The Connecticut labor news., 1923-09-01

II tHe On1On man Q1Qnt knOW nlS Connecticut, and especially the mill town section he might believe the following story of a modern Utopia which was broadcasted through the New York Evening Sun and Globe and then sneaked onto the Associated Press and other news wires and sent over the country If 1t was only half as good as the writer says,> Plainfeld would inded be an Arcadia and there wouldn't De enough room in the town to care for all that would seek to To- cate there. But ask Charlie Williams or any of the other union mill work CTS who live in Plainheld what the conditions are and you will find their views far different from the pen pie ture about the town. It was headed:: JOBLESS TOWN GOES
 MOTORING WHEN ONLY
 MILL SHUTS DOWN How Do They Do It? The Answer
 Is $7oo,ooo in Savings Among I,5oo
 Population in P1ainfe1d,
 Workers E1ysium.
 That's fine for a starter, but the rest is enough to make you turn green with envy, especially if yon chanced to see the story spread over the first page of a big New York Qd1ly. II redQ III part.
 Plainfeld, Connecticut, is having a weeks vacation. The Lawton Mills, which furnish the village with em- the cotton operatives have for the or seashore for change of scene and air.
 "Motored off" the skeptical might question. Yes, exactly. There isn't any car census in Plainheld but a conservative estimate places the mum Der of cars as one for every second family
 With $7oo,ooo in the savings bank, this village, with an estimated popu- lation of I,5oo, feels that 1t can take a vacation without pang. It's a vacation without pay, but the mill workers don't care. When the ques- ton of whether they would prefer short time or a close down of the mills-one or the other being neces- sary because of slump in business with one accord they said vacation" Far from regretting the necessity for the shutdown, they rejoiced in the prospect of a weeks liberty
 Will any of the families suffer be- cause of the loss of pay for the week?" The Sun and The Globe rep resentative asked leading resident.
 "No, indeed" said the Plainfeld ex- pert There isn't any family here really in poverty except one, and that one case IS due to the husband having run off and left them.'
 Labor troubles are unknown in this Connecticut mill town. Many of the workers are union members and at rare intervals some /outsider unac- quainted with the advantages of some one branch of the work a closed shop. But his efforts met with little response. The men prefer to have things remain as they are and union and non-union operatives work side by side, nobody knowing which is which.
 There are other remarkable features of this mill village. For one thing there isn't vestige of a slum any and the railroad station is the only ugly and dirty structure in the place.
 Browning wonder of alto New Yorker at least-there are beautiful dwellings to be had by the mill op- eratives-dwellings that would make the suburbanite green with envy-for a rental of from says to $4.5o week. These houses are all beautifully kept and have hard wood interior trim and floors, bath rooms, hot and cold wa ter, and electric lights. The smaller dwellings rave six rooms and bath and the larger seven rooms and yer andas The electric light is furnished by the company.
 Inn for Transients.
 Another amazing feature of the Lawton Mills enterprise IS the Law ton Inn, which is open to general transient patronage but was erected and is maintained with the object of a comfortable living place for transient operatives who have not yet obtained residences.
 Pay is good at the Lawton Mills, as nigh as anywhere in the cotton goods business. It has been said that the operatives in Plainfeld are the highest paid in the cotton i business, but the managers make no such claim. The scale varies one way 1 md another in the different shops and or this reason they do not want to make comparisons with other mills. | The weekly pay roll of its. 900 opera ives averages about $25,ooo and the | wages range from SIS 90 for yardmen |