The Durant news. (Durant, Miss.) 1882-1985, 1940-09-26
THROUGH
n a. E |.
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Drew Pearson and Robert s. Allen
in their Washington Merry Go Round
column Tuesday have this to say con-
corning Gadsden, Alabama, the town
where this writer was born and spent
all her life before entering the
University of Alabama.
Communities seeking new defense
industries might find a valuable les
son in what nearly befell the town
of Gadsden, Ala.
"The Army decided to build a shell
plant there. But when this reached
labor officials, they entered wehe-
ment protests. Reason was Gadsden's
long and harsh anti-union record.
Among laborites, Gadsden il
known as n of the toughest" anti
union cities in the country. Seversl
years ago, when Sherman Dalrymple.
head of the CLIO Rubber Workers
Union, headed a drive to organize
the workers in the rubber factories
there, he wa beaten and ordered to
leave.
"And only a few months ago, whom
he arrived to address a big union
rally, he was informed that the hall,
previously engaged, had just been
Cancelled.
Backed by kilograms and petitions
from both AFL and Go ources.
Defense Commissioners Sidney Hill
man and his Labor Advisory Commit
tee assailed the army's plan to locate
the shell plant in Gadsden. They in
sisted that it be built somewhere
else.
"The Army admitted the validity of
the attack, but contended it was
strategicaly necessary to locate the
plant in Gadsden because Of the avail
ability of raw materials.
"In order not to obstruct vital de-
Tense production, the labor chiefs fin
ally withdrew their objections, but
only after obtaining explicit aAur-
ance that the labor records of COM
munities would be carefully consid-
cred in locating future defense in
dustries."
One would think from reading the
above G~adsden's working population
was against unions when rs a matter
of fact the reverse is true.
Boosting an industrial payroll Of
over a million dollars q month, accord
ing to Chamber of Commerce figures,
there must be between eight and ton
thousands persons on the paryrolb Of
the Republic steel plant, Ought cot
ton mill, Goodyear tire and rubber
plan and score of smaller industries
located there, It i an industrial town
and ono Of the best towns in <hA1
state of Alabama from a business
standpoint.
iUnionization of these workers
would result in pay increases in al
most every instance. The work done
by these workers pays much lees than
the same work done by employees Of
the same companies located in other
parts Of the country, particularly the
northern and eastern states where the
workers belong to the unions
To say these men are not in favor
of unions is ridiculousl 1t would mean
from two to five and six dollars
more per day to each of them.
The persons not in favor of unions
in Gadsden appear to be some EN-
ployers, industrial leaders, and a few
key business men of some means.
These persons have been known to
use every foul a short of muir
der to achieve their purpose of keep
ing men from joining unions of their
choice.
AS is so often the case people with
e can apparently control the
thoughts and opinions Of those Less
fortunate and make their personnel
desires seem to reflect public opinion,
Gadsden is indeed lucky to be able
to secure it's shell plant considering
its past activities against labor un-
ions, the attitude of the present ad-
ministration c%ondoning labor unions.
We mention this problem Of union
ization in Gadsden because we know
sooner OIL later every city having in
dustry Of any size in Mississippi and
in the south is going to have to face
the same problems, to permit ITS
workers u~nionize or not.
Our attitude toward union labor
will undoubtedly play its part in any
future development of our state a
long industrial lines.
DIR. George Gallup, director Of the
American Institute of Public Opinion,
in an article carried in the current
issue of Good Housekeeping maya
zine, says that our founding fathers
had no way Of knowing what the
common people thought or how they
would react to a national crisis. But
in the past five year, he says, re-
search in sampling public opinion
by means of a cross-section survey
has cleared away much Of the fog.
"From hundreds of thousands OF
interviews with men and women IN