The daily worker., 1929-07-26
By FRED ERWIN BEAL.

ganize the thousands of textile
slaves!
The National Textile Workers
Union began organizational work in
the South last December. The work
went on quietly at first. Then the
bosses, thru their stool-pigeons,
learned that the workers were or
ganizing by the hundreds. They
knew then that something had to
be done if they would save their
profits. Then a Wholesale discharg-
ing of union members began, first
in the Manville-J enckes mill in Gas
tonia, then in Pineville, Charlotte
and other places. The workers in
the Manville-Jenckes mill answered
this by calling a strike. The strike
began April 1st.
At least 2,1O0 out of the $500
workers employed answered the
strike call. The bosses were fur
ious at the solidarity of the work.
ers-"their docile 100 per cent
American workers" They were pre-
pared. They issued leaflet after
leaflet, lie after lie to the strikers
at the gates. The union organizers
and strikers answered these on the
spot. One of the big signs in red
paint the bosses put up read, "Be
a Man. Don't Be Driven" The
strikers afterwards used this as
their own slogan. Speeches were
made in front of the mill gate. Two
mass meetings were held daily, af-
ternoon and evening, in hack Of the
union headquarters, then located at
1912 West Franklin Ave. Not only
strikers attended the mass meetings
but workers from villages all over
the Piedmont section came &c hear
the speakers and show their solidar-
ity with the strikers. Workers
from other mills spoke. Working
lay-preachers spoke.
The Bosses Plot.
The textile barons became
alarmed. Mill owners from all over
the South held a two-day conference
in Gastonia on the situation. The
union issued mimeographed leaflets
calling on workers from other mills
to join the strike. The workers were
responding. The bosses in some of
the mills gave a slight increase of
wages to- stop the stampede. Man
ville-Jenckes brought in the National
Guard. Men and women were bay
onetted Medicine shows were put
on by the bosses to try and draw
the crowd from the mass meetings
but without success.
The Gastonia Gazette, the bosses
paper, always against the workers
and nnionization of the mills, issued
daily lies, urging violence against
the leaders.
The. workers were determined to
have a union so this nose-rag of
press urged the bringing in of the
United Textile Workers Union (U.
Z. W.) as the best means of smash
ing the strike. They printed let
ter, questionable to Manville-
Jenckes, supposedly from worker,
in which one cf the first questions
was, "If we run Beal out of town
will you let the workers join the
u. T. W.?
However, thru the taking activi-
ties and the many sell-outs in the
South by the U. T. w. misleaders,
their whole program was exposed.
President Mcmahon registered in
the best hotel in Gastonia one day
but left in hurry. 1t is rumored
that many textile workers who had
joined his organization a few years
back intended to pay him a visit and
ask for the return of the high initia-
tion and due fees that his organiza-
tion ran away with.
Beating Men and Women.
The deputies were busy beating
up men and women and making ar
rests on the picket line. The Inter
national Labor Defense came to the
rescue of the arrested strikers and
went their bail. Carl Reeve, the
/. L. D. representative, was himself
arrested on the picket line and stood
in danger of his life for his efforts
in the workers behalf. Vera Bush
and Ellen Dawson, union organizers,
were arrested many times for picket
ing. This writer was arrested on
the charge Of kidnapping" a scab's
wife who was at that time loyal
striker who volunteered to go to
New York to raise relief for the
strikers. This case was laughed out
of court, making a "bum" out of
Major Bulwinkle, lawyer and chief
provocateer for the Manville-enckes
Company.
Intermittent Strike.
Through threats and terror some
workers went back to work, coming
out again in a few days. Many
strikers would go back few days
TO work and then come out again.
This angered the bosses still more
as it upset production and kept them
from hiring strikebreakers in such
large numbers from other states.
Strikebreakers were secured from
Georgia, South Carolina and other
states on the strength of lying
promises of high wages and to some
that a new mill had been built.
Seeing the danger of continuous
..ra Ixin1r II, q nd n,,t r,nlicu fhn hnccoc