The Butler County press. [volume], April 03, 1936, Image 1

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

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A
Hosiery Workers Make
Demand of Clean-up
of Mississippi Valley
Philadelphia (ILNS)—The whole
weight of decent public opinion will
back up Administrator Hopkins if he
•cleans up in vigorous and uncompro
mising fashion the scandal caused by
the misuse of WPA funds to sub
sidize low wage employers in Missis
sippi, the Hosiery Worker, official
organ of the American Federation of
Hosiery Workers, says editorially.
The Hosiery Workers recently re
vealed that federal funds were used
for the erection of buildings in Mis
sissippi towns which were put up in
the guise of schools for vocational
education, but were in reality intended
for the use of sweatshop and low
wage garment manufacturers.
"Private power companies and
other financial interests in the South
will fight the federal government
every inch of the way in this case,"
says the Hosiery Worker. It con
tinues:
"Some very powerful figures in the
democratic party support this drive
to use governmental funds as a means
of bringing industry to the South.
Governor White, of Mississippi, (who
is a millionaire lumberman) backs
up the local Chambers of Commerce
who promote the erection of manu
l'acturing plants disguised as 'voca
tional schools.' Senator Pat Harrison
of the same state approves the pol
icies of Governor White and "other
'go getters' of this type.
"President Roosevelt knows well
enough, and his cabinet knows also,
that the economic and social problems
of states such as Mississippi cannot
be solved by bribing industries to mi
grate into that region. The real
trouble with the South is that those
who own that country have selfishly
and brutally wasted the natural re
sources of the region. What tht
South needs is fundamental reorgan
ization of its whole economy which i.s
based on agriculture. It would be
legitimate and wise to use federal
funds to rehabilitate the forests and
Hits Sweatshop Buying By
Government
Washington, D. C. (ILNS)—William
Green, president of the American Fed
erationof Labor, told a house judiciar
sub-committee that he "shuddered to
think of our government buying
goods from sweatshops."
The committee is considering the
Healey bill to empower the depart
ment of labor to fix wages and hour
standards for bidders on govern
ment contracts.
"I am pleading not only for laboi
but for every fair-minded employer
in this nation," Green said. "Help us
protect them from, the chiselers and
sweatshops by approving this bill."
"There are 12,626,000 unemplo
ed in this country now. This excludes
of course, the 3,672,570 employed i
the WPA, CCC and similar emerge nc
government projects.
"Enactment of the bill will be the
biggest forward step the government
could take. It will redound to the
benefit of all industry."
plantations of the South under eer
ain conditions.
"Mississippi may help to make
money for a few absentee owners of
manufacturing plants by its present
policy of 'attracting' new industries,
but the workers of the state will
merely find a new master to exploit
and drive them. Certain consumer
oods industries such as hosiery, tex
tiles, cotton garments, and the like
are being seriously undermined by
ihe migration of manufacturing con
cerns to low wage areas. One section
of the country cannot gain (except
very temporarily) by the losses sus
tained by an^+iier section."
STROKE
To Editor of Iron Workers
Journal
Pittsburgh (ILNS)—Ben.
Under the editorship of Mr. Davis
the Amalgamated Journal became one
of the best edited and best known
labor publication in the United
States.
Mr. Davis was born April 24,1361
in Wales, his father being an iron
and steel worker. Mr. Davis came
to the United States in 1863 and at
tended school in Claveland, Ohio. He
went to work at 14 in a rolling mill
and was a hot mill iron and steel
worker from 1876 to 1899. He was a
trustee of the Amalgamated Associa
lion of Iron and Stctl Workers
1808-9, and assistant president
1895)-1900. He was actiwe as a speak
t*r for labor.
Canada Increases
Labor Camp Wages
Ottawa (ILNS)—The Canadian
government has announced that thu
wages of 20,000 or more single men
in forced labor camps has been raised
from $5 to $15 a month, and that it
is planned to close all those camps
by July 1.
Arrangements have been made for
the railways to employ 10,000 of
these men on deferred maintenanc
work on an undisclosed wage basis
Others are to be employed building
roadways into the mining areas of
northern Quebec and Ontario Wher
possible the young men will be placed
on farms and the government will
pay part of their wages and bonu
the farmer to keep them at work.
Blind Robbins 20c lb.
Salt Mackerel 2 for 15c
Egg Noodles 2 1-lb. pkgs. 25c
CHICAGO MARKET CO.
Corner Front and High Streets Telephone 4506
The government says its new plans
for single young men will effect
public saving on last year's cost of
maintaining them in labor camps
which was $50 per man. Incidentally
its farm location scheme is likely to
weigh down on the wage rates of
farm help.
Advertise in The Press.
SATURDAY SPECIALS
19 Valuable Prizes
You may win a lathe, electric drill, battery
charger, and tools by buying your parts for that
truck, tractor, gasoline engine, or auto at
Savage Auto Supply Co.
636-38 MAPLE AVENUE PHONE 116
a
1.
Davis
editor for 37 years of the Amalgamat
ed Journal, official organ of the Amal
gamated Association of Iron, Steel and
in Workers, died of a stroke on March
21). The funeral services, attended by
trade union executive: from many
sections, was held from the family
residence in Dormont, Pa,
i
(Copjlifci
Washington, D. C. (ILNS)—The
National Labor Relations Board has
made in the last few days a series of
rulings of unusual interest to labor.
Group Problems Not Discussed
"It is evident that the grievances
which the respondent (the company)
discussed and was willing to discuss
were the individual problems of its
employes and matters of ordinary de
tail, and did not pertain to the em
ployes as a group."
The company in this case admitted
that more than 100 of its 123 em
ployes were members of the union
but still refused to negotiate.
The board has ordered an election
to determine who shall represent the
workers at the plant of the Belmont
Stamping & Enameling Co., at New
Philadelphia, Ohio.
Order Against Boat Plan
The NLRB has ordered the Har
bor Boatbuilding Co., of Los Angeles,
to cease and desist from refusing to
bargain collectivvely with the Ship
Carpenters, Caulkers and Joiners'
Union. This order was issued after
hearings held at the request of the
union.
In still another action, the board
certified Branch 69 of the American
Federation of Hosiery Workers to
act for production employes of the
John Blood & Co., Inc., plant at Boy
erton, Pa. The workers had held
a secret election.
In February the Labor Relations
Board received 65 separate charges
arjd petitions for elections involving
5,364 workers. It closed 56 cases cov
ering 7,227 workers and mutual
agreements were reached in 32 cases
'HE BUTIJER COUNTY PRESS.
VOL. XXXV. No. 52 HAMILTON, OHIO, FRIDAY, APRIL 3, 1936 ONE DOLLAR PER YEAR
Sun-up to Sun-down
Labor Board Rejects Defense of Company and
Upholds Oil Workers in Dispute at Georgia
Plant—Other Decisions of Importance to
Organized Workers.
First is the rebuke to the Atlantic
Refining Co., which has been ordered
to cease its refusal to meet the local
union of Oil Field, Gas Well and Re
finery Workers, to negotiate on wages
and working conditions at the Bruns
wick, Ga., plant of the company. The
company offered in defense the claim
that it treated with its employes "in
dividually."
"Collective bargaining means more
than a discussion of individual prob
lems and grievances with employes
or a group of employes," said the
board. "It means that the employer
is obligated to negotiate in good faith
with his employes as a group,
through their representatives, on
matters of wages, hours and basic
working conditions, and to endeavor
to reach an agreement for a fixed
period of time.
Big Refinery Is Ordered
To Bargain With Union
involving 3,564 employer. Since its
establishment the board and its re
gional offices have acted on 641 cases
involving 146,245 workers,
Two New Union Label
Products on Market
Washington, D. C. (ILNS)—I. M.
Ornburn, secretary-treasurer of the
union label trades department, Amer
ican Federation of Labor, announces
that the Rich Maid Manufacturing
Company, Inc.. of Richmond, Va., has
placed two new union-made products
on the market. They are Richmond
Maid Coffee and Richmond Maid Bak
ing Powder. Both are prepared under
union conditions and bear the A. F.
of L. label. The entire plant is 100
per cent unionized and every mainte
nance man must be a member of his
recognized union.
The coffee is the highest grade and
finest flavor, and the baking powder
is guaranteed to be manufactured
from pure phosphate and of the bes
quality, the union label trades depart
ment says.
Members of organized labor are
urging their dealers to buy these
union-labeled products, and the de
matul for them has greatly increased
in recent months.
Fair Wage Clause Demanded
In Valuating Indus. Firms
St. John, N. B. (ILNS)—A demand
that a fair wage clause be embodied
in fixed valuations of industrial firms
has been made by Rev. Dr. H. E
Thomas, United Church pastor, of St
John, who went before the city and
county councils to press his demand
He pointed out that many firms which
were getting fixed valuations far un
der the proper values of their prop
erties were taking advantage of the
scarcity of employment, to pay starva
tion wages for adult men as low as
99 cents a day, as illustrated by the
Wilson Box & Lumber Company of
Fairville, N. B.
UNION LABOR LIFE MEETING
Baltimore, Md. (ILNS)—The tenth
annual meeting of the stockholders
o* the Union Labor Life Insurance
Company will be held at 11 a. m., April
15, at the Lord Baltimore Hotel. Bal
timoi-e. Directors of the company will
be elected and other business trans
acted. Notice of the meeting has
been sent oftt by Matthew Woll, presi
dent, and Thomas E. Burke, secretai-y
treasurer.
AL,
-je-
ft.
New York City Asks Cour
To Uphold Minimum Pay Ac
Washington, D. C. (ILNS)—The
city of New York on March 26 asked
the supreme court to uphold constitu
tionality of the New York state mini
mum wage law for women and chil
dren.
The plea was made in a brief con
tending that the public welfare de
partment is burdened by the failure of
employers to pay a subsistance wage
to women.
SENTENCES OF WORKERS HIT
Geneva (ILNS)—The Workers
group of the International Labor Office
Governing Body has protested sti-ong
ly against the sentences inflicted on
Austrian working class leaders, some
of whom have been given as much
as 10 years with hard labor for carry
ing on trade union and socialist activ
ities.
Wtionary
HOLYOKE MEETING
Asks Prosecution of Mill
Holyoke, Mass. (ILNS)—At a mass
iK'eting arranged by the United Tex
ile Workers and the American Feder
ation of Hosiery Workers here, reso
lutions were adopted urging WPA
Administrator Harry Hopkins to
prosecute "The Massachusetts Knit
ing Mills of this state and of Colum
bia, Tenn., for having conspired with
municipal officials and others of
Philadelphia, Miss., to illegally and
fraudulently obtain funds from the
works progress administration for the
rection of a manufacturing plant to
be operated for private profit."
The Holyoke workers told Hopkins
that "the Massachusetts Knitting
Mills is one of the most flagrant vio
lators of the labor disputes act in the
hosiery industry and is viciously de
stroying wage and hour standards in
the North as well as in the South."
The meeting in Holyoke was held
primarily to develop support for the
Ellenbogen national textile act.
Eastern Mayors Protest
Cuts in WPA Work Rolls
Washington, D. C. (ILNS)—May
ors of 50 New England and eastern
cities have asked Administrator Hop
kins to continue workers on WPA
rolls in their sections until the needy
are assured jobs in private industry
or on other federal work relief proj
ects.
The mayors operating under the
U. S. Conferenc of Mayors, warned
Hopkins that, if he follows his an
nounced action of cutting WPA
work rolls, there will be "serious
consequences."
The mayors met at Boston and
decided to ask Hopkins to withhold
the job cut. Their views were set
forth in a letter signed by Paul
V. Betters, executive drector of the
mayors' organzaton.
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THIRD
Labor Asks Government
To Abolish Unemployment
Calgary (ILNS)—The Alberta Fed
eration of Labor, at its twentieth an
nual convention, called upon the Ca
nadian government to create a Fed
eral Economic Council to discover and
remove the cause of permanent unem
ployment. Meantime ,it was urged,
that the proposed council should have
power to control industry and trade,
and to regulate and change the same
so that employment may be as nearly
continuous as possible.
Another duty of the council would
be to devise measures by which parlia
ment could establish such controls over
industry as may be necessary to assure
that gains arising from increased pro
duction will accrue to the people tak
ing part in wealth production.
per Sq. Yd.
®»"85rH
s
se%
THE ADHESIVE
is on the back of
the linoleum itself
that's why it costs
much less to lay it!
H'lh In QualHt!-LowIn-Met.
co(JW