The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1929-09-24
RED dream Of
RULE IN DIXIE
IS SHATTERED
Labor Troubles Can Not Be
Dismissed Merely as
Communist Plot.
SOUTH FACES NEW ERA
Old Order Passes Before
Industrial Awakening,
Breeding Strife.
SOUTH FACES NEW ERA
BY RAY TUCKER
Times staff CORRESPONDENT

| try can not be dismissed as Com
munist gesture in Moscow'S reputed
red dream of Sovietizing the work.
ers of the new industrial states of
the south.
That is the view held here today
by many, as they look back ruefully
on the strikes, murders, kidnapings.
f1oggings, militia mobilization, mis-
trials, and night rulings, which, to
the distress of citizens and officials,
link this ordinarily peaceful, sunny
Carolina hamlet in the public mind
with the depredations of Chicago
gangsters.
It is a view shared by mill officials,
city and county authorities, workers
themselves, and all whose business
have suffered.
There is, investigation reveals,
sufficient truth in this attitude to
give it plausibility. 1t is true that the
April strike at the Loray mill of the
Manville Jencks Company, the larg-
est in this section, was called by
avoWed Communist representatives
from New York, aligned with the
National Textile Workers Union, an
organization affiliated with the
Workers party.
It is true that the strike failed
miserably, and that the plant was
operating on full time with almost
all it's old hands within three weeks.
Strikes Are Off
There are no strikes in the l05
textile mills in CASTOR county now.
Except when the Communists sally
over here from the Charlotte head
quarters, twenty-one miles away,
for parading and preaching doc
trines which anger the community,
there is little or no violence.
But there is, on both SIDES, a
spirit of violence, and nobody
knows where it may flare up next.
The good folk go to bed each night
with their ears pricked and windows
opened for shots and shouts; they
scan the headlines each morning
for news of possible encounters.
The townspeople are determined,
as they put it, that 1.-The reds shall
not get foothold in this county.
The Communist organizers declare
they will not leave this front" I'M
til they have accomplished their
purpose, their first success at the
Loray mill last April having raised
hope of eventual victory.
Meanwhile, there is an armed
truce, though the arms are kept
carefully concealed on most occa-
sions. Both sides are awaiting the
outcome of trials and inquiries re-
sulting from murders, kidnap1ngs
and floggingS.
At Charlotte sixteen Iorav strike
leaders, including Fred Erwin Beai,
Clarence Miller, Veria Bush and
ANY Schechter of the workers
party, are on trial charged with the
murder of O. F.. Aderholt, Gastonla
police chief, June Z.
Several Are Indicted
Several Loray mill officials and
employees are under Indictment Tor
the kidnapping and whipping OF
three Communist leaders. Local au-
thorities are investigating the shoot
ing and death of Ella May Virgins,
a rural supporter of the strike, dur
ing a demonstration here Sept. IA:
At Marion. a community in the
mountains eighty miles west. where
the American Federation OF Labor
staged a strike wholly apart from
the movement launched here by its
Communist enemies, several labor
representatives are on trial on in
dictmentS charging rioting and IN
element to riot.
These activities are now the only
aftermath of what was launched IN
April as a flung movement to
organize southern textile workers.
The communist leaders themselves
seem to have given up their union
ization program, for the funds and
publicity they can obtain out OF the
defense Of their indicted comrades.
Mistrials in both the Charlotte
and Marion cases have prolonged
the disturbances. Since both forces
have dug in for fight to the finish.
No Sign of Plot
No evidence can be found that
mill operators or substantial ele-
ments here have inspired violent
retaliation against the Communists.
For one thing, they do not have to.
Sentiment among the townspeople
and many of the employees them
selves is all against the strike lead
ers now.
The Loray workers themselves
now are said to feel that the Com
munists tricSed and used them.
/ The cry of Communism, however,
. is a superficial view of the signi-
: ficance of these labor disturbances
in the Carolinas and across the line
/ in Tennessee. 1t does not take into
account fundamental problems fac
ing the southern textile industry as
result of the colonization of work
ers in millbuilt towns. The sixty
J hour week and average pay of S18 or
less, the clash of ideas-almost OF
) MISUNDERSTANDING out of the
. descent from the mountains OF
thousands and their exposure to
new and complex conditions of life
1t disregards the readjustments, as
= even mill officials admit, that must
be made to keep pace with greater
| industrialization of the south,
through development of water power
|. and migration OF more industries.