Evening star. [volume], April 09, 1937, Page A-4, Image 4

About Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972

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Textile Workers’ Union
Rushes to Support Walk
out at Covington.
Bv the Associated Press.
COVINGTON, Va., April 9.—Strik
ing employes of the Industrial Rayon
Corp. here held pledges of support
from the United Textile Workers’ Or
ganizing Committee today in their
•'fight to the finish” for acceptance of
union demands.
In a telegram read at a public
mass meeting last night, Sidney Hill
man, president of the U. T. W. O. C.,
told the workers they were “authorized
to remain on strike until the company
agrees to enter into contractual rela
tions with you and to provide decent
wages and working conditions for Its
employes.”
C. W. Irving of Washington, a rep
resentative of the Amalgamated Cloth
ing Workers of America, said he had
talked with Hillman by telephone last
night and was informed the commit
tee was forwarding "a check” for the
strikers’ commissary.
Workers to Be Fed.
George O. Baldanzi, vice president
of the U. T. W. O. C., assured the I
idle workers they would be fed, “no
matter how long the strike lasts.”
The spokesmen's statement of de
termination to remain from work un
til an agreement satisfactory to them
could be negotiated were tempered,
however, with cautions against vio
lence.
“We want no violence here, if there
Is any human way to stop it,” said
Robert Gaffney, United Textile worker
organizer.
Efforts would be made to end the
strike, now in its eleventh day, “as
scon as we ran.” he said.
Gaffney said the company "forced "
the strike, which, he said, had the
sanction of the U. T. W. O. C. as well
as the workers themselves. He charged
the plant used the "stretch-out sys
tem, throwing some women employes j
out of work and adding to the work
load of others.
"Coercion" Brought Deadlock.
He told the union members and
sympathizers insistence of the plant
on a "coercion” clause in recent ne- ,
gotiations on a 12-point union pro
gram brought about a deadlock and j
paved the way to the strike, although j
“discrimination" against union work
ers, he said, was the immediate cause.
Taxes
(Continued From First Page.)
of Wisconsin, Benson of Minnesota
and Quinn of Rhode Island Repre
sentative McCormick of Massachusetts
will represent Gov. Hurley of Massa
chusetts, who cannot be present.
Gov. Horner, who attended the
original conference with the Presi
dent. will not be present, but will be
represented.
Relief Cut •'Possible."
Robinson, in discussing a relief cut.
told the Associated Press such an idea
"hasn't crystallized yet." but "is pos
sible."
Robinson said such an idea "hasn't
crystallized yet,” but "is possible."
Despite demands from several quar
ters in and out of Congress for a big
ger relief fund, the administration
leaders asserted next year's appropria
tion was "more likely to be reduced
than increased."
Like President Roosevelt, he ex
pressed hope of avoiding new taxes this
session.
"At this juncture, I don't see any
new taxes." Rohinson said. "The Pres
ident doesn't want them, but there are
some proposals for new expenditures
that might require additional funds.”
Only a few days ago Mr. Roosevelt
reiterated that he hoped there would
be no new taxes at this session.
Chairman Harrison, of the Senate
Finance Committee, repeatedly has
spoken in a similar vein. He favored
curtailed expenditures, rather than
Increased tax levies, if necessary to
balance the budget.
Not Clear as to Cut.
Robinson did not make clear what
relief figure he thought might be cut, '
whether it would be the $1,500,000,000 |
which the President mentioned tenta
tively for relief in his budget, a
smaller figure which some members of
Congress have predicted the Chief
Executive would recommend next
week, or the present relief spending
rate of about $2,000,000,000 a year.
The point of the suggestion, how- j
ever, was that instead of adding to the
budget expenditures for such things
as farm tenancy, housing and other I
legislation now pending, the cost of
these things might be cut out of the
relief money.
Robinson took cognizance of current 1
efforts to increase, rather than cut,
the relief fund. But. he said, "if that i
is done it would intensify the budget \
problem.”
Discussion of the budget has in
tensified since the Nfarch 15 income
tax returns failed to come up to in
formal Treasury estimates, and indi
cations increased that Congress would
exceed the budget estimates in ex
penditures. In this connection, Rob
inson said:
"The revenue is not quite up to ex
pectations. But that might be re
couped. Some big taxpayers are not
paying as much as it was estimated
they would, and that may be recouped
in due course.”
sees Demand for Spending.
He acknowledged there is a feel
ing in Congress that "several sub
jects will require additional ex
penditures,” possibly including farm
tenancy and educational aid to the
States.
Robinson said when he asked sup
porters of these various measures,
"Where are you going to get the
money?” they replied, "Why spend so
much for relief?”
In contrast to such suggestions,
the United States Conference of
Mayors has recommended an appro
priation of $2,200,000,000. and a Steer
ing Committee in the House, which
says it represents 100 members, is seek
ing an appropriation of $2,400,000,000.
On the basis of expenditures for the
first seven months this year, W. P. A.’s
annual outlay for the present fiscal
period will be about $2,000,000,000.
The Treasury disclosed a new angle
of the fiscal problem today, reporting
that employers and employes paid
$63,268,000 of social security taxes on
January and February wages.
The January budget estimated that
$324,600,000 would be collected from
these taxes by the end of the fiscal
year, June 30. Internal Revenue Bu
reau officials said, however, that many
employers of eight or less persons had
failed to pay old-age levies, appar
ently under the erroneous impression
they were exempt. They are exempt
from the unemployment insurance
tax. ^
W
Text of Strike Statement
Ontario Premier Says Government Regrets Workers
Have Seen Fit to Heed C. I. O.
Paid Propagandists.
TORONTO, April 9 (Canadian
Press).—The text of the statement by
Premier Mitchell Hepburn of Ontario
on the General Motors of Canada
strike at Oshawa follows:
The government regrets very much
that the employes of General Motors
have seen fit to follow the suggestions
of the C. I. O. paid propagandists from
the United States and to desert their
posts at a time when both the em
ployes and the industry itself were in
a position to enjoy a prosperity not
known since 1929,
Some time ago, when the govern
ment became aware of the activities
of these agitators from the United
States, a complete survey was made
of working conditions and wages in
the automobile plants of Ontario. The
information we have gathered indi
cates that with the concessions now
agreed upon between the company
and the employes there should be no
cause for disagreement and the up
setting of peaceful industrial rela
tions, particularly at this time, when
we are emerging from such a serious
depression.
Near State of Anarchy.
It seems rather an anomaly that
in the centers to be affected, we have
paid out millions of dollars of public
funds keeping on relief those who
today are enjoying an average wage
of over $165 per month. The com
pany and Mr. Fine, representing the
Government in the negotiations, have
exerted every reasonable effort to
bring about a peaceful settlement of
the disputes, and had succeeded up
to the point where the company itself
had to refuse a demand that the ne
gotiations in future should be con
fined to itself and the Lewis agitators,
who have at present brought the
United States almost into the state
of anarchy.
17m is the first open attempt, on
the part of Lewis and his C. I. O.
to assume the position of dominating
and dictating to Canadian industry.
The government completely concurs in
the attitude of the company that it is
going to remain clear of the domina
tion of professional labor profiteers of
the C I. O. who are making an effort
to exact their monthly toll from the
pay envelopes of the Oshawa workers.
We believe the time for a show-down
is at the start, and ir> this regard we
ask the sympathetic co-operation and
support of all law-abiding citizens of
Ontario.
Chaos Created in V. S.
After reviewing the activities or
these foreign agitators, and the chaos
created by them in the United States,
I am satisfied that the policy as dic
tated by them will be one of ever
increasing and impossible demands,
culminating in the course of time in
the entire loss of the tremendous and
ever-increasing export trade new' be
ing enjoyed by the automobile indus
try in Ontario. There is no reason
why Ontario companies should be
placed in the position of having to
submit to foreign jurisdiction While,
on one hand, we cannot take issue
with any labor organization which
takes part in a peaceful strike, at the
same time the government's obliga
tion with respect to the maintenance
of law and order is one from which
this administration has no desire to
escape.
This morning the company’s execu
tives were refused admission to the
plant. This in itself constitutes the i
first ov^-t illegal act and I hope it will
be the last.
However, the government is taking
every precaution and has already en
listed the support of the Ottawa gov
ernment, and there will be available
sufficient police to maintain law and
order I counsel and request those
Canadian employes, who are ill-ad- '
vised by outside propagandists, that
they should stop, look and listen be
fore any serious trouble develops.
There will be no illegal sit-down
strike or illegal picketing, and all per
sons desiring to resume their duties
will be given adequate protection.
Not Threat to Employes.
This statement is not issued in any
way as a threat against employes of
the plant, but is simply a statement
of policy on the part of this adminis
tration. I repeat in conclusion, that
the entire resources of this province
will be utilized, if the occasion war
rants, to prevent anything in this
country resembling that which is tak
ing place at the present time across
the line, due to failure on the part of
constituted authority to take adequate
action.
Should this strike continue for an
Indefinite period the Cabinet, at a
special meeting decided that no relief
will be granted in any form whatso- |
ever. This policy will be in effect
: throughout the whole of Ontario, ex
| cept under exceptional circumstances,
such for example, as in the case at the
Walkerville plant, which has had to
be closed as the result of the strike
called at Oshawa, on instructions from
Mr. Hugh Thompson of Detroit,
This government has been exceed
ingly friendly in its attitude toward
labor and labor problems and will con
tinue such a policy. Under the indus
trial standards act employers and em
ployes have enjoyed together the
benefits of this advanced legislation.
More recently still we placed on the
statutes the minimum wage for men
and in the courts of the next few
weeks we hope to have machinery
available so that we may mediate be
[ tween the employers and the employes |
where grievances exist.
rurrnermore, we nave been more
than generous in placing at the dis
posal of companies and employes in
all negotiations the services of Mr.
Louis Fine, our conciliation officer, and
great good has been accomplished as
a consequence.
The government has consistently
j fought against special privileges or I
| anything that smacked of exploitation,
j and this year was able to announce
a budget surplus of $7,350,000 and
passed the entire benefit on to the
people of Ontario, in the way of re
duced taxation. Under the circum
stances we feel we are entitled to sym
pathetic consideration of labor, lest
they be led into a position where they
will create a much worse situation
than anything that exists at this mo- ;
ment.
Given sufficient time, we are sure we
can do a great deal to improve the
social and economic lot of those who j
are employes of the industrial life of
our province.
Union Agents Meet With
Federal, State and Com
pany Officials.
Br the Associated Press.
HERSHEY, Pa., April 9—Rain
drenched pickets kept quiet vigil at
the gates of the Hershey chocolate
factory today while “loyal” employes
went to work, then they dispersed "for
a conference between routed sit
downers and executives of the cor
poration.
Agents for the strikers, executives
of the Hershey company and Federal
and State officials assembled for a
resumption of the negotiations broken
off by the fighting on Wednesday in
which sit-downers were routed by
non-strikers and farmers.
William F. R. Murrie, president of
the corporation, said the plant was
operating today with a force 90 to 95
per cent of normal and that farmers
again had the usual market for their
milk. It was loss of this market which
allied the farmers with non-strikers.
The plant normally employes nearly
3,000 men and women.
Mounted State police and deputies
guarded the incoming employes.
Observers looked to nearby Palmyra
today, where a mass meeting was
called by the Committee for Indus
trial Organization, for the union's an
swer to the ejection of sit-down strik
ers from the plant.
Non-strikers, who joined farmers
Wednesday in a battle in which
strikers were driven from the plant,
returned to work. They signed pledges
that they would work in "harmony
and peace with my fellow employes
and my employer.” The pledges said
that “in violation of this promise, I
hereby agree to relinquish my position
and leave the corporation property at
once.”
Charles Hallman, president of the
Loyal Workers’ Club, told a meeting of
non-strikers "we can't afford to have
the plant shut down every time some
one gets angry at the boss.”
—--—
OIL WAGES BOOSTED
Texas Co. Announces General In
crease of 10 Per Cent.
HOUSTON. Tex., April 9—The
Texas Co announced today a general
wage raise, averaging 10 per cent, to
pipe line, production and refinery
workers. The company has 28.000
workers.
The company said it would make
“certain equalizations" in the salaries
of its office workers.
The Humble Oil & Refining Co.
announced raises last night amount
ing to $1,454,880 annually and affect
ing 13.000 workers Both increases
were effective as of March 16.
Truck Line Hearing Set.
BALTIMORE, April 9 dP).—The
Public Service Commission set for
April 13 a hearing on the application
of the Tidewater Express Lines, Inc.,
to operate a freight motor line from
Laytonsville to Damascus, passing
near Ridgeville, and returning by way
of Etchison.
WHY NOT FOLLOW THE
Signs of Spring?
SIGNS OF SPRING cannot be overlooked, even bv
the most self-centered individual. They are too
many, too varied and insistent. Birds that re
turn, hedges that pop into leaf, and a restless
stirring in human hearts.
But there are other Signs of Spring that point
the way to increased happiness along all the trails
of Summer the advertisements in this news
paper. Think of them as guideposts to value.
If you overlook these signs, you will spend with
out adequate information about new things,
better products, more beautiful and satisfying
merchandise. These advertisements, truly, are
the official reports to you by the best manufac
turers of the Nation, who season by season com
bine science and art with vast resources to place
better things at your disposal.
And every time, the advertisements speak with
authority. They are signed by firms of standing
and repute. You can trust them . . . and profit
weU by them.
Senate Agriculture Chairman
Hails Hershey Farmers’ Action
I Showed Spirit That May
Save Nation Trouble,
Smith Says.
The storm in the chocolate bowl
blew over industry’s fence today and
landed in agriculture’s back yard. And
when the embattled farmers took up
the cudgels which the law has laid
down and helped oust the strikers
from the model factory at Hershey,
Pa., they showed the spirit that may
save the Nation from some of its pres
ent troubles.
At least that is the opinion of the
highest ranking spokesman for agri
culture in Congress, Ellison Smith,
Senator from South Carolina and
chairman of the Senate Agriculture
and Forestry Committee.
That opinion was not confirmed by
Representative Jones, however, who
heads the Agriculture Committee at
the other end of the Capitol. Repre
sentative Jones, much happier in New
Deal society than his senatorial col
league, had nothing to say. And as for
Secretary Wallace, he was very silent.
But it is safe to say that chocolate by
any other name than Hershey tasted
sweeter to both For the administra
tion watched the affair with interest
and it could not conceal the twinge it
suffered as it does whenever another
sitter sits, whether it's "down” or "in”
or just around the corner.
But they won’t talk. They won’t.
Senator Smith will—and did. Late
yesterday, when he returned to his
apartment weary with the affairs of
state, he was not too weary to spring
verbally at the sit-downers like a ter
rier at a rat.
Sees “Gravest Crisis,’*
“The Nation faces the gravest crisis
in its history, and, if anything can
save it, it will be the farmer,’’ he said.
That expression might have been
echoed in the Agr iculture Department,
with a different definition of salva
tion. The difference between the old
time religion of politics and the new.
Down there you can look at a chart
on which two lines run up and down,
but keep very nearly side by side all
the time. One represents certain
types of farm income, including dairy
_SENATOR_SMITH._
ing fat Hershey it was dairy farm
ers) and the other is factory pay rolls.
Their interests run pa*illel, but not,
records show, their ideas. It is ad
mitted farmers are not sympathetic
with labor.
But didn't the farmers strike in
1933? Didn't they spill their milk and
dump their hay and some of them
“sit down" on their land?
Secretary Wallace answered that
question—very cautiously.
"They didn’t* sit down in 1933, but
they did show deep feeling about
losing their land,” he said.
Low Prices Cited.
He added, still cautiously and for
what it was worth: “And I think it
presented their plight in a striking
light to the Nation. Of course, they
had very great difficulties. Prices
were less than one-half normal—very
grave difficulties "
The Secretary had not asked, he
said, for any reports on the effect of
the present-day sit-downs on • the
farmers. Neither had representative
Jones, although he personally was
known to oppose them.
When the matter was pursued with
Senator Smith, however, he was found
much more loquacious on the subject.
He thinks the sit-down a direct blow
at the constitutional rights of all citi
zens and, while he thinks agriculture
can resist the tendency and has no
sympathy with such measures, he re
marked :
"I see some such symptoms in agri
cultural labor, temporarily made res
tive.”
He said that the Senate had missed
a great opportunity to check this
growth of lawlessness when It failed
to pass his colleague’s (Senator
Byrnes) amendment to the Gulley
coal bill, which declared the sit-down
strike illegal without referring, as the
later resolution did, to illegal methods
on the part of employers.
”1 was disappointed that the Senate
backed and filled,” he said, as he
paced his apartment. “The moral
effect was lost.”
“The precedent of this form of
trespass affects every one—the farmer
who employs two hands to milk a cow.
the largest employer and the smallest
property owner.”
Then he stopped and his face
cleared. t
“Do you know,” he asked, "what I
thought when I read of the Hershey
affair?
I though of Lord Bacon. It was
Lord Bacon who said ‘revenge is a
wild kind of justice.’ Those farmers
couldn’t sell their milk. Their channel
of commerce had been blocked, their
channel of commerce guaranteed to
them under the Constitution. It was
their market place. Milk spoils.”
He chuckled. ‘‘The farmers settled
it.” Then, he added quickly:
“Any false principle works itself out
in disaster. That lawlessness on the
side of the union brought out lawless
ness on the other side.
“Farmers are not sympathetic with
such measures as these. I hire a man
to hoe my crop. I give him a hoe. I
pay him 75 cents a day. Would he
demand a dollar and then say that
no one else had a right to come on
my land?
Denies Right of Trespass.
“Labor has a right to collective bar
gaining A right to walk out. But
not to trespass
“The farmer is a natural individual
ist. He believes in self-government,
in personal possessions. If the present
form of Government in America is to
be saved, it will be saved by agriculture
and the rural element of the country.”
Whether the Senator’s New Deal
colleagues agree with that last senti
ment or not, their silent records and
their paradoxical charts seem to sup
port his belief that agriculture and
labor will not alt down together
(Copyright. 1937, by the North Amertcn
Newspaper Alliance inc.)
STATE WAGE LAWS
PLAN GIVEN STUDY
House Judiciary Committee Con
siders Regulation Through
Interstate Trade.
By the Associated Press.
The House Judiciary Committee de
cided today to explore the possibilities
of regulating wages and hours through
State laws enforced in interstate com
merce by the Federal Government.
Representative Smith, Democrat, of
Virginia placed before the committee
a bill that would prohibit interstate
transportation of goods and merchan
dise produced under conditions that
would have made their production un
lawful In the State into which they
were consigned.
Representative Miller, Democrat, of
Arkansas, chairman of a subcommit
tee designated to hold hearings on
the Smith bill, said he believed the
measure offered a solution to labor
problems.
He said national labor leaders, rep
resentatives of the Interstate Com
merce Commission and representatives
of industry would be Invited to pre
sent testimony.
To Plant Ritchie Tree.
CUMBERLAND, Md . April 9 —
A memorial tree for the late Gov. Al
bert C. Ritchie will be planted in the
Oldtown School yard by Mayor
Thomas W. Koon. A tree presented by
the Oldtown Parent-Teacher Asso
ciation also will be planted.
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