Hartford chronicle., March 01, 1947, Page PAGE THREE, Image 3

About Hartford chronicle. (Hartford, Conn.) 194?-1947

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The Hartford Chronicle
Page Three
NAACP DENOUNCES
ANTI-LABOR BILLS
NATION ACCEPTS GOALS
IN NAACP '47 CAMPAIGN
BROTHERHOOD WEEK SPEAKERS
MARCH 1, 1947
Washington, D. C Attack
ing four "labor control' bills
pending before the Senate Com-
1 Y 1 1 ITT 1 A
mntee on ljaDor ana vv eiiare as
' 'representing a throwback to
a V period of industrial strife
, which would gravely affect the
welfare of all of our people, ' '
Clarence Mitchell, labor secre
tary of the NAACP, testified be
fore the group on behalf of the
Association, on February 20th.
Mr. Mitchell denounced Senate
resolution S.55, S.360, S.105 and
S.133, introduced by Republican
Senators Joseph H. Ball, of
Minnesota,, and by Robert A.
Taft of Ohio,and H. Alexander
Smith of . New Jersey, which
contain provisions which he
charged would "provide ma
chinery for frustrating unions
with injunctions, wrecking their
treasuries with , damage suits,
and sending their members shiv
ering to jail." '
Speaking not only for the
more than one and a half mil
lion eolored persons in the AFL
and the CIO, but also for "mil
lions of unorganized colored ag
ricultural workers now being
encouraged to join unions . . .
and thereby, raise their stand
ards of living and increase their
security'. Mr: Mitchell pointed
out that "the glimmer of hope
which these people have from
the new efforts to organize them
will be extinguished if the iron
clamp of rigid federal control is
applied to them" since "these
bills, if enacted into law, would
have the effect of giving legal
sanction from the federal gov
ernment to organized violence
against them. "
Mr. Mitchell stated: "The
Congress will have indeed mis
understood the voice of the peo
ple on November 5 if it assumes
. that our recent elections consti
tuted a mandate to return this
country to involuntary servi
tude of the working man."
In defense of the right to
strike, which these blils would
limit or completely deny, Mr.
Mitchell declared i "If it is the
purpose of the framers of this
legislation to promote harmony
between labor and management,
they should take into consider
ation the fact that the majority
of strikes which have occurred
in this country since VJ-Day
came because wage earners,
faced with a cost of living which
has risen better than 50 per cent
since 1939, were seeking to ob
tain additional money with
which to buy the necessities of
life, to pay their rents, and to
establish some small measure of
economic security for their f am
ilies." Speaking against S.105, Mr.
Mitchell pointed out that " by
striking at a closed shop, the
union fchop fcnaintenfence of
membership, and other benefits
won by labor through the years,
the bill would make immeasur
ably weaker the unions which1
have struggled for these gains,":
adding that "In the coal mining
New York Encourage , , by
the whole-hearted responses
coming in from 'states and the
branches accepting their mem
bership goals, and in some cases
even upping them, the national
office of the NAACP looks for
ward to a campaign bourfd, by
all the signs, to really "Make
It a Million."
The largest . states and
branches which are carrying the
load for the success of the cam
paign are starting their drives
early. The Ohio State Confer
ence of Branches has accepted
its quota of 42.000 for the nation-wide
membership cam
paign. Full support toward
attaining the goal has been
pledged by president J. May
nard Dickerson, Assistant City
Prosecutor of Youngstown.
Donald Jones, in Columbus, co
ordinator of region 3, reports
that at the first campaign meet
ing, the branch there took out
half of its memberships. Last
year, its goal was 750 members
and this year, it is expected that
it will jump to almost 5,000.
At the meeting, final payment
on a life NAACP membership
was made by Dr. Robert M.
Tribbett, which will add incen
tive to the drive in that city.
A. Maceo Smith, secretary of
the Texas State Conference, re
ports that Texas has accepted
its quota of 55,000 and desig
nated Mrs. Lulu B. White, state
director of branches, to lead the
promotion of the campaign.
Other states who have accept
ed their goals to date are : North
Carolina, 25,000; New York,
35,000 and Michigan, 25,000.
Branches which have already
set top goals for themselves in
this campaign to double the
NAACP memberships are
Washington, D. C, 20,000;
Philadelphia, 20.000 ; Kansas
City, Missouri, 7,500; Cincinat
tifi 10,000; Louisville, 50000;
Memphis, 5,000; Los Angeles,
20,000; New Haven, 1,000;
Mnotgomery, Ala., 2,500;
Bridgeport, 2,500 ; Durham, No.
Carolina, 7550 ; Greensboro, No.
Carolina, 1,000.
NAACP Assistant Field Sec
retary LeRoy Carter has just
completed an intensive visit of
NAACP branches in Missisippi
and organzed several new
branches. The quota for that
state in the nation-wide mem
bership campaign is 10,000, and
will be under the direction of
regional coordinator Daniel
Byrd of New Orleans, La.
industry where, the colored em
ployees have been fighting be
side their white fellow workers
for union benefits, since 1890,
this would be a deadly blbw. It
would also adversely affect the
welfare of the thousands of col
ored persons in the automobile
industry, meat-packing, and
steel.
fillips
vvV
Brotherhood Week speakers over Springfield Radio Station. Left to right: Rev. Albert
Cleage, St. John's Congregational Church; Mr. A. B. Mapp, Executive Secretary, Dunbar Com
munity League ; Rabbi Napthali Frishberg, of B eth El Temple. ' . .
THIS AND THAT
by Walter Wendall
1 am one individual who is
getting pretty sick of all this
intense anti-Communist propo
ganda that is sweeping the
country while the Columbians
in Georgia with their fascism
make complete mockery of jus
tice.
In the first instance I have
the feeling that all of this talk
about the Communistic threat
to democracy is a good deal' of
eye-wash. For in reality dem
ocracy can never be threatened
by Communism, if we really
work at having democracy. But
if we do not, then what we pos
sess as a way of life, will not
be the thing that we claim it to
be and everything can threaten
it.
ior instance, can we call a
way of life democratic when we
make mockery of the highest
tribunal in the land, by; delib
erately denying millions of
black and white citizens, the
right to exercise the franchise
or to live in decency.
It does not take much intelli
gence to, decognize the fact that
democracy in its full intent and
purpose offers far more to the
average man and woman than
any other idealogy in the world.
So it seems that we could be
done parading these scare-crows
up and down before the public
eyes and ge down to work sav
ing the thing that most people
want and that is freedom for
all. I
But you may be sure that we
will never get that unless we
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want to clean out our own house
first and do it pretty diligently
And that house cleaning cer
tainly means that we cannot
stand by and see a whole state
go fascist? in its activities, like
Georgia is doing.
We cannot permit people like
Loomis, Sr. and J r. to go int6 a
court of law and use it as a
sounding board for hate doc
trines as they did the other .day
when Homer Loomis used up
four hours and ten minutes for
his preachments.- We cannot
permit them to deliberately
stretch out their trial so that it
might well take a year to get a
full conviction. And in the
meantime go right back to the
office of the Columbians and
pick up where they left off.
If this is not a complete re
production of the tactics of Mr.
Hitler and., his gang, then we
have read the records back
wards. And while they were
doing this the business and in
tellect of Germany were smiling
in disdain. - But one day that
smile was wiped off their faces
and they either had to join up
or get out. And as we now know
an amazing number joined up.
Some of the most unwittingly
dangerous people in this coun
try are those who sit up North
here and claim that some
Georgians act the way they do,
because forces up here attempt
to tell them what to do. Well,
it seems rather ridiculous to let
a man in ; the stern of a boat
bore a hole that will sink the
whole craft, simply because
someone in another section feels
that it is a violation of Tights to
ask the culprit to desist.
1 -
SCHUYLER GOES ON ,
RED VETERAN CHASE '
Chicago George Schuyler of
the Pittsburgh Courier it is al
leged, is suffering from a 'Red'
mania tnese aays. - ai least mat.
is what the -United Negro and.
Allied Veterans of America feel
these days. -
It seems as though this . or
ganization has been making
overtures to become accredited
with the Veterans Administra
tion. And Mr. Schuyler does
not like this or . the Veterans
Association. So -they claim that
he took the favorite course of
red baiting in order to kill or
make their chances for recogni
tion more difficult. He charged
the organization with being a
Communist front organization
in one of his weekly columns.
In reply, the Veterans have
asked that Mr. Schuyler tell
the public how his war record
measures up with their mem
bership. For it is their feeling
that no one whose war record
shows such a great disparity in
the matter of service, has a
right to question the patriot
ism of those who carried the
flag in active service.
In a written statement the
UNAVA said, "Schuyler's un
justified attempt to smear the
UNAVA at a time when our
organization is in the process
of becoming accredited with
the Veterans Administration is
not only an attack upon us as
an organization but a subver
sive attack upon thousands of
Negro veterans who will not
be serviced unless UNAVA is
accredited."