The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1932-01-29
A Book on Southern
Unions
"a Book Review

BY LABOR RESEARCH ASSOCIATION.
GIT does not appear that the Communist entry
1 in 1929 will offer continuing difficulty"
With this last sentence in his book Textile
Unionism in the South, George S. Mitchell, in
structor in economics in Columbia University,
disrnsses the efforts of the National Textile
Workers Union in southern mill towns. Mitchell,
white southerner, is opposed to militant union
ism On the other hand, he believes that safe
and sane United Textile Workers unionism
would help the mill workers to understand CAPT
talst democracy and hence prevent them from
going Red In fact he accepts the whole class
cooperation program of the A. F. of L. when he
writes that much is gained" if the unions ''can
materially aid the southern cotton manufacture
ers in restoring the industry to complete and
successful operation"
Although Mitchell says II confess to SYM
pathy with the efforts of the mill people to Or
ganize," he can certainly not be considered a
friend of the left-wing union; and his story of
recent organization movements in the South is
too sketchy to be of any value to organizers in
this field. However, his account of attempts to
organize textile workers from 1886 to date is
well worth reading. 1t is a most careful and
detailed account of historic strikes and union
activities in the South. In fact the section on
southern unionism in Labor and Textiles by
Dunn and Hardy is based on this part of the
Mitchell manuscript.
The story includes the early efforts of the
knights of Labor, those of the International
Union of Textile Workers Q898 to 19OD and
finally those of the United Textile Workers from
1901 The four periods of greatest activity
were 1886 to 1890; 1898 to 1902; 1918 to 1921;
and finally the period of 1923 to 1880 when the
National Textile Workers Union played lead
ing part.
In his brief account of Gastonia, Mitchell adj
mits that the most arresting element in the
whole disturbance is the ready acceptance by
large numbers of the Gastona workers of the
Communist leadership" But like others who
have attacked the N. IT. w. u, he shows his
ignorance of recent developments when he says
that 'the failure to recruit any membership
since the Gastonia strike would indicate
however, the practical elimination of the Ma
out clearly the fact that the United Textile
Workers Union is now much more conservative
than in the early days and how it has Offered
its help to the management in scientific rear
rangement of work schedules and in other prob
lens of operation"
The account runs only to the Danville organ
ization period of 1929-31 and does not include
the strike itself or the United Textile Workers
sell-out of the workers
While International Publishers offers Labor
and Textiles, book of 256 pages, covering both
the cotton and wool industries and their work.
ing conditions, union history and the present
situation--all for 81, this book of Mitchells is
issued by the University of North Carolina Press
and deals with only one limited aspect of work
ers' struggles in cotton. Although 80 pages in
length, yet it sells for the same price as the
International volumS