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FHE BUTLER COUNTY PRESS. VOL. XXXVI. No. 11 HAMILTON, OHIO, FRIDAY, JUNE 19, 1936 ONE DOLLAR PER YEAR

With Huge Wealth at Command Three of "Big Four" Paid Half Of Employes Only $11 Per Week

By GEORGE L. KNAPP Washington, D. C. (ILNS)—The

three biggest of the Big Four to­bacco companies had surpluses on hand at the beginning of the present year totalling just under $150,000,000.

American Tobacco Co. had a surplus of $65,557,385; Liggett & Myers, $41,-871,071; J. R. Reynolds, $42,495,154. The exact total of the three—accord­ing to their own reports—was $149,-923,610.

But these three companies, with the wealth of Croesus in their vaults, are among the companies paying less than $11 a week to the women who stem their tobacco by hand.

The Women's Bureau of the De­partment of Labor made an investi­gation of the current payrolls of the stemmery departments of three branches of the tobacco industry; cigarettes, chewing tobacco and deal­ers. Payroll figures were gathered for 5,125 workers.

Wages Low as 11.9c Hourly In this study, the bureau uses the

median wage instead of the average of wagps. The median wage may be described as the exact middle of the payroll; half the employes get more, and half get less. With this explana­tion, let us quote the report:

"Hand stemmers had a higher median of hourly earnings in cigarette factories than in chew­ing tobacco factories or in deal­ers' establishments. In cigarette factories, the median wage was 27 cents an hour; in chewing tobacco factories, 24.7 cents an hour; in dealers' establishments, 11.9 cents an hour.

"In the last named (dealers' estab­lishments) no employe averaged as much as 22% cents an hour; in the other two branches, some hand stem­mers received as high as 40 cents an hour."

There were exactly 40 employes out of the 5,125 who got this wage of 40 cents an hour; 33 in cigarette factories and seven in chewing tobacco factories. The report goes on:

"The median of the week's earnings of 1,141 stemmers in cigarette factory

l). S. AGENCIES ~ Investigate Beating of Un­

ion President

Washington, D. C. (ILNS)—Agents have been assigned by the department of labor and the National Labor Rela­tions Board to probe the beating of Sherman Dalymple, president of the United Rubber Workers of America.

The beating occurred at Gadsden, Alabama; where the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. has a large plant; and where it has been discharging men who showed an interest in union work. Dalymple spoke at a mass meeting to which all employes of the plant were invited.

Eggs were thrown at'Dalrymple and a small riot started when the police entered; and, instead of arresting the rioters, arrested Dalymple, led him out of the building, and released him. He started for his hotel and had nearly reached it when two men seized his arms and pinned them behind his back, two more held his hair so that he could not dodge; and the rest of a sizable mob pummelled his face and head.

He asked permission of the sheriff to remain over night so as to get medical attention. The sheriff answer ed that the whole city was roused, and that he could not guarantee pro­tection. Dalymple's wife drove him to another town where he got treat­ment.

The attack on Dalymple had an echo in Akron, Ohio, where workers in one big plant staged a 24-hour "sit down" strike in protest.

stemmeries, whose working hours were 39 and 40, was $11."

In other words, these three biggest members of the Big Four, with al­most $150,000,000 laid by in spare cash, pay half the workers in an es­sential part of their business less than $11 a week. One of these companies has paid its president as high as $20,000 dollars a week, more than a million dollars a year. And not a member of the Big Four gang seems able to blush at such disgraceful wages.

It should not be forgotten that the Big Four make the non-union cigar­ettes.

Stemmery Pay Even Worse It is true that dealers' stemmeries

pay even worse wages. The median wage in these plants was $6.55 a week for those who worked 55 hours,' and for those who got in only 28 hours a week. But who buys the tobacco from these dealers? The Big Four obviously buy a large share of it; and for every pound they buy, they help to establish wages of less than 12 cents an hour, $3.60 for a 28-hour week.

NLRB IS ENJOINED By Federal Court in Texas

Strike

El Paso, Tex. (ILNS)—Federal Judge Charles A. Boynton, of the West Texas district, has declared the national labor relations act unconsti­tutional, and issued a permanent in­junction against the NLRB in Wash­ington.

This action of Judge Boyton is di­rectly contrary to that of his imme­diate superior, the federal circuit court sitting at New Orleans. Less than a week ago, in the Bradley Lum­ber case, the circuit court denied an injunction against the board, and held the national labor relations act con­stitutional. Judge Boynton's decision, on appeal, goes straight to this Cir­cuit court.

NLRB Hearings Forbidden The injunction was sought by the

El Paso Electric Co., a Stone & Web­ster subsidiary. The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers complained to the labor board last fall of the unfair labor practices of the company. The company delayed hearings as long as it could, and sent one of its legal staff to Washington to ask a postponement. The labor board refused to postpone the case, but the representative of the company sent a telegram to Texas saying that the board had consented.

The result of this misrepresenta tion was an all-around snarl, only recently straightened out. Meantime, the Electrical Workers are on strike, and the board has been holding hear­ings on their charges against the com­pany. These hearings are forbidden by Boynton's injunction.

Harks Back to Ancient Law Labor men here say that Judge

Boynton, in one part of his decision, •goes back to the Middle Ages.-

"The constitutional questions here involved are of grave importance, says Boynton in a 32-page decision, "se­riously affecting the relations be tween employers and employes, a sub­ject heretofore always regarded as and held to be a domestic relation, local in its nature."

Labor leaders hold that it is sim­ply silly to talk about "domestic rela­tions" between an employing corpora­tion, with head quarters in New York, and perhaps 100,000 employes scatter? ed over the entire country.

Judge Boyton was appointed by President Coolidge, December 16,1924

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U. S. Courts Deny Injunctions To Cripple Labor Board9s Work

Washington, D. C. (ILNS)—Two important legal victories have been won by the National Labor Relations Board in pending injunction suits.

At San Francisco federal district Judge Harold Louderbach denied the petition of the Moore Drydock Co. which sought to restrain the board from conducting a secret election to determine the choice of the workers for representatives in dealing with the company.

Judge Louderbach dismissed the company's complaint.

The Drydock Company is engaged in ship building on the Oakland estuary and employs 340 workers. 241 of the workers signed the peti­tion asking the board to conduct an election to determine whether Local 11, Marine and Shipbuilding Workers of America is their choice for a repre­sentative in collective bargaining. In its suit for injunction the company had claimed that the holding of an election would irreparably injure its labor relations, and that the National labor relations act is unconstitutional.

Lumber Company Again Loses A second denial of an injunction

was in the case of the Bradley Lum­ber Co. of Warren, Arkansas. This company has previously been denied a restraining order by Federal Dis­trict Judge Wayne G. Borah at New Orleans. It had appealed to the cir­cuit court cf appeals for the 5th circuit, and had been denied a stay pending the appeal. When the board attempted to conduct a hearing at Warren last winter it was restrained on the order oi^a state judge. The hearing was moved to New Orleans, witnesses being taken to New Orleans in busses, and the attempted restraint subsequently removed.

A wire received by the board an­nounced that the 5th circuit court of appeals has finally denied the company's suit. The Bradley Lum­ber Co. is charged with the dismissal of a number of workers because they joined the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners. The case is now before the board for decision.

Board's Jurisdiction Upheld

Judge Sibley, for the court, in the opinion wrote as follows concerning the jurisdiction of the board in cases affecting interstate commerce:

"For a long period congress has considered and legislated upon diffi­culties relating to labor unions and strikes as burdening and impeding in­terstate and foreign commerce. That they may be constitutionally regu­lated in much the same way as this act proposes when affecting inter­state railroad transportation was de­cided in Texas and New Orleans R. R. Co. vs. The Brotherhood, 281 U. S. 548. But interstate railroad trans­portation is only one field of inter­state commerce. Other modes of transportation of person and prop­erty, interstate distribution of goods by pipe line, and of information by

telephone, telegraph and radio are other fields.

"Manufacture, mining and agricul­

ture in themselves are not interstate commerce although the product will

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FARM WOMEN CHEER Stirring Plea for Fight To

End War Warfnngton, D. C. (ILNS)—"Lis­

ten! Do you farm women not know that war keeps you poor; that your nation spends too much money for guns, airplanes and poison gas, and too little for farm welfare?"

This was the question flung by Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, militant worker for peace, at the 1,500 representatives of the Associated Country Women of the World gathered here in conven­tion.

Denouncing war as "Enemy No. 1 of everything that is good in the world," she continued: "Do you know that every nation builds too many warships and too few friendships? Do you not know that the worst blow to your farm would be the death of your son or sons on a battlefield?"

"Say these things to your family, your husband, your sons, your neigh­bors. Will they pronounce you a fanatic? They will, and it is by the activity of fanatics alone that war will be abolished. Make fanatics of your family and neighbors and you will not feel lonesome."

When Mrs. Catt finished speaking: the throngs of women representing twenty-three nations of the world rose to acclaim her.

Earlier in the conference the farm women decided to approve project in­volving the international exchange of handicraft through which they hope to help cement worldwide understand­ing and friendship.

.Trenton, N. J. (ILNS)—Weekly factory payrolls in this state went up $79,194 in April, according to John J. Toohey, state labor commissioner. The gain in employment, however, was less than 1 per cent. A considerable amount of real estate in New Jersey has changed hands recently, as a pre­lude to the construction of housing.

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