The Butler County press. [volume], February 12, 1926, Image 1

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VOL. XXV. No. 44
By International Labor News Service.
Washington, D. C.—In 1925 the
12,000 building and loan associations
of the United States, with eight and
one-half million members and nearly
$5,000,000 in assets, loaned for the
purchase or construction of new homes
about $1,600,000,000, which it is es
timated financed 450,000 American
homes during that year, declares C."
Clinton James, president of the
United States League of Building and
Loan Associations.
The housing shortage created by the
war, Mr. James said, has been allevi
ated to a certain extent, but it has not
been fully met, and the building and
loan associations are unable to fully
supply the demands for loans for this
purpose. There has been an increased
demand for funds for residential
building, which is the class of con
struction largely financed by these
associations.
Some idea of the present scope of
the building industry may be gained
by a statement recently made by Sec
retary of Labor James J. Davis in
which he said, "Mord than 11,000,000
of our people are dependent for their
living upon the construction industry,
and 22 per cent of all skilled and un
skilled labor in the country is engaged
in the building branch alone. Some
250,000 freight cars were required to
STREET CAR MEN
In Capitol City to Receive
Belated Protection
Washington.—The court of appeals
of the District of Columbia has decid
ed that a local street car company
can not violate a law of congress
passed in 1905 requiring all street
car companies to close in the fronts
of their cars for the protection of the
motormen.
The street car company persisted in
putting into use from time to time
cars of a last century vintage equip
ped with front windshields only, leav
ing the sides exposed.
Last year, 20 years after the enact
ment of the law, a member of con
gress who had some consideration for
the comfort of the motormen protest
ed to the public utilities commission
against the street car magnates' flag
rant violation of the law.
The commission instituted a belated
prosecution of the offending compnay,
which was convicted in the lower
court. The conviction has now been
affirmed by the court of appeals. Un
less the company determines to take
the case to the supreme court of the
United States, the motormen will
hereafter have the protection con
gress prescribed.
CONDEMN DEVICE
Of Tax Dodgers in Senate
Washington. "Consolidated re
turns" is one of the effective but ques
tionable devices by which influential
corporations reduce their income taxes
without the knowledge of thje public.
Senator Norris, of Nebraska, points
out that four Pittsburgh banking con
cerns in which Secretary of the Treas
ury Mellon is interested had their in
come taxes reduced $91,000 by this
means.
"The returns df these corporations
were secret," Norris said. "Nobody
knew anything about them and they
never saw the light of day and no
body would have known anything
about it had it not been for the in
vestigation of the Couzens commit
tee."
Senator Gouzens charged that un
der th^ "consolidated returns" scheme
the publisher of the Saturday Evening
Post had offset the profits on that pub
lication against the losses on the Phil
adelphia Public Ledger and thus
avoided a good sized income tax.
STQP-WATCH PLAN
Killed in Congress Despite
Blanton's Efforts to Put
It Through
Washington.—The house rejected a
stop-watch provision in the navy ap
propriation bill, despite every effort of
Congressman Blanton. The Texas
congressman also made a futile stand
for other measuring systems.
"The use of the stop watch and the
employment of the premium system
are the essential proposals upon which
the Taylor system rests," said Con
gressman Letts. He declared it was
neither morally nor economically
right to regard workers with so little
human coneern as to attempt undue
£pee4 in the production farces ia oar
Building Associations Financed
450,000 New Homes Last Year
Billion and Half Dollars Loaned for Construction—Eleven
Million Workers Dependent on Industry—22 Per Cent
of All Labor Engaged in Building Branch.
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handle materials in one year and en
tailed the services of a large force of
operators. Our building bill is $200
per year for every family in the
United States, one of the recognized
barometers of the country and an out
standing influence in our financial
progress."
Mr. James pointed out that the pur
pose of building associations is two
fold. They enable investors to realize
liberal dividends on savings, and ex
tend financial aid to home owners at
low cost. The general plan, he said,
is so sound that the building associa
tion movements today are serving
nearly one million members.
"The decision to 'save and build,'
said Mr. James, "is reached by many
a family of small means after paying
rent for several years. In borrowing
from a building and loan association
there is no anxiety about renewals,
and the association can not call the
loan as long as payments are met.
"Most loans are made on a basis
that should pay out in a period of
12 years, and after the borrower has
liquidated his loan he finds he has
acquired the habit of saving, and in
a large percentage of cases the people
who have been borrowers for yea
become investors and instead of pay
ing interest they receive interest on
their building and loan shares."
arsenals and navy yards.
"Such ordinary and usual methods
of supervision and control over the
labor employed should be in harmony
with the conditions of society gener
ally with respect to working condi
tions," he said.
"The operation of the Taylor sys
tem would not only be an injustice to
the particular men concerned but
would be unwholesome to the body
politic."
The chair followed precedent and
refused to sustain Mr. Blanton's
point of order that the anti-stop
watch provision be stricken from the
bill.
GREEN SUSPENDS
Railway Clerks' Union
Non-Compliance With
Convention Rule
Cause
Washington.—Complying with a de
cision by the last convention of the
A. F. of L., President Green an
nounces the suspension of the Broth
erhood of Railway Clerks from the
American Federation of Labor.
The suspension stands until the
clerks comply with the convention de
cision that they yield control of chauf
feurs and teamsters to the Brother
hood of Teamstei*s. The question has
been under discussion for months. As
is the usual policy in such cases, offi
cers .of the A. F. of L. have made
every effort to induce the clerks to
maintain the trade union policy.
In explaining the teamsters' posi
tion at the last convention, President
Tobin, of that brotherhood, pointed
out the provisions of their charter, is
sued by the A. F. of L., which grants
them control over this class of work.
This charter was issued years before
the Clerks' Union was chartered.
"^ye don't want clerks, but we do
insist that teamsters and chauffeurs
be in one organization," said President
Tobin. "You might as well take our
charter if you are going to give to
every organization a part of the mem
bership that works under the jurisdic
tion of our international. We come in
touch with every trade. We haul lum
ber to the carpenter, metal pipe to the
plumber, paper to the printer, dry
"roods and shoes to the retail clerks,
leather to shoe factories, and we haul
to the railroads hundreds of thousands
tons of freight shipped by the express
company. We ask jurisdiction over
these drivers and chauffeurs. We can
not have them here and not have them
there we are entitled to them every
where or we are not entitled to them
at all."
In announcing the suspension of the
railway clerks, President Green ex
pressed regret over this lack of ac
cord in ths, final decision of organized
labor's last court of appeal.
STATE UNIONS TO MEET
Houston, Texas.—Officers of the
Texas State Federation of Labor have
issued a call for the annual conven
tion, to be held in this city, begin
ning Monday, April 19.
George Young—"Son, you must al
ways remember that we are here to
help others."
George Junior—"Well, what are the
others here for?"
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By International Labor News Service.
New York City.—This town has a
new thrill. The bread trust, soon to
be the food trust, is going to so con
duct itself that out of the profits of
its business it will endow childhood
and give a little rake-off for the chil
dren of the poor so that hereafter
none will go hungry and all will grow
up to be 100 per cent Americans.
The author of this "Goat Song" is
none other than William B. Ward, mil
lionaire president of the Ward Bread
Company and subsidiaries. He im
mediately got the goats of a number
of progressive members of congress
who saw the proper meaning of it.
But the great metropolitan audience
listened as it does to all new virtuosi
with respect, and if it did any laugh
ing it did so up its sleeve, while young
Ward in the name of his father, the
founder of the bread trust, explained
how the millennium was one step
nearer by the big corporation's pledge
to tithe itself after the biblical prac
tice and give one-tenth of its net
profits to philanthropies.
"What Will the Harvest Be?"
What this harvest will be if Ward's
plan to form a billion-dollar food
trust with the proposed Ward Food
Products Company can easily be im
agined. The Ward interests have vir
tually the control of the bread fac
tories. Now they want to deliver in
the homes, together with the loaf of
bread, flour, salt, sugar, milk, yeast,
etcc. Economies of purchases, econo
mies of delivery, economy of collect
ing from the public are clearly seen by
POSTALWORKERS
Oppose Group Insurance
Plan of Chief
Washington. Officers of postal
workers' unions told a house commit
tee that the government should not
apt as a recruiting agency for a pri
vate insurance company.
The postmaster general wants one
certain life insurance company to
have a monopoly of group insurance
for postal employes. With this pres
tige the company would practically
have a monopoly on other life insur
ance among these emplyoes.
President Gainor, of the letter car
riers, President Collins, of the rail
way clerks, and Secretary-Treasurer
Flaherty, of the postal clerks, sug
gested to the committee that if the
government is going into the insur
ance business it should "go all the
way" and operate it under government
supervision rather than serve as a
booster for private concerns, interest
ed in profits.
"If the postmaster general wants to
give postal employes the lowest pos
sible insurance rates, the government
should handle the business directly,"
the unionists stated.
The witnesses explained their own
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Ward Interests Promise
To Give Part of Expected
Big Profits to "Uplift"
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THE BUTLER COUNTY PRESS.
Footprints
WJTiwF:
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Food Trust Warbles Millennium Song
As It Lays Plans to Mulct the Public
the great capitalists.
If the food trust magnates can see
where they are coming into a fat har
vest of profits, the public can also give
a little glance ahead to see what is in
store for it.
Big Profits in Store
The average American family con
sumes in a year 397 pounds of wheat
bread, 32 pounds of rye bread, 19
pounds of rolls and buns, 15 pounds
of cookies and crackers, 15 pounds of
cake, in all about 600 pounds or over
$54 for breadstuffs from every family
each year.
Milk consumed will bring the trust
a windfall of about $45 more from
each family, sugar about $15 flour
about $16. All together with pies,
yeast and salt thrown in, the food
trust will draw out of the kitty every
year about $135, which, estimating
the nation at about 30,000,000 fami
lies, would make the neat sum of
$4,750,000,000.
Since the corporation is to be cap
italized at $2,000,000,000, the expecta
tion of doing a fair-sized business in
the staff of life and few other basic
items for nourishment is rosy.
What Has the Harvest Been
Just how much less the public is
getting out of the large share of its
dollar
4
that goes for bread, milk,
sugar, flour and so forth statistics set
forth. There is another feature of the
bread trust's philanthropy not gener
ally known and that is its labor pol
icy.
For some years the bread com
panies and among them the Wards
insurance systems to the committee.
While expressing appreciation of the
postmaster general's concern for the
employes' insurance problems, Mr.
Flaherty said that the questions of
night work and the elimination of
speed-up systems are far more urgent
and should have prior consideration.
These changes, he said, would add
from four to five years to the longev
ity of the clerical group, and is of far
more importance than a small reduc
tion in insurance costs.
SIGN THREE-YEAR CONTRACT
Portland, Ore.—The carpenters' dis
trict council has signed a three-year
agreement with the builders and con
tractors. A wage rate of $9 a day
will become effective on February 15.
Either party can open the scale at the
expiration of each calendar year.
LABOR DISPUTE ENDS
Cincinnati.—The Pabst corporation
and the International Union of United
Brewery, Flour, Cereal and Soft Drink
Workers have reached an agreement
and this long dispute has been brought
to a close. The corporation will oper
ate ttftder strictly union conditions.
Raid
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HAMILTON, OHIO, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 1926 ONE DOLLAR PER YEAR
were friendly to labor. At one time
every Ward factory was unionized.
But that was in the formative stages.
When Ward got where he could dom
inate, bing! went labor and label. The
years of 1919 and 1920 were hectic
ones around the big bread factories in
New York. Finally with some dis
sension in the ranks, with the intro
duction of more and more machinery,
so that bread making is largely me
chanical, Ward defeated labor and his
plants are non-union.
It would be interesting to compare
Ward's past with respect to his wage
policy and philanthropy as it hits his
employes with the proposition to take
care of the children of the future.
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By International Labor News Service.
Washington, D. C.—Figures just
made public for the first time show
the operation of the benefit system
adopted in January, 1914, by the
Bricklayers, Masons and Plasterers'
International Union. According to
Secretary John J. Gleeson, there are
now 2,776 men and women drawing
weekly benefits through the relief de
partment of the organization.
Of the total number of persons
drawing benefits, 676 are widows,
2,013 are members drawing old age
benefits and 77 are members drawing
disability benefits. Each beneficiary
in all classifications draws $7 per
week. The total amount being paid
out in benefits per week is $19,432.
These were the figures as of Decem
ber 31.
System Authorized in 1914
The benefit or relief system was
adopted by the Bricklayers, Masons
and Plasterers' International Union
at its convention in January, 1914,
and was put into effect a year later.
An assessment of 25 cents per mem
ber per month was levied to cover the
cost of operating the new department.
In 1916 this was increased to 50 cents
per member and in 1922 it was in
creased to 70 cents. At the outset the
benefit paid was $5 per member per
week, but in 1922 this was increased
to $7, the present figure.
The retirement age is 60 years. It
is recognized, of course, that the num
ber of members eligible to retirement
benefits will increase as the years
pass by, but the actuarial probabilities
were taken into account when the fund
was established. The benefit paid
upon the death of a member varies ac
coi'ding to the length of membership.
The minimum amount is $50. A bene
ficiary is entitled to this minimum
amount if the deceased member had
been on the rolls of the organization
six months. The mortuary benefit in
creases as follows: $150 after a mem
bership of one year, $200 after a
membership of five years, and $300 is
the maximum after a membership of
over ten years.
Large Amount Paid Out
There was in the treasury of the
relief department at the beginning of
the current fiscal year $700,000 while
there was $265,4008.47 in the mortu­
Relief Plan of Bricklayers
Provides Generous Benefits
For 2,776 Men and Women
6
Axminster Rugs
75
Beautiful 9x12 ft. rugs at big Febru
ary price-cuts. Closely woven body,
deep, thick pile, gorgeous patterns of
unusual richness. See them!
Extra sizes up to 9x18
K-R-E-B-S
THIRD and COURT
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P'd
ary fund. The total amount of all
benefit and fhortuary claims paid dur
ing the last fiscal year was $1,149,
779. For the last calendar year the
amount of expenditures would be a
trifle larger than the figure for the
fiscal year. The expenditures from
the relief fund for the last six months
of 1925 totalled $488,962.
In addition to the benefit system the
organization grants paid-up life mem
bership cards to all who have held
continuous membership for 50 years
and to soldier members totally dis
abled in the World War. Of the six
veterans who have applied for and
have received paid-up life member
ship cards three of them are residents
of Canada, two live in New York state
and one in Pennsylvania. There are
60 members holding paid-up life mem
bership cards following 50 years of
continuous active membership.
Plan Generous in Scope
The relief plan of the Bricklayers,
Masons and Plasterers' International
Union is one of the most pretentious
in operation among trade unions in
the United States, bringing under its
protection directly and indirectly al
most a half million men, women and
children and providing more gener
ously than most labor organizations
for their relief in time of need.
ALUMINUM TAXES CUT
WITH TREASURY AID
Washington.—Since Andrew Mellon
has been secretary of the treasury,
the aluminum trust, in which Mr.
Mellon is interested, has saved fully
$2,500,000 in taxes. The treasury de
partment has made every effort to
block an investigation.
This double charge is made by the
special senate committee that has in
vestigated the internal revenue bu
reau. Senator Couzens, of Michigan,
is chairman of the committee.
The report calls attention to the
company's secrecy of its earnings,
profits and disbursements. Treasury
officials permitted the company, it is
stated, to deduct from taxable in
come more than $15,000,000 as "amor
tization"—an amount that the com
mittee's counsel declared to be "gross
ly excessive" and which permitted the
saving of $2,500,000.
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