The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1929-10-26

Negro slavery DeIOre the ClVA WAL
want no one to take my word
for it. still less DO I want any one
to take the word of those malign
foreign" agitators who recently
have. for reasons mysterious but
certainly evil, been stirring up dis
order in the fair state of North
Carolina
Luxury to Inferno
But do want every fall and win
ter visitor to Asheville to drive over
oh, an hour will do it; an hour
will take them from luxury to in
ferno-and see for themselves the
houses and the people of the Marion
Manufacturing Company and the
Clinchfield mills.
And it would only have been rea-
sonable to have insisted that be-
fore he went home Ramsay Mac
Donald should go to Marion, that ne
might see what our American de-
mocracy and honor and justice
really are. He would have seen IN
Marion a standard of life and gov
eminent much worse than the worst
features of the cotton mills In his
Lancashire and Yorkshire.
A year ago I was in those cotton
milling towns of Mr.. Macdonald S
Lancashire, where, according to
every Just theory, the condition OF
the workers is the abomination OF
desolation. Well, their houses, their
pubs, their food, their self-respect
are some three or four hundred per
cent SUPERIOR to those of the work
ers in Marion NJ c.
Shacks Thin as Paper
In Lancashire, there are grim
stone houses which merely keep out
the bitter wind In Marion, there
are paper-thin shacks which invite
the cold that even in his balmy and
salubrious south-now let's be fair!
Probably January and February are
practically tropical, In North Caro-
lima, in lovely Marion, famous Mar
ion. North Carolina.
But in October, 1929, was so cold
in the Noble hotel at, Marion when
slept that I had to add my over
coat to the one blanket. Doubtless
it is much warmer in January, how
ever. SO that the mill workers are
Jolly and warm in heir f1imsy shacks.
And in Lancashire, where they
haven't the benefit of American eff
f1ciency and justice, the poor work.
ers have only saloons-"public
houses" they call them, in their 1g-
norant dialect-and movies and de-
batting clubs and spacious parks and
public baths to which to go in the
evening. after the days work.
Whereas, in Marion, that south
ern paradise in which northe~S
capital is pot uninterested, the
workers could, If it we're only open
now. either stay home or go to the
company-owned Y. M. c. A, wheSI
they can either swim Or bowl, per-
fectly free, except that both pool
and bowling alleys are charged for.
huHtCu WYNN AuU
But if the ASheville tourists drive
over to Marion, beg that they will
not stay too long-I beg that they
will return to their hotels by day
light, for in Marion they will be
afraid of being shot if they make
too many inquiries. The first night
I was there, pleasant gentleman
went around town looking for me
with gun.
In the dining room of the hotel
you look about to see who is listen
ing to you before you talk. When
you go to bed. you wonder whether
you will be pulled out of 1t before
morning by mob of realtors, bank
ers, and clergymen. 1t sounds
fantastic and improbable, doesn't
it?
I am told that 100 per cent
Americanization is now cutie the
choicest condition in the world.
Well, then! In Marion there is a
population Of only about one per
cent of foreign born; in the mills
there is practically no labor that
does not come from what is
laughingly known as pure Anglo
Saxon blood"
And the mill-village illumina ting
ly shows what we do to such IN
defled peoples; what the contrast
is between the treatment in these
United States Of pure stock and Of
those foreign elements whom we
must keep out Of America by con-
stantly revised immigration quota
if we are to have supply of cheap
and satisfied labor"
Pastors Are Perfect
One thing is perfect in Marion.
however sympathetic the druggists
and bankers and undertakers-now
so well profiting thereto the cause
of plain, overalled laboring men,
there is not one break among the
regular pastors.
The only ministers of God who
are standing by the workers are a
mEAE~ ~R