The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1934-01-16
BY WILLIS THORNTON
NEA Service Staff CCrrespOndent)

BY WILLIS THORNTON
(NEA Service Staff Correspondent
Pittsburgh. Jan. 16.-Many times,
during the last four depression years,
I have made the trip through the
steel district which swings along the
Ohio valley from here in an arc to-
ward Lake Erie.
And the sight of the silent steel
mills. gaunt and stark and cold, gave
me the shivers.
They do not look SO today. The old
pail Of smoke hangs over the river
valley, and the glow Of coke ovens
brightens the night sky. More than
4l5,0OO men are making steel In
America today.
That Is within q few-odd thousands
Of the 1929 total, when production
was nearly 70 per cent Of capacity
against today's SO per cent.
Real Benefits Here
You can't take away from the NRA
that the shortening of hours and SIM
liar provisions have made 1t possible
to employ almost as many men as
worked at the trade In 1929, even
though production is far lower.
In fact, steel authorities here re-
port an actual shortage Of certain
types OF highly skilled labor.
Nobody who pushed through the
crowds that thronged the downtown
canyons OF this city could doubt that
Pittsburgh has benefited by the MIRA
and the recovery program.
Not only were Christmas sales
above last years, but the Uniyer-
sity Of Pittsburgh's careful figures
show . gain Of per cent over
1882, even in November, before
Christmas buying began.
Pittsburgh, another open shop
stronghold, has yielded to labor or
ganization much more gracefully
than has Detroit. One Of the out
standing results of NRA in the Pitts
burgh area Is the widespread pro-
gress In unionization in fields for
merry closed to organization.
Labor Makes Gains
You read much Of coal strikes and
disputes at the Weirton steel works,
| but the fact remains that the sweep
ing victories OF the United Mine
Workers in the coal field elections
match the widespread progress OF
the American Federation OF Labor's
Amalgamated Union in the steel in
dustry.
Both these organizations have
reached peaks never before attained
in this area. In addition, there has
been a speeding up Of the formation
OF shop unions. Even the state OF
Pennsylvania employees are organizing
q union at Harrisburg.
The Amalgamated Association OF
Iron, Steel and Tin Workers. headed
ty the venerable Mike Tighe, works
on contracts which have sliding scales
varying according to production, and
many plants have welcomed It as an
alternative to allowing radicals to get
a toehold.
Refuse Union Recognition
But many steel leaders have faced
the union problem in this way: They
will not recognize the union as such.
II their own plant workers choose q
union leader as their representative
Under MIRA, the industrialists will deal
With him. as required by NRA.
But they deal with him only as
TIE chosen representative Of their own
men, not as the head Of an interna-
tional organization, which they re-
fuse to recognize as such.
And the other side Of 1t Is put by
a prominent business executive In
these words: Various Communistic
Tor aocialistic labor organizations are
springing up, the necessity for which
Is lacking, and which very definitely
have stamped on such moves the APP
Ipearance Of racket.
Must Dust Racketeers
MANY employees misunderstood the
collective bargaining section Of MIRA,
and that Misunderstanding Is in
creased deliberately by the untruthful
and unwarranted statements Of labor
racketeers. The labor unions must
clean house and do away with rack
eteering agents"
It Is no trouble to find people
around Pittsburgh who will c1iss the
MELONS heartily and freely, but there
Is one thing about them that isn't
criticized. Their banks stayed open.
Nobody came knocking at the
door Of . Mellon bank without
getting his money. The same
thing y tire o. most Or Pitts
burgh's large banks. The one, biz
one which folded up Tin 1881 IL
ready has paid OF 20. per cent,
| and NAV No. in