The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1929-05-03
North Carolina Reaps Fruits Of Policy
Aimed to Lure or-Exploiting Mills
interviewed State Officials


"A visit was made at Raleigh, the
state capital, for the purpose of inter
viewing some of the state officials,
One of these was the newly appointed
state commissioner of labor. The
information he gave cast a flood of
light upon the industrial policy of of
ficialdom in North Carolina at that
time. The state government was
eager to secure capital from the
north for the purpose of developing
its industries. 1t was seeking to Sc
cure the building up in the state of
large industries, financed and directed
by northerns. The inducement the
state was offering was as cheap and
helpless labor as could be found in
any state of the Union.
among the pamphlets issued by
the state government and mailed in
large numbers to northern bankers
and industrialists was one which was
probably the frankest invitation for
outside capital to come in and exploit
native labor which has ever been is
sued in this country. This invitation
to outsiders to come in and exploit
North Carolina labor read as follows:
A fine chance for cotton mill in
vestment in North Carolina
No strikes No laws regulating
the hours of labor and the age of en-
ployment, cheap labor and the home
of the cotton plant.
Northern capital cannot find a
better investment than cotton manu-
featuring in North Carolina with her
fine waterpower and grand climate.
This department will be pleased
to give any information desired in
regard to sights, power, etc.
"As this circular had been issued
by the North Carolina department of
labor, it is not surprising that bank
ers and manufactures heavily invest
ing in North Carolina, expected the
state authorities to make good. If
little children and women have been
exploited in the cotton mills of North
Carolina, the state authorities have
been fully as responsible as those who
invested their money in the cotton
mills and other industries.
Workers Still Exploited
Progress has been made in enact
ing legislation protecting women and
children in North Carolina and other
southern textile states, but when we
read that in the mills in Elizabethton
and many other places, women's
wages are as low as So week; when
we learn that it is necessary for all
of the members of the family to work
so that the income will be sufficient
to sustain them; when we learn that
! women work ten and more hours per
day. and that a Prussian-like disci-
hours, it is not difficult to understand
that the wage earners in this section
of the country are still mercilessly
exploited.
"The willingness to have its labor
exploited has not been confined to
North Carolina. 1t is found in prac-
tically every textile and industrial
section of these southern states.
The inducement is still held out to
bankers and manufacturers. Their at
tention is still called to the fact that
the hours of labor are longer than
elsewhere, and the wages lower, and
that there is less legislation protect
ing labor.
what has recently occurred in the
textile industry is an evidence that
the southern wage Garner is reaching
a determination to protect his in
terests in the same way which other
workmen have found so effective
through trade union organization"