The Butler County press. [volume], February 20, 1942, Image 2

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

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THE PRESS
OFFICIAL ORGAN OF ORGANIZED LABOR
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Entered at the Postoffice at Hamilton,
Ohio, as Second-Class Mail Matter.
Issued Weekly at 326 Market Street
Telephone 1296 Hamilton, Ohio
Endorsed by the Trades and Labor
Council of Hamilton, Ohio
Endorsed by the Middletown Trades
and Labor Council of Middletown, O.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1942.
QUICK ACTION NEEDED
Declaring it is a time for plain
speaking and that it is obvious we
can lose the war, the American Fed
eration of Labor monthly survey warns
there is not a moment to lose in war
pi'oduction.
"Yet we find many cases where de
liveries are far behind schedule be
cause employers refuse to subcontract
war work, where available capacity is
not being used or where a prime con
tractor refuses to subcontract to a
plant ready for immediate production
in order to favor a company which
cannot be ready for weeks or months,"
the survey charges.
Calling on the government to correct
these abuses and put all available ca
pacity on war work at once, the A. F.
of L. says labor has been making
every effort to speed war production,
"When employers delayed conver
sion to war work," the A. F. of
points out, "we have insisted on im
mediate conversion. When we found
other employers who bid repeatedly
on war contracts without securing war
orders, through our representatives on
the War Production Board, we helped
to bring war work to their plants. We
have worked steadily through our rep
resentatives in war agencies to keep
work forces intact, prevent unemploy
ment, speed war production."
The survey places much of the re
sponsibility for the production lag on
the War Production Board. "Appar
ently the board has not taken steps to
correct glaring delays," it says, and
calls on the board to act quickly to
correct the situation.
SAVING YOUR CAR
Safety saves your car, the National
Safety Council points out.
The safest way to make certain that
you won't have a car to drive one of
these days is to have a smash-up, the
council says. The drastic curtailment
of cars and tires adds up to just one
thing—you'd better take care of the
car you have.
"It's smart business to nurse your
car by driving carefully," says Col.
John Stilwell, president of the council.
"Even if you don't value your life, you
surely want to save your car. If you
JOE HOLSTEIN
at
LIBERTY HOME
Seventh and Walnut Sts.
SEE US
IF Y011 NEED A LOAN
To
Build—Improve—Buy
Your Home
A V I N C, S IOA N A«vSN
NULTON PARR1SH, Swj.
Tltird and Court Sts.
.rnmmm mm mmmi
{ijf4
&
GIGANTIC
throughout Europe in the service
of the German war machine has been
planned and is now probably going
forward, reliable reports say. This
conscription means strengthening of
the Nazis' ability to wage war but is
at the same time an indication they
are short of man power.
Reports received by the New York
office of the International Transport
Workers' Federation throw light on
the situation. The reports say that
2,140,000 alien workers, both men and
women, as well as 1,500,000 war pris
oners, are already working in Ger
many. Strenuous efforts are being
made to lure additional foreign work
ers into the Reich for war production.
Nevertheless, the Transport Work
ers' Federation comments, the short
age of man power at the service of
the Nazis has become so great that
official German circles seriously con
sider a system of labor conscription
in all German-occupied countries. Ap
peals for voluntary labor having
proven largely futile, main attention
is now centered on the question of
how to exploit to the utmost the labor
of millions of workers in conquered
Russian territory.
COMMENT ON WORLD EVENTS
conscription of labor
According to one proposal said to
have been drafted by the Nazi Min
istry of Labor, a seven-fold increase
in the numbers of deported Russian
workers is contemplated. They will
be shipped to forced labor within Ger
many or wherever the German masters
may want to use them. No official
action has been taken as yet.
The general trend, however, is in
dicated by semi-official press utter
ances such as in the Allgemeine Zei
tung which states: "Germany is de
fending Europe against Bolshevism
wreck it, you may not be able to get
another.
"This may seem a cold-blooded ap
proach to safety, but it's a fact that
a certain type of driver thinks more
of his car than he does of his life or
the life of the other fellow.
"To this driver we say 'Drive
safely, brother, you can't get another."
o
GOOD LABOR LAW
ADMINISTRATION
Men and women who know labor
problems and the labor movement are
essential to good administration of
labor legislation. Mere theorists will
not do, the American Federation of
Labor emphasizes.
Administration of labor laws, the
federation makes plain, "has suffered
severely because in many cases per
sons appointed as administrators have
had no practical experience in labor
problems or the conduct of unions. In
other cases they have been Commu
nists or other radicals "for whom their
jobs are only opportunities to serve
their revolutionary causes."
o
WHAT NEXT?
Faucet washers of synthetic rubber
are now made which are said to out
last natural rubber washers many
times, particularly in hot water fau
cets subject to much use, says Na
tion's Business.
o
WISDOM
The greatest glory of a free-born
people is to transmit that freedom to
their children.—John Harvard.
STYLE NOTE: O. P. M. has sug
gested to hosiery manufacturers that
they simplify and reduce the color
lines of hosiery, (Victory)
Hit Them Where It Hurts
.... BUY BONDS!
Make no mistake—this is a life
or death struggle. Men are dy
ing In your defense. Dying that
America may be safe!
Give our fighting men the
guns, the planes, the tanks they
need! Bonds buy bombs. Ev
ery dime, every dollar you put
into Defense Bonds and Stamps
is a blow at the enemy. Hit them
where it hurts buy bonds!
Bonds cost as little as $18.75 up—
stamps as little as 10 cents up.
Therefore the least that can be ex
pected is that other European coun
tries should aid Germany." The cyn
ical attitude of the German author
ities can be summed up thus: "Ger
many provides soldiers to fight for
Europe Europe must provide workers
to work for their soldiers."
The plan also envisages the employ
ment of Dutch, Belgians, Danes, and
others from occupied countries as
overseers of the Russian workers em
ployed on land.
Among the reasons that have con
tributed to the German failure of vol
untary enlistment of foreign labor are
insufficiency of food and law wages.
When foreign workers accepted em
ployment in Germany, they were prom
ised that they would be able to send
most of their wages back home for
the support of their starving families.
Now, most workers complain of being
underfed and forced to buy food for
themselves in the black markets. Any
help for their families is at the ex
pense of their own food consumption
and consequently reduction of their
working capacity.
Coincident with the Nazi conscrip
tion of labor goes starvation, described
as increasing in German-i-uled lands.
Outstanding examples, though by no
means the only ones, are Greece and
Belgium, where the mortality rate is
sky-rocketing. Raging famine and
plague are reported to take a daily
deaht toll of 1,700 human beings in
Athens alone. No figures are avail
able for the rest of the country. All
staple foods have disappeared, and
even the well-to-do have no longer the
opportunity to buy foodstuffs from
profiteering Germans and Italians.
The workers and rural populace sub
sist almost entirely on herbs, roots,
mussels and the like.
THE
CHERRY TREE
Where with onr Little Hatchet w toll
the troth about many things, sometimes
profoundly, sometimes flippantly, some
times recklessly.
Not much use trying to get your
mind off the war. The war creeps
into every phase of life.
It cannot be ducked!
Nor should it be ducked.
On the outcome depends the whole
future of mankind—the whole way of
life.
Meanwhile the demands of war are
so sweeping that they revolutionize
our way of life "for the duration."
Imagine the stoppage of our great
automobile industry! It staggers the
mind. You can't believe it.
But there it is. The whole machin
ery for making automobiles has been
stripped from the huge plants.
Now we shall have only the things
for war.
That's a symbol of what's going to
happen already is happening in
other giant industries.
Today you can't have what you want
just because you can pay for it.
That, too, is something new in
America.
You can have what you want only
if the transaction doesn't hurt the
war job.
Soon you'll have your sugar ration
cards—later other ration cards.
Soon, too, your tires will go blooey
—and you'll walk, or ride a bicycle
or take a bus, if and when there is one
Street cars are coming back strong
of necessity.
These things mean shifting union
memberships, among other things.
Try to duck the thought of war
yes, try and do it.
But why try Why not think about
it, frankly, boldly, to help win it?
It has to be won and it will take
all of us to win.
Meanwhile more and more power
goes into the hands of the federal
government.
This has been a country in which
"every damn man could tell every
other damn man to go to hell."
That's out. The federal government
is made up of men. The federal gov
ernment will have millions of men in
uniform and the needs of these men
in uniform must come ahead of every
thing else. It will be "yes sir" instead
of "go to hell." As it should be.
Not that we can't sputter and kick
—but that stuff doesn't rule any more
It's incidental, like a walk around the
block.
Team work is the big thing from
here on. Team work pretty much at
government command.
And the people are set for it. They
aren't arguing with Franklin Roose
velt or Donald Nelson or Leon Hen
derson. Or with the big generals and
admirals.
We shall show that we, too, know
how to boil down the power and put
it under centralized control, in order
to make the most speed.
I
On Batan Peninsula one man is boss
Look at the resiiifci
A
BAY BUZZARD
"H
THE MARCH OF LABOR
APftlTHAN HALF
OF AMERICAN
CITY DWfLLIRS
Att RIMTtRS.
CANNOT FLY. HE ISA
5ALVA6ER WHO PICKS DRIFTWOOD
AND FLOTSAM OUT OF Hit WATERS
OF PU6ET SOUND.
TttAN l&tfOF
All PROFESSIONAL
WoRXFW TO OAT AM.
+4
SAlARtf IMriOTttS
OF PUbllC OR SEMI'
PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS
SCHOOL.HOSPITAL
LI&RARIES,CHURCHES
LARCH FOUND-
ATlONS,6OVERMM0lT.
It's no argument against democracy.
This whole picture of ours grew out
of democracy. MacArthur is a product
of democracy—so is Roosevelt and so
is Nelson.
Democracy can do a job. It can take
the form needed to do a job. The job
has arrived and it is going to be done.
As time passes the country will
spot the fakers and incompetents and
ways will be found to throw them out.
Mistakes will be made and corrected.
But meanwhile this nation will be
pouring out the most goshawful moun
tain of fighting stuff the world ever
saw because democracy built this
nation that way.
Hitler and blustering Mussolini and
funny little Hirohito couldn't know
about that, couldn't see it coming.
And in the end they will wonder just
what the hell it was that hit them!—
C. M. W.
Photo Engravers Buy
$25,000 Defense Bonds
Philadelphia, Pa.—Local 7, Interna
tional Photo Engravers' Union of
North America, voted to buy $25,000
in defense bonds.
War
Labor Board Ends
Many Labor Disputes
Washington, D. C.—A 100 per cent
batting average in ending or averting
strikes was scored by the new Na
tional War Labor Board as it rounded
out the third week of its activities.
In three walkouts, and one threat
ened stoppage, the board's appeals
brought immediate results, and pro
duction continued pending hearings by
the board on the issues in dispute.
Cases before the board rose to 40,
with close to 200,000 workers involved,
but not one man among these was out
on a picket line.
Grain Elevator Employes
Win Higher Pay Strike
New Orleans (ILNS).—Eighty em
ployes of New Orleans Dock Board
grain elevator have been granted a 10
per cent increase in salaries. Fifty
walked out for a wage increase and
30 remained at work saying they were
satisfied with wages and conditions
They received the same advance as the
50 who said they could not live on
their wages.
Railway Clerks Roster
Hits Twenty-Year Peak
Cincinnati, Ohio.—President George
M. Harrison of the Brotherhood of
Railway Clerks revealed that the
union's membership has gone over the
185,000 mark, hitting a new twenty
year peak. In January alone, 6,000
new and reinstated members were
added by the Brotherhood. He said
that all major railroads except one,
the Nashville, Chattanooga & St
Louis, are under the Clerks' banner
Educator Named Chairman
Of Fair Employment Group
Washington, D. C. (ILNS). Mal
colm S. MacLean, head of Hampton
Institute, Hampton, Va., has been ap
pointed by President Roosevelt as
chairman of the President's Committee
on Fair Employment Practice, which
was set up to investigate charges of
discrimination in employment because
of race, color, creed or national origin.
MacLean succeeds Mark Etheridge,
general manager of the Louisville
Courier-Journal and Times, who said
that he was compelled to give up the
chairmanship because so many execu
tives of the two newspapers were
away from their posts in government
war work.
IF YOU WANT TO BE F*EE, THERE IS
RUT ONE WAY IT IS TO GUARANTEE AN
EQUALLY FULL MEASURE OF LIBERTY
TO ALL YOUR. NEIGHBORS. THERJE IS
NO OTHER..
VERY WHERE CtUli MO IAR6C"
OAIIOM-MAPE HAT* ARfc OBTAINABLE.
INSIST ON THIS LABEL AND BE SURE |T$AUN/CW HKT*
WASHINGTON LABOR
RAISES BIG FUND FOR
AIR RAID EQUIPMENT
Organized Labor Comes to Front in
Response to Appeal for Help.
Washington, D. C. (ILNS). The
unions affiliated with the Washington
Central Labor Union are raising a
huge fund to purchase equipment for
air-raid defense. Only string to the
donation for civilian protection is that
it must be used for needed and useful
items.
Authorized to date is purchase of
four blood banks for local hospitals
which will be available during and
after the war. Five more may be
purchased.
Starting with the appointment of a
committee four weeks ago, which rec
ommended a goal of $70,000, pledges
thus far are in excess of $80,000 and
is still going strong. Many unions
especially construction organizations
are pledging a day's pay, and others
all the way from $1 per member up
Unions Press Drive
The Central Labor Union committee
meets every Thursday night and maps
plans to excite interest in the cam
paign. While daily papers give little
help by publicity, the A. F. of
unions are quietly augmenting the
fund, and air-raid officials are aston
ished at the response of organized la
bor to the appeal for help in purchas
ing equipment for all sections of the
metropolitan area.
Besides blood banks, for which there
are no public funds available, many
needed articles will be purchased, in
eluding mobile kitchens, movie films
instructing in proper behavior during
air raids, ambulances, etc. No pur
chase will be made until approved by
the C. L. U. committee.
The whole idea started when a few
union officials realized the necessity
for equipping air-raid wardens, and
the practically impossible job of get
ting money from Congress. Every
body gives advice as to what should
be done, but organized labor goes
ahead and does it.
Building Workers Ready
According to latest figures the furn
will easily reach $100,000 before the
campaign ends March 2.
The local Building Trades Council
is the backbone of the public works
section of civilian defense. Men of all
trades have been classified, machinery
is spotted, and material on hand for
instant response if buildings, bridges
or roads are damaged by bombs
John Locher, secretary of the council
is prepared to rush help to any sec
tion of the city, and officials of all
unions are ready to have men at work
in the shortest possible time.
Local labor unions also have pur
chased almost half a million dollars
in defense bonds.
Among the eliminated for 1942
Auto Shows, 500-mile Memorial Day
Race at Indianapolis, the Soap Box
Derby, Good Drivers' League, Major
Golf Championships. (Advertising
Age)
329 South Second Street
LABOR
RESPONDS
(From The Magazine of Wall Street)
We have had our quarrels with the
professional leaders of organized la
bor and we still think this stable is
much in need of a thorough cleaning
•a matter of internal reform quite
apart from the question of defense
strikes which, of course, will no longer
be much of a problem, if any.
But we have never doubted the es
sential decency and patriotism of the
average individual American worker.
Now that war is an actuality, his re
sponse has been instant. Here are a
few samples taken from one newspaper
on one day: Foundry workers of the
Portsmouth Navy Yard volunteered to
work Sunday without pay woi'kers of
the David Bradley Manufacturing
Company, Kankakee, 111., offered to
work an extra day each week and do
nate their pay for that day to the
government workers in the Lockland
plant of Wright Aeronautical Corpora
tion worked an eight-hour Sunday
shift and will donate more than
$100,000 of wages to the government
at the A. G. A. Aviation Corporation,
Hatboro, Pa., the men worked New
Year's Day and turned over their pay
to the government a local of the
United Mine Workers' Union collected
$2,282 from fines imposed on members
for an unauthorized strike and has
sent the money to the government.
You will hear much more of this
sort of thing. What is more important,
you will see a "team spirit" develop,
with inter-plant and inner-plant com
petition to set production records.
These frpe men are going to do a pro
duction job that Germany's wage
slaves can never match.
What do
I do?
"Watch
Those Bumps"
if you want your
tires to last.
Just to give you an idea... swing,
ing a sledge hammer on a tire
with all your might wouldn't do
one-tenth the damage of backing
into a curb, bumping over raised
railroad tracks at high speed or
hitting a bole in the road. So
watch those bumps! Remember
U/ith proper care you can get up to
50,000 miles fr u a set of tires.
But a hard bump can ruin a tire
at any mileage.
This car-saving bint is
ANOTHER (S0Hj0) SERVICE
A N A O I O A N V I O I O I
HOW MUCH DOES A
4100 *SELF-DEFENSE
LOAN COST ME IF
REPAID IN SIX
MONTHLY PAYMENTS?
§2.36
O.K. —WHERE DO
I GO TO GET IT
WHY. ..
TH£
SOCIAL and CARD PARTY
Every Friday Night
THK SPOT FOR REAL ENJOYMENT
MOOSE HOME
At 8:45 P. M.
C/ry
v i
LOAN
OF COURSE.
•Any loan of $100 to $1,000 needed
for personal use except to pay
off money already borrowed
interest starts 3 months after date.
118 HIGH STREET
PHONE 3563 HAMILTON, 0*
Carl W. Sanor, Mgr.
THE CITY LOAN & GUARANTY CO.
Hamilton, Ohio