The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1934-03-19

gest that the increase in employ
ment in small factories was small.
The retail stores along Main
street. however, put on quite
few. and the shops proceeded to
lift one another by one another's
bootstraps. Adolph Goldman, pro-
prietor of a small but good ladies'
wear shop, says there was an I'M
mediate increase in buying as
soon as NRA increased girls sal
aries from the going rate of
around $3.50 a week to the code
standard of S12.14.
Goldman says this increased
buying soon balanced his own 20
per cent increase in labor costs.
The retail trade, he says, is all
for the NRA basic principles, and
believes in carrying them further,
as planned today.
INDUSTRY HARD TO SELL"
The industrialists were harder
to convince. Many shifted their
hours around to comply with
codes literally without really TAX
ing on more employees. At the
end of six months of NRA, their
payrolls are up somewhat, but al
lowing for a 10 or 20 per cent
increase in production due to in
creased business, it is hard to see
that much of the increased pay
roll is due directly to NRA codes.
There has not been a single la
Dor dispute sharp enough to bring
a strike or lockout, and efforts
failed to organize several plants
into vertical shop unions under
section IA of the Recovery Act.
Employees voted to keep their
own independent organization, or
none. Some of the old craft
unions, like printers. carpenters,
masons. and the like, have gained
somewhat. and have revived
Labor Trades Council which for
years was dormant.
HOME TOWN OF
| LABOR CHIEF
There is considerable sly smil
ing about town over this lack of
labor progress in the home COM
munity of William Green, leader
of the A. F. of LIS organized mil
lions of workmen.
Green, the towns most distin-
guished "alumnus," maintains a
home here, and visits it frequent
| ly.
The home loan program has
made almost no progress at all,
reports Ed Crawford of the Home
Building and Loan Association.
Only four homes actually have
been refnanced since last August
with HOLC loans.
Red tape is its bane, Crawford
indicates, telling how so applica-
tons had to be re-made (and re-
paid for at $3.50 each) because
of a change in the printed form.
FARMERS GAIN LITTLE
There are no signs that farm
ers are paying. off mortgages in
AAA benefits. Such benefits are
small, as farms average no larger
than $50 acres, and are well-di-
versifed.
Allotments average perhaps $50
or SIS on wheat. You can't pay
mortgages on that. So retail trade
gets it and is happy
Corn loan money will begin to
flow in soon, but will be small in
this same proportion
But. the mortgage situation
never was so serious here as in
the specialized farming areas,
where land prices skyrocketed and
had to fall sickeningly.
So most farm mortgages had
less water in them here, and are
hanging on. Every one of the
three banks opened Immediately
after the bank holiday.
CWA was boon even in so
small a community. The week
after $50 CWA jobs began. 800
families were taken off relief rolls
of $50. Meticulous records of
Seth NJ. Snyder, in charge of
county CWA work, and the small
size of the community, made it
certain that all CWA men who
have been building roads repair
ing schools, and renovating the
courthouse, be men who were in