The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1929-12-17
SOUTHERN COTTON MILLS
AND LABOR

newly enfranchised Negroes, by requiring ali
whose grandfathers had not had the vote, to
pass qualification tests before being granted
the vote. The primary system of elections is
also utilized for elimination of Negro voting,
while the Ku KluX Khan undertakes to deal
with those few colored men and women who
manage to surmount the many legal difficulties
placed III their way.
AS part of 'the solid SOUTH" those villagers
who vote at all usually vote Democratic, but
there are a number of Republicans among
descendants of the mountaineer Poor Whites
The feeling worked up around election times
sometimes becomes intense leading to bitter
quarrels and street fights. One customary
method of starting trouble is for Democrat
mill worker to call after a Republican, "there
goes niger vote" During election cam
paigns, politicians of both parties vancouver
to cline up" mill village votes for their candi-
dates According to workers stories, before
elections they treated and flattered and
various promises made them of what the
candidates will do for working people, if elect
ed. In some cases petty bribery is used the
politicians paying from one to five dollars for
each voter a village carries to the polls, and
automobiles are furnished so as to make it
easier for the prospective voters to exercise
their rights of citizenship" "Voting" in the
mills with the ballots and ballot boxes super
vised by superintendent and foremen is not
uncommon.
And after elections we're no more'n dirt to
EN-, til mex election rolls around one woman
complained. 81 tole my husband I warnt agoin'
more. What's TIL use? 1t doan do no good"
Many others expressed similar disgust with
these election practices of American democ-
racy. general disllusion has grown up
among the mill hands concerning the power of
I'LL
interests control the only parties in the field
while only few yet realize the power of
labor as an independent political force.
Mill workers are naturally dissatisfied with
the conditions of village life, and are quite
ready to state the changes which need to be
made, before anything resembling a healthy
community be built up around southern
cotton mills All agree that higher wages and
shorter hours the first changes which aree
necessary, as to raise the general standardH
of Lying on the hill and give the workers more
free time in which to develop their social ac-
Invites. More than half of the hundreds of
mill hands with whom we talked emphasized
the fact that establishment of unions on cotton
mill hills was the method for securing
these better conditions. Further, unionism
would protect operatives against comrany tyr
amy, and be the first step toward the estab-
lishment of economic and political self govern
ment on mill hills. So long as the villages re-
main the private property of mill owners, con-
ditions there will be dictated by the companies
and the many needed improvements will not be
made For the companies nothing about
the welfare of the villagers, but are only in
terested in the profits to be made out of them
Therefore it is of prime Importance that in
dustrial and political control be wrested out
of the hands of the companies and be placed in
the hands of those who know and care about
village life-that is, in the hands of those who
must live and work there.
Ito Be Continued