The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1939-03-09
On Capitol Hill
by GEORGE L. KNAPP

washington, -. T.. (lLNS)-Ihere' 2
one thing you have TO say about the
Roosevelt clan, from old Nicholas,
who built the first steamboat on the
Ohio down to the present hour.
They've all got nerve; and if they felt
obliged to disagree with st. Paul him
self, they'd say SO.
This, Of course, refers to the fact
that the Presidents wife, Mrs. Roose-
welt, had resigned from the d. A. X.
because that organization would not
allow Negro contralto, Marian An
derson, to sing in Constitution Hall,
built by the D. A. r. 1t is clear that
the refusal was due to the color Of
the singer. "To remain as a member
implies approval of that action" said
Mrs. Roosevelt, "and therefore ] am
resigning."
Negro singers have occupied at one
time or another half the stages in
America; and not once has the hall
fallen down. This singer is acclaimed
as one of the three or four best con-
traltos in the world; which makes the
refusal still sillier. And something
else that happened on Capitol Hill the
same day that Mr.. Roosevelt sent in
her resignation helps to make the
absurdity even greater.
The Supreme Court set aside the
death sentence of Negro in Louis
lana on the grounds that Negroes
were barred from the grand jury
which indicted him-and Justice Hugo
| I g. A !
the decision.
Seven "little steel" companies have
gone into the Federal district court
Of the District of Columbia to knock
out the Walsh-Healey act and prob
ably to kill the wage-hour act as
well. They claim that the Secretary
of Labor has no right to fix mini
mum wage for work done in the iron
and steel industry for the govern
ment; and that the fixing Of 62R
cents an hour will keep them-little
steel-from bidding on government
contracts.
AS an evidence of how far little
steel is prepared to go, it asks
the court to declare that the fix
ing of minimum wages in the
steel industry, by any govern
ment body whatsoever, to be "in-
valid and unauthorized by law"
1t is hardly necessary to say what
any labor writer hopes will happen to
that suit. If the injunction is granted
as sought, and if that action is up
held by the Supreme Court, half the
work of the New Deal in building a
floor under wages and getting Uncle
Sam to secure his supplies from the
ground floor, not from the basement,
will be destroyed.
| X X x
When invention turned spinning
and weaving into mechanical work in
England, the manufacturers were just
as clever and just as immune to
scruples as little steel. In the towns
that already were factory towns,
there was some sort Of labor solidar-
ity, even more than century ago.
The manufacturers went out into the
country, where much of the year there
was no steady work; and got cheaper
labor and plenty of it.
1t was the same here. Manufacture
ers had their agents in the cheap la
Dor countries of Europe, hired men at
what seemed good wages there, and
brought them over. Contract labor
was forbidden; and in many places,
the pardone, an immigrant who had
prospered, got his countrymen over.
In 1922, Eugene Grace and Judge
Gerry publicly demanded that Con-
gress allow the steel industry to inn
port labor under contract; and l my
self, though that was before the
World War, saw the ad of steel COM
pany for $500 laborers, Syrians, Rou-
manians and Poles preferred"
The textile industry went south to
get cheap labor. The auto industry
ran bus service to bring cheap labor
from the mountain belt of the south to
Detroit.