Labor Messenger (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 59, No. 40, Ed. 1 Friday, December 25, 1942 Page: 1 of 24
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Vol. 19—No. 40
HOUSTON, TEXAS, DECEMBER 25, 1942
|2.00 PER YEAR
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HERE IS
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"Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth among men of good will."
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Here and There
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Organized labor in Houston feels
the new cruiser Houston.
-
International
Brotherhood
of
Milam Building, $10,000; Texas
hood of Locomotive Firemen and
No. 84, 11000; Carpenters and
Joiners Union, No. 218, $20,000;
(Continued on Page 4)
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Forced to Farm
Out Work
Established Wage Plans’
Gain Favor in the Southwest
Use of Promotion Plans Recommended to
Employers by Regional Advisory Committee
I. C. C. Reports
Sharp Increase
In R. R. Casualties
Government Agency Tells How Uncle Sam is
Working for Economic Stability; Outlines
Seven Brakes on Inflation Roller-Coaster
Plenty American Towns Are Patriotic
But Houston—A-a-a-h-h-h-h!
This is due almost entirely to the thousands of fine
things that have been done for us and said about us.
Our correspondents have helped us in every issue with
news and editorial comment. Our advertisers have
remained our friends, as they have for years past.
GREATEST NEWS STORY "S
EVER PUBLISHED IN ANY PAPER
Organized Labor Proud of Part Played
In Paying for New Cruiser Houston
cereals were used by the OWI
example.
The old system of straight
Uncle Sam Wants
Military Land
VS
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W. W. Strong, secretary-treas-
urer of the Houston Printing Press-
men and Assistants Union No. 71,
said 19 unions had paid in more
than $116,200 for government secu-
rities for the drive.
A partial list of unions and their
donations are as follows: '
Special Commissions
Created to Facilitate
Handling of Cases
Faced by a terrific log jam of
cases, the National War Labor
Board this week resorted to exten-
sive “farming out” of its work.
Cases before the board itself
550
Capital Hotels
Reported Preying
On Servicemen
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Official Newspaper of HausiotETzaber a
Official Rgbr«santattv« at A
4
fixes definite wage ranges for vari-
our job classifications. Under such
(Continued on Page 8)
Office of War Information
Explains Government Program
For Economic Stabilization
^SUiliated Organizations
bor in Houston
Uncle Sam has acquired 12,000,-
000 acres for military purposes,
much of it good agricultural land.
When the war is won it must go
back to farmers, according to Nor-
man M. Littell, assistant attorney
general in charge of the lands
division.
ers. No. 718, $25,000; Taxicab Driv-
ers, No. 349, >2500; Printing Press-
men and Assistants, No. 71, >500;
New Year Begins
Point Rationing
System, Says OWI
Point rationing, which will begin
some time after the first of the
year, is a new and logical develop-
ment of rationing scarce commodi-
ties so that all persons will share
equally in the available supply, the
Office of War Information pointed
out this week.
In a special article for the labor
press, the OWI explained how point
rationing will work. Point ration-
ing will be used to ration meats and
other scarce foodstuffs, but since
the comparative values of meat
have not been fully determined,
Higgins Will
Build Giant
Flying Boats
Shipbuilder Gets
Contract to Construct
1,200 Cargo Planes
Having made an amazing record
as a shipbuilder, Andrew Jackson
Higgins of New Orleans is to be
given his chance to see what he can
do in turning out cargo planes in
record time.
The War Department has award-
ed Higgins a contract to construct
1,200 giant flying boats, which are
to be built on a mass production
basis. The first plane will be ready
for its test about next July, Hig-
gins said. >
The planes will be constructed at
the yards where 200 sea-going Lib-
erty ships were to have been built,
but the contract was cancelled by
the Maritime Commission. The gov-
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Houston enters the Christmas holidays with a spirit of
unity that is an example to the rest of the nation. The united
spirit of Houstonians centers upon one thing—victory as soon
as humanly possible.
Most sensational proofs of the Houston spirit are evidenced
by the enthusiastic volunteering of 1600 local youths to man
a new Cruiser Houston, after the old one was sunk, when only
1000 were asked for; and the raising of $85,749,884.24 by the
sale of war bonds and stamps after the city pledged itself to
sell $36,100,000 worth to pay for a new Cruiser Houston.
Those manifestations brought the city international pub-
licity and excited admiration all over the world. The heavy
enlistments led Speaker Sam Rayburn of the House of Repre-
sentatives to tell a Coliseum audience that Houston has en-
listed more men in the Navy than any other city, regardless
of population. The huge sum of more than $85,000,000 put
by Houstonians into bonds and stamps in three weeks brought
two cabinet members, Secretary of the Navy Frank G. Knox
and Secretary of Commerce Jesse H. Jones; admirals, generals
and other high-ranking military officers to Houston to help
celebrate and to praise the spirit that animated the campaign.
Less obvious to the casual visitor to Houston and practically
unknown to those living away from here are other indications
of the city’s remarkable feeling of unity. There was the
promptness with which local industry converted its plants to
handle the goods needed in war, the readiness of local labor
to adjust itself to war needs, the widespread use by workers of
the systematic payroll deduction plan for the purchase of war
bonds, and the enthusiastic enrollment of thousands of civil-
ians in defense work.
These are less spectacular phases of the general expendi-
ture of thought, effort, time and money toward the common
aim for victory, but these are evidences of the EVERY day
effort that is needed to win. Sporadic drives are splendid to
whip up enthusiasm and inspire more laggard communities,
but it is the day-by-day sacrifices and accomplishment of
monotonous tasks that do the work and raise the money neces-
sary to a victorious conclusion of the war.
Houston’s claim to fame rests not merely on the facts that
it has raised more volunteers for the Navy than any other
city and more money per population in three weeks than any
other city, but also on the less publicized fact that it is doing
its full duty all the time. What Houston does during drives
and campaigns is just that much additional.
These are things that Houstonians may honestly and prop-
erly consider with pride. They are proof that the spirit of the
Texan revolutionists still lives in the breasts of their
descendants. A
We detest bragging, but we despise decention more. So, we
admit that Houston and Houstonians are good.
9259
82
9gi.
partial solution of the “basic prob-
lem of re-establishing farm fami-
lies in agriculture as a way of
living."
1
4,02
These friendly relations are things of value, but
may be purchased only by reciprocation of friendship.
That, our friends, you have had and still have. We
appreciate your helpful cooperation and hope that
we will continue to merif it.
We wish for you th^ “peace dn earth” bespoken for
"men of good will.” And we wish you all a sincere
and hearty Merry Christmas!
Board Revolts Over
Gas Rationing
Joplin, Mo. — Insurrection
flared in the ranks of the 0.
P.* A. Rationing Board here
this week. It refused to ration
gasoline and it also declined
to resign. Chairman Tom J.
Malloy declared the board
would not follow O. P. A. in-
structions until it had re-
ceived “conclusive proof’ that
the step is necessary to re-
lieve the East and aid the
nation’s war effort.
Boards in other sections of
Missouri have resigned rather
than ration.
L:
tioning cannot be applied to such
commodities as meats and cereals
because of individual likes and dis-
likes, and because of the scarcity
of some meats and some cereals.
If the available supply of bran-
flakes, for example, were rationed
equally to all persons, many wh
disliked branflakes would not use
their supply and many who did like
them would receive a supply too
small to be of much use to them.
Some people would like cornflakes
alone of all cereals and yet would
be held to the average portions of
cornflakes and would have to buy
other types of cereals which they
might not like to make up their
supply of breakfast foods.
Suppose branflakes were scarce,
almost non-existent, whole corn-
flakes were plentiful. The purpose
of rationing then would be to dis-
courage the eating of branflakes
and to encourage cornflakes. That
is how point rationing works.
Each person under point rationing
would receive 48 points per month'.
Cornflakes might have a “value” of
one point. Almost equally scarce
wheatflakes might have a value of
two points. Scarce branflakes
might have a value of 11 points.
The shopper could then spend the
48 points according to her likes and
dislikes and her needs. She could
purchase up to 48 packages of corn:
flakes or spend 44 points on 4 pack-
ages of branflakes.
The smart housewife, by watch-
ing the point values, will be able
to make her allowance go further
by wise purchasing.
showed.
Among steps to relieve the bot-
tleneck will be the creation of
special commissions for various in-
dustries and ares, functioning as
"little War Labor Boards."
One such commission was set up
this week to handle all disputes in-
volving 50,000 tool and die makers
in the Detroit area and to admin-
ister a ceiling wage of $1.60 to
>1.75 an hour fixed for the tool and
die workers by the board. Another
was named for the trucking indus-
try covering 500,000 workers.
Powers Delegated
The board has also delegated to
the Federal Reserve System, U. S.
Employment Service and Depart-
ment of the Interior authority to
make wage adjustments for their
employes without going to the
42
1725)
C. A. Driscoll, personal, >1600; A.
W. Howser ,personal, >1000; ;Oil
Field Workers, No. 243, >2000;
-iyuu-u - Brewery Workers, No. Ill, >1500;
Electrical Workers No. B-66 in the -International Garment Workers,
Sy
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such applications was noted by Dal-
las officials of the Wage-Hour and
Public Contracts Divisions of the
U. S. Department of Labor, who
are serving as field agents for
WLB.
“The trend is important,” said
WLB Regional Director Floyd Me-
Gown. “It means that business
firms will have to consult us less
often, saving them both time and
money. And it means our organiza-
tion will function more smoothly—
with less employes and less cost to
the government."
emment will lease the yard to Hig- proud of the part it played during
gins at a rental of >1 a year. .
No. 31, >775; ;Electrical Workers,
No. 66, >10,000;; Plumbers and
„ . _____ , Steamfitters, No. 68, $10,000; Fur-
Enginemen, >2000; Iron Workers, niture Workers >500; ;Painters and
a ° 6nn0 C - • Paper Hangers, No. 130, >4400, and
. . - . two individual members purchased board for approval. Similar power
Boilermakers, No. 74, bought out of $600 worth.
Planned advancement for work-
ers—by the use of “established
wage plans”—is gaining favor
among Southwest employers as
they move to meet the problem of
wartime wage controls, it appeared
this week from a report issued by
the War Labor Board’s regional
office in Dallas.
Use of “established plans” was
Recommended to business men re-
cently by the WLB Regional Advis-
ory Council, and particularly by the
Council’s industry representatives.
Operating under such a plan, a
firm may advance its workers with-
out going to the War Labor Board
for approval of individual promo-
tions and increases in pay.
The method has , termed
“common sense” by Advisory Coun-
cil members—it reduces rather than
increases red tape, and it offers a
minimum of government control of
wartime wages.
From the labor viewpoint, it pro-
vides the worker a definite “time
table” for advancement, on a
length-of-service or merit basis—
dependent, of course, on his ability
and performance.
Tabulations in the WLB regional
office at Dallas showed that fully
25 per cent of all applications now
before the regional director were
from firms seeking approval of es-
tablished plans.
An increase in the number of
Littell suggested that the land State Legislative Board Brother-
be divided into small tracts as a
Hl
submit individual wage increases to
WLB, even one at a time, if they
desire. “But the resiflt will be an
awful lot of application filing by
such employers,” said McGown.
“The Advisory Council thinks that
general adoption of wage plans will
eliminate the bulk of what might
be termed red tape.”
The Advisory Council is com-
posed of 12 private citizens of the
Southwest, representing equally la-
bor, industry and the public.
An “established wage plan,” as
recognized by the War Labor
The mounting toll of railroad
workers’ lives and limbs exacted by
wartime operations was tragically
emphasized this week by a report
of the Interstate Commerce Com-
mission.
Seven hundred and sixty-seven
employes were killed and 27,893
injured during the first 10 months
of the year. In October, 96 were
killed and 767 were injured.
The number killed increased 18
over October last year and 175 for
the 10-month period; the number
injured increased 852 for the month
and 7,313 for the 10 months.
Board, is any well-defined system
for advancement of workers which have risen to the 2,200 mark, exclu-
their treasury >10,000, and indiyid-
_ _ ual members purchased more than
the 21-day drive toward paying for >10,000; Packing House Workers,
No. 103, >2325; Typographical
Union, No. 87, >500; Fire Fighters
Local 341, >10,000; Electrical Work-
Largest Budget
Being ‘Readied*
The largest Federal budget
in history, expected to call for
$96,000,000,000 in war expen-
ditures, is now being ‘readied’
for Congress by the Budget
Bureau.
Members have been pri-
vately told total appropria-
tions to be recommended will
approach >103,000,000,000, or
more than the total costs of
all our previous wars.
Since Pearl Harbor our war
outlay has topped $46,393,-
890,500, or >6,000,000,000
more than the entire cost of
our participation in the world
conflict of 25 years ago.
This is the first of a series of
four articles on Economic Stabili-
zation. The series was prepared by
the Office of War Information to
explain, in simplest terms, the gov-
ernment program for economic
stability.
The United States government is
working to bring about economic
stabilization through a seven-part
plan.
When we talk about economies, a
lot of people stop listening. They
think economics is something that
belongs to the colleges and the
professors.
That’s wrong. It’s more wrong
than ever, now that the country is
at war.
Economics belongs to everybody.
It belongs to every man that has a
dime, every man that has a want,
every man that has a loaf of bread.
A boy sells a ty for a nickel.
That’s economics. The boy spends
the nickel for six pieces of candy.
Economics. We order a billion
dollars worth of bombers. More
economics.
Everybody knows what stabiliza-
tion means. And economic stabili-
zation is just this: The boy gets six
pieces of candy for his nickel today, A
tomorrow, next month. We get as
many bombers for our billion in
January as we did last March. ‛ ’
Well, suppose we haven’t got eco-
nomic stabilization. What then? ?
Most likely: inflation.
Why? 8
Thre su e 134 million people in
th United States. All have appe-
tites. Appetites for food, of course.
And appetites for clothes, homes,
radios, fui coats, kiddie banks, silk
stockings, and all those things that
make life so comfortable and so
Americans But a fighting country
can’t spare time, material or ma-
chines to make most of those'
things. Half of our manufacturing
(Continued on Page 4)
‘Menn Chnitma
•q
The Christmas season finds the Labor Messenger
and its staff filled with the old Yule spirit. In spite
of the war and its associated worries and troubles, we
are closing what, in many respects, has been a good
year.
g
WPB Operates
Health Plan for
Washington Staff
A model health, program for its
Washington staff has been set up
by the War Production Board “as a
service for the employe in keeping
him in good health and making him
a more effective worker, and hum
being,” according to a special bul-
letin issued December 11.
A physician and a consultant,
both of them reserve officers of the
U. S. Public Health Service, direct
the program and are available to
WPB’S thousands of employes for
treatment and advice.
Employes, moreover, are encour-
aged to make use of the services of
these physicians and of ten emer-
gency rooms directed by registered
nurses. The rooms are located in
as many buildings throughout the
Capital. ■ [ •
In addition, two registered nurses
will visit sick employes. This serv-
ice has been set up to get the “sick
employe back to work as soon as is
consistent with his general well
being.”
Studies of “sick leave” (the gov-
ernment term for absences due to
illness) are to be made periodically
by the Health Office in an effort
to determine causes of sickness and
to prevent it “both for the benefit
of the employe and for the benefit
of management,” the bulletin states.
A nutrition program and a study
of building ventilation, in addition
to physical examinations of em-
ployes form part of the well-round-
ed health program. .
Among the welfare services es-
tablished under the program are a
counseling service for WPB work-
ers, a housing service to help find
rooms in the crowded city, and a
small special emergency fund to
provide loans for “new employes
who have not received their first
salary check” or in extreme emer-
gencies to other employes. There
also is an employes’ credit union.
A recreation unit also has been
set up to organize leisure-time ac-
tivities for the WPB workers and
advise newcomers of available facil-
ities in the city. This unit issues a
current directory of recreational
activities, and arranges for group
activities. •
sive of those before regional
branches, and only 396 of these
have been closed, a WLB report
McGown asserted that he wasn’t T I .n 1
“demanding” that employers estab- I a hor Koard
lish wage plans. They always may "--I V*
Getting out a weekly newspaper is a harder task
than may be imugined by those who haven’t tried it.
The cooperation given us by our friends inside the
labor movement and our friends in business and
industrial circles outside organized labor has light-
ened our burden every week.
mnja
29" THE BIRTH OF JESUS. Now it came to pass in those days that there went forth c “
3ft decree from Caesar Augustus that a census of the whole world should be taken This 1
M first census took place while Cyrinus was governor of Syria. And all were going each
■ to his own town, to register. ... And Joseph also went from Galilee out of the town of
, Nazareth into Judea to the town of David, which is called Bethlehem_-because he
' X VVS £ 588.".
were, fulfilled.. And she brought forth her firstborn Son and wrapped Him in swaddling clothes
TUX min O manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. THE SHEPHERDS
C1‘ Andthere were shepherds.in the same district, living in the fields and keeping
wgtch over their f lock, by night. And behold, on angel of the Lord stood by them and the glory
„God.shoneroundobou tthem, ond they feored exceedingly. ... And the angel said to them:
Do, not be ofrde, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy, which shall be to all the
PeOple, Afor there hos been born to you today ini the town of David a Savior, who is Christ the
-ord And this shall be A sign 18 you: You will find on infant wrapped in swaddling clothes
and ying in a manger. And suddenly there wot with the angel a multitude of the heavenly
host, praising God and saying: | 7
And it come to pass, when the angels hod departed from them into heaven, that the
shepherds were saying to one another: "Let us go to Bethlehem and see this thing that
hoscometo pass which the Lord has made known to us." ... So they went with haste
and they found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in the manger. And when they
hodseen, they understood what had been told them concerning this child
And all who heard marveled of the things told them by the shep-
herds. But Mary kept in mind all these words, pondering
- - them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, .1
glorifying and praising God for all that ‛
they had heard and seen,
Xi even as it was spoken
22 ' to them.—(Luke
ii, 1-20).
Washington’s rent administrator,
Robert F. Cogswell, prepared this
week to crack down on hotels which
have been charging “outlandish”
prices to guests, many of the vic-
tims being men in the armed
service.
Cogswell said his office has been
quietly investigating and has un-
earthed a scandalous situation.
Rooms that formerly were available
for >1 now cost soldiers >5 and >6
a night, Cogswell said. Rates are
always pushed up over the week
end, when the largest number of
soldiers are in the capital, Cogswell
charged.
Unless the gouging is stopped,
Cogswell warned, the profiteers
will be hailed into court.
* *
0 33
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Labor Messenger (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 59, No. 40, Ed. 1 Friday, December 25, 1942, newspaper, December 25, 1942; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1551388/m1/1/?q=coaster: accessed June 4, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .