Carolina watchman. [volume] (Salisbury, N.C.) 1871-1937, 1932-05-06
A B 0 R N E W S
F. T. CORNELIUS, Secretary
Salisbwry-Stencer Central Labor Union
Victims OF Merger
Bv


mergers conceived and carried out by
railway owners without any regard for
the welfare of the railway employees
was expressed by the Brotherhood of
Railroad trainmen in opposing before
the Interstate Commerce Commission
the four road mergers of eastern rail-
roads built around the New York
Central, Baltimore & Ohio, Pennsyl-
vania and Chesapeak & Ohio Rail
roads.
The Trainmens Brotherhood said
hat carrying out the proposed plan
would "only add to the list Of the I'M
employed" would place a great bur
den on local, state and Federal Gov
ernments to care for those who are
unable to find employment in other
branches of industry, and tend fur
Their to deprive children of an oPpor-
tunity for education, wipe Out invest
ments of railroad workers in their
homes, wipe out the savings these men
have made to protect themselves in
their declining years, deprive them of
railroad pensions where such plans are
in effect, and deprive them of their
disqualification protection when they
cease longer to be employees"
Subsistence Gardens
Subsistence gardens, to enable the
jobless whom American employers re-
fuse to hire to raise their own vege-
tables are recommended by the Pres
idents Organization on Unemployment
Relief.
The organization, of which Walter
S. Clifford, president of the American
Telephone and Telegraph Company is
director, thinks so much of this scheme
as a substitute for wage paying jobs
that it issued a special leaflet describ-
ing various vegetable-raising schemes.
They all bark back to a similar plan
sponsored by Hazen S. Pingree, May
or of Detroit, in the nineties of the
last century, which saddled the May
or with the epithet "Potato-Patch
Pingree."
The Presidents organization figures
that if the millions of jobless can raise
own vegetables the private and
charity relief funds will be re-
leased of at least that much of the
cost of keeping them alive.
Of course, rel a jobless worker
can't live On vegetables forever and
funds will be called upon to
provide the other things which pro-
fessional dietitians on the menus for
the unemployed conclude are abso-
lutely necessary to keep them from
starving.
Julia Latbrob
In the death of Julia Lathrop, first
chief of the U. S. Children's Bureau,
the children of America lost one Of
their noblest protectors against the in
humanity of employers who persist in
coming the bodies and minds Of chill
dren of tender years into profits by
strapping them to the machinery of
commodity production.
Her zeal and ingenuity for pro-
tecting children, even in opposition to
hostile court decisions, was shown dur
ing the World War in connection with
Federal child labor legislation.
In 1917 Congress enacted and Pres
ident Wilson signed the first Federal
child labor law prohibiting the en-
ployment Of children under sixteen in
mines and quarries, of children under
fourteen in manufacturing establish
ments and of children between four
teen and sixteen more than eight hours
in any day, six days in any week, af-
ter seven in the evening, or before six
in the morning. The enforcement of
the law was vested in the Children's
Bureau.
One June 3, 1918, the Supreme
Court of the United States handed
down a decision declaring the law I'M
constitutional. This decision brought
to an end the elaborate nationwide
plan for the laws enforcement built
up by the Children's Bureau. This
was a time when profit-mad employ
ers were using every possible device to
exploit child workers. The supreme
courts mandate ]accentuated their I'M
patriotic work. Violation of the chill
dren's rights were also found in res
taurants, laundries and similar estab-
lishments on military and naval res
ervation of the Federal Government.
Even though she was confronted with
a negative decision by the Supreme
Court, Miss Lathrop determined to
protect the children along the lines
laid down in the unconstitutional law
and at her request the Secretary of
Var and the Secretary of the Navy
issued orders that within their respec-