The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-07-11
TEXTILE BARONS
BOAST OF CHEAP
LABOR IN SOUTH
Backed by Power Trust
in Anti-Union War
By HARVEY O,CONNOR.

WASHINGTON, (FP) July IO.-LI
2, the power trust is now the great
American octopus, with its tentacles
sucking profits from the labor of
every worker in electrified industry,
then the textile worker is due to take
his place among the worst exploited
/ in the country.
Back of the rapidly expanding tex
tile industry Of the south stands the
/ power trust-General Electric and its
| battling array of subsidiaIies-repre-
scented in Alabama Power, Carolina
Light & Power, Tennessee Electric
Power, Georgia Power, Texas Light
& Power and the friendly competitor
| Duke Power, with it's monopoly of
the Piedmont Carolinas. Textiles are
the main industrial power consumers
below the Mason and Dixon line, and
in turn the power companies are the
main boosters for textiles, with glow
ing advertisements in all national
business magazines reckoning New
England textiles south.
Fight For Muscle SchOals.
The bitter unrelenting struggle the
power trust is waging in congress
against public operation Of Muscle
Shoals on the Tennessee River is
well-justified from it's own point of
view. At present it has undisputed
hegemony over the most rapidly ex-
panding industrial section in Ameri-
ca; but with Muscle Shoals operated
by the people and selling juice at
cost, the latest and safest profit
source in the world would vanish.
Liberal reserves of half-famished
Anglo-Saxon labor, now languishing
in the backward hill regions of the
south, are the main lure held out by
the power companies, which nowhere
boast of cheap power in comparison
with New England steam power. Alb
sence Of competition coupled with
cheap labor bait in fact enable the
southern branches of the power trust
to ignore their own comparatively
high prices in their glowing adver-
/ tisements.
Boast of Cheap Labor.
"The lowest taxes in eight textile
states" boasts the Alabama Power
Co. in advising northern mills not to
| Iiquidate, but come south. 'We have
never had general strike" this COM
pany boasts. eve have ample re-
serves of Anglo-Saxon workers wait
ing for your mill doors to open"
Tennessee has the kind of labor
you would like to employ" advises
the Tennessee Electric Power Co.
"Our labor situation is ideal with 100
per cent native workers possessing
loyalty and willingness to work.
Georgia leads in the number Of
eastern mills locating in the south, :"
declares Georgia Power. Georgia
has a reserve of efficient, willing
Anglo-Saxon workers, ready to man
your mills and cut your costs. Tex
tile profits reach their highest tide in
Georgia"
"The fact that more men than
women are employed in the present
industries has created surplus of
female labor" advises Duke Power
"That suggests opportunities for
more knitting mills, hosiery mills,
silk mills and garment factories. Less
than 4 of our total labor is now
engaged in industry"
No Union: Low Wages.
"Con1e where there is an adequate
labor supply" is the enticement Of
Texas Light & Power, whose slogan
is Texas for Textiles We have the
greatest untapped labor supply OF
this country. Hundreds of thousands
of people here are available for en-
ployment. They don't participate in
labor disturbances. They don't be-
lieve m the 5-day week or in 48-houl
laws
The president of this company was
the featured speaker before the re-
cent Dallas convention of Texas Cot
ton Manufacturers Association. He
glowhd over the steady influx OF
eastern mill owners, enticed to Texas
| by tie power company's promotion
| department. With both speaker ant
audience agreed on the "untapped la
Dor supply" as an inexhaustiblt
J source of profits for both, there was
{ no discussion of the possibility OF
lower power prices or of the toll pait
by Texas industry to Texas Power &
, Light, American Light 81 Power
Electric Bond and Share and Gen
eral Electric, the power trusts finan.
cial apparatus for extracting profits
from Texas industry and workers.