The review. [volume] (High Point, N.C.) 1908-19??, 1919-09-18

State Official Considers Collective
Bargaining Main Question Involved.
Shall Labor Have Right to Organ
ize?
Right to collective bargaining,
claimed by labor as it's legitimate priv
ilege, is the main question involved in
the Charlotte and High Point indus
trial disturbances, according to a state
official, who was asked by a northern
paper for information as to conditions
hin North Carolina.
Not strikes but lockouts is declared
to be the case in Charlotte, where the
union men are demanding recognition
of the Amalgamated Association of
Street and Electrical Employees, and
the same is understood to be the case
in High Point, where nearly a half
hundred furniture factories have been
idle for three weeks. The demands
of the employees, even to the recogni-
ton of a local union, not affiliated,
| however, with the parent organization,
are understood to have been met in
| Charlotte by the street car company.
Question OF ReCO9nICIOns
Rather surprising is the informa-
ton that not more than 5000 people
are involved in the various disputes in
Charlotte, High Point and other towns
in the state. Of this number less than
200 are directly concerned in the Char
lotte situation.
The same question was involved in
strikes of textile workers in Charlotte
and Concord. Not until Governor
Beckett interviewed were these strikes
settled upon the basis of an "open
shop" and recognition of the textile
unions by the manufacturers.
President Taylor, of the Southern
Public Utilities Company, is firm IN
his determination not to recognize the
parent organization, and has won his
fight to the point where he has cars IN
operation in Charlotte. Order has
been restored, the militia, sent for the
sole purpose of preserving the peace
and dignity of the state, has return
ed home, and on the surface at least
the fight is apparently over.
Has labor lost it's fight for recognl-
ton in Charlotte? That is question
uppermOst in the minds of many peo-
pie of the state. Men in close t0uch
with Industrial conditions do not BE-
lieve the fight is over by any means
They do not look for further disorder
in Charlotte; they hope that the re-
cent riot may be sufficient lesson 10
the state to prevent any further out
breaks elsewhere.
Public sentiment must determine tne
outcome of the issue, they feel II inc
people of Charlotte, or the majority u
them, believe that the present az
is just and right, then le"u-
ers of opinion in Raleigh feel that ~
will continue If it is not consldeTeu
right and just by the people, then
they predict that it will De maze 0o'
not through violence, but through
peacefu1means.
The Charlotte dispute is more IMAM
a local affair, however. Both VIC
Southern Public Utilities COMPANY
it's spokesman, President ray
lor, and organized labor through 10
various leaders have expressed the ~
lief that the Queen City is the pl'o'@'
point in the fight for. collective O~-
gaining. 80,
The reason for such belief IS planl
It is the industrial center OF the St"'J
in many ways. The question lnVot,oN
is one primarily concerning an hlu"
trial community. 1t is logical 10 a.
sumo that it will be fought out d. 'D
Industrial center, And the contest -
still on.
Labor leaders consider recogni,l4
Of the parent organization an ansolus
essential because without the alu %"u
of their brothers ,,o
recognize that in any fight they 4Sov
such odds against them that :. ie
could never hope to win. lndeeu'
now primarily a question OF enouf f,,rn,,
involved in High Point. Tne 1"d
ture factories have shut their aoots'
and the Iaboring men walk the S'lo ,bon
It is only a question of time WIZ
they must return to work.