Montana labor news., 1937-01-21
Organized Workers and Their
Friends Can Strike Effective
Blow at Anti-Labor Cigarette
Big Four by Buying and Boost
ing Brown & Williamson I'm
iOnized Brands.
BY CHESTER M. WRIGHT

by CHESTER M. WRIGHT
WASHINGTON, D. c. (ILNS)-
The year-end holiday week brings
to light one of the most amazing
industrial situations ever recorded in
national history.
Approximately 100 southern tex
tile mills have declared their need
for machinery to fix standards, as
NRA did, declaring this necessary to
their life and stability.
Meanwhile the great steel and
automobile industries have made it
clear that they are determined to
resist any interference with their
right to do exactly as they please,
which is primarily a declaration of
resistance to unionism.
The automobile industry likewise
has made clear a similar position.
Though doing a notwithstanding
business, both of these giants of in
dustry have declared their deter
mination to stick to company union
ism.
Tobacco in Same Group
But another giant has been ignored
in this casting up of the situation.
The great tobacco group that has
fought labor as hard and bitterly as
steel and automobiles have fought it,
stands today in exactly the same po-
sition. The big cigarette group,
known as the Big Four, are united
solidly against unionization. With
the clever and astute Clay Williams
as chief diplomat, they seek to keep
out of the front row in the contro-
versy, evidently %preferring to cover
their warfare under a cloak of 81
lence while steel and automobiles
take the rap of public discussion
and condemnation. But they occupy
the same position as the more open
opponents of labor in the nation
wide line of conflict.
While in steel and automobiles
there is no outstanding recourse
for consumers, in the field of to-
bacco and cigarettes there are
fully unionized brands. Those
made by Brown & Williamson
are making nationwide appeal,
because of the union label, en-
phasizing that the company uses
the label on all its brands of to-
bacco and cigarettes. The cigar
cite brands are Raleighs, Kools,
Viceroys, Wings and Avalons.
In the field of automobiles, the
LaFollette Senate committee is pre-
pairing for a thorough investigation
of anti-union tactics. Labor expects
important revelations.
Oil Partly Anti Union
Lined up with these Undertaking
giants there is a portion of the oil
industry, notably the Rockefeller,
Mellon and Pew interests, with
Standard, Gulf and Sun. But here
also there are the companies across
the line, unionized, led by Sinclair,
with the best agreement of them all.
Never before has the struggle for
u~nionization taken in, over such a
wide sweep, the giants of industry
in all fields.
Big Developments Coming
A notable break in the anti-union
line came with the election in Gen
eral Electric, with the company an
nouncing in advance that it would
abide by the results Of an election
under NLRB auspices. In the cleo
ton the company union was badly
beaten.
The coming two or three months
will see tremendous developments,
without doubt, in this battle Of
giants. But those giants that have
dealt with unions know that the
coming of unionism brings into in
dustry a fairness and a spirit of CO.
operation that is of inestimable
value, with all of the fruits so often
proclaimed by the Baltimore & Ohio
railroad, pioneer in labor-manage-
ment cooperation and marked as an
outstanding road, largely for that
reason.