The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-05-19

little children that she Is now so willingly making an effort to starve'
 By What Authoritys
 Now. Mir. Editor, as one of the great majority of open shop adherents, who believes and practices the theory that every man should have right to work and provide for his family as he esees fit, and one with two chill dren whom the city commission are striving to starve by their action with the Trades Council. simply be- cause their father does not carry q card, and one who is proud of the fact that he. by honest endeavor. is able to pay as much. and possibly more. taxes than all five members of the present city commission, who are cowardly enough to starve the ma jority of the children in the city of Birmingham in order to stand in with and satisfy the Trades Council, ask the city commission by what au- thority they can possibly allow the Trades Council to dictate to them, the representatives of the whole people the way in which they must spend the money of the people. who really put them in office and whose families they now endeavor to starve
 use the word cowardly because believe that any man who will take not only the food from my children but also the means to provide 1t, is not only coward but robber as we'll
 Seriously speaking. the matter oe publicly and under the guise of the law. taking peoples own food out of their mouths might be very serious matter. even in Birmingham, where Nr1x hn Tro at the city hall. noticed in the paper only last night where. if we only had a satisfactory auditorium We conld get the Southern Baptist convention here. Being Baptist only by adoption, I cannot speak for this Bantist convention but it is not reasonable to believe that any Chris tan denomination could conscien- tiously hold their convention in an auditorium built with the life's blood and food taken from the lives and mouths of helpless women and chil- dren to satisfy the Trades Council lust because their husbands and fathers happen to be too honest and manly to be forced to carry union cards
 Increased Cost of Work
 1t is fact known to every prop- VI VN III Ipii ttlln nam Wl0 at different times has had work done that such work done by card or union men of slaves. who are often forbidden to do an honest days work. costs from Is per cent to 50 per cent more than when done by open shop of free men who take a pride In doing an honest days work for an honest days pay Conse- quently. when the city commission assures the trades council that any work let by the city would be put upon an eight hour basis. which means a union basis, immediately all open-shop men were discharged from the Phillips high school and union or card men put in their places.
 This action of the city commission in allowing the trades council to dictate the spending of the s7.000,- 900 will cost the taxpayers many thousands of dollars. Is 1t reason able to suppose that the contractor of the Phillips High school. who se- cured this job by some s47.000 the cheapest bid. would discharge all of his open shop men and fill their places with union men at a much ! higher cost, say, from Is per cent to so per cent more. to him, when his work was progressing nicely. without his having been assured or guaranteed that this difference would be made up in some way?' It occurs to me that If such is the case and if this assurance of the city commission to the trades council that all work let by the city would hereafter be done on the eight-hour basis. which of course means that only union men can work on this work. as is evidenced by the tac- tics just used on the Phillips high school. then the public and especially tro nroperty-ow and taxpayers