The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1919-10-22

soft words, but actual violence if that
be necessary.
That apprehension does exist in various
parts of the country is made clear by or
ders recently received by one of the great
industries which in war times was en-
ployed to the capacity of its plants to
manufacturing arms and munitions OF
war. Soon after the recent unrest and
the occasional outburst of somethink like
frenzy demonstrated that a situation
which might become serious if not fully
met this corporation began to receive or
ders for the manufacture of so-called
riot guns. These orders came from the
authorities in many communities. Some
of them requested that the guns be man
ufactured and delivered as speedily as
possible. Today this corporation is
pushing the manufacture of these riot
guns to the limit of it's capacity.
WHAT is A RIOT GUN?
The riot gun can be briefly described
as fowling piece or shotgun which has
been cut in two in the middle of the
barrel This makes the weapon very
short one and convenient to handle. 1t
is the purpose to load it with buckshot
1t is of the type suggested when the war
was in progress to the government for
use by American soldiers in France. OBJ
lection was made to it on the ground
that it was not a fair and honorable
method OF warfare.
But for the purpose of subduing a mob
no weapon can probably exceed it in eff
ficiency. Tt can be used at very short
range. The buckshot scatters and few
men with weapons of this kind which
they have become expert in handling,
can easily stand off and then defeat q
mob greatly outnumbering them. The
presumption is tina these orders repre-
sent the desire of community officials
70 tota ctoh 111or a.
| licemen and others who are called into
service so that a mob can be scattered
and riot ended The fact that the or
ders come from many parts of the
United States makes it clear that appre-
hension exists in some of the large CEN
ters Some of the authorities are per-
suaded that nothing except aggressive
attack, such as the riot rifle makes pos
sible, will conquer those of radical ten
dency drive them into their hiding
places and cause them to recognize the
authority and supremacy of law.
| There is no doubt that Secretary
Baker has information which justified
him not only in making the address
which contained the promise of aid, but
which also conveyed a monition; for I'M
less he had information 1ustifying this
public statement he would not have felt
called upon to send Geographic dis
| patches to the governors of every state.
which contained promise of aid from the
federal government in case the state
authorities found that aid of that kind
was necessary.
AS IT WAS IN 1906
That the men who work for wages
have not been on the whole i'll treated
or compelled to labor for wages barely
sufficient to support themselves and
their families is shown by a record of
| what took place in the year 1906 About
/ Al ~. Ia
later the industrial leaders of the coun-
try, or many of them, decided to recog-
nize in substantial way the services of
their wage earners. There were added in
that year an aggregate of 500, 100000 to
the wages Of the railroad employees. In
creases of from to 10 per cent in wages
were made by the employees of almost all
the roads in the east, and as many OF
the roads in the west and in the south.
The managers of the textile mills in
Rhode Island and Massachusetts,. volun-
tarily increased the wages of their en-
ployes. the aggregate amounting to con-
siderably more than s100,0o0,00o
WHAT STEEL CORPORATION DID
The United States Steel corporation
rave an increase of wages at the rate OF
10 cents day to all the common labor
ers This increase was unsolicited. 1t
was made because the managers OF the
corporation desired to acknowledge the
loyalty and efficiency of their employees
throughout the year. Later, when there
was a depression in the steel trade the
corporation made no reduction in wages.
In addition to that the corporation Of
fered an opportunity to employees to sub
scribe for preferred stock below market
quotations and 1900 employees took "a
600 900 shares. The Standard Oil COM
pany made general increase in wages
without any solicitation to employees
From to 10 per cent was added to the
wages of all the men employed in the
refineries and some 100000 men were
in this way benefited. The larger ex-
press companies also increased the
wages of their employees without any So
licitation. For IA years such recognition
of LOYALTY and efficiency has been the
policy of the great industrial corpora
lions of the United States. And it no
doubt explains in part the fact that so
many of the employees have not been per-
suaded to join in the strikes which have
been so prevalent this fall