The Butler County press. [volume], June 23, 1922, Image 1

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

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VOL. XXII. No. 10
Cincinnati, O.—American Federa
tion of Labor membership has stood in
the face of all opposition and in the
face of most trying industrial condi
tions. This was made clear today by
President Gompers of the A. F. of L,
in a statement in which he discussed
the membership figures submitted to
the convention in the annual report
of the executive council.
"There seems to be," said Mr. Gom
pers, "something of a disposition to
misunderstand the membership figures
given for the American Federation of
Labor for the past year and found
in the annual report of the executive
council, submitted to the convention
yesterday.
"It may be that on their face and
without examination they seem to
show a loss of about 710,893 members
during the year just closed.
"Even if that actually were the
ease labor's showing would be most
creditable, in view of the bitter oppo
sition which we have had to meet
during the year.
"The truth is that we have no way
of really knowing whether we have
lost that many members and the fact
may be that we have lost none at all.
"In 1920, the year in which our
membership was highest, we reported
I, 078,740, We now report 3,195,651.
One fact to which I wish to point is
that this is a membership of more
than a million over the figure for
the last pre-war year. Those unions
,vhich seem to show a loss are the
unions most heavily engaged in war
work, fortunately no longer neces
sary. War plants are closed and in
some industries are out of business.
Thousands of workers have been forc
ed into other occupations. Mavy
yards are a good example.
"But there is this feature
VERMIN AND
Streator, 111.—"We could never see
why the merchants and business men
of any city should be so shortsighted
as to give their aid and encourage
ment to the union smashers," de
clares the Belleville (111.) News-Dem
ocrat in an editorial condemning the
anti-trade union campaign inaugur
ated some time ago by the Streator
merchants' association, the board of
trade, the Kiwanis Club and the rota
rians.
"The business man who favors gen
eral wage cuts, engages in the folloy
of cutting his own throat the tragedy
of cutting otf his nose to spite his
face.
"The prosperity of a community
depends upon the standard of life and
the wage scale that prevails.
"If wages are relatively high in a
community, the standards of life will
DESPITE UNION BUSTERS
MEMBERSHIP OF A. F. OF L. REMAINS WHOLE
THOUGH EXECUTIVE COUNCIL REPORT
WOULD S!!KM TO SHOW DECREASE
OF 700,000 DURING PAST YEAR
Seeming Decrease Due to Unemployed Who Are Issued
"Out-of-Work" Stamp and Not Reported as
Dues-Paving Members, Yet Are Members
which
Trade Union Busters Bust
Prosperity
June Days Demand
These New Frocks
—if a woman would look
fresh and cool and lovelv
What woman does not want
an extra frock or two—especially
when she can buy it for so little
a price as is marked on these
At the right—colorful chintz,
combined with beachcloth in plain
colors makes this Mina Taylor
Dress- just $2.95.
makes it impossible to know whether
we have lost and which makes it cer
tain that we have not lost anywhere
near the number of members indi
cated ."s lost on the face of the fig
ures. National and international
unions pay their per capita tax to the
A. F. of L. on the basis of the dues
collected by them from their member
ship. Those organizations do not
collect dues from men and women who
are out of work. They issue 'out of
work' stamps and no accounting of
the number of such stamps issued is
tendered to the A. F. of L, for the
reason that we do not require a per
capita tax on such stamps, since they
represent no revenue.
"The tax collected by the A. F. of
L., amounting to one per cent per
member per month, is on the member
ship paying dues to the various affil
iated organizations. The real loss of
membership, if any, is trifling, run
ning to a few hundreds or perhaps
a few thousands at most. In view of
conditions the showing is remarkable
and is worthy of deep study by those
who seek the destruction of our move
ment.
'Taking account of the spirit of our
movement, our strength is greater
than ever, for there is today in out
ranks a militant spirit and a solidar
ity and unity never equalled. Amer
ican labor has lost nothing, in spite
of ev
r\
effort our enemies could
bring to hear. We are here in full
strength, gaining and growing, abler
than ever in the defense of the inter
ests, the rights and the liberties of
tfa "leat masses of our people. And
ii would be well for those who ?m
ag in.- hey lia\e the power to cruh
labor to tiive ihe future Mime
thought."
be high, the community will be pros
perous, the homes bountifully supplied
arid the people happy and contented
in their daily lives.
"Only misery is in store for a city
where wages are low and the stand
ard of life is degraded and depressed.
"The union buster is always a mis
chief maker, and happy is the town
that has been kept free from the in
vasion of this vermin and from this
particular insect."
All) TO OLD FART IKS
Columbus, Ohio.—The seats of over
a score of mayors who were elected
last fall on independent tickets have
been placed in jeopardy by a state
supreme court decision.
In a contested councilmanic election
in Cincinnati the supreme court held
that all independent tickets in munici
palities of over 2,000 population are
void, the general assembly never hav
ing enacted laws to make the consti
tutional provision for independent
candidates operative.
LLjpir*'.
And here—at the left—is a
quick-to-don, jaunty style, that
will keep one looking pretty all
the time. Of butterfly tissue in
plain and striped combinations,
$7.95.
The W. C. Frechtling Co.
Meet me at Frechtling's Corner
By Eugene V. Debs
A number of persons have asked
me what I think of the Morse case.
There is nothing extraordinary in the
case that I can see, nor any reason
why people should be shocked about
it any more than there was for get
ting excited about the Newberry case.
The one bought his seat in the
United States senate and the other
bought his release from the United
States penitentiary. The only un
usual feature in the Newberry case
was that he paid more than the aver
age market price for his toga, and the
only remarkable thing about the
Moir* case is that he was ever con
victe I at all.
Morse simply bought his way out
the same as any other multi-million
aire would have done, and I do not
hold that against him. I have no de
sire "to see him go back to prison.
I may be less civilized than those who
now rule society, but I would not put
a profiteer's dog, though he had bit
ten me, in a penitentiary.
Morse is neither better nor worse
than his profiteering kind and if he
ought to be in prison, so ought the
entire lot of silk-hatted looters who
bled the government white while the
poor devils they conscripted were
slaughtered for it in the trenches.
As it is the Morses, who name our
judges, especially those on the federal
bench, and more especially the select
few who occupy the supreme seats,
why should these judges be expected
to send the Morses to prison?
What business has a multi-million
aire in a penitentiary anyway? He
does not belong there. The convicts
who are caged like beasts and treated
accordingly are not recruited from
his class, but from the crushed and
despoiled victims of his class.
The prison, like the poorhouse to
which it is first cousin, is for the poor
and not for the rich. Morse knew
this and who can blame him for re
fusing to bring reproach upon his
class by occupying the position of a
beetle-browed convict to which he had
no valid claim
While at Atlanta prison I heard a
great deal about the Morse case. It
has been a celebrated case there ever
since President Taft gave Morse his
liberty in exchange for fraudulent
certificates stating that he was at the
point of death. These certificates
were procured by Taft's political pals
and we are now told that Taft was
deceived. How perfectly silly and ri
diculous! And what chumps they
must take their 100 per cent fellow
Americans to be to believe it!
Taft had his part in the affair and
well knew what he was doing when
he set Morse free. It was notorious
that the Morses had furnished his
campaign funds and that he abjectly
did the bidding of Wall street from
the beginning to the end of his admin
istration just as he did when he was
on the district bench in sending union
men to jail for violating the despotic
orders issued by him through which
he came to be known as "Injunction
Bill."
How could he, being Taft, refuse the
pals who had made him president?
But granting that he was deceived,
what a sorry and sickening spectacle
he presents to his countrymen in that
humiliating role!
In either case, T*ft .was and ia re­
LER COUNTS
HAMILTON, OHIO, FRIDAY, JUNE 23, 1922
Wanderlust
tit, PNIE,
WOUlP N YOU
UKf "TO 0E ON
tH' EXPOS'." W
foOlN'MM'lflrtfMJ
yoi) WW
IJQHS
HE ClWte
tMn l* W J.
MORSE AND NEWBERRY CASES
LIKENED BY DEBS IN THAT ONE BOUGHT HIS RELEASE FROM
THE U. S. PENITENTIARY WHILE OTHER BOUGHT HIS
SEAT IN THE U. S. SENATE.
Says Taft Knew Well What He Was Doing When He Opened Prison
Doors To Freedom For Morse---Political Debt Paid?
sponsible, and no one else, and every
Morse of high and low degree in thy
land exulted in his elevation to the
chief justiceship of the supreme court
of the United States.
The Morse case furnishe.- a topic
for unceasing comment in the Atlanta
prison. High prison officials and in
mates who served with Morse began
telling me about the case soon after
1 got there. And this in substance
is what they told me:
Plans were laid to get Murse out
soon after he began to serve his sen
tence. Tom Felder, then an Atlanta
lawyer of unsavory reputation, was
engaged to do the underground work.
Huge fees were pledged to him and
his confederates. Dr. Fowler, the
prison physician, was at once placed
upon the Felder staff. After Morse's
release, the doctor hied himself to
Europe on a pleasure trip, and since
Morse's recent indictment F'owler has
been reinstated to his former position
as prison physician. This is mere co
incidence, of course!
Soon after Felder got on the job
he realized that he must find a pal
in some politician who had "pull"
with the president. Eureka! Harry
M. Daugherty was next to the throne
and the very man for the part. The
teamwork now began in earnest.
Glittering prizes would reward the
success of the adventure. To ears, at
tuned as these were, the jingling of
the gleaming coin could already be
distinctly hear.i. Oh, liberty, what
virtues are practiced in thy name!
Morse had promised that he would
'•make the men rich" who got him
out of that hell-hole called the
United States penitentiary at Atlanta,
Ga.
The assistant attorney general of
the United States was promptly dis
patched to Atlanta to examine Morse.
The surgeon general himself soon
followed. The prison physician co
operated with right good will. Morse
must be certified to be in a dying
condition and this granting of his
release pleaded as his only salvation.
The next move was the first sure
step toward freedom. By order from
Washington Morse was mysteriously
transferred from Atlanta penitentiary
to Fort McPherson and assigned to
special quarters under care of two
private nurses.
Can you imagine any such masterly
maneuvering, any such special solici
tude in the case of any other than a
multi-millionaire convict in a land of
liberty where all stand equal before
the law and where scores of men are
serving life sentences as convicted
felons for belonging to a labor union
branded as "unpatriotic" by the thiev
ing profiteers and their prostituted
judicial, political editorial and cleri
cal hirelings?
The rest is easy. The necessary
certificates are soon issued. Felder is
all smiles. Daugherty finishes the job
at Washington, the president gra
ciously grants the pardon, and the
palms of the patriots nowr itch for
the promised coin.
Charles W. Morse fares forth a
free man! He bought and paid for
his release and who shall question his
right to his freedom or the right of
the man who had the "pull" with the
president to be made attorney general,
or the right of the president who ex
ercised his executive clemency to be
seated as chief justice of the supreme
court oi the United States?
For of such indeed is patriotism
and 100 per cent Americanism under
ii" pioneering system which now
has unbridled sway since the great
slaughter has made the World safe
for
democracy!
BILL BLOCKED
By A. F. of L. That Would
Legalize Judicial Kid
napping
Cincinnati.—The people must be
constantly on guard to protect their
liberties against un-American legisla
tion sneaked through congress by
anti-labor legislators, warns the exec
utive council of the American Federa
tion of Labor in a statement to the
federation convention.
"Those people who must depend
for their knowledge on the news
papers do not realize the rabid re
actionary spirit that ha? completely
controlled certain members of con
gress, declares the council.
"As the coni!try grows older it
should progress, not go backward.
But there are members in the United
States senate who do not believe this,
and one of them N- Senator Nelson,
of Minnesota.
"In April, 112I, he introduced Sen
ate bill 657. which in effect would
legalize judicial kidnapping. No
hearings were held upon it by the
judiciary committee and some of the
members knew nothing about the bill
until it had been surreptitiously slip
ped through the senate on June fi,
1921. In fact, no one knew it had
passed the senate until it had been
reported to the house, and then it was
found that it was a very dangerous
measure.
"The intention of tne oil) ia to give
any judge in any federal district the
right to issue a warrant for the ar
rest of an indicted person who may
live in a far distant state, arrest and
transport him to the place of indict
ment for trial, without giving a hear
ing on the question of probable cause
before being removed from the dis
trict of his domicile.
"Not only a preliminary examine
tion would be prohibited, but also th
right and opportunity to secure bad
and counsel to present the matter 1
the court."
President Gompers mobilized tl
organized labor movement in oppos
tion to Nelson's bill. It now sleej
in the files of the judiciary committ
of the house.
STEEL PAYS LOW WAGE
New York.—Low wages paid con
mon labor in the steel industry i
shown by the report from Buffalo thn
the Lackawanna steel company ha
raised wages from 23 cents an hon
to 26 cents. Rates for the steel tru
are slightly higher. When the
While the I'n.te: o
•UNION FREE FROM WRONG
Did the supreme court of the United
States apologize to plutocracy when
it expressed its regret in setting aside
damages and costs amounting to
$1,000,000 against the United Mine
Workers in the Coronado case
Would the court assure big busi
ness that the judicial war on organ
ized labor wTould continue, even if
the miners did happen to ecane in
this instance?
Did the court take tins occasion to
record malice against the miners' in
ternational union, though the court
acknowledged that this organization
could not be held for damages be
cause of a local strike?
Despite this acknowledgment h
court makes this astounding -ile
nient at the close of it.- decision:
"The circumstances are -aieh to
awaken regret that in our vi••w of
the federal jurisdiction v,* etui imt
affirm the judgment" (of the low.
court against the United Mine W
Who raised the ntela
mental limitations?"
The union is free f-m- The
court says so, but dep e- that it
cannot be held and then i i i- that it
is better to acquit the umor than to
violate the .••..urt'- I'm- imi
tations.
Did the court wish to o M.\eY the
impression that the ..oi 'lay *.he
United Mine Worker- could t,e .au'et-
BROKERS"SPENT VAST
SUMS
/'en York.- Wall -tivt i,v, ho
invested their money with defunct
firm of E. D. Dier & Co to k brok
ers, were privileged to see her" "one
of their money went, wine the n
cern's books were openea.
The cost of lunches !a-' ar v. as
$35,000. Stamps wt re alleged have
cost .f.::8,000 advert iim.'. $71,000
leaed telegraph \vire. C00 sta
tionery, $48,000, tuid e'ing^ ex
penses and entertainmen' $11,000.
These charge- were listed
UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT ADMITS IT IN
CORONADO COAL CASE, BUT DEPLORES
FACT THAT WORKERS' ORGANI­
ZATION CANNOT BE HELD
In Rendering Its Decision in This All Important Case Did
the Nation's Highest Tribunal Apologize
to Plutocracy
O
e rs I.
Tiii statement i- no-.' e\a ,-ao
nary when it is recall- I 'ha* the
court reasoned .-\tensiv. .• t'nM e
United Mine WVrhei v. •.
for damages.
"The motion to uirect :n jury to
turn a verdict for the efendants
(United Mine Wnrkf-r« ii.ouM have
been granted," -aid he court, which
then proceeds to e.i ae this n \v
point and close- it- d-doe with the
regret that it carm-.: hold 'he funds
of the union.
I I
Wori.
E
saved $1,000,000 i! t1
court handed plute a n
worth million- of
to sue trade \w.
In expressii: i ,.
ed Mine Wor a- e .i i
ld,
even though th i id, nee
against then '.he •. o!jn -d- a
•'But it of ill- e tat.ee
that we should pre- i n the
fundamental limitation- in to
the federal jurisdiction."
What i- Meant by thi a.•
Why diK:« the court u.ui the
escape of the United Mine Workers
is of less importance than the court's
proper procedure
:i-
Subscribe for The Pr«»s.
a:«wa»aaiMBr
Mi
•wQ-t'-J
latte
made its fiist reduction, it assure
workers that the quick return to pro
perity and lower living prices wou
equalize their losses.
Id
W. Harry Spears, democrat!
candidate for state representative
the poor man's frienrf.
wiksc sJte&hi
'9
WAR SAYIX^S ,7YTBT
(•SV'ED PY T'*
UNLTTRT .T.\TB«
OOVE»KM£rtT
ONE DOLLAR PER YEAR
ed was by lynch law methods, and
that this would prove disastrous to
the court and could not be used?
Did this information just happen to
reach the court, and did the court
hear that some influential citizens be
lieve now is the time to lay the
ground work for the "star chamber"
court of justice, which reached its
highest infamy in the reign of Henrv
VII?
While the court's decision that trade
unions can be sued is remarkable, its
injection of personal prejudices and
hate-, is also remarkable.
!i uld seem that this court would
-mus of a growing resentment
i i i t- u s u a i o n o e i s a i v e
ami denial of human
i-'-i' the regret that it could
not convict th i diited Mine Workers
indicates the
cyme
indifference of an
institution thai -••emv to have become
hard boiled to ery- hmj* but property
id profits.
CAN DILUTE UNION
ISM
'e a•
a. A trade union cannot
'of ee
u
!.'\t-.
,and half something
else and remain a trade union, says
•Jce.n 1'. I'd'ey. eddar International
Molders' Journal
"The workman can ami hould have
nrtov interests itle, but his trade
ur something separate and apart
fv ,i a.II of these, and if it is to be
e !i ia ful it must be kept pure
ly '.r-i union movement. If evi
ct., -a.th: fundamental
de-ire it i on:\ necessary
'--ia..• n .a y of
i
de
e
organ-
i i e- i to he paniy
ui'.e:~ .something else at
th' :a.o. la every instance
"he faiieu to show a healthy growth,
I ha ,*e invariably given evidence of
liability to protect their niem
bta i i. imposition, while many of
the a assed out of existence."
W ho (ioe your auto notary work
free o! chary*'.' The B. (J. Auto Club.
To hasten
the dawn
of Prosperity
—thy've stopped
alibi-ing-
and start ed
buying
—so here
comes YVorthmon
with a store
full oi values
that'll certain!}
j»et the
business
"'petty
expenses."
Some of the major it -n:s wen-:
Administrative expenses. *700,000
general administration, expense
$115,000 salaries, $485,000. The
lat­|WORTHMORE
ter does not include $310,000 in cash
withdrawn by members 'he i',nv.
during the year.
I I I I I I
—and Worth more Clothes
are always
$22.50
none higher.
hey
re ail
once I
f22.50
136 High St.
Opposite Court House
4'4,4*4*v'
WE ARE STILL
PUTTING UP THE
-BE,
ST
Awnings
That Can Be Made
High Class Residence Awnings
IS OUR SPECIALTY
ASK VOI NEIGHBOR
TELEPHONE 1611-L
FLAGS—AH Sizes—Greatly Reduced Prices
Wittman Tent & Awning Co.
337-339 South Second St. HAMILTON, OHIO
4