The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1929-10-24

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These men had no money with
which to pay. So there was a some
what unpleasant situation in the
hospital
Bill Ross, the local labor leader,
had to telegraph to New York to
beg money so that the men would
not be turned out.
But all that has been solved now,
because most of the men who were
taken to the hospital after the little
fracas with the sheriff are dead.
We're Not Responsible
The head nurse of the hospital ex-
planned to us that under normal
conditions she would call the Duke
Power Company, which would be
very glad to provide for any charity
patients. But" said she, of course
if these men want to go and get into
a scrap. we're not responsible, and
they must take care of themselves"
am coming to an end of this
series-only there is no end. I could
kO VII III Nldl lOlA III a 1AACO4AllC
is, unless 1 happened to be shot
down, in which case my lifetime
would be very brief underwriting
about the conditions in southern mill
towns.
I am rather sorry that 1 am COM
ing to an end, because normally /
live in a Vermont farmhouse, and
do not have a very close connection
with actual men and events. But
now, for four days, have been out
with men like John Peel and Frank
German and Bill Ross and Ben
Stolberg. 1t has taken me out of
myself so much that I hope that
am going to do it again.
Before 1 finish, want to describe
what I myself have seen of living
conditions in Marion, N. G.
Looks Like Italy .
From the courthouse in which the
sheriff and his deputies were on
trial, there is a view which recalls
Italy. If you disregard few lit
tered backyards in the foreground,
YOU can lose yourself in that smiling
vista of hills and valleys, with a dis
tant group of houses that are OBJ
viouly plaster Italian villas.
Well, they aren't. They are houses
in the East Marion mill village and,
seen closer, they are atrocious.
It is about two miles from the
actual town of Marion to the two
mill villages, which. along with the
farmer-trade, support Marion and
glorify it.
Marion itself has book shop, two
movie theaters, and shops in which
gents can get furnishings. But the
100 per cent American mill opera
tives do not often travel that long
two mileS-partly because they do
not own motor cars, and partly be-
cause they haven't much to spend
in the way Of furnishing gents. On
a wage which averages less than $13
a week, you furnish yourself and
your family mostly with overalls.
No. the town of Marion proper
is left to merchants, lawyers, doc
tors, and the like, most of whom
lust now are busy with the dead and
diving and wounded after the Sher-
ifs recent jest.
Here Is the Mill
But, going out the two miles, you
come to East Marion, and to the
mill of the Marion Manufacturing
Company, which makes plain white
cotton cloth, the sort of cloth that is
used in cheap pillowcaSeS. The mill
is the center of the village, and TO
its 600 employees this mill is the most
interesting thing TO be seen. Its
clamorous shuttles, its dirty floors,
its roar and utter CHASTITY fatigue,
take the place. for some 600 men,
women and children, of the quiet
mountain glens from which our
civilization has rescued them.
Now. since the first strike at Mar
ion. these 600 are working only fifty
five hours a week, but in the good
old DAYS, before foreign agitators"
came to disturb the peace Of this
idyllic village. they worked twelve
hours a day or twelve hours a night,
and had no time to think about such
un-American ideas as how to get
more than $13 a week.
The Marion Manufacturing Com
pany provides houses for its en-
ployeS. I have examined these
houses with considerable care. They
are rented to the employees at the in
credibly low cost OF 20 cents a room
a week. That means that a four
room house rents for $500 month
on the basis of four weeks to the
month. None of these houses has
running water. Their water supply
comes from pumps.
The houses are of the cheapest
possible construction. I have tried
to pry the boards of these houses
apart and have found that it could
be done with my little finger.
A four-room house. in which
twelve people may be living. is just
this. 1t Is a box with an unScreened
porch. 1t has three living rooms
and a kitchen. In each of the liv-
ing rooms there are. normally, two
double beds. In these double beds
there sleep anywhere from two TO
five people, depending on their ages.
Eat Best" of Food
In the kitchen is being cooked the
family food, which consists largely
of -four biscuits, honliny, fatback-
the cheapest sort of salt portland
coffee which will be served without
cream or sugar.
The sheriff, Oscar Adkins, who
was grocer up to the time he was