Montana labor news. [volume], November 24, 1932, Image 1

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

Image provided by: Montana Historical Society; Helena, MT

                
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■ 'BL1SHED BY THE SILVER BOW TRADES AND LABOR COUNCIL—WEEKLY
IN THE INTERESTS OF ORGANIZED LABOR
Montana Labor News
The American standard of
living must be maintained
in order that American in
stitutions may not be sub
ject to perils of discontent.
There can be no prosperity
without justly high wages.
Earnings of working people
are the basis and index of
progress in any community.
OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE MONTANA STATE FEDERATION OF LABOR
BUTTE, MONTANA, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1932.
Vol. VIII.
No. 38
ECONOMIC PLANNING ADVOCATED OV LABOR
UNIONS NOTICE!
••
WAR THREATENS
Due to the present attempts of the Employers' Associa
tion to reduce wages, and due to their open threat of
warfare upon workers in Butte, a SPECIAL MEETING
OF THE SILVER BOW TRADES AND LABOR COUN
CIL will be held SATURDAY, NOV. 26, at 8 p. m. at
CARPENTERS HALL to discuss the conditions confront
ing Labor in Butte. MEMBERS OF THE BUILDING
TRADES COUNCIL, METAL TRADES COUNCIL, and
ALL ORGANIZATIONS AFFILIATED WITH THE
A. F. OF L. ARE INVITED.
COUNCIL ENDORSES CLERKS' ACTION
The Silver Bow Trades and Labor Council endorsed
the action of the Butte Clerks' Union is placing the
ECLIPSE STORES, MacMARR and SAFEWAY
STORES on the DO NOT PATRONIZE LIST. This ac
tion was taken because these stores have made an open
attempt to reduce wages and at the same time increase
hours of labor. This action was unanimous on the part
of the Council.
The Washington
-Scene
By LAWRENCE TODD
WASHINGTON— (F. P.) — W h a t
will the American labor movement
gain from the anti-Hoover landslide
of the 1932 election, and what will
high officials of the labor organi
zations gain from it?
These two questions agitate the
minds of labor chiefs in the capital
as the last scattering returns come in
from Colorado and Minnesota, and the
proportions of the Republican disas
ter become more evident.
On the night of Nov. 8 a legisla
tive agent of the American Federa
tion of Labor who had served—dur
ing furlough from his labor job—
at Democratic headquarters for the
preceding month, sat in Governor
Roosevelt's room with other cam
paign workers, listening to the re
ports from all of the states. As the
triumph became overwhelming, a
congressman enthusiastically assured
the labor man that he could have any
job he desired, under the new re
gime. The labor legislative agent
[Cwttonad on Pin Three]
ROYSTER HURLS DEFY AT RAIL
AND LABOR FEDERATION HEADS
Denies His Organization Is
Dual ; Brands Pension
Plan of Opponent as
"Infamous, Monstrosity.
>>
By JOSEPH A. WISE.
CHICAGO.—In a circular letter
mailed to the 646 local chapters
throughout the United States of the
Railroad Employes' National Pension
Association, W. W. Royster, national
chairman of the organization, expres
ses indignation over the recent action
of the executive council of the Amer
ican Federation of Labor in de
nouncing the association as "an or
ganization not alone hostile to the
legislative program of the standard
railway labor organizations, but dual
[Continued on Page Fourl
L \
LABOR COLLEGE
SEEKSSTUDENTS
Winter Quarter at Common
wealth Opens Jan. 3
MENA, ARK.—Commonwealth col
lege, the labor school near here, will
accept a few new students for the
winter term, beginning Jan. 3, to re
place members of the present student
body unable to remain.
Commonwealth has made a num
ber of improvements in its plant
and equipment to care for the pres
ent record-breaking enrollment, and
a new dormitory will be erected as
soon as funds are available. The
school now has BB students, more
than three times as many as it had
a year ago.
Courses to be offered include world
history, labor history, Marxian
thought, economics, public speaking,
journalism, labor education, labor
problems, labor dramatics, farm
problems, psychology and stenog
raphy.
[Continued on Page Four!
HINT FEDERAL
SUITS IN PROTEST
PRISON CRUELTY
State of Georgia Is Charged
With Inhumanness.
NEW YORK—(F.P.)—Possibility
of federal court action against the
State of Georgia for cruel and in
human punishments alleged to have
been inflicted upon men in prisons
and prison camps, was forecast in a
letter sent to the Georgia Prison
Commissioners by 11 prominent
Americans, speaking in behalf of the
American Civil Liberties Union. The
charges involved are supported by
photographic and documentary evi
dence gathered by John L. Spivak
[Continued on Page Two]
\
N
V
#
METAL TRADES!
DECRY BANKERS'
INDUSTRY RULE
Also Control Labor Policy
of American Employers
CINCINNATI — (F.P.) — Bankers'
domination of industry, and hence of
the labor policy of American em
ployers, is pronounced one of the
most dangerous trends which or
ganized labor now has to face, in the
annual report of President James
O'Connell and Secretary-Treasurer
John P. Prey of the Metal Trades
department of the American Federa
tion of Labor, to the convention of
their department, in Cincinnati, on
Nov. 16.
"It is evident from the experience
of the last three years," they ob
serve, "that many bankers do not
know enough about the banking bus-,
iness to operate banks successful!;
It must be evident, in any event,
that the banker is not as well quali
fied to direct the policies of the
manufacturing or commercial estab
lishments. When a banker expresses
a public opinion relative to a wage
policy or the hours of labor, he is
also taking action of a much more
positive and far-reaching character,
lie is, in effect, telling the corpora
tions to whom he advances credit
that the continuance of credit de
pends largely upon their carrying
into effect whatever the banker be
lieves to be the best labor or other
industrial policy. The banker has
the weapon for enforcing discipline
in his hands, for in most instances
one of his directors sits as a member
of the corporation's board of di
rectors."
They show that 16 great banks in
New York, which in 1919 held 2,743
directorships in other corporations,
through their own boards of direc
tors, in 1931 had increased their in
dustrial directorships to B,234. Thus,
the Bank of Manhattan Trust Com
pany increased its list of director
ships in industry from 89 to 362; the
Chemical Bank and Trust Company
from 91 to 383; the Guaranty Trust
Company from 373 to 647, and the
Chase National Bank from 223 to
86B directorships in manufacturing,
transportation, insurance, public util
ity and other corporations.
"When Mr. Albert Wiggin, chair
man of the board of the Chase Na
tional Bank, informed the world
some 20 months ago that wages must
be reduced before prosperity could
return," the report declares, "he was
serving notice directly upon 42 banks,
B2 public utility companies, BB insur
ance companes, 99 transportation
companies, 183 manufacturing cor
porations, and 227 other industrial
and commercial corporations, many
of which depended upon the Chase
National Bank for the necessary
credit to finance their business."
That the Federation cannot be ex
pected to make headway against
this massing of employer-power in
the great banks, is hinted by fur
ther discussion, which brings out the
fact that behind the largest com
mercial banks is the dictatorship of
Morgan & Company, Kuhn, Loeb &
[Continued on Page Four)
cA thankful '{Heart
Lord, Thou has given me a cell
Wherein to dwell,
A little house whose humble roof
Is weatherproof ....
Low is my porch as is my fate,
Both void of state,
And yet the threshold of my door
Is worn by the poor
Who hither come and freely get
Good words or meat,
'Tis Thou that crownest my glittering hearth
With guileless mirth.
All these and better Thou dost send
Me to this end,
That I should render for my part
A thankful heart.
—ROBERT HERRICK.
GREEN OPPOSES
THE SALES TAX
"It is the purpose and intention of
American Federation of Labor
to oppose the enactment of sales tax
legislation during the short session
of Congress which meets on Dec. B.
"A strong declaration in opposition
to the enactment of sales tax legis
lation will be adopted at the conven
tion of the American Federation of
Labor which will meet in Cincinnati
beginning Monday, Nov. 21. Plans
and policies will be developed at the
convention to oppose most vigorous
ly any attempt to enact sales tax
legislation. A part of this plan will
consist of the organization and mo
bilization of all organizations which
are opposed to sales tax legislation.
"Labor views with feelings of deep
apprehension the attempt of the ad
vocates of sales tax legislation to
transfer the burden of taxation from
the wealth of the nation to the mass
es of the people. Having consistent
ly held that sales tax legislation is
un-American, and inconsistent with
our democratic form of government,
the American Federation of Labor
will make sales tax legislation an
issue to be determined by a record
vote of the members of Congress.
"Labor has borne the brunt of a
three-year depression and at the
present time it is undergoing contin
[ Continued on Page Four]
GREEN CONDEMNS CORD'S PLAN TO
C ONTRO L AVIATION CORPORATION
-
FRANCES PERKINS
IS RUMORED FOR
LABOR SECRETARY
New York Industrial Commissioner
Made Only Reliable Reports
on Unemployment.
NEW YORK—(F.P.)—If rumors
are to be credited that Frances Per
kins, New York state industrial com
missioner, is to become secretary of
labor in the cabinet of Franklin D.
Roosevelt, labor may expect much
more sympathetic treatment from the
department of labor than it has had
from William N. Doak or many an
other head of that department. Miss
Perkins' second term as commissioner
of labor in New York ends Dec. 30.
Reliable reports say she will be of
fered the labor post by President
[Continued on Page Three]
Timely and Untimely
-Observations
Hy ADAM COALDIGGER
A New Chauffeur for
I can't make out yet whether the
charge should be indecent exposure
of person or disorderly conduct. What
I'm edging upto is the way two
bell-wethers of the two grand old
parties horned into each other dur
ing the late campaign. Not that
the two worthies had anything par
ticular to say either for themselves
or each other. But what they d'd
say they surely said with a heap of
heat.
"If Roosevelt is elected, grass will
grow in the streets of our cities,"
hurls Herbie at Frankie. "You're
another," comes back the latter. For
my own part, I wish grass would
grow in city streets. It's softer to
walk on and when it comes to sleep
ing, it beats cobble-stones all hollow.
Besides, if grass does grow in the
city streets, it will give Roosevelt
much needed campaign arguments
when he comes up for re-election
four years hence.
"When I assumed the highest of
fice within the gift of a sovereign
people," I hear him say already,
"Fifth Avenue was a stretch of bar
ren asphalt. Not a blade of grass
grew on it. No two blades of grass
grow on Fifth Avenue where none
[Continued on Page Two)
A.. F. of L. President Says
Anti - Labor Policies of
Cord Company's Head
Would Destroy Relations.
WASHINGTON.—The anti - labor
policies of E. L. Cord, president of
the Cord Corporation of Chicago and
of the Auburn Automobile Company,
are so pronounced that control by
him of the Aviation Corporation
would be a serious blow to American
workers and distinctly against the
public interest.
This definite declaration character
ized a letter by William Green, pres
ident of the American Federation of
Labor, to LaMotte T. Cohu, president
of the Aviation Corporation, New
York, condemning Cord's scheme to
secure enough proxies from the
Corporation's stockholders to enable
[Continued on Page Four]
A. F. OF L. CALLS
FOR PROGRAM
OF SEVEN POINTS
(By Federated Press)
C I N C I N N A T I.—Na
tional economic planning,
based on the principle that
"If capitalism is to continue,
it must pay the price of
economic security for the
workers," is urged in the re
port of the Executive Coun
cil to the 52nd annual con
vention of the American
Federation of Labor, whose
sessions began here Nov. 21.
"With co-ordinated planning," the
Council said, "we may endeavor to
make the things the poeple want,
assure distribution by planning for
adequate consuming power, and there
by make it possible for all to en
joy the benefits of social progress.
With co-ordinated planning it would
not be necessary to destroy crops
for farmers to get prices commensu
rate with services; increases in pro
duction would not be a catastrophe;
labor-saving devices would not mean
poverty and misery of being
'scraped' to workers who have in
vested heavily in skilled trades.
"Business has not demonstrated its
capacity to manage itself or to con
form to the large social purposes."
The Council declares that the de
termining factor in guiding produc
tion thus far has been profits, in
stead of "equitable distribution"
which is essential in an era of mass
production.
"Balance is our hope for mitigat
ing the severity of business depres
sions and attendant unemployment,
it announces cautiously. Plana for
maintaining economic balance must
grow out of a unified basic philos
ophy and co-ordinated procedure to
advance human well-being. As in
tegral parts of such a central plan,
the Federation urges the following:
"I. Steeply graduated income and
inheritance taxes.
"2. Constructive control of credit
to finance production.
"3. Recognition of the equities of
workers in the industries in which
they work and at least equal pro
tection to that given financial in
vestments.
"4. Federal agency to collect and
collate data on man-hours and wage
earner income, necessary to appraise
producing workers' participation in
industrial progress. Such an agency
would provide the standards for
determining economic balance.
"5. Federal licenses for corpora
tions operating on an interstate
scope, with specific requirements as
to accounting.
"6. All accounts available to those
interested, and protective service for
investors.
"7. Organization of wage-earners
to advance their interests intelligent
ly within industry and other rela
tionships."
In order to start on the road to
this revision of capitalism so that it
may survive in competition with so
cialism, the Council proposes the call
ing of a national economic confer
ence.
In such a conference, it says,
(Continued on page four)
/ f