Montana labor news. [volume], November 17, 1932, Page Page Two, Image 2

About Montana labor news. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 19??-1951

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MONTANA LABOR NEWS
LAST BROADWAY
LABOR
PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY AT 12(1
BY THE SILVER BOW TRADES AND
'OU NCI L
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Entered as second class mall matter May 23rd, 192. r i, at the Post Office Butte, Mon
tana, under the act of March 3rd, 1879.
♦♦♦♦♦♦♦
»♦♦♦♦
LABOR LOSES TWO STAUNCH FRIENDS.
During the month of October the Grim Reaper took a
deep toll from the ranks of Labor.
The first to pass from this life was Charles Davies,
member of the Carpenters' Union and delegate to the
Silver Bow Trades and Labor Council. Brother Davies
was a Union man at heart and not a mere card-camer.
For years he served as chairman of the Union Label
Committee of the Central Council, and gave of his time
to the limit. No man serving on that committee ever
gave more of his time and self to the cause of pushing
Union products. The large sale of Union Label goods
in Butte and the absence of anti-Union products is due
almost wholly to the efforts of Charles Davies. The
thoughts of Brother Davies were always for his fellow
workers. He was one of the few who could and did for
get his personal interests for the interests of his fellow
workers. His life can well be summed up in these words
of the poet:
. . . Abou spake more low,
But cheerily still ; and said, "I pray thee, then
Write me as one that loves his fellow-men.
The Angel wrote, and vanished. The next night
It came again, with a great wakening light,
And showed the names whom love of God had
blessed,—
And lo! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest.
The second loss to Labor was "Barney" Lindsey, the
well-known and loved member of the Engineers' Union.
Those who ever visited the Engineers' hall cannot forget
Brother Lindsey. He was always found there waiting
for a discussion about Labor and politics. He, too, was
one of the veterans of the movement and had served an
aggressive membership during his lifetime. He will be
missed by all who knew and loved him.
The loss of these old warriors of the movement is a
great one. Their like is not found among the younger
men in the movement today. It is through the efforts of
men like Davies and Lindsey that we enjoy the rights of
Labor today. We who come later enjoy the fruits of
their struggles. May their spirits live on in the hearts of
the younger men who must cany on the struggle.
' '
STIGMA OF CHILD LABOR.
The United States Bureau of Census declares that the
census of 1930 reveals the employment of 2,145,959 chil
dren between the ages of 10 and 17 years of age. Of the
total, 1,425,236 were boys and 720,723 girls.
In 1920 there were 2,773,506 children employed, 1,
817,704 of whom were boys and 955,802 girls. This is
a decrease of 627,547 during the decade.
The fact that the bodies and minds of over two million
children are being turned into profits is a disgrace to
American institutions and the traditional conception of
American government.
The initial blame rests with employers. They have the
authority to determine whom they will employ. Quite
generally, they have refused to employ persons over 45
years of age. If they so desired, they could just as gen
erally refuse to employ children.
In the next place, the blame rests with the legislatures
of the states. These legislatures have full authority to
enact legislation which would prohibit absolutely the
employment of children. They refuse to do so.
The state legislatures are also to blame for their re
fusal to adopt the child labor amendment to the Federal
Constitution. This amendment would confer upon the
United States Congress the authority to enact child labor
restriction legislation applicable to all the states.
The American Federation of Labor has always favored
drastic restrictions on the right of employers to exploit
children. Its first convention, in 1881, declared against
the employment of children under 14 in any occupation.
When it became apparent that many state legislatures
were persistently recreant to their duty and refused to
give adequate protection to children, the Federation
sponsored the Federal Child Labor Amendment and has
continuously supported its adoption. The 1931 conven
tion urged the organized labor movement in each state
to oppose the election of every candidate for the state
legislature who would not pledge himself to vote for
ratification of the amendment.
We have over eleven million adult workers who are
totally unemployed and largely dependent on public and
private charity for support.
At the same time, employers, who autocratically con
trol work opportunities, persist in tying over two million
children of tender years to their profiLmaking machinery.
By this policy, in addition to stunting the children phys
ically and mentally, they deprive two million adults of
their jobs and toss them into the unemployed army.
Child-labor employer's, whether corporations or indi
viduals, are a menace to American institutions. Until
this activity of theirs is made a crime by law, they should
be listed in every community and be made the recipients
of justifiable public opprobrium.
BUY ANY CAR BUT A FORD
STATE INSURANCE FUNDS.
For many years organized labor has claimed that the
state fund plan for workmen's compensation insurance
is vastly superior to permitting private insurance com
panies, organized for profit, to insure employers.
The validity of this claim is demonstrated by the op
eration of the California State Compensation Insurance
Fund for 1931, which has just declared a cash dividend
of $1,000,000 to employers who were insured in the fund
during that year.
In announcing the dividend the California State De
partment of Industrial Relations said :
"The State Fund has earned and paid dividends to
policyholders each year since it opened its doors in
1914, and this without regard to the varying general
business conditions confronted. The large sum of
$20,500,000 has been received by California indus
tries in that period, considerably more than $750,000
having been distributed thus far in 1932.
The officials point out that the large dividends to em
ployers are made possible through maintenance of small
overhead, sound underwriting practice and a safe invest
ment policy.
The Fund operates without a subsidy of any kind from
the state and pays the same tax that private companies
pay. Its business expense averages but 15 per cent of
the premiums written.
The chief defect of the California workmen's compen
sation insurance system is that 70 private insurance com
panies are permitted to operate in the state. Organized
labor holds that the social aspect of compensating work
ers for industrial accidents is so great that private profit
should be completely barred and that legislatures should
adopt the exclusive state insurance fund and prohibit
private insurance companies from engaging in the sale
of compensation insurance.
If California had the exclusive state fund, with the
elimination of 70 competing companies, the employers of
that state would receive much larger dividends and the
workers more satisfactory insurance.
' '
OLD-AGE PENSIONS MENACED.
Old-age pensions have had the support of organized
labor and forward-looking persons generally in all coun
tries. It has been fervently hoped that this commendable
feature of humanitarian legislation would not be mo
lested.
But the economy-mad Prime Minister Lyons of Aus
tralia has made an attack on the old-age pension system
of that country by endeavoring to establish pauper stand
ards for the administration of the law. His reactionary
proposal brings the strong condemnation of the Aus
tralian Worker, which says:
"Hitherto these payments have been made to men
and women of the statutory ages as something to
which, within certain financial limits, they were en
titled by virtue of their citizenship. It has been re
garded as the State's recognition of long participa
tion in the life of the community. Its acceptance
therefore earned no stigma with it. The pension was
a right—a public reward for work or services con
tributed to the common good, and rendered in the
course of a lifetime.
"All that is now to be changed. Under the scheme
propounded by Mr. Lyons the old-age pension is to
be divested of its honorable character and debased
to a pauper allowance. * * * The amounts paid in
pensions are to be recovered from the near relatives
of the pensioners wherever it can be done. With
this object in view the private resources of the rela
tives concerned are to be probed by departmental
inspectors who, one may be very sure, will develop
the usual traits of sleuths and inquisitors armed with
the authority of the law.
"Such a provision is completely destructive of the
principle on which old-age pensions have been
founded.
"Many elderly people have gladly received these
payments because they were thus relieved of de
pendence on their children, and enabled to feel that
no one would regard them as an encumberance and
a burden in the evening of their lives.
"Mr. Lyons and his wealthy colleagues are going to
put an end to that happy state of things.
"Old-age pensioners, in thousands of instances, are
in future to be made miserable by the knowledge
that every penny paid to them from the public ex
chequer will be wrenched from their relatives—in
most cases from sons and daughters who have their
own hard way to make in life and their own parental
responsibilities to carry on or prepare for. * * *
"Capitalism, using the depression as an excuse, is
callously forcing down the workers' standard of liv
ing, tampering with legislation that mitigates to some
extent the evil consequences of the social system,
wielding the axe of 'economy' with a ruthlessness
that continually intensifies unemployment, and now,
to balance a budget reeking of mismanagement, is
preparing to poison the amenities of family life."
Australia was one of the first countries to establish old
age pension in a scheme of humanitarian legislation
which brought considerable admiration throughout the
world. The present pension is but 17 shillings 6 pence
a week, about three dollars at the current reduced rate of
exchange. It is regretable that Prime Minister Lyons
should lead the reactionary groups in undermining the
creditable principle of self-respect which is the basis of
the Australian pension system.
EAST STIRRED BY
HOPE OF FREEDOM
FOR TOM MOONEY
NEW YORK.—(F.P.)—Labor and
radical circles in the East are talk
ing about the drive to free Tom
Mooney with new hopefulness as a
result of the impression that the
Callicotte testimony has stood up
under fire. As a result, Theodore
Dreiser, famous novelist, has gone
from New York City to take part in
the San Francisco mass meeting at
which Callicotte tells his story.
While Dreiser is not a speaker, it
is believed that his attendance at the
mass meeting will vividly portray the
interest of eastern intellectuals in
the Mooney ease, and the confidence
of large numbers of people that the
Callicotte evidence has more sig
nificance than was at first thought.
It has been learned that Callicotte's
story that he had left the suitcase
containing the bomb at the point of
the Preparedness Day explosion had
been known to those active in the
Mooney case before Callicotte told his
story, and that the witness had been
thoroughly questioned. In detail after
detail he showed accuracy and
knowledge of the situation on the
morning of the parade. He spent
hours with a Mooney representative
who knew the details intimately, and
in every case his statements checked
with the facts.
Little details about the man on
duty in a nearby cigar store which
a framed story would have been
likely to miss and which a mere
crank would have known nothing at
all about, clicked with the facts. It
was obvious that Callicotte had a
story that would stand up.
When the story was first made
public it was greeted by skepticism
because there have been other sim
ilar jases where cranks have come
forward with tales that brought
hopes for Mooney which were soon
dashed. His friends feared this would
be another such case at first.
It is considered in the East that
there are several ways in which this
evidence could be made of practical
effect. If Governor Rolph, already
under threat of recall by farm or
ganizations, can be swamped with a
demand that justice be done on the
basis of the new evidence, his po
litical ambition may make him act.
Or a new trial on indictments still
standing against Mooney may be
ordered and the case tried over, in the
light of evidence now available. If
a verdict of not guilty was obtained,
the pressure for release would be in
tensified tremendously.
Mooney's case does not depend on
the Callicotte testimony, but if that
can be substantiated it would seem
to be a final blow at the frameup
which has kept Mooney and Billings
in prison for 16 years.
Sees Labor Party
Necessity in U. S. A.
KATONAH, N. Y.— (F.P.)— Amer
ican unions will be forced to build a
labor party just as soon as they
tackle the job of organizing the
unskilled workers, in the opinion of
Charles Dukes, fraternal delegate to
the American Federation of Labor
convention from the British Trades
Union Congress, who spoke to the
students of Brookwood Labor College
recently. "Only craft unions can
exercise job monopoly," he pointed
out. "A labor movement that includes
unskilled workers must inevitably
turn to political action to secure un
employment insurance, old-age pen
sions and other social services which
raise and insure the workers' stand
ard of living.
"Unemployment insurance not only
provides regular, if scanty, main
tenance for people out of work
through no fault of their own; it
takes them out of competition with
employed workers and so prevents
the employers from hammering
down the wage scales," he declared.
Dukes is district secretary of the
International Union of General and
Municipal Workers, one of the two
general laborers' unions in Great
Britain of which America has no
counterpart. He was twice member
of parliament on the Labor ticket,
and though he was defeated in the
last election because panic-stricken
Conservatives turned out to vote in
full force, he ran 1,000 votes ahead
of his previous record.
Glass Finds Hoover
Somewhat Untruthful
WASHINGTON—(F.P.)—Denounc
ing President Hoover's account of
the causes of the depression and of
the Administration's treatment of
this crisis, Senator Glass of Virginia
came close to calling the chief execu
tive a liar, in a blistering broadcast
speech Nov. 1.
"The statements made, as well as
the conclusions deduced," said Glass,
BIG SIX' VOTES
STRIKE; HAS 2
PAY FIGHTS ON
:
NEW YORK—(F.P.)—Big Six,
huge local of the Typographical
Union in New York City, has two
pay controversies on at the same
time.
The newspaper scrap has gone to
international arbitration before the
usual board of five—two from the
bosses, two from the union, and a
fifth man.
The job and book scale is in great
er difficulty. International Presi
dent Charles P. Howard negotiated a
scale calling for a decrease in pay
of from 8 per cent to 13 per cent.
The union voted this down in a refer
endum, but voted down a strike at the
same time.
Then a few of the bosses took mat
ters in their own hands by announc
ing that the scale would go into ef
fect Nov. 1 regardless of the referen
dum. They used the excuse that How
ard had negotiated and agreed to the
scale, although of course all con
cerned knew it would have to be ap
proved by the rank and file. This
action by the bosses was put before
a special meeting attended by 4,000
union members on Oct. 30.
The high-handed acts of the bosses
turned the printers from their for
mer attitude of opposition to strike
to one favoring a strike, by a vote
of 2,607 to 283. This means that a
request will go to President Howard
and the executive board of the in
ternational union for approval—
which is necessary before a legal
strike can be called under the union's
laws. President Howard is reported
to have said that the international
could not afford now to sanction a
strike in New York, and Daniel J.
McCauley, a vice-president of Big
Six, opposed the strike vote. But
a 10-to-l vote may make a difference.
The proposed pay cuts would be
from $1.366 an hour for day men to
$1.26 an hour, and from $1.576 an
hour for night crews to $1.376 an
hour. The union men call attention
to the fact that they have been car
rying the load of unemployment in
the industry and that they should
not have to bear the workers' share
of the panic and the bosses' share
too.
Bethlehem Steel's 'Ade
quate Relief' 4c
a Day
LACKAWANA, N. Y.—(F. P.)—
Last December the Bethlehem Steel
Company announced that adequate
relief would be furnished the unem
ployed steel workers of Lackawana.
How well that pledge was fulfilled
may be judged by the following
story.
New York state's temporary re
lief administration in Lackawana has
revealed that since last June 70
employed steel workers have been
existing in an old building on Oil
bride street on an average of 4 cents
a day, allotted them by the city
welfare department,
are suffering from malnutrition, and
owing to their weakened condition
are subject to the ravages of tubercu
losis and other diseases.
Besides the fact that the
underfed, it was found that they
were housed under extremely in
sanitary and overcrowded conditions.
The building contained only six beds,
no water, no gas or electricity. The
roof leaked in four places.
The city of Lackawana has been
forced to suspend paying its city
employes, largely because the Bethle
hem Steel Company has refused to
pay its taxes pending court action
to reduce the assessments on its
plant.
un
These men
men are
'are flagrantly contrary to the facts,
thus presenting a picture to the
American people which is far away
from the truth and which, in a vital
sense, exaggerates conditions only
that the President might magnify
his own alleged achievements in cor
recting situations and saving the
country.
"To speak with suitable restraint,
I may say that neither Hans Chris
tian Andersen nor Karl Grimm, in
appealing to the fancies of children,
ever over-taxed his imagination
President Hoover repeatedly has done
in his endeavor to regain the lost
favor of the American people. Con
trasted with his speech of acceptance
and his addresses at Des Moines,
Cleveland and elsewhere, Aesop's Fa
bles deserve to rank as an accurate
history of things that actually
curred."
Glass made the point that 10,000,
000 Americans were jobless before
Europe's bank crash began in Aus
tria in 1931, and before Britain went
off the gold standard. This
in answer to Hoover's claim that the
United States was drawn into a
depression which first swept Europe.
oc
was