The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1929-05-31

bethton real estate ring by the cham
Der of commerce of the larger town.
A village Will Hays. He swears that
all was serene in the big rayon plants
until agitatOrs started trouble. Then
the workers began violent demonstra-
tons. County officials were sympa-
thetic with the striking minority" at
first, but now public sentiment is
strongly with the company. He pre-
sents a lot of petitions, signed, he
says, by so per cent of the former
workers in both plants, asking the
company to resume operations.
Says Strike Fever"
More to the point. he testifies that
only 213 Of the 500 National Guard
on duty in and around Elizabethton
have been employed as deputies or
state police. He does not know who
pays them. But 2764 out of an orig
inal 5000 workers have declared they
want to go back to work, though the
management has refused to deal with
any union or to make any agreement
with either outsiders" or its own
employees except individually.
This glib young man is followed by
Augustus w. Smith, president and
treasurer-at S37, 900 a year-of five
mills in South Carolina that have been
tied up by a spontaneous strike for
the past six weeks. Smith is of the
Old South-simple, suave, pious. He
swears that he never before has had
any trouble, in over 80 years of run
ming textile mills. His people are ma
tives like himself. No red agitators
came into his Brandon or Poinsett
mills. He asserts that the trouble
was fever" caught from strikes
against the efficiency system, that
the strikers call the stretch-out sys-
tenn" IN other mills. His answers TO
questions by LaFollette and Wheeler
show that he has made his workers
double the number of looms they han
die, while giving them to 10 per
cent more pay; also that he cut their
pay 10 per cent before this stretch
out began.
Smith goes in for welfare work. He
will deal with no labor union. He paid
out good money for construction OF
churches, payment of ministers, half
the salaries of welfare workers, and
his manager taught a Bible class
Group insurance, company shacks with
garden plots, company stores, and
health insurance that was cancelled
by the insurance company when the
strike started. Smith fairly glows
with benevolenee. He offers his
printed advertisement announcing that
he viii forgive his strikers and reopeu
his mills. He believes they were led
to strike by a man who is a brother
in-law of strike leaders in other mills
Workers Lower Paid Than English
A. J. Lyon, representing mills at
Woodruff, Greenville and Spartan.
burg, S. c., and who is connected with
the Manville-Jencks concern, backs ur
Smiths testimony of high wage rates
around S15.75 to $16.75 a week. Like
Smith, ne admits they employ a few
children and that women work nights
10 or II hours, in their industry. But
he claims women often prefer night
4 jobs. Yes, in answer to Wheeler's
questions, he admits they want a high.
er tariff. And they think an inves.
tigation would hurt business.
DR.. Broadus Mitchell of John Hop.
kins University and Paul Blanchard
Of The Nation, who have studied and
written extensively on the textile in.
dustry in the South, are the final wit.
nesses. Mitchell says the Southern
textile industry is about 100 years be.
hind England in its dealings with the
union and its hours Of labor. Blan.
shard describes the stretchout system
as a doubling Of work with no sub.
stantial increase in pay. He show
that even the low wages Of textile