Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1919-11-18
Textile WORKERS ORGANIZE
Cotton Mil Employees Of YOfkVllle
Form Branch OF National Union.
RITCH DELIVERED STRONG SPEECH

That Their Only Salvation Lies il
orsarization-Says Unionism Re-
quires Honest Labor and Homes
Pay.
Addressing an audience Of textile
workers, employees of the Cannon
Neely and Travora cotton mills, prin-
cipally, Marvin l.. Ritch, attorney OF
Charlotte and southern organizer fol
the Textile Workers Union Of the
American Federation of Labor, spoke
in the courthouse here Friday evening
Following Mr.. Ritch's speech, organi-
zation of a local textile union was ef-
fected, composed principally of en-
ployes of the Cannon mill with a
sprinkling from the Nicely and Travora
mills. Officers were elected as fol-
lows: V. c. Smith, president; ]. W.
Keller, vice president; S. D. Boyd, Sec
retary; c. Y. White, financial secre-
tary; ]. w. Ramsey, warden; j. c,
Gardner, conductor. Eighty-four men
and women workers joined the union
Friday evening and the promoters of
the organization said that they had in
hand the names of a large number OF
others who propose to join.
In the course of his address in advo-
cacy of textile unionism Friday even
ing Mr.. Ritch who has been mentioned
as a candidate for congress from the
Ninth North Carolina district to sue
ceed Judge e. Y. Webb. paid his re-
spects to the corporation owned
newspapers, especially the Charlotte
Observer and the Charlotte News which
he characterized as dirty sculilous
sheets which labor or the friends OF
labor could not buy for any amount OF
money, ripped the cotton mill owners
I'D the back, denounced the farmers as
the greatest bunch of grouches and
heads on earth and the enemies
of mill workers and charged that they
were lined up with the mill owners
against the mill workers, denied that
he was a candidate for congress now
although 1 am going there yet" and
told the audience that they could or
ganize or not as they pleased; but
that their only salvation lay in Or
ganization. sr,I tl,s4,
o. "a: Have: Already Benefited.
Whether you organize or not he told
his audience you have already received
untold benefits through union organi-
zation in other towns, especially in
North Carolina, where every textile
center between Charlotte and Sails
bury is organized, where there are &c.
600 textile union workers who are go
ing to stand regardless Of what you
do You have recently received in
creases in wages without asking for
them. You have better homes and
55-hour week. You would never have
gotten that increase in wages had 1t
not been for union organization at
Kannapolis and in Rock Hill and IN
Charlotte and other places. Your mill
owners here, seeing what the union has
required of them elsewhere have volun-
tarily come across to you in the hope
of keeping you satisfied. If you or
ganize you are not only in better posi-
ton than ever to take care of your
self: but you are helping textile work
ers in other towns on and up.
Don't get the idea that by joining the
union you get license to loaf on the
Job. Don't think that if you are a
union member you may commit mis-
demeanor and that your membership
in the union will back you in it. Not
a bit of it. Union principles demand
that you give fair and honest labor.
But union principle at the same time
demands that you receive fair wage
for YOUR labor, that you be treated as
men and not as slaves, that through
YOUR requirement of self respect your
selves you may demand the self re-
spect of everybody.
Employees to Blame.
Your employers have little if any
respect for you now. You know it as
we'll as l know it. Your employer
builds for you good homes and gives
YOU comfortable surroundings. But al
the same time when he drives through
your village in his big Cadillac he turns
his head neither to the right nor to
the left 1t is largely your fault
Many of you have not been worthy oi
respect. You have let owners and
bosses do you any old sort of way
You come to the mills with nothing
YOU have accumulated nothing and yot
are going away with nothing. Many o1
YOU have not had the sticking quality
You have been content to stay in Z
village a few weeks and then taking
a notion to go elsewhere you have pu
YOUR old bedstead which has beer
moved about so much that the chinche:
have not had time to build nest int
il and all the rest Of your furniture ant
property in a one horse wagon, hun;
a greasy frying pan on the back ant
and tied two poor old hound dogs t
the back of the wagon and moved else
where so fast, with never a though
about anything except where yoI
might be going next, until nObod,
would have any interest in you. NoI
must be steady and you must line u