The Indianapolis times., 1929-04-10
Hoover-and Textile Labor


Prosperity through labor-saHing invention, mass
production Standardization and elimination OF waste;
through simultaneously decreasing prices and increas
ing profits through higher wages and shorter hours.
That formula is recognized by the forward-lookng
industrial leaders of our time.
1t is essentially an American discovery. 1t Is this
nations contribution toward what Herbert Hoover SO
strongly emphasized in his campaign-the abolition
of poverty.
Hoover himself more than any other man in public
life today, has grasped that paradox OF prosperity
through high wages and short hours. He says:
There has been revolution through shifting of
basic ideas on the part of both business and labor
The larg majority Of both sides today willingly accept
the fundamental principle that the highest possible
wages are the road to increased consumption of goods
and thereby to prosperity.
Both accept the fundamental fact that greater
efficiency. larger application OF mechanical devices
and full personal efforts the road to cheaper
costs lower prices and thus again to wider conSump
ton and larger production Both discard the ancient
contention that labor is an economic commodity
Both realize that labor entitled to participation in
the benefits of increased efficiency.
If we are able by labor-saving machinery and re-
ducon of waste to decrease the cost of production of
an article we know by experience that a train of
consequences of the highest Importance follows
Wages in that industry will rise prices decrease con-
sumption increase at home and in our foreign mar
kets. the demand for labor enlarged and our STAN
dards of living improved. As we transfer
the burden from the back of men TO the machine, we
increase the wages of workers We increase their
buying power. We create demand for new COM
modities and new service"
=, And from all that, Hoover voices this vision:
My conception of America is land where man
and woman may walk in ordered freedom in the in
0f theV
may enjoy the advantages of wealth not concentrated
in tie HANDS OF the few but spread through the lives
Of all where they build and safeguard their homes.
enc give 70 their children the fullest advantages and
opportunities Of American life where every shall
he respected in the faith that his conscience and his
heart direct hm to follow; where a contented and
happy people secure in their liberties free from pow
ertv and fear shall have the leisure and impulse to
seek .uer life
Against that conception to the working cut OF
which most OF Americas industries are contributing,
We view the situation that has been permitted to grow
up in the southern textile centers; situation which in
terms both of wages and working conditions amounts
10 little less than industrial slavery-ong hours of
labor by women and children, without adequate acci
dent or health safeguards; working sometimes for
vases as low as IS or S8 week.
And to enforce that condition. the kidnapping from
one OF those southern ceners of men who seek to cor
rect the archaic state of affairs.
It was incidentally, in Elizabethton, Tenn, one OF
the few cities honored by Hooers presence during the
campaign that the kidnapping occurred Representa-
ves of the American Federation of Labor the organi-
zaton which more than any other has contributed
toward the wage and hour portions of the prosperity
formula we're the victims OF the death threats and the
masked band.
In the cabinet OF President Hoover is department
of labor
Through that department, the President has power
to act And he must realize the menace that exists
not only to the workers involved but to the whole eco
nomic system under which prosperity, generally, is
maintained.
Labor-crushing tactics typify an era dead in other
industries and IN other Sections OF the country