
oppression," declared President
Gompers in answering a question sub
mitted to him by Governor Allen of
Kansas in their recent joint debate on
the "can't-strike" law of that state.
At that time the governor said:
"When a dispute between capital
and labor brings on a strike affecting
the production or distribution of the
necessities of life, thus threatening
the public peace and impairing the
public health, has the public any
rights in such a controversy, or is it
a private war between capital and la
bor
"If you answer the question in the
affirmative, Mr. Gompers, how would
you protect the rights of the public?
"And, in additioij, I wish him to de
fine for us, if he will, who had the
divine rght to forbid the switchmen
to strike in their 'out-law' srtike who
controls this divine right to quit
work?"
When Governor Allen subintted
this query, President Gompers refus
ed to answer and thus develop a line
of argument foreign to the subject
then at issue. The trade unionist said
he would answer the question in his
own tme and n his own way. In his
answer now made public, President
Gompers said, in part:
"In the first place the language of
the question is improper, as I stated
on the platform in Carnegie hall. To
describe a strike as a 'private war be
tween capital and labor' is to come
perilously near the language of either
thoughtlessness or ridicule to a strug
gle of human kind toward the attain
ment of an ideal.
"Employment, as employers would
have it, is something offered by them
to workers. Employment, to em
ployers. has been a means to an end.
It has been an impersonal thing, like
buying steel, and the aim has been to
secure the best possible terms.
"Employment to workers, has been
and is, vitally different. Employment,
to workers, is the means of sustaining
life. Workers have labor power to
contribute to society. The reward
which they secure for their labor pow
er fixes the manner in which they may
live. By the day's pay is measured
the meagerness of or the fulness of
life for them. The wage is translated
immediately into pounds of meat, suits
of clothes, rental of homes, snatches
of rest and pleasure and glimpses into
books of learning.
"Employment to the employer is
the basis of profits. Employment to
the worker is life. These viewpoints
conflict from opposite angles. They
will conflict so long as industry is
conducted for profit alone. This con
flict will not be ended by statute law.
It can neither be argued out of ex
istence nor legislated out of exist
ence.
"The strike is theonly effective
weapon by which the workers may
compel consideration of just de
mands. It is a weapon the use of
which entails serious consequence, but
the question of life, which is the ques
tion at issue, is a serious question. It
THE MATHES-SOHNGEN CO.
SPECIAL $2.00 DAY COUPON
SPE DAILY PAPERS FOR SPECIAL PRICES
PUBLIC'S RIGHTS CLAIM 5
W) DEFENSE FOR SOCIAL WRONG, SAYS MK
GOMPERS IN ANSWER TO "CAN'T-STRIKE1'
GOVERNOR ALLEN
Declares No Rights Superior to Right of Workers To
Live and to Defend Him self Against Oppression
is much more serious to strikers
than it is to Governor Alien or mem
bers of employers' associations.
"Workmen grow less oppressed
and more free as they increase their
organized power. When few workers
were organized their grievances were
but lightly considered.
"The public has no rights which
are superior to the toiler's right to
live and to his right to defend him
self against oppression.
"The great concern of most news
papers and public officials who pro
pound ready-made remedies is that lo
bor should labor. Stripped of its
adornment, that is the essence of the
outcry against strikes. Workers
must work. And while workers work
the newspapers and oratorical public
officials will be silent about them.
This is not prediction this is record.
"There is no escaping some incon
veniences during strikes, particularly
for those who engage in striking. The
strike has won its right to a post of
honor among the institutions of free
civilization and the temporary incon
venience it has caused is but a small
price to pay for the permanent bene-'
fits it has brought.
"Every strike against deterioration
is a check upon avaricious employers
pressing the unorganized still further
down. Every strike for the improve
ment in the condition and standards
of those engaged in industry has its
reflex and influence for the uplift of
al.l
"Instinctively the workers put life
before property, social welfare before
material gain for the employer. It is
the duty of the public to throw the
weight of its influence on the side of
the protagonists of progress and just
ice—the workers.
"Trade agreements reached through
collective bargaining offer the only
safeguard that will work. The pub
lic's rights are not safeguarded by
laws that aim to prevent strikes.
"The very newspapers that seem
most interested in behalf of the public
are published day by day, year by
year, by virtue of the trade agree
ment reached through collective bar
gaining. Their labor turnover pro
bably ranks close to the lowest in
American industry.
"Industrial peace is desirable. In
dustrial greed is what prevents it.
The workers will struggle and organ
ize and strike when necessary to pre
vent industrial injustice. The strike
—the withdrawal of their service—is
the one final effective weapon that
they possess. The state can offer no
substitute, the public can hope for no
state-made substitute, for the strqg
gle is in industry, not in politics."
n i*
DEMAND AN INCREASE
Madison, Wis.—Pressmen and press
feeders employed in the various com
mercial printing plants are out de
manding an increase of $5 a week
over the present wage rate of $17
for feeders and $85 for pressmen.
They are also demanding the unioniz
ing of the various plants.
KREBS are Agents for the
Hoover Cleaner.
Cut out Coupon and present at Store
properly filled out on $2 Day, and we
will allow yon an additional
5%
dis­
count on purchases, providing tbe
amount is paid in $2.00 bills.