Evening Star Newspaper, March 31, 1937, Page 7

NO HARD FEELINGS, STRIKERS DECLARE Rayon Workers “Firm but Friendly” on Stay-In, Mays Declares. BY the Associated Press. COVINGTON, Va., March 31.—A #it-down strike which a union head said was “friendly” though the strik- | ers stood “firm” continued today to | keep the Industrial Rayon Corp. plant here idle. “There are no hard feelings,” Lloyd Mays, president of Local 2214 of the Synthetic Yarn Federation, said,| “just a friendly strike.” Charles Dasher, piant manager, de- clined to comment, saying any state- | ment would have to come from offi- cials at Cleveland, Ohio, headquarters of the company. William Craighead, member of a union committee that recently dead- locked in negotiations with the com- pany, said the immediate cause of the strike was “discrimination” against | union members in promotions in the | twisting department. To Prosecute Demands. He said, however, that ‘the striking workers would prosecute their de- mands for acceptance of a 12-point program discussed during the previous negotiations. John Peel and William F. Kelly, rep- resentatives of the Committee for In-| dustrial Organization, and Robert | Gaflney, union organizer, were expect- ed to come here, strike leaders said, to “direct” the strike. State Labor Commissioner John Hopkins Hall, jr, said in Richmond yesterday that S. A. Minter, depart- ment inspector, advised him from Cov- ington that the strikers were quiet and | the company was pursuing a policy of | ‘'non-resistance.” Estimate 1,000 Striking. Strike leaders estimated 400 workers were in the plant, while corporation &pokesmen set the figure at 250. Hall | saild Minter reported there were 250 | workers on company property. Mays declared there were 1.000 striking in ali.” 1.300 employes Mays said appointment of three girls as inspectors in the twisting de- partment instigated the stay-in. I “We are not sure whether they are | members of the union or not,” he| #aid. “but they had been heard to re- | mark before they went to work in their new capacity they were going to ‘run’ union people. “We felt in this the company was trying to break the morale of the | union. “We would not have struck at this time had it not been for this. We have our demands made and a strike vote had been taken. We were going to stay in at least to the end of the week.” VIRGINIA CALLS 1 500 TO CRIME CONFERENCE Members of Educational, Medical and Religious Organizations to Attend April 9. BY the Assoctated Press RICHMOND, Va. March 31.—More than 1,500 invitations were issued to- day to members of educational, medical and religious organizations throughout the State to attend the Old Dominion's “about The plant has That It Surre '\General Motors Denies Claims THE EVE NG STAR, WASHINGTON ndered to Union Assertions outs boast of having brought “haughty kneeling. officials. | a bad situation is called to our atten- tion we try to remedy it. This union | called our attention to a few things which we could and did remedy. We would have done the same for any organized group of employes. It didn't require a strike.” The fact remains that General | Motors did not yield on perhaps the | most vital point at issue—the recogni- tion of the U. A. W. A. as the sole | | bargaining agency of its workers. It maintained its position of meeting any representative group of its workers— craft union, vertical union, or any other kind of union. The difficulty here is that a corpora- to present the sort of demands it wants to. make. Such a union may not actually be representative of anybody except the company itself. Accepts Murphy’s Rulings. To meet this ecriticism General Motors agreed that for the next six months it would except the ruling of the Governor of Michigan on the va- lidity as a representative body of any group of employes with which. it entered into negotiations. It is perhaps futile at this stage to enter into a discussion of who won what, for claims are conflicting and confusing. But this particular Gen- eral Motors official happens to be a quite liberal-minded man who s honestly trying to think through the capital-labor problem to his own satis- faction. For one thing he has a quite high opinion of some of the U. A. W. A, leaders, although, naturally, he be- lieves they are misguided. “Don’t let anybody tell you this is a Communist movement,” he says. “There are very few Communists in this group. I think they have used Communist methods. It's the kind of thing they teach at Brookwood and Commonwealth. But using Communist altogether different things.” The names of these two labor col- leges, by the way, come up time and time again in any discussion with either side. Brookwood in New York and Commonwealth in Arkansas are the West Point and Annapolis of the new labor movement. From their clas- sic halls come the new leaders, trained in all the techniques. motivated by evangelical fervor, able to take the crude, spontaneous sit-down strike of two or three years ago .ad forge it into the keen weapon of industrial warfare it has become. Speed-up Discussed. Then the General Motors official, frankly admitting that it was a prob- lem, went on to discuss the one thing that a union man becomes most elo- quent over—the speed-up. It so hap- pens that most operations in an auto- mobile plant are “on the line.” That is, parts pass from one workman to first conference on crime, to be held | here April 9. The conference is spon- | sored by the Virginia Welfare Council. ! William H. Schwarzschild, chairman | of the Welfare Council, said that the | purpose of the conference is to brmg\ before Virginians the seriousness of | the crime situation in the State. and to discuss ways and means to control it. Gov. Peery will welcome the dele- | gates and ask their support in any | program that might be worked out for & reduction of crime in the State. STAR RADIO CO. x RADIO TUBE HEADQUARTERS PRICE / another, each required to do & certain | job on them, at a regular rate per | hour. Such an operation is depend- |ent on the teamwork of everybody engaged on it. A man has to work at a certain steady pace. If he doesn't he probably throws the whole operation out of kilter and there’s the devil to pay, | Now almost any of these operations can be speeded up to the capacity of the human beings engaged in it. At certain times of the year its must be speeded up, says the General Motors ON ALL RADIO TUBES YOUR CHOICE PHI LCO RCA ALL TYPES NEW METAL INCLUDING AND G TUBES BUY YOUR RADIO TUBES AT STAR RADIO AND TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THIS SENSATIONAL OFFER! Y5 PRICE—ALL TYPES TYPE 80—LIST 70¢................SPECIAL 35¢ TYPE 2T—LIST 80¢. ... TYPE 24A—LIST $1.00. . TYPE 45—LIST 80¢. . .. veves....SPECIAL 40c «evo....SPECIAL 50¢ .....SPECIAL 40¢ ALL TYPES INCLUDED—NO EXCEPTIONS 3erving Washington Sines 1924 402 Ith St N, W IBSOF SLN. W, BO22 14th Nt M. W Refusal to Yield on Exclusive Recog- nition Issue Is Cited to Disprove Iv. This is the fourth of a series of articles on the sit-down strike. BY THOMAS R. HENRY, Aff Correspondent of The Star. DETROIT, March 31.—The United Automobile Workers in its press hand- That Goliath of American industry, however, denies most emphatically that it spoiled the crease in its well-pressed trousers by any prolonged “What about the concessions made to the union?” I asked one of the “I don't like that word,” he replied “No concessions were made. tion can organize a union of its own ! methods and being Communist are two | by U.A.W. General Motors to its knees.” When official—particularly when a new model is being placed on the market. At other times it slows down. The workers claim it is speeded up beyond the endurance of the human nervous system, that it is a vicious thing that breaks beyond repair the minds and bodies of men and women. ‘The U. A. W. A. has put out a boot on it. Naturally enough, the General Motors official denied that it was as bad as all that. Increased production, he maintained, has been attended by progressively less physical labor on the part of the men “on the line.” But, as occasionally happens, an | automobile worker sometimes drinks too much whisky of an evening and comes to work with the well known “big head.” There’s no question but that such a man goes through hell on earth the next day. That is an obvious case. It doesn't have to be too much whisky, the General Motors official says. He may have had a row with his wife. He may have been up all night with a sick baby. He may have a bad cold. On an indi- vidual job, however skilled or impor= tant, it wouldn't make so much dif-} ference. He could “stall” If the foreman was a decent fellow he would make allowances. But “on the line” there can be no allowances. The man is a part of the machine. Subject for Psychology. Moreover, there are rhythms, as yet | not understood by psychologists, in a man's capacity. There are days when a fellow just isn't up to scratch and days when he can set the world on Are without half trying. A lot of honest experimentation must be done before the speed-up is fitted to human capacities. The point of the execu- tive is that the problem must be solved in the psychological labora- tory—not by the sit-down strike. The strikers seek relief by slowing up the process. Industry seeks to solve it by determining exactly what is the trouble. “We will not be placed in the posi- tion of coercing anybody to join any particular union,” says the General Motors executive. “In almost any plant you will find about 20 per cent of the men who are enthusiastic unionists. Another 20 per cent will be just as strongly opposed to any | union. It's not that they have any more loyalty to the employer, or any- thing like that. Why should they have? It's up to them to get as much as they can for their labor and they think they can get more by being out of the union than in it. Then you will find about 60 per cent who aren't particularly enthusiastic either way. They are ready to jump whichever way they think is most profitable to them. Now we are asked deliberately to coerce this 60 per cent to join one union. We haven't consented to it—all misrepresentations to the con- trary. We never will consent to it We don’t care what organization our employes belong to.” Beyond this, of course, is the clash of fundamental philosophies—about as hopeless to argue over as whether the chicken or the egg comes first. Is wealth created by labor? 1s labor created by wealth and the personal profit motive? It is the question of the Sphinx. Bring Your OLD TUBES IN FOR FREE TEST FOR RADIO SERVICE 'Phone DI1.4700 RADICAL FORCES CHALLENGE LEWIS Communists’ Activities in Strikes May Force Liberty- Equality Swap. This is the fourth of a series of articles by Mr. White on the changing industrial scene in the United States. The writer has talk- ed with many leaders of labor and industry in gathering material for this series, subsequent articles of which will appear in The Evening Star. BY WILLIAM ALLEN WHITE. Developments in the last few days prove that a radical element, more radical than John L. Lewis, is trying to control and direct the labor unrest in this country. Any labor unrest is the meat and drink of the Communist. The Com- munist ordinarily is negligible in American politics and in American life. But communism is like cholera or bubonic plague; it is & symptom of malnutrition and is a louse disease. Nevertheless, sometimes it is danger- ous. And it is dangerous, not because of communism, but because of the social and economic maladjustment upon which communism feeds. Ten or & dozen Communists to the thousand can make a lot of trouble in a strike. Poasibly a few Commu- nists are stirring up outlaw strikes today. It may be this 1 per cent of communism in this C. I. O. that has been moving this sit-down strike faster and more radically than Lewis would lead it left to his own resources. In the end, the radical leadership will defeat Lewis unless he can check it. The general strike, with the rabble and the rabble rouser in the vicinity of a labor dispute, frequently, indeed nearly always, arouses middle-class fear, turns sentiment from the strikers and makes medicine for the boss. Middle Class Is Arbiter. In this country, as in England and in the Scandinavian countries, there is a distribution of this world's goods sufficiently equitable to make the mid- dle class the final arbiter of every dispute, economic, industrial and po- litical. The middle class pretty gen- erally turned to Roosevelt in the campaign, driven to him by a fear that Landon's supporters leaned too heavily toward a plutocracy. But, as the heat of this dispute rises, it becomes more and more evident that labor, under Lewis’ leadership, is taking short cuts to its objective. If his own strike is getting out of hand, and the mobs assemble and court orders are ignored, and if Governors hesitate while the President is silent, it takes no keen political observer to realize that the middle class may be on the march. | It could leave the President over- night. It would go if he permitted, without protest, the strikers to organ- | ize and militantly oppose th: forces | of law and order. Let a few Commu- | nists—if any—1 per cent in a thou- | sand, begin yelling in a mob, leti them lead the mob toward the police | or the militia, threatening an actual breach of the peace, and the Ameri-‘ can middle class would quickly forget | its fear of a plutocracy. In that hour the President would In brewing, it's the little things that count against you—if you don’t watch something more than beer—a social companion. little metal particles. D. C, WEDNESDAY MARCH 31, 1837 Copper BATHING COSTUME MADE OF METAL. DEE PATRICK Of Bisbee, Ariz., called the “Copper City,” wearing the very latest in copper bathing suits. The suit is made of cop- per thin as cloth and was ex- hibited at the Chamber of Commerce Style Show re- cently. —Wide World Photo. be unable to rally the middle class so long as his alliance with Lewis was even implicit by his silence. Two Currents in United States. Yet it is not all quite so simple as that. From the beginning, we have had two currents in American life, which sometimes run counter to each other: The desire for liberty and the desire for equality. [Equality has meant many things in this country. Before and immediately after the American Revolution, equality meant more or less social equality. “One man is as good as another!” “All men are born equal!” The constitutional pro- hibition of titles revealed that phase of equality. One hundred years ago, cquality; MODERN AUTOMOBILES WITH HIGH COMPRESSION ENGINES GIVE FINER PERFORMANCE WITH- BAYERSON OII. WORK! OLUMBIA them. Little grains of broken barley... little drops of such qualities that it has become Enough electricity to supply light and power to all the homes in either Milwaukee or Buffalo! That is the light and power required in the Home of BUDWEISER — virtually a city by itself. Covering 70 blocks, this plant has its own railroad system and its own water filtration plant. The demand for BUDWEISER made such facilities necessary. 2 PRESIDENT meant political equality somew] and the demand for racial equality before the law gave the abolitionists their issue. Since the Civil War, the desire for equality in the American heart has turned upon the desire to remove the deeply fundamental eco- nomic contrasts, the very rich and the very poor, from our industrial order. The phrase, “the equitable distri- bution of wealth,” which has been common and fairly respectable in American politics since Bryan's day, 40 years ago, is the basis of the present-day desire for equality. In the last campaign we called it security —social security. In the first Roose- velt campaign, it was known as “social and industrial justice,” but the aspiration for equality, as it has clashed with the ancient urge for lib- erty in this country, means today some sort of economic security. Equality Was Issue. Last year's campaign turned largely upon the issue of equality. Both par- ties demanded old age pensions and Jjob insurance. Both parties clamored for regulation of wages for women and children in industry. Both par- ties agreed that agriculture must be in some way subsidized or equalized in the contest with industry for rising prices. Indeed last Fall, in practically every phase of American political ex- pression when the campaign touched economic problems equality was the hinge upon which discussion swung, and equality in last year's campaign meant an extension of the privileges and immunities common to the middle class to the stratum industrially and economically just below the middle class. It may be taken as axiomatic that Lewis’ group, and to an extent those who follow Mr. Green and the A. F. of L., would be willing, if they were & considerable portion of their liber- ties for a small package of equality, sight unseen. A hundred years ago De Toqueville, a wise old Frenchman who toured this country and wrote about us, detected, for all our brave hurrah for liberty, that we had a sneaking partiality in our American hearts for equality when it was op- posed by liberty. He predicted that the time might come in America when the clash between liberty and equality | might turn this land to the support of a tyrant. Time for Trade May Come. Unless we can check the tendencies | of the time, unless we can straighten | the economic injustices which | out make the crowds gather and listen to the rabble-rousers on the streets of the great cities, the time to negoti- ate that trade of liberty for equality may be approaching. to see a dozen Communists in a thou- ADVERT[;EME T. conquer Acid- Stomach Troubles Way Doctors Do No wonder KALIN Antacid Powder is 50 popular. It is a treatment with a two-way function., such as a special- ist_might prescribe. First. it forms a coatng on the inside stomach wall and stops the harmful acids from ag- gravating the irritated tissues. Then it neutralizes the excess acids and thus aids in_restoring normal digestion. If you suffer from sour stomach. heart- burn. belching. gas cramps. acid_indi- gestion or other disorders caused by hyperacidity, over-indulgence or faulty diet—get a’ package of KALIN from your druggist today The first dose should give reliel Generous size pack- age only 75c. Your money back—if you don't agree it does more for your sick stomach than anything you ever used. Ask for genuine KALIN. sand giving direction to a movement that had no Communist inception and little real Communist aim. But the maladjustment of the times furnishes nourishment for the louse in the social cholera and in industrial bubonic plague and in our economic typhus. ‘They are spread by the louse only when the economic body is not strong and healthy. In the meantime the great masses of Americans are still on solid ground. The dominant middle class is keeping the wheels of industry going. Seven- tenths of the people are well fed, well clad and well housed. They are functioning mentally, morally, politi- cally, and, for the most part, eco- nomically as they have been for a generation. Danger Signal Winks. The department stores are filled. The movies are crowded. Radios and electric refrigerators are moving into 10,000 homes a day. We have 26,- 000,000 motor cars and the appliances and appurtenances thereunto apper- taining, including money to pay for good roads. Stream-lined trains hurry across the land, crowded to the upper berth. In the smallest grocery store in the country town 100 pounds of exotic foods, shipped from 500 to 1,000 miles, tempt wayfarers in the store windows. Some one eats those foods, some one wears the fine clothes flashed in the newspaper advertise- ments, some one whose name is legion buys all the gadgets and curlicues that population. And yet, in Michigan, in California, in Ohio, in every great industrial State | the danger signal is winking. Hun- dreds of thousands of men are restless, | temporarily jobless strikers, partly from their own choice, | better their jobs. And fate, the old | for liberty, is ballyhooing his wares to the restless millions who are think- ing about their bid. (Copyright, 1937, by the North American Newspaper Alliance Inc.) Autos Crowd Highways. TALLAHASSEE, Fla. Frank, State safety director, says that in February, peak month of Winter travel, there were from 110 to 120 | | automobiles to the mile on Florida highways. Inclose It is dangerous | indicate a commercially well-placed | A EDUCATORS HEAR C.U. VIGERECTOR Right Rev. Patrick McCor- mick Sees Some Teaching Obstacle to Religion. BY tre Associated Press. LOUISVILLE, Ky., March 31.—As- serting that university teaching “often offers obstacles to the spread of re- ligion,” the Right Rev. Patrick J. McCormack, vice rector of Catholis University, Washington, expressed in & sermon today the opinion that “our country needs the leavening influence of Catholic education more than ever before.” He preached to a large congregation, ‘Klnc]udlng high church dignitaries, at | the pontificial mass opening the | thirty-fourth annual convention of | the National Catholic Education Asso- ciation. Bishop Francis W. Howard, Covington, Ky., celebrated the mass. “How different is the status of the American university today whose pro= fessors often proclaim that they pro- fess no religious belief unless it be the creed of materialism, agnosticism or atheism,” Msgr. McCormick declared. Instead of being a help to the church, only too often university teaching offers the most serious obstacles to the seeking to | i | auctioneer who ha: ualif | sure of not being cheated, o trade | s equality Go. trade (). — Asher | | spread of religion and the promotion | of morality. | “We are not,” he continued, “un- American in promoting our religious | schools, but rather the perpetuators of | the best American tradition that re- garded the school as a necessity ad- junct of the church in the dissemina- tion of Christian truth.” Enroll for Classes Starting April 1 FRENCH Famous Conversational Berlits Metbod | THE BERLITZ SCHOOL GES 111y Conn. Ave, Also 10 Weeks PIMPLE SUFFERERS/ | HATE GOING OUT, umm o Travelers Course” Beat the rise in lumber pnces‘ by getting the necessary mate- | We can furnish | everything you'll need—flooring, | framing, windows, doors, paints, | rials now. hardware, etc., and if desired, will recommend a reliable con- tractor who will give you a com- plete, free estimate. Always Free Delivery | J. FRANK ELLY Lumber and Millwork 2121 Ga. Ave. NOrth 1341 IT'S FINE FOR ALL IRRITATIONS OF EXTERNAL SOURCE YOURE DANCING EVERY DANCE. YES , JANE, THANKS TO } CUTICURA SOAP AND ‘l OINTMENT || FREE sample, write || “Cuticura” Dept. 35, Malden, Mass. or rises in temperature...little oversights on timing. Watching and guarding against a multitude of such little things 24 hours a day has produced one brew | il MAKE THIS TEST! DRINK Budweiser FOR FIVE DAYS. ON THE SIXTH DAY TRY TO DRINK A SWEET BEER + YOU WILL WANT Budweiser’s FLAVOR THEREAFTER. Order a carton for your home’ NO DEPOSIT REQUIRED AMERICA'S SOCIAL COMPANION ANHEUSER.BUSCH, Inc., Washington, D.C., Branch Delaware Ave. & E St. S.W. a \ Distributors Telephone—Metropolitan 0812 H