2,
f»
I. ^7?^,
K v%^
m'.
THE PRESS
OFFICIAL ORGAN OF ORGANIZED LABOR
THE NONPAREIL PRINTING CO.
PUBLISHERS AND PROPRIETORS
Subscription Price $1.00 per Year
Payable in Advance
We do not hold ourtelvee responsible for any
views or opinions expressed in the articles or
Communications of correspondents.
Communications solicited from secretaries
of all societies and orRanizations, and should
be addressed to The Butler County Press, 826
Market Street, Hamilton, Ohio.
The publishers reserve the right to reject
•By advertisements at any time.
Advertising rates made known on application.
Whatever is Intended for insertion must be
Mthenticated by the name and address of the
Writer, not necessarily for publication, but as
guarantee of ttood faith.
Subscribers changing their address will
please notify this office, giving old and new
address to insure regular delivery of paper.
Entered at the Postoffice at Hamilton,
Ohio, as Second-Class Mail Matter.
Issued Weekly at 32« Market Street
telephone 12M Hamilton, Okie
Endorsed by the Trades and Labor
Council of Hamilton, Ohio
Endorsed by the Middletown Trades
and Labor Council of Middletown, O.
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1942
POLL TAX WILL BE REPEALED
The United States Senate ignored
the popu'ar demand for poll tax re
peal, a demand that was reflected in
the decisive 3 to 1 vote of the House
of Representatives for poll tax repeal
only a few weeks ago.
The Senate capitulated to minority
rule. It gave way before the first
assault of appeasement. It capitu
lated not to guns and bombs but to
words and threats. It listened for a
week to words "of sound and fury
signifying nothing." And then it re
treated.
But the American people will not
retreat. They will not tolerate par
tisanship or bargaining or collusion
with appears. They will not tolerate
obstruction of our war effort.
The American people have pledged
their all for victory over Nazism and
Fascism. They will fight the Axis on
the battlefront. They will fight its
cohorts in our midst. They will fight
division and discrimination. And they
will repeal the poll tax, sooner or
later. That is certain.
o
PROTECT STANDARDS NOW
Vital importance of maintaining
labor standards during wartime was
stressed in a recent "Labor for Vic
tory" radio program presented by the
AFL. Three soldiers were heard talk
ing as they opened packages from
home on Christmas morning. One
soldier, who had explained the bene
fits of buying union label goods,
answered the question of another as
to why preservation of standards was
of interest to men in the armed serv
ices, saying:
"It's darned important for us sol
diers that union standards be main
tained and not shot to pieces even
with a war on. In the first place, you
and I know that our families have got
to get along without our help for the
duration and if they start cutting my
old man's pay, my folks would starve.
"But what we've also got to re
member is that this war isn't going
to last forever. When it's over, we
won't be eating on the Government
any more. All of us are going to
have to find jobs and go to work to
rebuild the world that Hitler and his
gang are trying to destroy.
"And how are we going to feel then
if the only jobs open to us are in
sweatshops, if wages are cut so low
that we won't be able to make up for
lost time and start raising families of
our ownt
"How will we feel if while we've
been risking our lives to defend our
American way of life, it's been whit
tled down to a bare crust while we
were too busy to prevent it?"
That the argument struck home was
shown by the remarks of one soldier
that "It would be a crying shame if
they did that to us," echoed by an
other's "You said it."
o
Labor participation in the planning
Mid administration of the war effort
gives assurance to all workers of the
development of a constructive pro
gram to assure workers jobs, adequate
incomes, economic security, and eco
nomic justice when the war is won.—
l'*
v -S .. /, -^W^1
GREAT
The statement is based on an ex
haustive study of British manpower
developments "evidently the most
comprehensive study made in the
field," the public affairs council says.
This country, in framing manpower
policies, can benefit considerably from
Britain's experience, Prof. McCauley
holds.
"For Britain," he goes on to ex
plain, "with her tradition of individ
ual freedom, her peacetime unplanned
economy and her independent labor
movement, more closely resembles the
United States than any other great
power. Moreover, Britain, like the
United States, entered this war with
out any effective production plans and
under pressure of wartime survival
has been forced to devise a compre
hensive scheme of manpower controls
"Today Britain is the most com
pletely mobilized democracy in the
history of government. Practically all
available manpower—over 23 million
men and women out of total working
population of 33 millions—is engaged
Edward Flore, president, Hotel and
Restaurant Employes' International
Alliance.
WHAT NEXT?
Collapsible tubes, long made from
tin, are now being made from a plas
tice. The tubes resemble tin tubes
and can be rolled up to get the last
drop more easily than tin could, it is
said.
o
WISDOM
Slow are the steps of freedom, but
her feet never turn backward.—James
Russell Lowell.
THE
CHERRY TREE
Wher* with sur I.ittlc Ritckit wa tell
the truth about many things, sometimes
profoundly, sometimes flippantly, some
times recklessly.
Every now and then, in the midst
of battle reports, there comes the
urge to think of a post-war world.
Of course, unless the Allied Na
tions, or the United Nations, to use
the proper term, win complete victory
the post-war world be something from
which to flee, something fearsome to
contemplate.
But the United Nations WILL win
and there WILL be a post-war world
of freedom and progress and decency
—and of marvelous things for the
use of men and women who no longer
fear the toll of global war.
What sort of life will there be when
this war is over?
Nobody can answer with any de
gree of satisfaction, or with any de
gree of accuracy.
But some things we do know and
they are mostly good.
We shall have to pay the debt of
war—the price of freedom. Perhaps
that will be a heavy burden, but it
will not be too heavy.
Beyond that this one thing we
do know: The world we had be
fore this war loosed its stream of
blood will never be known again.
Some certain things are ended, fin
ished, done for keeps.
Among those things is the kind of
exploitation that made our earlier
billionaire barons. That's done with.
And as that thing checks out, there
must come a higher level for the 90
percent who never before had any cer
tainly secure level and who, often and
in great numbers, were pitched face
downward into degraded depression,
from the depths of which hope rose
again only because there is an inner
well spring in the human frame that
keeps hope alive, even against all of
the evidences visible to reason.
We must expect a higher average
level of life—and we shall have it!
We shall have new beauties in the
things around us, when the engineers
and the chemists and the planners of
manufacture can get back to the pur
raits of peace.
1
COMMENT ON WORLD EVENTS
BRITAIN has given proof
that a democratic nation can or
ganize for total war without losing its
freedom, says Prof. William S. Mc
Cauley of Smith College in a study
prepared for the American Council on
Public Affairs.
In a statement based on the study,
both of which should be required read
ing for American advocates of labor
regimentation and other totalitarian
controls, Prof. McCauley points out
that the United States may well bene
fit by greater consideration of
Britain's policies, problems and expe
riences in connection with its man
power program.
THE BUTLER COUNTY PRESS
in some essential sector of Britain's
war effort.
"What is most significant for Amer
ica is that Britain's vast mobilization
of manpower has been achieved with
extraordinarily little limitation of
democratic freedoms. Here is strik
ing proof that an intelligent democ
racy can organize its resources for
war without losing the precious free
doms for which it fights."
Prof. McCauley says there are five
fundamental lessons America can
learn from Britain's manpower expe
rience. Labor will not agree with all
of his conclusions, notably one that
industrial conscription of both women
and men is an "inescapable necessity."
It will agree, however, on the whole
with what he says is the fifth lesson,
which he outlines as follows:
"The fifth lesson is the need for
giving responsible labor leaders a
more significant share in the formula
tion and execution of mobilization
policies. In England, trade union
leaders are equal partners in the top
administration of the war. It is un
fortunately true that in America our
labor movement is not unified, nor is
it as experienced in the work of pub
lic administration as is the British
labor movement. But these differences
only add to the difficulties of admit
ting labor to greater responsibility
there is no way to eliminate the task.
"As the restrictions tightens up, as
workers lose their rights to choose
their jobs, to change jobs, to quit
jobs and to work leisurely hours, la
bor is going to ask and expect that
its leaders share in the administration
of these restrictions. Probably in no
other way can complete labor confi
dence in the leadership of the war ef
fort be ensured."
We shall have new homes Of new
design, filled with new joys, in which
the work of living in homes will be
reduced to a point where it will have
lost its drudgery aspects.
We shall have automobiles that will
look not at all like the models we now
nurse along so carefully. In them
will be new power plants and on them
will be a new kind of tires. These
new cars will be beautiful and won
derful.
And we shall take to the air, just
for the sheer fun of it and for the
sake of getting to far places in a
hurry. Danger will be no greater
than in today's cars on the road per
haps less. To fly will become as com
monplace as to ride the roads in the
pre-war days.
Our clothing will change its sub
stance and it will be better. The era
of
plastics is just dawning and we
have yet to see most of its beauties
and its utilities. That will come with
the post-war dawning.
And perhaps above all we shall
have learned more about living to
gether in harmony and helpfulness
The war is teaching us about our
neighbors, at home and abroad.
There will be a new day for our
Southern states. There will be vast
travel from and to Latin America
Miami may become a luncheon stop
on the flight to Rio.
There's a great day coming, when
this war ends.
That its coming should have to be
preceded by such a holocaust is but
one of the great ironies of history.
Birth seems to require its advance
convulsions of agony.
But while we pass through this pe
riod of shock and pain and loss, it may
help us in our contemplations if we
look now and then at that horizon
Over which one day the bright sun of
a post-war tomorrow will rise to greet
us.—CMW.
LONGSHOREMEN GET
WAGE INCREASE
New York City (ILNS)—Increases
in hourly and overtime pay are pro
vided for 40,000 members of the Inter
national Longshoremen's Association,
AFL affiliate, under a negotiated
agreement just approved by the Na
tional War Labor Board.
The new scale brings the basic pay
of longshoremen to $1.25 an hour, an
increase of 5 cents. Overtime pay is
increased
V/t
cents, to $1.87% an
hour.
In addition checkers of the union
receive a 35-cent daily increase, bring
ing their pay to $9.60 a day.
Longshoremen on the Atlantic
Coast from Portland, Me., to Hamp
ton Roads, Va., will be affected by the
new scale, which is retroactive to
Oct. 1.
Increases were agreed to early in
October by a negotiating committee
representing the longshore association
and another, representing the New
York Shipping Association.
The higher pay was withheld after
the "wage freeze" of October, pending
approval of the War Labor Board.
\, /J* n-, v »r ,'. '^«'U*
V..'-SK
yiCTORY
In response, the Executive Board of
the United Steelworkers of America,
a CIO affiliate of which Philip Murray
is president, issued a torrid blast call
ing us a lot of names. The statement
said we are "very ignorant." We
admit the charge and confess we are
still completely ignorant of the dues
paid membership in the CIO after
reading the statement. It shed no
light on that mysterious subject.
However, we see no good in con
tinuing such a grandstand quarrel at
a time when the peace committees
representing the AFL and CIO are
about to sit down together to try to
work out a settlement.
Our purpose in raising the issue
was not to embarrass the peace
conferences but to point the way for
the CIO to cooperate in making them
successful. The reaction of the CIO
to our suggestion does not indicate
any burning desire on its part to be
helpful.
A Nuisance Raid
Another straw in the wind which
is disturbing to sincere advocates of
labor peace is the attempted raid by
the CIO, with the collaboration of the
National Labor Relations Board, on
the Henry J. Kaiser shipyards on the
West Coast which are under closed
shop contract with AFL unions.
This is truly a "nuisance" raid. It
can do the CIO no good and it can do
the nation a great deal of harm. The
AFL does not fear the outcome of an
election in the shipyards covered by
the NLRB complaint but it does fear
the effects of a bitter union campaign
in a thoroughly organized industry
where labor-management cooperation
has reached the peak of efficiency and
where uninterrupted top production is
vital to the success of the war effort.
Aside from the motives of the CIO
in pressing such a hopeless raid at
this time, we would like to delve into
the motives of the National Labor Re
lations Board in giving it official ap
proval.
The crux of the NLRB position is
that it is illegal under the Wagner
Act for an employer and a union to
enter into a closed shop contract be
fore any appreciable number of em
ployes have been hired to work in the
plant concerned.
This interpretation of the law is
completely unsound and at variance
with the established practice of trade
unions. In the building trades in
dustry, for example, practically
?*, I. A- J-
4
V/
," A
i- i L* i.iC
*, **t' ,^£» V
v
t-
THE MARCH OF LABOR
HIS IS HOW STRIK.ER.S AT A
SWANK HEW YORK RESTAURANT
.EFFECTIVELY PUBLICIZED IWElR
Grievances
rut rue*
LUCHOW
D! FJN
It ofi**
THAW MY
WEEK S WAOO
I DO NOT BELIEVE INA
WORD THAT YOU SAY 8J7
I WILL DEFEND WITH MY
LIFE, IF NEED BE., YOUR
RIGHT TO SAY IT
'OF
each
BUY
ITB
\TES
WAR
THE PART
6OO0
ARE PUTTING
.AV/HONDS
Irtfo U.S WAR
V! AMPS
BONDS. RT
AM 10V
FACING
THE
FACTS
With PHILIP PEARL
We caught a tiger by the tail last
week when we suggested that the
CIO submit an audited report on the
paid-up membership in its affiliated
unions in order to facilitate the me
chanics of bringing about labor peace.
all
contracts are entered into by manage
ment and labor organizations before
any employes are hired. In fact, the
union is the employment agency for
the works. It supplies the men after
the contract is signed. The same
practice is employed frequently in the
metal trades. And even the maritime
unions follow it through their hiring
halls.
An Axis Victory
Thus the NLRB is striking a blow
at fundamental trade union proced
ures when it hauls Henry J. Kaiser
up on the carpet and accuses him of
unfair labor practices when he has
No wonder that President Green
denounced the board's action in this
case as the "outstanding Axis victory
of the month!"
It is significant that the protests of
the American Federation of Labor are
echoed by practically every agency in
the Federal Government concerned
with the war effort. Representatives
of the Maritime Commission, the La
bor Department, the War Production
Board and other key agencies tried in
vain to prevail upon the unrealistic
members of the NLRB not to issue
the complaint against Mr. Kaiser
But these bureaucrats apparently
are indifferent to any considerations
beyond their own determination to re
shape the labor movement according
to their own preconceived ideas. Their
predecessors also made the same mis
take. They are now out of public life.
5 Companies, 4 Unions
Fined in Army Cap
Price-Fixing Case
Washington, D. C. (ILNS).—The
Department of Justice is giving "seri
ous consideration" to the request of
the Workers Defense League that it
investigate the activities of the sher
iff's office in Spartanburg, S. C., in
connection with the recent labor dis
pute at the Draper Corporation there,
an iron foundry employing Negro and
white members of the AFL Moulders
Union.
In October the company locked out
the men, and later seven union mem
bers, colored and white, were arrested
and charged with conspiracy and held
incommunicado for almost a day, it is
alleged. Frank McCallister, Southern
WDL secretary, charged that the ar
rests were part of a union-busting
campaign of the local public officials
and asked Victor Rothnem, chief of
the Civil Liberties Section of the De
partment of Justice, to investigate.
These days a cheerful idiot is en
viable.
1
829 South Second Street
/*tv^'v?
HOLLYWOOD EXTRAS
GET $I0.50A DAY
$25- IF THEY
SPEAK..
TO GET fHE
MOST FOR YOOR
MONEY WHEN
BUYING A HAT
JUST BE SORE.
THAT THIS UNION
LABEL IS ONPER
THE SyvEATBAND.
WEEKS WAGES
is
only complied with the fair and just
demands of democratic trade unions.
The suspicion that the NLRB is
trying to change the form and struc
ture of American trade unions by
misinterpretations of the National
Labor Relations Act is confirmed by
its action in this case.
It would be different if Mr. Kaiser
were a tough, oppressive employer.
But his workers and the unions that
represent them testify he is a model
employer. He has gone the limit in
cooperation with labor. He has in
stilled an enthusiastic, cooperative
spirit among his men. They are pro
ducing for him as perhaps no other
comparable group of workers are
producing for any other war indus
trialist.
AFL METAL TRADES
IN FIGHT IN LABOR
BOARD DECISIONS
(Special Conference Denounces
CIO Raids)
Washington, D. C. (ILNS).—Rep
resentatives of unions affiliated with
the Metal Trades Department, Ameri
can Federation of Labor, meeting at
a special conference at the AFL build
ing here, pledged themselves to "ap
ply all of their resources" for the
purpose of "protecting-their interests
and their rights from outrageous de
cisions by the National Labor Rela
tions Board and the unjustified and
Unpatriotic raiding now being carried
on by the CIO against AFL organiza
tions."
This decision was made as a result
of the action of the National Labor
Relations Board in issuing a com
plaint against three Henry J. Kaiser
shipyards on the West Coast which
are under contract with AFL unions.
John P. Frey, president of the
Metal Trades Department announced
that the special conference had
created a Defense Committee to carry
on the fight against the NLRB ruling
and against the attempted raid on
established AFL unions.
The Defense Committee was em
powered to take such action as it
deems necessary to carry out its ob
jectives.
Members of the committee named
at the meeting include Harvey W.
Brown, president, International Asso
ciation of Machinists Robert Byron,
president, Sheetmetal Workers Union
George Masterton, president, United
Association of Journeymen Plumbers
and Steamfitters Ed J. Brown, presi
dent, International Brotherhood of
Electrical Workers and Charles J.
McGowan, vice president, Interna
tional Brotherhood of Boilermakers.
Other members may be added later,
including a representative of the
building trades unions.
Action By Army To Protect
Negro Soldiers Demanded
New York City (ILNS).—Protest
ing against what is charged was the
cold blooded murder of one Negro
military policeman and the beating of
another Nov. 1 by state police in Alex
andria, Louisiana, the National Asso
ciation for the Advancement of
Colored People has demanded that
Secretary of War Stimson take
drastic action.
"We are mtormed," said the
NAACP, "that the slayer was sus
pended for only one day and has been
restored to full authority. We are
further informed that state police
have told army authorities in effect
that they do not intend to recognize
authority of the army. If this be true
a state bordering on treason anarchy
exists which you as Secretary of War
cannot ignore."
Agriculture Top War Ranking
Oxford.—Agriculture must have a
top ranking as a war occupation,
Joseph W. Fichter, lecturer for the
Ohio State Grange, told the Oxford
Men's Forum. A revision of the par
ity formula is necessary, he said, to
enable farmers to pay what labor is
worth.
Necessity is a powerful stimulant.
SEE US
IF YOU NEED A LOAN
FUNERAL DIRECTOR
I BIG SOCIAL EVERY FRIDAY AND SUNDAY
COME AND SPEND AN ENJOYABLE EVENING
PLENTY OF GAMES
AND EXTRA FEATURES
MOOSE HOME
4M:S» P- M.
To
Build—Improve—Buy
Your Home
JHQME^
NULTON PARRISH, Secy.
Edgar K. Wagner
\?„/**-.?•
-XK
s
Third and Court St*.
Hamilton. Ohio
i