The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1929-12-25
SOUTHERN COTTON MILLS
AND LABOR

attitude of other more fortunate groups toward
them. They can not accept their present lot,
but neither have they been able to change 1t
as yet, according to their wishes. Their ac-
Invites and conversation show them to be rest
less and dissatisfied. A small part OF their
discomfort is due to an imperfect adjustment OF
the former agricultural and individualstic peo-
pie to modern industrial and town life, With its
demands on cooperative activity and submer-
gence of the individual in the group. But
there are more permanent elements of conflict
in mill village life, such as the mill workers
subsection to the mill owners exploiting sys-
tenn, and the poverty, i'll health, company
ownership of village and homes which this
system involves, and also the fact that mill
hands chillun gotta be mill hands too" This
statement, in varying forms, was made again
and again.
Yet, southern mill workers are emphaticaly
opposed to their children entering the mills
They give as their reasons, "Once a mill hand,
always a mill hand" "a mill hands got no
chance" 9Th mill takes everything out of a
body n don't pay nothn noway." Nearly
three-fifths of the parents stated their definite
opposition to mill work but of these only
few had any real hope of being able to train
their youth for other trades. One-fifth said
they did not wish their children to become mill
workers but added: "What else kin they be-"
while barely one-ninth thought mill work was
a good steady trade, and were willing to see
their children enter it, when old enough. Others
when asked, about plans for their offspring,
merely shook their heads and said, II jes'
doan know"
Over three-fourths of the southern textile
workers with whom we talked are dissatisfied
with their present lot and of these one-third
have formulated class philosophy of the rea-
sons for their plight and methods of dealing
with their problems. Until recently they have
had little contact with the revolutionary work
ing class movement, but the logic of their
position has taught them homely kind of So
cialism. They refer to themselves as "Us
poor people, and over one-half Of those with
whom we came in contact made statements
about the necessity of unionism, and "Us
working class of people stickin' together"
Scripture is quoted, decrying the rich and up
holding the poor, and bitter remarks are made
about the mill owners getting rich at the
workers expense. The experiences of southern
mill workers have prepared them for militant
methods and revolutionary doctrines, and they
have received the Communist and left wing
movement, which has recently begun an in
tensive campaign in the South, with en-
thusiasm.
There is one phase of the revolutionary
program which southern labor finds itself less
prepared to accept, as it runs contrary to its
prejuiices. This is the platform of united eff
forts of colored and white workers, on an
equal footing, and their common struggle for
full economic, political and social equality for
all workers, regardless of race. The color line
has been drawn taut in the South for over a
century and a half, and generations of race
hatred and race fear must be broken down be-
fore Negro and white labor can fully under
stand one another. White workers have been
so misled by propaganda of the business-con-
trolled press, schools and churches that they
actually believe that the Negro is at the basis
of much of their trouble! They blame the
Negro, though wrongly, for their double pre-
dicament, first as farming Poor Whites AMI
now as millhands, who have been forced off
the land into the mills Fearing that they
will be forced to even lower depths through
having to compete with Negroes in the mills,
white operatives are insstent upon their
''rights as white men" to a monopoly on the
jobs at the machines, and on the recognition
of their superior caste. This attitude of Anglo
Saxon superiority has received encouragement
from management Mill owners find white
labor so cheap and plentiful and profits
sufficiently large so that there is no need to
use Negro labor as mill operatives, although
the threat of doing so has proven useful way
of keeping the two groups apart and stemming
their revolts Negro labor is naturally suspi-
cious of white workers, for they have. often
suffered at their hands, and they feel du-
-bious of white labor's sincerity in this recent
move. 1t sounds too cool to be true! A Ne
gro organizer who had come South to aid in
unionizng colored along with white mill work
ers was warned by those of his race, "Best
keep away from them white trash, for they
doan mean you any good" But the protection
which mill hands gave this colored organizer
from a Ku Klux Klan mob helped to break
down these Negro workers mistrust. This is
one instance which shows that southern tex
tile workers, organized into one union, are
learning through their industrial struggles the
common economic lot of white and colored
wage-earners, and the necessity of common ac-
ton. At the same time, the new social out
look gained through contact with the labor
movement is freeing them from their former
prejudices.
ITO Be Continued)