The bulletin. (Irwinton, Wilkinson County, Ga.) 191?-19??, July 31, 1936, Image 10

The bulletin., July 31, 1936, Image 10

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Newspaper Page TextMEN AND AFFAIRS AT WASHINGTON National Topics Interpreted by * WILLIAM BRUCKART Washington.—The steel industry of the United States has cast for it self a role in the Labor and forthcoming cam- Politics paign—whether it intended to do so or not. The same is true of John L. Lewis and his segment of or ganized labor—and it is pretty gen erally suspected that Mr. Lewis in tended to get labor questions well mixed up in politics. It is all more important because of Presi dent Roosevelt’s attack on “eco nomic royalists” in his Philadel phia acceptance speech. Whatever rights the steel indus try has or whatever rights Mr. Lewis and his followers have, the fact remains that they are all knee deep in politics and there is every reason to believe that each side will suffer in public esteem as a result. It means simply this: each side is mixing up problems that are basically economic in charac ter with sordid, even unclean, po litical motives. This outburst is prompted by two things: the gigantic steel industry has taken the position that it will defend itself against encroachment of professional labor leaders like Mr. Lewis and President William Green of the American Federation of Labor and their satellites “from any source.” The steel industry thereby has thrown down the chal lenge and now that such a die is cast, the steel industry will be compelled to do a number of in defensible things if it adheres to its program. The same condition is to be ob served in the organized labor situa tion. Whether Mr. Lewis is willing to admit it or not, his declaration that he will foster, even enforce, his scheme for organizing the steel workers is likely to lead to over zealous acts by his followers—and overzealous and foolish acts all too frequently lead to bloodshed. • • • For a number of years, steel companies have refused steadfastly to recognize un- Steel Bucks ion labor as rep- Unions resented by the professional lead ers in the American Federation of Labor. They have attempted to defeat the inroads of that organiza tion by forming what is known as company unions, groups of employ ees on the pay roll of each corpora tion. They have accorded to these groups the right of collective bar gaining and have insisted that they would deal only with the represent atives of the company union* for the reason that they believe they then are dealing with the employ ees concerned with question., of pay and working conditions in that par ticular plant. If the national un ions were recognized, officials of a given company always have had to negotiate with the expert union ne gotiators who are paid by the na tional organization. The results have not always been happy. This combination of circumstances, to gether with a disposition on the part of the steel companies, I am afraid, to be rather selfish in their attitude toward labor has devel oped a continuing controversy that has raged over the last score of years. But I said at the outset that the sudden revival of this conflict in a more acute stage had catapulted both steel industry and steel work ers into politics. This would have been the result in ~any campaign year. It happens, however, to be a more critical situation this year ' because of the circumstances, pos sibly a coincidence, of the timing of the fresh break. It happened that the rather inso lent announcement of the steel companies, Jheir challenge, came almost simultaneously with the de livery of President Roosevelt’s ( speech accepting the Democratic nomination for re-election. It was in this speech, it will be remem bered, where Mr. Roosevelt de ; nounced “economic royalists,” in which he resorted to expressions bound to create class hatred and in which he used language that is certainly going to help discredit corporations which are large enough to attract national atten tion. Os course, I know that Mr. Roosevelt did not have the steel in dustry particularly in mind in his assault on massed capital but the effect is the same as though he had been shooting directly at the steel industry because of the coinci dence mentioned above. The tragedy of the thing is that the professional labor leaders are going to use the steel industry’s challenge politically; they are cer tain to attempt to gain government interference in their quarrel with the steel industry and, like all such conflicts, fairness on the part of either side to the controversy is likely to disappear because of the political mixture. » » » From all of the inside discussions that I have heard, it appears that the issue between The Real the steel industry Issue and its workers is no longer sim ply whether the steel industry shall be unionized. It is a ques tion of how it shall be unionized. In addition to this, Mr. Lewis has been chiseling away for several years in promoting his labor union idea of organizing all workers in one unit instead of the craft union idea that is basic in the American Federa tion of Labor. That is to say, Mr. Lewis proposes to have a steel un ion or a shipbuilding union or a tex tile union instead of organizing the workers in accordance with the particular jobs they do, whether they be engineers, painters, car penters, moulders or any one of the various other crafts. Since the steel industry has its company unions, there is a con viction in many quarters that Mr. Lewis might well pause to consider whether this is the time to carry forward his program of bringing steel workers under national labor union control. There are those who believe that the company unions eventually will become units in the larger labor structure of the coun try and, if that be true, it is made to appear that Mr. Lewis has hurt labor’s cause. On the other hand, the steel in dustry already is under attack by the government. Mr. Roosevelt suddenly “cracked down” on some of the major companies recently, charging them witn collusion in bids on government work. He came out with this charge at a time which undoubtedly will stiffen the backbone of the union agita tors—and it is not unlikely that by the same token he has stiffened the resistance which the steel com panies will use. Yet, it does seem that the steel companies made a fatal mistake in the pronouncement they have is sued. There are too many people who will be inclined to believe that the steel companies have taken ad vantage of an apparent assurance of collapse of federal supervision. There are few who believe that the . federal compulsory collective bar- I gaining statute will last very long but the fact that this statute is due for the discard, it seems to ' me, hardly warrants the action which the steel companies have taken. They are no more war ranted in that than union labor is warranted in taking advantage of the political situation to feather their own nest. A real danger, in addition to this, is that Communist ; agitators are going to use this situ- THE BULLETIN ation as one vehicle for spreading their propaganda of dissatisfaction and discontent and Mr. Roosevelt’s attack on massed capital unfortu nately lends itself to the nefarious schemes of the Reds. • * * It long has been said that the method of administering laws fre quently has creat- Tax Law ed more dissatis- Irritation faction among the citizens than the requirements of laws themselves. Tax laws of whatever kind furnish a splendid example. It has always been true since we have had in come tax laws that taxpayers have complained more about bu reaucratic regulation, indecision, lack of uniformity in administra tion and, generally speaking, slow processes of settlement than about the amount they were required to pay. The same is true about our customs laws despite the fact that they affect fewer persons directly. The other day, the Treasury is sued a notice to customs inspectors that was "effective immediately.” It was a change in policy respect ing the quantity of goods an indi vidual may bring in from foreign shores without the payment of the customs tax. Since 1798 or thereabouts, there has been a law which permitted a returning American to bring in commodities of whatever kind he desired, except narcotics, up to SIOO in value but that law permit ted the Treasury to make excep tions. The Treasury notice the oth er day was an announcement of an exception to this SIOO exemp tion. It said that no inbound trav eler could carry more than one wine gallon of liquor without the payment of the customs tax there on. A practice had sprung u» since the import duty on liquors has been made so high of returning tourists bringing in almost the full exemp tion in liquor alone. Probably the practice was getting very bad and no one questions the judgment of the Treasury in determining poli cy. But it is the method employed in making this change that has aroused criticism. In ordering the new regulation “effective immediately,” the Treas ury forced upon hundreds o trav elers the necessity for paying duty on their personal stocks of liquor in what amounts to a surprise or der. They had left foreign shores under one regulation and arrive un der another. I have no doubt at all that the Treasury’s reason for changing the rule while the game was being played will result in a considerable amount of revenue for the govern ment. But there are many who believe, as I do, that the depart ment in all fairness should have is sued its regulation to became effec tive at some fixed date in the fu ture in order that citizens who must comply with it would be prepared by proper notification of what they were expected to do and the penal ties for failure to obey. The fact that the order concerned liquor is of no moment. It is the principle of such administration that is criticized and that cught to be criticized. The incident to which I have re ferred is an outstanding example of inconsideration and such things always cause citizens to have a hurt feeling, a feeling that the gov ernment changed the rules without consulting those who must obey the rules. It turned out in this case to be a rather expensive surprise, but that again is not the point. It seems to me that a government can afford, indeed it ought, to deal generously with its citizens because without their cooperation enforce ment of laws becomes overdifficult. It seems to me, likewise, that in this particular case a little com mon sense would have avoided the creation of much ill will. Every individual who was the victim of this surprise regulation will go back to his home community with less respect for his government than he had before. In these per ilous times no government can af ford to destroy the respect for it of those who pay the bilL © Western Newspaper Union. Lights ofNewYork By L. L. STEVENSON Prowling around New York—and feeling restless every time he hears a liner whistle—your corre spondent encountered Ray Hender son who devotes the greater part of his time to writing about Kath erine Cornell. Knowing that at this season, his employer spends many hours reading manuscripts, naturally the question asked con cerned the outlook for young dram atists. The answer was a nit sur prising. On an average, only once in 200 manuscripts received at the Cornell offices from unknown dramatists is there an original idea. Still, an editor once stated that in five years, during which time he’d read thousands of unso licited manuscripts, he had found only three worth buying and of the three, one turned out to have been plagarized. Oh yes, another thing. Mr. Henderson mentioned that during the last few weeks, the Cornell play department had received a preponderance of anti war manuscripts. • • * Proceeding along Broadway, your correspondent stopped for a word or two with Phil Baker. The conversation concerned complica tions caused by copyrights in mu sic which, as everyone knows, has been responsible for the revival of many songs of the past because if the new ones were put on the air, there would be law suits. The Baker comment was that the way things are now, if Gabriel wanted to blow his trumpet, nine chances out of ten, the tune would be re stricted and Judgment day would have to be postponed! Which brought to mind the charge made by Phil Duey that song writers have banded together in a cam paign against public utilities with electric companies as their chief target. As proof, he cited, “Lights Out,” “After Dark,” “Early to Bed,” “Sleep,” “A Perfect Day” and “At Dawning.” • • • At lunch recently with a few friends, Frank Buck explained how East Indian fakirs are able to han dle even the most poisonous snakes without endangering their lives or their health. Before giving a dem onstration of his control over rep tiles, the fakir irritates his snakes to such an extent that they are so fighting mad they will bite any thing that gets in their way. The fakir allows them to vent their ire on some harmless object, such as an orange, until their venom sacks have been emptied. Then for the next few hours, he handles them without risk. It may be all as the “Bring-’Em-Back-Alive” Buck says, but I wouldn’t want to try it. Some old snake would be just mean enough to hold back a few drops for my benefit. • » • One of the habits of inhabitants of this town to which your corre spondent is unable to become ac customed is that of going to a store and buying dirt or rather “earth” as it is termed by those who sell it New Yorkers spend regular money for a little black soil for window boxes or flewer pots and spend much more to make those penthouse gardens. At current re tail prices, shoe scrapings of boy hood days would have sold for enough to have bought a new cane fish pole. Even the residue from face washings, under maternal su pervision, would have brought con siderable. Instead of buying dirt we had to work hard to get rid of it But this is New York. • ♦ The truly rural again is being shown New Yorkers by means of that "traveling farm” which made such a hit last year. There are cows and chickens and a red barn with a milkmaid, which by no means are commonplace in a city where kids know the country only through pictures. Each month this year there will be a 10-day vaca tion for the exhibit so that the ani- ■ mals may rest continual stares tiring them no end. ©Bel! Syndicate.—WNU Service. Keeping Up WifinScien^e dJ er we © Science Service.—WNU Service, Britain Will Help Citizens to Combat Poison Gas Attacks Every English Home May Be Gas-Proof Dugout Gas-attack by air, the Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse of modern war, is at last disturbing Great Britain, whose people hitherto have dis played characteristic native phlegm in the face of feverish preparations in continental cities for civilian protection during possi ble air raids. Every Englishman’s house, traditionally his castle, may now have to become his gas-proof dugout. Detailed suggestions for render ing rooms in ordinary dwellings gas-proof have been drawn up by a trained professional, C. E. Bow er, who is styled Air Raid Pre cautions Officer to the Commis sary of No. 1 District, St. John Am bulance Brigade. To get his directions widest pos sible publicity, with graphic pic tures of important details which might be overlooked if given only in print, they have been published in the Illustrated London News. An official booklet is announced for publication shortly, by the home office. How to Fight Gas The ordinary English urban or suburban villa presents a rather difficult problem. Its one floor, at ground level, lies within the ex pected "zone of saturation,” if a gas raid comes. It has no base ment, and there are numerous openings through which gas might enter —notably the open flreplaces which are features of almost ev ery room in an ordinary English house. Yet the problem can be solved, Mr. Bower declares. Select one or more rooms, enough to give each occupant 20 square feet of floor space, with a ceiling height of about nine feet. Putty all window joints, paste paper on the inside of the windows, and board up the out side. Finally, fasten a wet blanket inside the window. Do the same for the doors, and seal up the fireplace, and all other openings. See that the room is always pro visioned with food and water, and furnished with folding camp beds and bedding in addition to neces sary chairs and tables. Have fire extinguishers and a first-aid kit available. Provide means for pass ing the time—books, radio, phono graph, playing cards. Odor of New Cut Wood May Be Made Perfume LONDON. — Perfumes of a rustic tang, bearing such rural names as “Odor of Earth,” “New-Cut Wood,” or perhaps going across the Channel into "Terre sillonee,” are made a pos sibility by the discovery of special micro-organisms that are respon sible for the characteristic scents of fresh-plowed fields in spring, of earth after strong rain in summer, or of freshly felled trees. The mi cro-organisms were discovered by Dr. Dr. A. Raistrick, working at the Rothamsted Experimental sta tion at Harpenden. A distinct field of "costume per fumes” is suggested by the possi bility of propagating these organ isms in pure culture and making use of their scent.