The Butler County press. [volume], May 05, 1933, Image 2

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

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THE PRESS
OFFICIAL ORGAN OF ORGANIZED LAMB
OF HAMILTON XND ViO-NiqCX
Wtii 55u
10 LAB 00
Members
Ohio Labor Press Association
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address to insure regular delivery of paper.
Entered at the Postoffice at Hamilton,
Ohio, as Second Class Mail Matter.
Iasaed Weekly at 328 Market Street
Telephone 12M Hamilton. Ohio
Endorsed by the Trades and Labor
Council of Hamilton, Ohio
Endorsed by the Middletown Trades
and Labor Council of Middletown, O.
FRIDAY, MAY 5, 1033
THIS MEANS LABOR
America, at least in the seats of
the mighty, has proceeded on the the
ory that it is the producer, the big
business man and the big banker who
cut the important figures.
More and more the conviction is
growing that it is the consumer who
really counts, that it is the welfare
of the consumer which determines the
welfare of the nation.
Labor, in the large sense, is the
consumer.
There can be no turning to the con
sumer without turning to the worker,
for the workers form the bulk of the
consuming population.
Those who write pieces for the
magazines and who fill the pages of
books may not think of wage earners
when they talk of consumers, but be
that as it may, it is the worker who is
the consumer. That he also is the
producer goes without being said here
all over again.
So, the swelling chorus demanding
welfare for the consumer is in reality
a swelling chorus demanding a square
deal for the wage earners of America.
That better times lie ahead seems
certain. The nation is not "going
bust." But better times will be built
upon a better wage, a shorter week—
a wage earner equipped with dollars
to buy more of his product than he
has ever bought in the history of the
world.
Long ago the opinion was expressed
that out of this depression would
come a nation whose wage earners
would fare better than ever before
and work less than ever before. The
chorus is rising to demand realiza
tion of that idea. A half day or a day
knocked off the week revolutionizes
the living ways of people. A dollar
a day, or five dollars a day more in
wages, carries the revolutionizing
process onward. We cannot go back
and there is only one safe place to go.
Let's go there.
CHILDREN FORCED TO STRIKE
An almost unprecedented thing, a
strike of child workers, is going on
in Allentown and Northampton, Pa.
Child workers in shirt and pajama
shops in the two cities have been
driven to strike by astonishingly low
wages and wretched working condi
tions.
Wages actually as low as 16 cents
a week are known. Unscrupulous em
ployers have taken advantage of the
fact that the children's parents are
out of work to hire the boys and girls
at wages that are lower than the pay
of child workers in China and Japan.
Low wages paid children are men
acing the living standards of all
workers and the profits of business.
Starvation pay is starting a vicious
circle of low buying power that hits
back at the employers, which they
will realize more and more as time
goes on. The only remedy at present
seems to be legislation to make sweat
shop wages, hours and working con
ditions impossible. The quicker such
legislation is adopted, the better lor
the nation.
It took a woman member of the
lower house of the Maryland legis
lature to set one of the big steel cor
porations down in its place and win
a partial victory for a compulsory
unemployment insurance bill.
Miss Lavinia Eagle was the woman
and she took the floor to flay the
Bethlehem Steel Company, of which
Charles M. Schwab is the executive
head, for lobbying against the meas
ure.
She charged that ^»e steel concern
had allowed 1,200 of its employes to
go to charity for help, and then had
objected to paying three-tenths of one
per cent of its payroll into a secur
ity fund under the bill.
"It is the narrow and sordid at
titude such as displayed by the Beth
lehem Steel Company which will
taring down upon our heads the same
situation the bankers brought in the
world of finance," the woman legis
lator said.
The bill had seemed doomed to de
feat, but after her speech it was
carried by a vote of 72 to 27. The bill
was beaten in the upper house, unfor
tunately, but ultimate victory for un
employment insurance in Maryland is
certain.
ORGANIZATION MUST GO ON
Sacrifices made by the pioneers in
the labor movement have helped this
generation to higher pay, fewer
hours, better working conditions. The
/work must go on. Progress does not
halt. The work must be continued
by trade unionists of this generation
The foundations have been built and
it devolves upon trade unionists of
the present to continue the building.
The past years have been discour
aging. Unemployment has made or
ganizing work difficult, and it has
been a task to keep even established
organizations intact. But the need for
organization is greater than ever. The
depression has shown that organiza
tion is a pillar of strength even under
the most adverse conditions. The
unionized workers have done much to
maintain wages, help the unemployed
and keep up morale.
When the depression is
INFLATION THEN-DEPRESSION NOW
Let's go into retrospect about this wage business. Drop backward sixteen
years. Then things were moving the other way. Sixteen years takes us
back to 1917. Prom the start to the finish of 1917, the cost of living rose
twenty-seven per cent. Did wages rise in proportion? They did not.
Then in 1918 another twenty-five per cent was added. In 1919 still
another twenty-five per cent, and eighteen more in 1920—a total in four
years of ninety-frvc per cent.
Wages finally did climb during that period, but they lagged "way behind
prices. They always were well down the ladder.
For three long, long years now things have been moving in the opposite
direction. Today there is much talk about deflating wages in ratio to the
deflation of living costs.
If those who are now promoting the deflation idea had been
getic back in 1917 to 1920 in promoting a raise that would have kept step
with the cost of living, there would be some merit of consistency in their
argument—although we cannot agree with the mere cost of living theory as
the be-all and end-all of the workingman's opportunity. We think he is
entitled to what it costs to exist plus a liberal margin for things beyond
food, heat, light and shelter.
But, anyway, we could grant consistency to the cost-of-living advocate
if he had demonstrated the same concern in behalf of upward wages when
costs were rising as he does today about decreased wages when costs are
falling.
As & matter of~fact, labor today—that part of it which is still employed
at no reduced scale—is merely getting a "break" that constitutes a belated
offset to the break he didn't get in the years of the boom. And we are all
entitled to our breaks in this life—said breaks being, generally speaking,
few enough.
Getting wages up was a long, hard job. It's not so difficult to fall as
to climb. Gravity takes care of that.
If,therefore, labor should cave in after three years of depression—
a depession, by the way, for which industrial management is responsible as
distinct from the rank and file of workingmen—and say, "All right we'll
deflate along with dividends," it would be the same long, hard, lagging row
to hoe when things started back up.
That's the reason why labor today is justified in resisting the tendency
to deflate pay during a season of depression which, after all, bad as it has
been, is only three years oid. The memory of the four years' rise is still
too vivid.
And labor that is still employed
SHE TOLD EM
If
over,
the
workers must be prepared to win
higher wages and shorter hours, not
only for the immediate benefits, but
to prevent another depression. Only
if they are strongly organized can
they act for their own protection and
advancement. Organization must go
on, with every union member doing
his part inthe work.
:o:
PRICE CUTTING
The price-cutter is worse than a
criminal. He is a fool. He not only
pulls down the standing of his goods
he not only pulls down his competi
tors he pulls down himself and his
whole trade. He scuttles the ship in
which he, himself, is afloat.
Nothing is so easy as t1) cut prices
and nothing is so hard as to get them
back when once they have been pulled
down.
Any child can throw a glass of
water on the floor, but all the wisest
scientists in the world can't pick that
water up.
Who #eta
ting?
the fcwiflt df pefce cut­
m»
ener­
eels it's entitled to its "break."
The man who sells makes no net
profit and the man who buys soon
finds himself getting an inferior
article.
No manufacturer can permanently
keep up the standard of his goods
if the price is perisistently cut. Pretty
soon he is compelled to use cheaper
materials and cut down the wages
of his workers.
The man who cuts the prices puts
up the sign: "This way to the junk
heap."
He admits his own failure as
salesman. He admits he has been de
feated according to the Marquis of
Queesbury rules of business. He ad
mits he cannot win by fighting fair.
He brands himself as a hitter be
low the belt.
If the business EWorld were domi
nated by price cutters, there would be
no business at all.
Price-cutting, in fact, is nofr^busi
ness any more than smallpox is
health.—Bert
Oil Bulletin.
N. Cason, in Standard
PASS CHILD LABOR
AMENDMENT!
Encouraged by ratification of the
child labor amendment by four addi
tional states this year, organized la
bor is pushing its campaign for ad
ditional ratifications with renewed
vigor. Never was the need for mak
ing the amendment part of the con
stitution more urgent.
Considerations of humanity and
equality of business competition
among the states have long demand
ed ratification of the child labor
amendment. Recent months have em
phasized the need for the amendment
by intensifying the expliotation of
child workers and bringing to the pub
lic attention the competition between
child labor and adult labor. Now is
the time for ratification of the amend
ment. By no other means can the
cruel exploitation of children be so
effectively stopped.
WAL MINES AND MINERS
There are more than enough mines
and miners to supply all the coal the
world will use in these days of oil
burning and of electricity supplied
by water power. Everything points
to the desirability of shortening the
hours of coal miners. But producers
in every nation claim they dare not
cut hours for fear they will get out
less coal for the wages they pay and
so cannot offer their coal cheaply
enough to sell abroad in competition
With the producers of other countries.
To meet this difficulty the Interna
tional Labor Organization at Geneva
has proposed an international agree
ment to make seven and three-quar
ters hours the maximum working day
for coal miners in all the 58 countries
belonging to the organization. The
Spanish government has already ac
cepted the terms of the agreement
and the governments of France,
Luxemburg and Yugoslavia have de
dared their intention of accepting it
The government of Holland has taken
the first steps toward joining them,
and Poland has declared it will join
them as soon as Belgium, Czecho
slovakia, France, Germany, Great
Britain and Holland agree to be bound
fey Jtoe pact.
THE BUTLER COUNTY PRESS
THE SCOTTSBORO CASE
AND COMMUNISM
Haywood Patterson, 19-year-old
Negro, has been convicted in the first
retrial of the Scottsboro, Ala., cases,
involving seven Negro youths accus
ed of attacking two white women.
Unprejudiced observers who followed
the trial of Patterson were convinced
that the evidence against him was
woefully weak. The fact that he was
colored, accused of an assault on a
white woman, undoubtedly was a big
factor in his conviction, but perhaps
even more of a factor was the feel
ing, stirred by communist handling
of his defense. Instead of sticking
strictly to the questions at issue, his
communist attorneys took advantage
of every opportunity to inject their
propaganda, with which the people of
Alabama have no sympathy.
Judges, jurors and all concerned in
the administration of justice are hu
man beings and have a certain amount
o stubborness in their make-up. If
they feel that institutions and ideas
which they hold sacred are threatened,
their stubborness is aroused, depriv
ing them of the ability to reason calm
ly. That is what happened at the
retrial of Patterson.
Many persons believe that if his
defense had been handled by the Na
tional Association for the Advance
ment of Colored People or by some
similar organization, the verdict in
all probability would have been dif
ferent.
GEORGE KRAMER TO
HEADJAGLES
At the election of officers held
Monday by Butler Aerie No. 407, Fra
ternal Order Eagles, George Kramer
was elected worthy president.
Other officers elected are: Ralph
W. Rust, worthy vice president
Henry Hardewig, Jr., chaplain Harry
W. Hetterich, secretary Henry E.
Yordy, treasurer Albert Yordy, wor
thy conductor William Thomas, in
side guard Charles Berndt, outside
guard Charles Schrichte, trustee Dr.
Edward Cook and Dr. Louis Schnei
der, aerie physicians.
The new officers will be installed
at the next meeting, Monday, June 5.
After the business session there will
be lunch and refreshments served and
music wlil be furnished by Bandy's
German Band.
N. Y. Typos Want Printers
Included in 30-Hour Week
New York.—Typographical Union
No. 6—"Big Six," as it is known to
printers throughout the country, dele
gated the veteran Edward F. Cassidy
to attend the house labor committee
meetings in Washington and advocate
the inclusion of periodical and news
paper workers among those to be cov
ered by the federal 30-hour work
week bill.
The union holds there is no reason
why the benefits of the bill should not
be extended to newspaper and period
ical workers, and Mr. Cassidy argued
before the committee against the
amendment to the Black bill which
would exclude these printers from its
operation. The exclusion amendment
was sponsored by Senator Tydings, of
Maryland.
BEN STRAUSS
MEMORIAL
The Ben Strauss memorial essay
contests were conducted last Satur
day at the Hamilton high school, 41
students writing essays on the patrio
tic subjeet, "What My Country Means
to Me," and seven students writing
on the Red Cross subject," National
and Local Relief Activities of the
American Red Cross during the Years
of Economic Depression."
The Ben Strauss contests are open
to pupils of parochial and Protestant
schools, and the papers are judged
upon content, form, legibility and
neatness.
Building Workers Strike
On Batavia Hospital Job
Batavia, N. Y.—Strikes occasioned
by the failure of sub-contractors to
pay their men have been the princi
pal factor in delaying the completion
of the United States Veterans Hos
pital, past due here, until Jne 1, or
later.
The latest strike is by plasterers,
who claim they are asked to accept
less than the standard wage set by the
government. This is one of a series of
strikes by various trades making the
same complaint.
MOTHER'S DAY AT
FENMONT CENTER
.... Mother's Day, on May 14, is to
be a big day at Fenmont Center.
There will be a reception for all
mothers and their families. Begin
ning at 4:30 and continuing until 8
o'clock a sumptuous chicken supper
will be served. There will be cards
and other forms of entertainment for
those who care to indulge.
fl&C
LEFT BEHINO
Colonel (to soldi«r accused of being
absent without leave)—What have you
got to say for yourself?
Private—Well, sir, It was like this:
1 got to Waterloo and I was about to
open the carriage door when a band
outside the station struck up the na
tional anthem. I stood at attention
until it was finished, and when 1
turned around the bllnkln* train had
gone!—Humorist Magazine.
Cheap at the Price
v
™fR»ey were seated together on Hie
hall sofa. He was staring vacantly
in front of him.
"Penny for your thought^ sdarMngl"
she suggested. V.
He stirred himself*
"1 was just thinking of going," he
replied.
voice came from the head of the
stairs.
"Give him a shilling, Doris," said her
fathtr. -It's worth it"—Answeft,
AN ARTIST
VV£M\
"How's your son getting on with
his art career?"
"In his particular line he has no
peer. Drawing checks. He draws 'em
beautifully."
Presiding
"What are the duties of the .Vice
President," Inquired the visitor.
"He must preside over the senate,"
answered Miss Cayenne.
"Is that all?"
"No. The hardest thing about his
job Is to keep the senate aware of the
fact that he Is doing so."
Confusing
A substitute teacher was before the
very elementary arithmetic class.
"Now take three oranges and add
two more, how many oranges will I
then have?"
"Please, ma'am, we always do our
sums in apples," one little voice pro
tested.—Indianapolis News.
When Is Change Not Change?
Booking Clerk (at small village sta
tion)—You'll have to change twice be
fore you get to York.
Villager (unused to traveling)
Goodness me! And I've only brought
the clothes I be standing up In
Pearson's Magazine.
As It May Be
"What do you think of that prize
fighter's style of fighting?"
"Well," replied the expert, "his
grammar is very good, but his meta
phors are very crude and Ill-chosen."
EASY ENOUGH
Prospective Tenant—How Is this
flat heated?
Tenant—By tipping the janitor.
Perfect Sphinx
Lady—I'm very particular. I want
a mrtld who won't answer me back.
Agency Manager—I have just what
you want—a former telephone opera
tor.—Hummel (Hamburg).
Butcher Shop Marriage
Minister—Do you take this woman
for better or worst?
Butcher—Oh, liver alone. 1 never
sausage nerve.—Missouri Pacific Mag
azine.
Strike Her With a Feather
The Nag—You're going to drive me
oat of my mind!
The Nark—That ain't no drive, my
dear—that's a putt.—Sydney Bulletin.
Inverse Ability
"Does she act tragedy or comedy?'
"Both. She's tragic In comedy, and
comic In tragedy."—Answers Maga
zine.
Bouquet With a String to It
"Is it true, Miss Elderleigh, that you
are going to be married soon?"
"Well, no, It Isn't. But 1 am very
grateful for the rumor."—Buen Humor.
Wife Might, Though
^Care to buy a nice letter-opener,
sir
"Don't need one. I'm married."—
Hummel (Hamburg).
Chameleon
"Your wife Is a blond, isn't she?
"Br—1 don't know—she is at the
hairdressers." Venice Gazzettino II
luctr:i!o
Gov. Olson Signs 54-Hour
Bill for Women and Minors
St. Paul, Minn.—Governor Floyd
B. Olson has signed the new 54-hour
week bill designed to protect women
workers in Minnesota industry. It
supersedes four old bills which failed
to remedy conditions under which wo
men were compelled to work in res
taurants and stores.
Labor unions and Welfare organi
zations have fought for 12 years for
such small protection for women
workers as is provided by a nine
huor day, and it is hoped that the
fact that some of the legislators ad
vocated a 30-hour week as proposed
in the federal congress may presage
something better to follow for Min
nesota women workers.
Residence of Presidents
There is nothing in the Constitution
to prevent men who are residents of
the same state holding the offices of
President and Vice President of the
United States. The Twelfth Amend
ment to the Constitution rends In part:
"The electors shall meet In their re
spective states and vote by ballot for
President and Vice President, one of
whom, at least, shall not be an Inhabi
tant of the same state with them
selves." No party has ever nominated
candidates for these two offices from
the same state. Obviously it would be
unwise to do so because the electors
from that state could vote for only on6
of them, even if the party carried the
state. But the electors from all the
other states could vote for both can
didates.
When Drama Came
The earliest European drmna is the
Greek, which, growing up in connec
tion with the festival of Dionysius, cul
minated In Attica, where the festival
came to be celebrated by the perform
ance of a tetralogy, consisting of one
comedy and a trilogy of serious plays
or tragedies celebrating a connected
series of mythic episodes. In Medieval
Europe mystery, miracle and morality
plays, acted In connection with the
church festivals preceded the appear
ance during the Renaissance, of the
modern drama which has developed
besides tragedy and comedy, tragi
comedy, melodrama, opera, burletta.
farce, etc.
The Cherry
ry* Where with our
1
0m
Litt,e
And
A Leader for
cAfk Tour
Hatchet
we tell the truth
about many things, sometimes pro
foundly, sometimes flippantly,
sometimes recklessly
"Hot oil" is a new term in Amer
ican industry. It's like hot money
It's contraband. It's oil that escapes
state tax and doesnt go through the
pipe lines.
Big rewards are out for those who
catch the dealers in hot oil.
Dealers in hot oil probably are
making big money.
Well, there is a cause back of this
evil, as there usually is. Perhaps the
heavy state taxes have caused some
bootlegging of oil, but the pipe lines
have caused more. Hei'e again is the
penalty of hoggishness.
Pipe lines come pretty near being
big company monopolies and they
have been used to gouge and choke
the little fellows. So, today America
has hot oil and a great war between
the "independents and the monopo
lists.
America seems to like its beer ex
periment. It seems to like it with
great relish and gusto.
The drys are moving everything
movable to find new arguments
against beer. Beer, of itself, has
knocked out the heaviest arguments
Edgar K. Wagner
FUNERAL DIRECTOR
Wake Up Your Liver Bile
—Without Calomel
YouTl Jump Out of Bed
in the Morning Rarin* to Go
If you feel sour and sunk and the
world looks punk, don't swallow a lot
of salts, mineral water, oil, laxative
candy or chewing gum and expect
them to make you suddenly sweet
and buoyant and full of sunshine.
For they can't do it. They only
move the bowels and a mere move
ment doesn't get at the cause. The
reason for your down-and-out feeling
is your liver. It should pour out two
pounds of liquid bfte into your bowels
daily.
4.
of the drys and the long faces are
in a quandary.
Well, puny forces that persist III
standing in the way of events in these
times have been getting bowled over
with great regularity. Destiny is tak
ing little notice of pebbles and even
some fairly good sized cobbles are
being tolled over and flattened.
Which recalls this pungent and
apt epigram in a letter a few days
ago: "This generation has a date
with destiny.
It seems to be true. Moreover, it
might be made to read: "The common
people have a date with destiny la
this generation. It may be so.
Certainly not in any age have the
people come into so much informa
tion about their oppressors and ex
ploiters. If there is any meaning to
the old maxim that knowledge is
power, then the people today have A
better armament than the people have
ever had.
1
Look what we know about the
banks. And we shall presently knqfti
a great deal more.
Presently, also, we shall know a
great deal about the great insurance.
companies.»
There are yet many secrets, but
one by one they yield to the pick attd
shovel of the common people.
We read in the newspapers that
the president may call upon the Red
Cross to help feed the unemployed,
If that comes to pass, then let it
be hoped the Red Cross may first
recover from its ideas that it is the
agency of the rich and the idle med
dlers, and that the needy are "sub
jects and "objects and "cases.
The Red Cross is just finishing Hie
distribution of some five million bush
els of wheat and the nasty, superior
attitude of at least some of he Red
Cross agens in that work would cre
ate fury in the breast of anyone who
could afford to let fury get the better
of discretion—and of hunger.
Why must an agency of mercy be
that way? Well, one reason is that
in the communities of America it is
run by those who have the time for
such things, and when you know that
you know almost surely the type that
will be found generally running the
show.
Whether, when these lines are read,
we shall have a United States labor
department empowered to virtually
run industry, fixing wages and de
termining which shall run and which
shall close, is just now uncertain. But
the trend seems to be that way.
Whatever anyone may say, that is
NOT democracy, but if (democracy
gets too lazy or too confused to func
tion and take unto itself proper pow
ers and functions, those who usury
the peoples power cannot be greatly
blamed.
Perhaps, too, there is something to
be said for the view tnat in these
times any action is better than none,
but still the question remains:
Why cannot development pursue the
lines of democracy and freedom
START
AN
ACCOUNT
WITH
The Home Loan
and Building A'ssn
Third and Court Sts.
WE PAY STATE TAXES
C. J. PARRISH, Secy
If this bile is not flowing freely, your food
doesn't digest. It Just decays In the bowels.
Oss bloats up your stomach. You have a
thick, bad txst« and your breath Is foul, skin
often breaks out In blemish**. Your head
aches and you feel down and out. Your whole
system is poisoned.
It take*
those good old
CARTER'S LITTLB
LIVER PILLS to get these two pounds of bile
flowing freely and make you (eel "up and up."
They contain wonderful, harmless, gentle
vegetable extracts, amazing when it comas te
making the bile flow freely.
But don'task for liver pills. Ask for Carter's
Little Liver Pills. Look for the name Carter's
Little Liver Pills on the red label. Resent a
substitute. 25c at all stores. Q1931. C. U. Co.
Jlcur
Forty-Five \ears
Otycer