The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1932-06-20
he $500, 900 was gone.

/ the 100000 was gone.
Hurley charged that Wood is I'm
competent, unreliable and an offici-
GUS intermeddler and trouble maker, -
and that he was "a stock salesman
in wildcat schemes that have as their
purpose the destruction of organ
lied labor"
Although Wood always urges en-
ployers to line Up with the A. F. Of
l.. and keep the radical unions" out
OF the field, by which he means any
union that actually fights for the i'm
provement of the wages and condi-
tons of workers, he has dealt so
unfairly even with The conservative
unions that the Massachusetts, state
federation of labor denounced him
as having "engendered DISTRICT, sus-
piciop and bitterness"
However, Wood gets along better
with the absolutely company union
lied Boot and Shoe Workers Union
Of the A F. of L.. which he urged
Al Brooklyn shoe companies to sign
up with when he issued his famous
Instructions to them in 1929 advis-
ing them, as q government oficial.
that they should break their con-
tract with the real shoe workers ua-
ion, a Trade Union Unity League
Union.
Wood also in his book on Reds, ="
lauds the A. F of L. Boot and Shoe
Workers and assails employers who
do not support it.
Organized Employers
But Wood has still closer con-
nections with the shoe industry.
During the 192e-30 strike ae called a
meeting of all shoe manufacturers
in Brooklyn and New York, all who
we're not in the Board of Trade, and
organized them into the Metropolitan
Shoe Manufacturers Association, of
which he made himself the actual
head, and, while still a government
official, became the directing force
in the strike breaking activity of all
these companies.
Wood testified before the Fish
Commission when it was gathering
material however fantastic, to use in
putting across deportation bills To
drive from this country foreign born
workers who strike for better wages.
Fish backs the present Dies deport-
alton bill. Wood testified at the
Fish COMMITTEES that in breaking the
shoe strike of 1880, and he tes-
titled in other circumstances, that he
found the New York police very
helpful" and warmly eommends"
the then Police Commissioner, the
now badly debated Mr.. Whalen.
Wood, The Deporter
And when Whalen, himself, testified
at the Fish hearings, he said that
Wood came to him, and they together
sent out questions to $500 employees
in New York factories demanding they
answer: Where born?'' Port Of en-
try?" Name of Ship" and other
questions useful for deportation of
these workers if they should become
active in organizing or leading
struggles for higher wages.
Wood has not confined himself to
lowering standards of living for the
shoe workers. During the great strike
Of 10000 textile workers in Elizabeth
ton, Tenn, in 1929, Wood gave advice
and assistance to another U. S. Com
missioner of Cancellation, Mrs. Anna
Weinstock, who managed to break the
strike. Then Wood, himself, went to
Gastonia, where the National Textile
Workers Union, brother union to the
Shoe and Leather Workers Industrial
Union, was conducting mill strike.
Wood, as U. S. Commissioner of Con-
citation, lined up entirely with the
employers, and endorsed the sending
Of five companies of state militia to
break the strike. Not only that. but
Wood acted as a stool pigeon on
strike leaders and notified the police
" SFCAS GONl W Which, l4iS oIIAhV
leaders went to collect relief
Woods strike breaking in Gastonia
was so open and notorious that even
the Washington News, and other
Scripps-Howard papers reprimanded
the Department Of Labor for not
discharging him.
"Red-baiting is the u S. Labor De-
partment's initial contribution in ef-
forts to to settle the Carolina textile
strikes. Instead of reprimanding and
recalling its agent, Charles G. Wood,
for his partisanship, the labor de-
partment reasserts its utmost conf
dence in Woods fairness" And the
Washington News adds, THE depart
ment's attitude is inexcusable."
There was big demand then for
Woods dismissal, and the then Sec
rotary of Labor Davis, refused. When
Doak became Secretary of Labor, he
also kept Wood. These fellows know
a good strike breaker when they see
one.
So does L. Miller and Andrew Gel
Ter. But Just as the Constitutional
League was shown up as mere cover
for the racketeer Ramp, so Wood is
now being shown up as a disguised