The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1935-10-11
Wings
OVER
.washingt'n

Organized labor showed ;+s ~,
er again when soft coal MINI.
won a 10 percent paw increase of ?
ter 4-day strike.
They should have had mora NO.
es and they should have had ~
3O-hour week. But Just the s.n,e ne
they won 80 millions more in one
Of the most disgraceful nav =, o ~
veIopes in Uncle Sans pocket
Negotiations had gone on SIM
February and five times s+-;I 80
threats had been postponed at the
request of the Roosevelt admins
tratlon. Finally it seemed obvions
that nothing would bring resnltc
except a walkout and this was ~
dered. The disciplined wa =
which hundreds of thousands -
men closed down the industrI1 wo.
the final blow for the pay increase :,
There could be no answer tn that
The negotiations again drama.
tlzed the fact that no labor Iaad
er has won SO much from TIE Roo.
sevelt administration as has Ion
l.. Lewis-a leading Republican Al.
ways and a member of the boar
of strategy for Herbert Hovoer
The boss las the president :,
called in the administr atom is Of
on political jaunt, leaving plenty
of grief behind. There was som.
hope that he would cut the relic
red tape before he left-becaus,
there is certain to be a terrific no
htlcal comeback some time miles,
the mess is cleared away.
If someone had worked ont
plan to make as many peouIe AN
CRY as possible, it is difficuIt Z,
see how any better program coulr
have been arranged than the nre
sent relief setup. That smile \
going to need all the banana oil !,
Central America to keep it WORK
ing when the flarmp finally comes
Just why the president shout,
have chosen a publisher who Ia
such a bad record with the Nags
paper Guild as Victor F. Riddes
to run the WPA in New York Cit,
Is more than political dopsters caI
figure out.
! New York City is one plac
where there is a long tradition o
unionism and where the Newspa
per Guild has done an especiall
good job of organizing. Why tn
president should toss a backhan
insult at labor. and the press jus
as soon as he gets ready to pul
out General Johnson, himself a
insult to labor, is just one of thos
things that are hard to explain.
At the same time. he raise
George L. Berry, president of III
Pressmen's Union, to the pOsitio
of No. l man in the new recover
drive. Berry is a politician, a We
eran Ohe's Major Berry, and
business man. He is one of I'll
most conservative labor leaders
the country.
So it is easy to understand VII
the president picked him to brin
labor, consumers and employers Il
gether IN the drive which is SUI
posed to take the place of the Mr.
The employers alone could new
agree on code but there is hoI
that if labor and consumers al
added there will be willing COO
Grafton.
1t may work. But the best que
is that Major Berry will find rul
ming a union full of rebels just
restful vacation after this effO
Is over.
The Broo6ngs Institute has gol
to great lengths to report that ]
distribution of existing wealth W
help very much.
Just picture a man sitting b
tween a plOwed-under cotton fiel
a closed-down cotton gin and
boarded-up cotton mill and readiI
that onei
"What can I do to get shirt
he asks himself. And so far
the Broodngs Institute is concer
ed, the only answer seems to