The Butler County press. [volume], August 17, 1923, Image 1

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

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VOL. XXIII. No. 18
New York. "American trade
unionism leads the world today in
every phase of the realm of organiz
ed labor activity," is President Gom
pers' challenge to the latest Euro
pean critic of American trade union
ism—Jan Oudegeest of Holland, one
of the two secretaries of the Inter
national Federation of Trade Unions.
President Gompers writes in the
New York Times, in answer to an
interview with Mr. Oudegeest by Wil
liam Atherton du Puy, an American
newspaper man, who was for a time
attached to the international labor
office at Geneva. Mr. du Puy's inter
view was printed in the New York
Times.
Mr. Oudegeest declared that Ameri
can labor "has hesitated, floundered,
almost failed," and that "it has been
improperly led by Samuel Gompers."
President Gompers pays little at
tention to the personal attack on him.
He says he will not worry about Mr.
Oudegeese's judgment until it is con
firmed by the American trade union
ists who have for 40 times elected him
president of the A. F. of L. Presi
dent Gompers declared that there is
not a trade union movement in Europe
as free from internal discord, as free
from bitterness and disappointment, as
united and confident of the future as
the trade union movement of the
United States.
"The condition of labor in Europe
is not all due to post-war confusion,"
he said.
"Labor in the United States is bet
tor paid than anywhere else in the
world. It lives in better homes. It
wears better clothes. It has more*
leisure. It enjoys better food. It has
a wider margin of choice in determin
ing how and where it shall live. Fin
ally, it has a better trade union move
ment with which to achieve more
progress and improvement.
'Of what avail are the programs of
Europe if their concrete results are
inferior to the results of the efforts
of American labor It is notable that
the labor movements of Europe run
strongly to programs and formulas.
They make formulas for everything.
They embellish them, decorate them,
punctuate them nicely, capitalize them
freely, make speeches about them end
lessly, gaze upon them worshipfully—
and no doubt this pleases employers
immensely.
"But the American workers prefer
an increase in wages, witlj all the re
sulting opportunities, to a pleasing
formula framed on the wall.
"In America we lack the back
ground which is the direct source of
the persisting European love for the
ory and formula. For that we are
thankful, though we marvel at the
persistence in Europe of medieval in
fluences.
"All the countries of Europe might
well settle in Texas, one state of the
48 in the United States. The coun
tries of Europe are actually industrial,
while the United States covers an
area 3,000 miles across the continent
and roughly 2,000 miles from Canada
•X
i
t*
LEADS THE WORLD
AMERICAN TRADE UNIONISM AHEAD OF THEM
ALL, DECLARES PRESIDENT GOMPERS IN
ANSWER TO EUROPEAN CRITIC
Battling Chief Points Out That Uncle Sam's Workers
Are More Interested in High Wages Than
Programs and Formulas
to Mexico, the greater portion of
which is essentially agriculture.
"There is slight similarity of any
kind between the problems of labor
in America and Europe, though Euro
pean doctrinaries, intellectuals and
superior persons generally feel free to
tell us how to order our affairs and
ho wto enter the promised land which
is yet so very far from their own
shores."
President Gompers calls attention
to declarations by the International
Federation of Trade Unions for a gen
eral strike to "socialize industry," and
a general strike in the event of war.
As these resolutions would cause the
American trade unionists to surrender
their autonomy, the A. F. of L. has
declined to affiliate with the interna
tional.
"Largely under the influence of Mr.
Oudegeest," says President Gompers,
"the International Federation of Trade
Unions has developed into failures,
if not disasters, and has made utterly
impossible, at least for the present,
the affiliation of the American Feder
ation of Labor.
"1 think I may suggest without im
propriety that European critics of our
movement set their own houses in
order before attempting intellectual
suzerainty of the United States of
America."
FAULTY SCHOOL
HOUSES THROUGH
OUT THE LAND
New York.—There are 1,000,000
children in this country who are hous
ed in inadequate public school build
ings, said Dr. Geaorge Drayton
Strayer in an address to students in
this city.
The speaker insisted on school plan
ning years ahead. He said communi
ties select
111
The Home Of
Sellers Kitchen Cabinets
proper sites and later
they are forced to encroach on play
space, which, he said, is just as im
portant as class rooms. He advocated
large tracts for play spaces so that
play may become a regular part of
the school program.
Mrs. Edith Elmer Wood, housing
authority, said one-third of the popu
lation of the United States is sub
normally housed and one-tenth is
housed under conditions which produce
acute degenerative changes, physical,
mental and moral.
WON'T SURVEY RE
TAILERS
Washington.—The coal commission
will not survey retail coal dealers,
as this can be handled by state and
municipal agencies. The commission
found that coal retailing is inextric
ably associated with trucking and
storage and with the retailing of a
variety of other commodities. A na
tion-wide survey of the more than
40,000 retail coal dealers would cost
$2,000,000, and even then results
would be unsatisfactory because of
conditions, the commission hints.
far IT gives us as much pleasure to make a friend
for the store as to secure a customer. In fact,
from the very first day the doors were opened,
we have been interested not solely in selling furni
ture but rather in the building of a solid, sub
stantial foundation of confidence on the part of
the public.
I
(Copyright, W. N. U.)
and That There
By international Labor News Service.
New York.—Virtual admission that
the American Federation of Labor
and other organizations opposed to
unrestricted immigration, have won
their fight, is made by the Iron Age
in its current issue.
The Iron Age, which speaks for the
iron and steel interests of the nation,
also admits that iron and steel manu
facturers, their dream of unrestricted
immigration shattered, are turning
with success to Canada, Mexico and
their own country, for additional
workers. This is almost as if the
Iron Age had branded as "bunk" the
assertions of the steel trust that it
was impossible to find workers with
out letting down the bars of immi
gration, as heretofore the Iron Age
has featured the we-must-have-more
immigration cry of the steel interests.
The Iron Age's admission that the
fight for unrestricted immigration is
lost is published under a Washington
date-line with the heading: "No Lib-,
eralization of Immigration Laws, Out
look Is That Congress May Tighten
Present Provisions." The article fol
lows
"Efforts looking to the liberaliza
tion of the 3 per cent immigration law
apparently will be futile. While for
a long time the sentiment of the coun
try seems to have been directed
against any further letting down of
the bars, large employing interests
have been urging that this is neces-
k THE BUTLER COUNTY PRESS.
\NllL
WO4-
Dog Days
mm
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10 DAV5
W i i i I i J-
UNRESTRICTED IMMIGRATION
BUT A DREAM AND A LOSING FIGHT IS ADMISSION MADE BY
IRON AGE, OFFICIAL ORGAN OF IRON AND
STEEL INTERESTS
Admits Industry is Finding Additional Men Despite Cry of "Impossible"
is Tendency Toward Tightening the Law
sary if relief is to be obtained from
the shortage of labor.
Fight on Law Futile
"Easily the iron and steel industry
is one of the outstanding examples
that typifies this situation. With
plans now actively under way for the
elimination of the 12-hour day, the
problem of the industry has become
increasingly difficult.
"The fact may as well be faced,
however, that no matter how plaus
ible may be arguments to relax the
immigration laws, every indication
appears to point toward the improb
ability of such action by congress.
"The ti'uth of the matter is that the
tendency is toward tightening the law.
There can be no doubt that industrial
interests as a class have become thor
oughly convinced of the need of select
ive immigraton, though on a more
generous basis than now is allowable,
but running counter to this view is
that of administration officials and
many members of congress, and Pres
ident Coolidge is expected to continue
the Harding policy on this question.
"Because of this it would be wide
of the mark to charge propaganda of
organized labor with complete respon
sibility for restrictive legislation en
acted and which perhaps is in pros
pect. No doubt, it is pointed out, the
active campaign that always has been
carried on by organized labor for the
limiting of immigration has been ef
fective to a substantial degree, but
K-R-E-B-S
HAMILTON, OHIO, FRIDAY, AUGUST 17, 1923 ONE DOLLAR PER YEAR
Jg
I
likewise it is held to be true that or
ganized labor found a strong public
sentiment back of it in the past for a
certain degree of restriction, though
this does not imply that approval was
given to the insistence of organized
labor upon the so-called literacy test.
"Rather, it is maintained, the coun
try as a whole saw that under pre
vious laws many of the immigrants,
constituted a hodge-podge that was ex
cessive in quantity but lacking in
quality. It was contended that while
this did afford a greater source from
which to draw laborers, relatively the
supply was small for either the fac
tory or the farm, with the result that
a large number of undesirables were
thrown upon the country, many of
them willingly disposed of by their
native lands.
What Conference Board Urged
"The national industrial conference
board in a recent report on 'The Im
migration Problem in the United
States' surveyed at great length the
present 3 per cent law, in which it
urged many far-reaching changes and
improvements, but it went on record
in favor of consideration of the human
side of immigration and declared that
a selfish economic attitude alone will
not serve. It treated the subject front
an extremely broad point
0f
view and
took into account national and inter
national social questions as well as
economic progress. It also pointed
(Continued on last page)
New York.—Another concession to
public opinion has been made by
Judge Gary, who reiterated that the
12-hour day will be eliminated "as
rapidly as the supply of labor will
permit." In a public statement the
steel trust head said:
"It is impossible to say when the
changes will be completed. It will de
pend upon labor conditions at the re
spective plants. There will be no un
necessary delay on the part of any
one.
"Where the hours of employes con
nected with continuous process are re
duced from 12 to eight hours, their
wage rates will be so adjusted as to
afford earnings equivalent to a 15
per cent increase in hourly and base
rates.
"All other workmen will be on 10
hours or less, and their present hourly
and base rates will be continued but
wherever it is practicable, by pro
motions or changes in position, the
daily earnings will be accordingly ad
justed."
This statement means that the 12
hour day will be eliminated—some
time, but the 10-hour day will re
main that wages will be increased
15 per cent fer the 12-hour men who
have been cut to eight hours. Thus,
the 40-cent rate will be advanced to
46 cents for those who have had their
hours reduced from 12. There will be
no change in the 10-hour workday.
This is a clear announcement that
the three-shift system, so universal in
British steel mills, is far from a fact
in the mills of the steel trust.
In announcing a wage increase of
6 cents an hour to its 12-hour men—
when the long work day is abolished
the steel trust says prices must be
increased. This is the old trick of
giving the workers a pem.y and mak
ing the public pay a dollar.
In 1920 Professor Horace B. Drury
studied steel plants which were oper
ating on the three-shift basis. In his
report to the New York section of the
American Socieyt of Mechanical En
gineers, Professor Drury said:
"To give all the men now on a
12-hour day a 25 per cent increase in
wages and cut down their day from
12 to eight hours, would cost a manu
facturer of pig iron at the most about
21 cents a ton. Pig iron sells for $
a ton (at time of writing). If all the
departments in a steel plant were to
be changed from three to two shifts,
the increase in total cost for the fin
ished rail, bar or plate could not, on
the average, be more than 3 per cent."
On the basis of Professor Drury's
figures a general wage increase of 25
per cent, and an eight-hour day would
mean, at the very most, an added cost
of 21 cents a ton.
When Judge Gary made his latest
announcement on the long work day,
pig iron (gray forge Pittsburgh
grade) was selling for a little le
than $27 a ton. A 15 per cent increa
means that the public will have to
pay an additional $5.05 a ton, while an
acknowledged industrial authority in
sists that 21 cents a ton would be the
We believe also, it does make a big difference
where you buy your furniture. Here, where
prices are always lowest, you will secure help
ful assistance not only in making a moderate
sum achieve the utmost, but in addition you
will secure furniture that is certain to make
yours a (Better Home" in the years to come.
ANOTHER PROMISE
COMES FROM STEEL CHIEF GARY, WHO AGAIN
PREDICTS LONG-DAY END —SAME OLD
STRING TO IT IS SEEN, HOWEVER
Plans of Trust For Shorter Workday Reveal Public Will
Pav Dollars For Pennies Paid to Workers
The Home Of
Whittall Wilton Rugs
%s.s.
nt UV1KC.S STAMPS
III11E BY rxs
VN1TED KTATES
CCVt.ftNMiKT
outside cost if the eight-hour day was
general.
But the steel trust would filch the
people out of the difference between
$4.05 and 21 cents, while assuring the
nation it is doing a great public serv
ice.
The steel barons are also assuring
the public that they are confronted by
a profound problem because of the
proposed change, although America's
most famous industrial engineers op
pose the 12-hour day and favor the
three-shift system, for reasons of hu
manity and production.
The steel barons have not presented
a single authority in rebuttal. Over
11 years ago the need for the change
was pointed out in a report of a gov
ernment investigation begun in 1910
and printed as a senate document.
The repor^ stated that there is
"every reason to expect that an in
crease in efficiency sufficient to at
least offset this estimated increase in
cost would follow the adoption of the
eight-hour system. As a basis for this
statement there is not only the ex
perience in other industries, but in the
iron and steel industry there are the
statements of the British blast fur
nace owners and the conclusive re
sults of tests of the eight-hour sys
tem in American steel plants."
FLIRTING WITH FARM
ERS
Chicago.—Officers of the Illinois
Manufcaturers' Association have ap
pointed a committee of business men
to consider holding an "anti-radical"
convention in this city.
The purpose is to convince the farm
ers that disaster and woe await them
if they follow progressive senators
ho are now found in both political
parties.
The ant i-radical" campaign was
launched by John W. Glenn, secretary
of the Manufacturers' Association.
Mr. Glenn is spokesman for these anti
radicals, who oppose an eight-hour
day for women, who fight against any
restriction on injunction judges, and
who attempted to foist a new consti
tution on the people of this state,
which would legalize government by
the judiciary.
STREET CAR MEN RAISE WAGES
Detroit, Mich.—Wages of platform
men employed by the Detroit united
railways have been increased 6 cents
an hour. The company has signed
an agreement with the union. The
company operates suburban lines and
in near-by cities. The Detroit muni
pal street car system was formerly
owned by the D. U. R.
EMPLOYES TO MEET
Washington.—Officers of the Na
tional Federation of Federal Employes
have issued the call for the seventh
annual convention, to be held in Den
ver, beginning September 3.
owners
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