The Butler County press. [volume], July 14, 1933, Image 1

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

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VOL. XXXIII. No. 14
Menace Program.
Washington, D. C. (ILNS)—The
Roosevelt administration has only
two objectives in promulgating codes
of fair competition, under the na
tional industrial recovery act, at least
for the present, and these are to re
store employment and raise the buy
ing and consuming power of indus
trial workers to a higher level. These
are the two ends toward which Gen.
Johnson is working, and the yard
sticks that are being applied to each
proposed code. Every factor that
does not bear directly upon them in
the study and approval of codes is
being swept aside.
This condensed and restricted pro
gram furnishes the explanation why
many things that seem vitally impor
tant to employers and employes, with
a far-reaching bearing upon future
trends, are being left untouched in
both the provisions of codes and the
facts that are developed in hearings
from witnesses and experts. The ad
ministration does not want industrial
control to extend beyond attaining
these ends, and is counting upon
gradual economic recovery to enable
it to stay within these confines.
"there is no reason to believe, how
ever, that in dealing with other in-
SWEATSHOP WAGES
HITJJY UNIONS
Wilmington, Del.—Deplorable con
ditions in labor employment here have
been disclosed by a survey reported
by its executive committee to the Cen
tral Labor Union, and by it in part
forwarded to Washington.
A factory engaged on a contract
for 25,000 army style cots for the
Forest Conservation Corps was found
to be paying its workmen at the rate
of $1 for an eight-hour day. The
Central Labor Union appealed to
Robert Fechner, director of the corps,
and to Secretary of Labor Frances
Perkins to compel this contractor to
pay a living wage.
In the textile and needle trades,
shirt, pants and dress factories were
found paying women less than $5 for
a full week's work.
One printing shop was found work
ing its pressroom twelve hours a
night and paying them less than half
the union wage. The survey is being
continued.
TEAMSTERS WIN
AMOT PAY CUT
Tacoma, Wash.—Members of Team
sters' and Chauffeurs' Union, Local
No. 313, won their militant wage cut
strike against the nine taxi and
trucking concerns comprising the
Truck Owners' Association here. The
men walked out when the association
imposed an arbitrary wage cut after
having broken off arbitration pro
ceedings provided for in the agree
ment with the union.
Following the walkout the Tacoma
Central Labor Council placed the
Truck Owners' Association on organ
ized labor's "We don't patronize"
list.
The settlement provided that the
men should return to work on the
same wage schedules as prevailed be
fore the walkout. There were a few
minor adjustments in helpers' scales.
The settlement was brought about by
the intervention of Ernie C. Marsh,
representing the conciliation service
of the U. S. Department of Labor at
Washington, and Will Coates, labor
commissioner of the Washington state
department of labor and industries.
Representatives of the truck own
ers went into the first arbitration
meetings with the threat that unless
their proposed wage cut was accepted
by the teamsters by a certain date
the negotiations would be abruptly
ended. They were surprised that this
threat did not cow the teamsters into
calm submission, and were doubly
surprised when the teamsters met the
cut with a walkout.
"Once again," declares the Tacoma
Labor Advocate, "unionism, labor sol-
Recovery Head Concentrates
On Making Jobs, Raising Pay
Restoration of Employment and Increase in Buying
Power Sought Before All Else—Failure to Deal
With Foreign Competit on and Higlier Output May
Robert G.Taylor Mortuary
Formerly
THE C. W GATHCO.
dustries, Gen. Johnson will be able to
restrict himself to the narrow limits
of the hearings upon the proposed
cotton textile code, and to refrain
from entering into consideration of
matters that bear directly upon price
fixing in the consuming field and to
prevent a general application of the
"stretch-out" system in industries as
a result of higher levels of minimum
wages.
Some Pressing Problems
Questions of foreign competition
and adequate tariff protection against
inundations of cheaply made products
from other countries are pressing for
some decision. If importations of
cheap products should rapidly in
crease under the operations of the
proposed codes, the administration
would be confronted with a tariff
problem that would thrust the suc
cess of its whole program of indus
trial stabilization into the balance. It
is admitted that the protection afford
ed today against the products of
countries with greatly depreciated
currencies is wholly inadequate, and
that a rising level of commodity
prices in this country would invite
still larger consignments from such
countries.
idarity, has revealed its power to pro
tect the working standards of the
membership."
FORTY-HOUR
Week Would Be Blow To
Recovery Act
New York.—With the majority of
business executives reconciled to a
thirty-five or thirty-six hour week, ac
ceptance by the governmnet of the
cotton textile industry's program for
a forty-hour week would be a "se
vere blow" to the success of the na
tional industrial recovery act, Sol. A.
Herzog, counsel to a number of trade
associations and to the Congress of
Industries, declared here.
Since the major industries will set
the pace for the smaller groups, he
added, very few trades would accept
a week shorter than forty hours if
the textile code is approved by the
federal administrator.
At the same time, Mr. Herzog ex
pressed the opinion that the minimum
wages of $12 for the South and $13
for the North were too low, pointing
out that the minimum wage for wom
en in Massachuaie^ts is now
$13.50.
Most industries are anxious to grant
labor generous terms, he declared, and
are thinking in terms of around $10
for minimum wages, rather than the
$12 and $13 proposed by the cotton
goods group.
"Since this industry's code is the
first to be submitted to Washington,"
Mr. Herzog continued, "and has been
widely publicized, the government's
attitude on it is of the utmost impor
tance. If the administration desires
to have the aims of the recovery act
fulfilled, it must see to it that the
major industries are not granted too
much leeway."
WORK ON GOMPERS
MEMORIAL BEGINS
Washington, D. C. (ILNS)—Con
struction of the foundation of the
memorial to the late Samuel Gom
pers, which will be dedicated at the
A. F. of L. convention here October
2
will begin immediately. The con
tract has been let to a Washington
firm.
The memorial to the founder and
former president of the American
Federation of Labor is being complet
ed in New York and will be ready
for the dedication ceremonies the first
week in October.
Funeral Directors
Ambulance Service Chairs and Tables Rented
Phone 35 17 So. Street
The call for the convention which
will convene at the Willard Hotel,
will be issued late in August, ac
cording to Frank Morrison, secretary
of the federation.
Advertise in The Press.
\MHATS Th' IPEA
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(lopyrifc'bt, W. N. U.)
Washngton, D. C. (ILNS)—The
cotton textile code, covering the
largest manufacturing industry in
America, now virtually approved by
Gen. Johnson, administrator of the
national industrial recovery ac)t,
raises wages, cuts hours and does
many other things, including the
freeing of labor from company un
ions.
One hole remains in the code, tem
porarily. It broke out during the
hearings when the United Textile
Workers pointed out that the danger
of the stretch-out system and the
damage it could do to the workers if
not remedied. U. S. Senator Byrnes
in a special plea asked for some action
to stop the stretch-out and Admin
istrator Johnson acted at once, direct
ing that a committee be named to
proceed to the making of a survey
and recommendations. The labor ad
visory committee appointed George L.
Berry as its representative on the
stretch-out committee. The employ
ers named Robert Geer, big mill own
er. Robert Bruere was named chair
man.
To Plug Bad Hole
It is understood the survey will
proceed at once. A report must be
made by July 17, effective date for
the code. This committee and its
agents is charged with the job of
plugging the hole left by the mill
owners in their code. It is under-'
stood that the findings turned in by
the Bruere committee will in all prob
ability be made a part of the code.
Whether that hole is to be plugged
is for the moment squarely up to
Robert Bruere, chairman of the com
mittee named by Gen. Johnson to
head a special committee to survey
that system in operation. Bruere, as
sociate editor of the Survey and long
known as a leader in uplift circles,
is the personal choice of Dr. Leo
Wolman. chairman of the labor ad
visory committee.
The danger lies at this point: If
mill owners are allowed to make un
limited use of thfe stretch-out system
they can, by that device wreck much
of the advantage gained by the short
ening of work hours and the raising
of minimum rates of pay.
Provisions of Code
The minimum scale set in the new
code calls for a bottom wage of $12
in Southern mills and $13 in Northern
mills. The work week is to be forty
hours, but machines may run eighty
Hours.
No minors under 1® may be em
ployed, and thus, at one stroke, the
textile industry is freed of child la
bor—a century of battle is ended.
Uniform cost accounting is to be
established, additional machinery may
be installed only upon a certificate of
public necessity and tribunals are to
be established within the industry to
regulate trade practices. The right to
organize and bargain collectively is
g-uaranteed.
Real Gains Made
The wage is not what the union de
manded, but it is a material gain.
Fast Action Is Needed to
Stop Stretch-Out Plan
Committee Headed By Robert Bruere Has Pivotal Job
and Prepares for Immediate Action Through Survey.
An Agriculture Speed-Cop Now
/1CAIE5T 0FFICEP.
1 PlPMT KHOW
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Textile Code Wage Rate Increased
Two Dollars By Fight of Union
The first draft of the code provided
rates of $10 and $11. Hours in
Southern mills have run to sixty and
even sixty-four wages have been as
low as $5.50 per week.
Faults remain in the code. In par
ticular, carders are not affected and
yard workers and cleaners are omit
ted. But office employes will get the
benefit of the forty-hour week after
July 30.
Union Opposes Code
A memorandum in opposition to the
code submitted by the cotton textile
industry was presented by President
Thomas F. McMahon and Secretary
Treasurer James Starr, of the United
Textile Workers, with counsel
Chester M. Wright, John A. Beck and
Leslie L. Frey, of Chester M. Wright
and Associates. The memorandum
follows in part:
"If we were free to assume that
the national industrial recovery act
is intended merely as the commence
ment of what we may term an inch
ing along process toward a somewhat
more desirable condition, then we
might assume that the code as offer
ed by the Cotton Textile Industry is
acceptablbe. We are not free to as
sume it. It cannot be assumed.
"On the contrary, it must be ac
cepted as fact that the national in
dustrial recovery act is intended to
create a prosperous nation of pros
perous people who have work from
which they may earn at least a sus
taining wage and from which they
may derive a purchasing power suf
ficient to continue all American in
dustry in full and prosperuos opera
tion.
"Therefore we have to oppose the
propositions relating to hours of work
and to wages as set forth in the code
now under consideration.
Forty-Hour Week Unacceptable
"As to hours of labor:
"We cannot accept a work week of
forty hours. We oppose it on several
grounds. There must be a work week
suited not only to the physical ca
pacity of the workers, but suited to
the national economy.
"The work week in the textile in
dustry has constituted a national
shame, as conceded by some of the
progressively inclined elements in the
industry. What, then, is a proper
work week A proper work week,
we submit, is a week of not more than
thirty-five hours.
"The adoption of a thirty-five-hour
week would operate to provide em
ployment for all those previously and
normally engaged in the industry
without the creation of a back-log and
at the same time provide for the ab
sorption of a further substantial num
ber of persons in the industry as con
sumption requirements increase.
Wage Differential Hit
''Further, we cannot agree to the
fixing of a differential between the
minimum wage in the North and in
the South. The only defense for such
a differential is past bad practice and
a fancied difference in the cost of liv
ing. We find no authority for agree­
A
HAMILTON, OHIO, FRIDAY, FRIDAY, JULY 14,1933 ONE DOLLAR PKB TEAS
i
ing that there is a difference. That
there may be a difference in the
amount that will sustain animal life
we concede, but we are engaged here
in decreeing something more than a
mere animal life. The past differ
ential has been much wider than that
now proposed. Rather than stop at
a point so near equality, why shall
we not go the whole route to full
equality?"
THROUGH A
Woman's Eyes
y E A N N E W O N
ON FAITHFULNESS IN
MARRIAGE
IN
VARIOUS forums now they are
seriously discussing the question
started by a woman lecturer recently,
as to whether faithfulness Is necessary
In marriage! People are not only sug
gesting, but advancing arguments to
prove that monogamy ta going out of
date, that we should change the Ideas
and the laws which require that one
man and one woman remain faithful
to each other.
They are doing most of the talking,
and what they say It well publicised.
Perhaps the millions who do not agree
with them feel that their viewpoint Is
so obvious that It needs no publiciz
ing. But the other day something well
worth passing on was offered on the
subject in a lecture given at Teachers'
college, in New York, by Dr. Henry
Neumann, In which he said: "The
greatest need is neither for more
liberty nor for stricter divorce laws,
but rather a higher grade of person
ality and all that develops such Inner
excellence."
To question or change our present
standards in marriage, he said, would
be revising laws from the viewpoint of
those who have' failed. Whereas the
great need today Is a training of
people who respect the highest and
best In others and themselves and
want to live up to It.
Getting down to concrete cases, men
and women fall In other things no less
than in marriage. Many fall In busi
ness. But we do not consider chang
ing the rules and standards of busi
ness procedure to make their failure
look like success? Men and women
fail in honor. As Doctor Neumann
pointed out, they lie and cheat. But
would we consider holding up to our
children a standard of honor which It
would be easier to meet? Yet that
Is exactly what those are doing who
are quibbling over the question of
monogamous marriage, or so It seems
to me. What do my readers think
about It?
Marine Unions in Merger
New York City (ILNS)—The Nep
tune Association and the Ocean Asso
ciation of Marine Engineers, the two
leading organizations of officers of
the merchant marine, have amalga
mated as the United Lincensed Of
ficers' Association. The new organi
zation has a membership of about
4,000 men. About 5,500 men are said
to be eligible to membership, but are
now members of other organizatinos
which have not accepted the invita
tion of the association to merge
More than 8,000,000 tons of fer
tilizef, worth over $200,000,000 are
produced yearly in the United States.
Washington, D. C. (ILNS)—Fol
lowing a statement by Harry L. Hop
kins, federal emergency relief admin
trator, that federal relief funds will
not be used to enable employers to
pay starvation wages, the Reading,
Pa., branch of the American Fed
eration of Full Fashioned Hosiery
Workers wrote to Hopkins protesting
against what the union termed "pay
ing subsidies from relief funds fur
nished by the federal authorities to
assist the E. Richard Meinig hosiery
mills in Reading to continue opera
tions."
John W. Edelman, editor of the
Hosiery Worker, in the communica
tion to Hopkins urged that an imme
diate investigation be made of charges
relating to the Meinig mill. It is con
tended that the Meinig Company has
not paid wages to its help for sev
eral weeks past and that relief funds
have been advanced to a number of
employes on behalf of the hosiery
concern. It is charged that this com
pany has for the past six months
been constantly in arrears in wage
payments to its employes and that
on some occasions as much as six
weeks' pay was due individuals.
Sweatshops Subsidized
"Sweatshops are being subsidized
through issuance of relief funds to
employes unable to live on the paltry
earnings made in the shop, mill or
mine," Edelman said. "This has been
a common practice in Pennsylvania
for the past year or more. It is some
thing new, however, Lo as.-ist a manu-
MOVIE CONCERN
STRICTLY UNION
St. Petersburg, Fla.—The Aubrey
Kennedy Production Company, mo
tion picture firm, recently won to this
city from a number of hot competi
tors and now expanding rapidly, has
entered into wage and working agree
ments with five local union crafts,
it is announced by V. S. Herring,
president of Central Labor Union.
Contracts were signed with locals
of the International Association of
Theatrical Employes, the Brother
hood of Carpenters and Joiners, the
Painters, Paperhangers and Decora
tors, and the Electrical Workers. A
contract pending with the Brick Ma
sons, Plasterers and Tile Setters will
make the Kennedy organziation 100
per cent unionized.
Aubrey Kennedy, pioneering the
motion picture industry in Florida,
took over Weedon's Island here last
February and started to convert the
old St. Reno Clubhouse into a studio.
Work has been continuous since and
now production is under way on
"Chloe," starring Olive Borden, un
der the direction of Marshall Neilan,
famous wherever pictures are shown.
COLLEGE PROF.
FOR HIGH WAGE
New York.—Dr. John A. Ryan, pro
fessor of Political Economy at the
Catholic University in Washington,
stressed the importance of higher
wages in an address here to the dele
gates from fifty-six Roman Catholic
colleges and universities to consider
the new deal.
"I think the industrial recovery act
will not work unless capital gets a
smaller share of the industrial prod
ucts than it has been getting,' Dr.
Ryan said. "It is purely an arithme
ical proposition. If labor is going to
get a greater share, capital must be
satisfied with less.
"This much is already clear the
act itself and the provisions already
made for its administration, and the
spirit in which those provisions are
being inaugurated, all point to a
maintained effort to give labor as a
whole a larger share of the products
than it has been getting.
"Whether capital will be satisfied,"
he continued, "I don't know. But if
Relief Administrator Bans
Use of Federal Funds to
Subsidize Starvation Pay
_ME
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facturer who doesn't pay wages regu
larly by loaning food orders to Ids
help. If this practice is not quickly
checked the many other manufactur
ers in this state who are paying
wages when they feel like it, although
their mills are running regularly, will
seek similar assistance from the gov
ernment."
In telling of plans of his adminis
tration, Hopkins laid stress on the as
sertion that federal relief funds will
not become "involved in any situation
where employers pay their workers
starvation wages and expect them to
get the difference from relief agen
cies."
Numerous instances have come to
his attention, Hopkins said, where
employers have approached relief
agencies with the idea that they were
cut-rate employment agencies whera
workers could be obtained at less than
a self-supporting wage.
"This is asking public relief mon
eys to subsidize industrial wages," he
declared. "I am thankful that in none
of the instances that came to my at
tention did the relief agencies enter
tain such a proposition. There is
much satisfaction in realizing that the
great majority of industrial employ
ers believe in paying a living wag«
I want the relief-giving agencies to
know that wherever they come under
the federal emergency relief admin
istration I back them wholeheartedly
in turning down any such attempts
to take advantage of human dis
tress."
you ask me what we will have next
if this doesn't work, I hesitate to
think."
MOLDERS' JOURNAL
EDITOR IS DEAD
Cincinnati, Ohio (ILNS)—Robert
McCoy, editor of the International
Molders' Journal, died at the Good
Samaritan Hospital in Cincinnati, of
complications arising from an asth
matic attack. Burial took place in
Pittsburgh.
McCoy was born in Murphreesboro,
Tenn., February 28, 18712. He began
his apprenticeship as a stove molder
at Nashville, Tenn., for the company
of Phillips & Buttorff. He was initiat
ed by Molders' Union No. 55 in 1895.
After working in the South a num
ber of years, McCoy became inter
ested in companies in Ohio and Penn
sylvania. At the convention of the
International Molders' Union in Mil
waukee in 1907 he was elected a mem
ber of the executive board. He was
elected business agent of the con
ference board in 1924. When John P.
Frey resigned as editor of the In
ternational Molders' Journal in 1927,
McCoy was elected to take his place.
The convention in 1928 re-elected him
and he remained in that office until
his death.
Patrick H. McCarthy
Labor Leader, Dead
San Francisco (ILNS)—Patrick H.
McCarthy, well-known labor leader,
investment banker and former mayor
of SanFrancisco, died at his home
here on June 30 at the age of 70.
McCarthy was born in Ireland. Af
ter attending schools in his native
land, he served an apprenticeship as
a carpenter. In 1880 he went to Chi
cago and later to St. Louis. In com
pany with six other carpenters he
took a prominent part in organizing
the United Brotherhood of Carpenters
and Joiners of America.
Moving here in 1886, Mr. McCar
thy and his associates formed the
San Francisco Building Trades Coun
cil in 1894.
He served as president of the
Building Trades Council for twenty
nine years and as president of the
California State Building Trades
Council for twenty-two years.
dozen other
kdtures. Receives police and airplane calls
in addition to regular broadcasts. Liberal
trade-In allowance.
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