The Butler County press. [volume], November 27, 1925, Image 1

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

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No. 33
VOL. XXV.
German Labor Leaders Sail
For Home After Two Months
#y Intm&ationnT £ahor Neftre Service.
New York City.—The German labor
delegation which attended the Atlan
tic City convention of the American
Federation of Labor sailed for home
after a two months' study of the
American labor movement and Ameri
can industrial development. Before
the delegates left, a cruise of the port
of New York and around Manhattan
Island on the city's yacht Macom was
arranged for them and they were
guests at the New York labor temple
at a dinner given by the Central
Trades and Labor Council.
Among their most interesting, ex
periences was an inspection of the
functioning of the prohibition en
forcement law. They visited under
ground "speak easies," saw distilleries
of hooch and cellar where high power
beer was brewed, as object lessons
ol the difficulty of altering peisonal
habits of people by law.
Labor Hosts Thanked
"We have experienced in every city
the generous hospitality of t'm Ameri
can labor movement," said Frit^ Tar
now, chairman of the delegation. "We
visited the headquarters of all the im
portant unions and witnessed the dele
gates 6f the American Federation of
Labor at work in Atlantic City. We
know the spirit of the American work
ers and the source of their economic
strength. What we have learned will
help us counteract much of the mis
leading propaganda against our Ger
man labor movement that has been
spread by the big industrialists.
"Bonds of friendship between the
German republic and that of the
United States are stronger as the re
sult of our warm reception by the
American labor movement. We hope
to see a similar representation of
American labor in Germany at an
early opportunity."
Particularly warm was the appre
ciation of Tarnow and Franz Wendel
at the cordial hospitality tendered
them by William L. Hutcheson and
other officers of the United Brother
hood of Carpenters.
From Coast to Coast
In their brief Visit the Germans
visited every important industrial cen
ter to study the factory °ystem here.
One delegate went from coast to coast,
with San Francisco as his visit fur
thest west. With typical German
thoroughness they had interpreters
and a plan of study to absorb as much
of the American scene as they could,
in one visit. On their voyage back
they will compare notes and draw up
their report for the German Federa
tion of Trade Unions and their respec
tive organization.
One of the dispiriting results of
their mission was the evidence they
saw of disruption among the German
speaking workers in America. Com
munism has shattered the strength of
the old time German union, finishing
what prohibition began, they reported.
When the pioneer Germans were the
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Study of Conditions Here
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first amonjr'tfie organiser! Workmen of
America they also brought a spirit of
democracy and liberalism. Socialist
organizations they formed and many
labor newspapers they launched were
found to have been wrecked in the
struggle with communists.
Communism D£ad in Germany
"Communism as a doctrine of de
spair worked for a time in Germany,"
said one of the departing delegates.
"We were amazed to see the damage
it has wrought here among German
speaking groups when in our country
it has been completely snuffed out by
the reviving German labor move
ment.''
rjr* Where with our
I IP Little Hatchet
we tell the truth
about many things, sometimes pro
foundly, sometimes flippantly,
sometimes recklessly
Out in Des Moines—or back in Des
Moines, as the case may be—the min
isters hrive been raising holy Ned
about what they call salacious maga
zines, and everybody got all excited.
Finally, evidently to avoid a compul
sory "white list,'1 dealers agreed to
restrict their own lists of periodicals.
What it amounts to is that the min
isters have compelled the news dealers
to take certain magazines off the
stands through threat of more sum))
tuary legislation, or its black-jack
back-alley equivalent.
This is no defense of what the min
isters call salacious magazines,
though there are ministers who would
n't know a salacious magazine if they
saw one—and there are ministers who
wouldn't for anything be caught read
ing one of the dirty things.
If, however, ministers can compel
news dealers to,quit selling what they
call salacious magazines, they also
can—and why not?—compel news
dealers to quit selling some other kind
of magazines some other day.
This business of clique censorship,
clique imposition of morals, clique
domination and regulation and repres
sion is getting to a point that is de
cidedly disconcerting to those who
care anything about real freedom.
Let it be remembered that real free
dom means freedom even to make
mistakes. Above all, it means free
dom from minority decrees issued and
enforced without due process of de
mocracy. With all due—emphasis on
the due—respect to the ministers, let
them, remember that while they still
have their puplits.
Abuse is at the root of the fall of
every autocracy. Let those who
dream of autocratic dictation remem
Gulbransen Trade Mufe
Before you buy a Player Piano you
should stop our store and try the Gul
bransen. Then you will be convinced it
is the
"EASIEST TO PLAY"
COMMUNIW
MODEL
450
SUBURBAN
MODEL
WHITE HOUSE
MODEL
Electric Reproducing Models $770,
$855, $940
HAMILTON'S OLDESTJMU3IC STORil
fllusie Store.
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By International Labor News Service.
New York City.—Workers can't ex
pect to live in modern, sanitary and
sunlit houses and they have got to
live in the slums and near slums until
cheaper means of financing house
building is found. This is the burden
of the evidence presented in the clos
ing session of the state housing com
mission. Its report to the governor
will be ready January 1. Meanwhile
public sentiment is crystallizing for a
housing program for workers.
Builders testified that square miles
of frame houses in the outmost sec
tions of the city have been erected and
sold to wage earners at about $5,000
for six and seven rooms. The con
struction is so poor that some are al
ready warping and falling apart.
They are built on 20 to 25-foot lots,
one and a half feet from the lfhe on
one side and three feet on the other.
The result is a great fire menace, ac
cording to Fire Chief Kenlon, a stiff
ber those who have attempted the dic
tating stunt in the past. Where is
Tut-Ankh-Amen now? All that's left
of him is the Amen, and even that's
pretty rusty and useless.
Oh, yes, there are many filthy mag
azines. But who'gave the preachers
the right to be'a censorship board?
since when did they get the right to
our defining for us?
What one calls salacious may be
called mere idiocy by another, or it
may be called sheer literature.
There are verses in the Bible that
ven a preacher wouldn't want to dis
play on the village bill boards, but
the Bible is still freely sold and in
increasing quantities.
Moreover, how did the preachers
lind out wnicn were the salacious
magazines?
Usually there is a certain sort of
pruriency lurking behind minority
efforts to dictate morals into the rest
of us.
A lot of extreme reformers need to
be psycho- analyzed.
More suppression means more boot
legging. We have bootleg booze,
bootleg books and next we shall have
bootleg magazines.
If we keep on it won't be possible
to express an honest or decent
bought—it will have to be bootlegged
along. i
Unless, kind sirs, minority and
clique domination results in complete
atrophy of the thinking powers of we
free-born Americans, and of our pow
ers to make decisions for ourselves.
I IGHT LOOMS
ON SENATOR
Washington.—Governor Sorlie, of
North Dakota, has appointed Gerald
P. Nye as the successor to the late
United States Senator Ladd, and a
warm contest over seating the ap
pointee in the senate is predicted.
The administration opposes Mr,
Nye, who is a non-partisan league
republican. He supported the candi
dacy of Senator La Follette for pre&i
dent.... .. ..
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afiSMkrol
Cheap Frame Houses
In New York City
Toilers Must Live in Slums
Until Financing Costs Fall,
Housing Commission is Told
wind from the sea making possible
a 4?reat disaster.
Houses That Prove Theory
Comfortable and healthful houses
that can be purchased at workmen's
rent
oc
occupied at fair rentals have
been demonstrated in the building
ventures of the Metropolitan Life In
surance Company the City and Sub
urban Homes Company and the Sun
nyside Corporation, a limited divi
dend corporation, witnesses said, but
these are impossible for a speculator
to build at the present high cost of
material and finance, it is admitted.
Walter Stabler, comptroller of the
Metropolitan, said the only way these
successful housing experiments could
be duplicated would be through strong
financial semi-public companies that
would not desire a profit of mote than
6 per cent on the operation to reim
burse their investors. Builders who
have to borrow money on second and
third mortgages can not do this and
Opposition to Mr. Nye centers on an
interpretation of the seventeenth
amendment to the constitution, which
provides that a vacancy in the senate
shall be filled by election, but a state
legislature may empower the gover
nor to appoint temporarily. The
North Dakota legislature has not
passed a measure for that specific
purpose. "Governor Sorlie holds, how
ever, that a North Dakota law giving
the governor the authority to fill va
cancies in state offices applies in the
case of Mr. Nye on the ground that
a United States senator is a state
office.
Senate defenders of the appointee
will take advantage of the Situation to
call the nation's attention to what
they term the autocracy of the senate
majority, whom, they insist, would
punish the appointee for his political
independence.
ITALY'S WAR DEBT
CUT BY UNCLE SAM
Washington.—The United States
government did not cancel the Ital
ian war debt, but 80 per cent of it
was marked off in the negotiations be
tween war debt commissions of both
countries.
The agreement provides that Italy
will pay to the United States a prin
cipal amount of $2,042,000,000 over a
period of 62 years, with interest aver
aging about nine-tenths of 1 per cent
during the last 57 yaers. This total
amount will be $2,407,00,000.
It is believed that these terms will
result in France again resuming ne
gotiations ast a result of the Italian
settlement. France's war debt com
mission failed to reach a settlement
at recent conferences held in Wash
ingtoru
WORKERS SAVE LABOR LAW
Seattle.—The lusty howls emitted
by labor against opening the state
compensation law to private com
panies has scared advocates of this
plan. Governor Hartley, who is far
from a recognized friend of labor, has
vetoed the project. He says it is
"unnecessary and inadvisable."
Built By Square Mile
Seen as Big Fire Menace
"tetill
out.
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HAMILTON, OHIO, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1925 ONE DOLLAR PER YEAR
remain solvent, it was pointed
As many as 20,000 are waiting for
the $9-a-room houses the Metropoli
tan put up in Queens, it was testified.
Why Workers Can't Pay
The basis of the problem is that
workers can not pay the rents requir
ed for houses built at modern costs.
The figures show two-thirds of the
families in the city must live on $2,500
year or less, and that they live in
dirty, dark, inconvenient tenements
because they can not afford the $15
to $20 a room apartments of which
there is a surplus now. Flats renting
at $40 a month for a small family are
non-existent except where families
occupy them as the result of protec
tion of the emergency rent laws that
it is now proposed to extend after
their expiration next year.
The commission is now deliberating
on a constructive effort to solve the
housing problem. Previous recom
mendations for public credit for the
construction of homes for workers
have been ignored by the legislature
Members of the commission are piling
up evidence showing how other coun
tries from Holland to Australia have
handled such situations. The trend
seems to be to make a semi-public
utility of the cheaper houses, leaving
the high-priced apartments to take
care of themselves without protection
of the rent laws.
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By International Labor News Service.
Indianapolis, Ind.—Vicious propa
ganda, designed to make the people
of New England believe that the
United Mine Workers are attempting
to freeze the people of that section
by shutting off their fuel supply was
denounced by Ellis Searles, editor of
the United Mine Workers' Journal,
in a speech at Boston.
The Boston Women's Trade Union
League, which has taken great inter
est in the effect of the anthracite sus
pension in relation to the coal supply
of Boston, invited Mr. Searles and
Attorney Merritt, chief counsel for|the
anthracite operators, to give the peo
ple of that city an explanation of the
controversy between the two factors
in the coal supply.
A strong effort has been under way
to have Boston coal consumers use
soft coal produced by coal operators
who not only mine hard coal but also
soft coal in the West Virginia fields.
Boston coal users, however, have thus
far flatly refused to burn soft coal,
largely for the reason that domestic
consumers have not the proper equip
ment for bituminous coal burning.
Mr. Searles charged that the entire
purpose of the propaganda is to dis
credit and bring into disrepute the
United Mine Workers of America. He
showed that the plan was to weaken
and cripple the union and thus affect
other trade unions in New England.
HUGH FRAYNE ON
CRIME BOARD
New York City—Hugh Frayne,
Eastern representative of the Ameri
can Federation of Labor, has been
named a member of the national crime
commission.
In a ddition to Frayne, who will
serve as a labor member, the follow
ing have agreed to serve:
Dr. E. A. Alderman, President of
the University of Virginia Newton
D. Baker, former Secretary of War
Richard Washburn Child, former Am
bassador to Italy Mrs. Ethel Roose
velt Derby Herbert S. Hadley, chan
cellor of Washington University
Charles Evans Hughes, former Secre
tary of State Frank O. Lowden, for
mer Governor of Illinois Franklin D.
Roosevelt, former Assistant Secretary
of the Navy, and Chester H. Rowell,
of the railroad commission.
In addition, Gen. Samuel McRoberts,
treasurer, and Charles H. Sabin,
chairman of the finance committee,
are members of the commission.
One hundred and twenty labor pub
lications, co-operating with Interna^
tional Labor News Service, have be
gun the task of gathering views and
facts from labor men to be presented
to the labor representative and made
public through their own columns*.
Mine Workers' Journal Editor
Denounces Propaganda Aimed
To Put Miners in False Light
Rug
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WHITT ALL ANGLO PERSIAN WHITTALL ANGLO KIRJtf AN
9x12
WHITTALL TEPRAC WHITTALL BODY BRUSSELL
9x12
$105 $70
The Sidewalk Test Proves Facts which you See and Believe
K-R-E-B-S
FOR RUGS ALWAYS
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He charged further Ifiat the anthra
cite operators are hiding the real ques
tion at issue behind a smoke screen
of attack on the union. Mr. Searles
declared in the presence of Mr. Mer
ritt that he (Merritt) was the bell
wether of the union-busting outfit that
is seeking destruction of the United'
Mine Workers, and that the responsi
bility for the lack of hard coal in New
England was on the anthracite oper
ators who had arbitrarily refused to
meet the miners in a conference un-1
less they agreed to arbitrate—a pro
cess that would allow an outsider to
definitely fix a compensation for the
miner who risks his life every day in
the discharge of his duty as a work
man.
Attorney Merritt denied that the
operators were receiving large profits
for their coal, although he could not
answer the question put from the.
audience, as to who gets the $9 to $12
difference between the labor cost of
mining, a ton of coal and its ultimate
selling price. Merritt also declared
that the anthracite operators "were
doing the public a favor" when they
resized anthracite coal and defended
the practice which permits a charge
for smaller and less desirable sizes
of coal that was formerly obtained
for the better sizes.
The Boston meeting was attended
by several hundred persons including
coal retailers and directors in coal
companies.
BREAD MERGER GROWS
Washington. The federal trade
commission will hear additional testi
mony on the proposed bread merger,
and this extension of time will permit
the merger to strengthen itself, ac
cording to Huston Thompson, mem
ber of the commission.
Mr. Thompson says there is no oc
casion for further hearings and in
sists that the commission act on the
evidence now before it. He says the
holding corporation of the bread trust
has added nine concerns to the 14
corpoi-ations it previously controlled,
and that this "gives every indication
of a growing and continuing tendency
toward monopoly."
HEAVY DAMAGES TO WIDOW
Seattle. An award of $20,000
against the International Stevedoring
Company has been secured by Mrs.
Lena Kahlstrom for the death of her
husband. This is the heaviest dam
ages that a widow has secured in the
local courts for several years.
EGG DEALERS GOUGE
New York.—Egg dealers gouge the
people of this city of more than $6,
000,000 annually by selling storage
eggs for "strictly fresh."
ttead the Press.
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