Labor Messenger (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 21, No. 1, Ed. 1 Friday, March 24, 1944 Page: 1 of 4
This newspaper is part of the collection entitled: Texas Labor Newspapers and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the UNT Libraries.
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jgn of Labor in Houston
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Volume 21—No. 1
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try got into the war. In 1941,
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of Congress are divided on the
(Continued on Page 4)
Se-
ing up slave labor.
grass.
after curfew hour.
he was taken with many others to
14-
workers for physical
lower
of the transport.
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ouhomnd
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Solons Take Position That AU Economic
Segments Except Labor Are Under Control
Poles Sold To
German Farmers
Management
Blamed For
Labor Waste
Government Reports
Bear Out Labor’s Claim
Here and There
tention that hoarding and waste of
workers by management are to
blame for manpower shortages has
received confirmation in one offi-
cial report.
Six States Attempting Nullification
Of Wage-Hour Act, Charges Walling
which, among other features, lash-
ed out at this misuse of labor. A
similar indictment came this week
from Senator James E. Murray
(Dem., Mont.), chairman of a sub-
committee of the Senate Military
Affairs Committee which has been
looking into the abuses of cost-plus
contracts.
Nearly two years ago union lead-
ers first called this evil to the at-
tention of the government. For
example, President Harvey W.
Brown of the Machinists gave Fed-
eral agencies a batch of affidavits
from aircraft workers who protest-
ed that they were under instruc-
tions to loaf because managements
had nothing for them to do.
Labor Charges Proven
The Truman committee followed
up by investigating such charges,
and in its report last week revealed
that some managements hired as
many workers as they could crowd
into their plants, regardless of
whether they tould be efficiently
utilised or not.
Since Uncle Sam footed the
bill, the managements were un-
(Continued on Page 4)
Local 214 Will
Sponsor Benefit Dance
Ladies’ Garment Workers Local
Union 214 will sponsor a dance on
April 15, at the Recreation Play
House, beginning at 8:30 p. m.
First: It should immedia
American, totalitarian porpos
Second: It should be "he
Act and the wholly uncalled f
has had to suffer by the pass
What did Mr. Nelson sa3
Scant Hope Held
Out For Social
Security Bill
The Wagner-Dingell Social
Warsaw, where he was kept for a
month in a workers’ camp before
being deported to Germany.
He was sent to a village in Ger-
German Pomerania and sold to a
German fanner for about $40. The
Through underground channels,
Polish officials in London have
second prize, a $25.00 bond. Curtis
Smith Orchestra will play and ad-
mission is $1.10 per couple.
Tickets are now on sale and may
be obtained by calling Preston 8573.
All members, their families and
friends are urged to be present and
are assured of fun and frolic.
The matter has already become a
battleground for conflicting forces.
report for the fiscal year ended
June 30, 1943.
Seeing a danger of deterioration
of wage and work standards with
who wear the Nazi uniform. It means poverty and deprivation
and rape and forced labor and death to those who are Con-
AFL Survey
Hits Living
Cost Index
Study Reveals
Consumer Gouged
On Prices And Quality
right in the battle over how much
the cost of living has really mount-
ed during the war.
As previously reported, union
chieftains conducted an exhaustive
study which disclosed that living
costs have skyrocketed 43.5 per
cent since January, 1941, nearly
double the 23 per cent claimed in
the index of the Bureau of Labor
Statistics.
I
course,
o years and have had to work at very
made, naturally, and the strain which is normal at
put out a statement giving their
views.
A subcommittee of the Senate
Commerce Committee has held off-
the-record hearings for months. It
has called in government execu-
tives, airline owners and others
concerned. It is also to hear labor
leaders.
Senator Bennett Champ Clark
(Dem., Mo.), chairman of the sub-
committee, summed up the case in
a speech on the Senate floor a few
days ago. So far, he said, the com-
Police in The Wrecker Business?
Haven’t They Enough To Do Now?
A rather inconspicuous item in the daily newspapers of last
week has disturbed us. It told of the purchase by the Houston
> police department of a wrecker truck.
Nothing more appeared about the purchase in the papers
and, for all we know, the item was without interest to the
general public.
Yet, that is something the public should be interested in.
It is something that should be carefully watched.
In the first place, there are many city ordinances and state
laws that are often violated by wreckers. In a city like Hous-
ton, the enforcement of those ordinances and laws is left to
the police department. Will policemen enforce those laws
against the police-owned wrecker?
Then, too, we are not very quick in approving any govern-
mental body going into private business and that is what the
Over in Germany they have a cross with the arms bent to
the right they call the Swastika. It is different from the
bent-arms cross of our American Indians—the arms of which
are bent to the left. The German form is the sign of the
Nazis: It is the symbol they adopted for their own.
The Nazis cross means many things. It means arrogance
and cruelty and selfishness and sadism as <
Gore And Monroney Would
Incorporate Little Steel
Formula Into Control Act
HOUSTON, TEXAS; MARCH 24, 1944
German farmers gathered in the
village to buy Poles as they would
cattle. The buyers carefully exam-
v 8
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d- . ,
8
question. So are the airlines and
other transportation interests, all
anxious for a share in what is ex-
pected to be a lush source of
profits.
Organized lahr is greatly con-
cerned, too, because on the ulti-
mate decision rests the protection
of the wages and standards of hun-
dreds of thousands of American
~X5
What’s going to happen to avi-
ation after the war, and how will it
be controlled?
Every week in Washington it be-
comes more apparent that the an-
swer involves one of the knottiest
problems to confront the Allies,
now and at the peace table.
mittee has confined itself to find-
ing out what questions should be
considered in formulating a post-
war aviation policy that will safe-
guard America’s interests, includ-
ing the national defense. Open
hearings are soon to start, he ex-
plained.
hyI
Kv
Kaiser Urges
Post-War
Housing Plan
Accumulated Demand
Could Keep Millions
Working, Says Builder
Chicago.—Henry J. Kaiser, ship-
builder and contractor, urged all
sections of the housing industry to
get together on plans for a country-
wide building program after the
war with profits secondary to mass
employment.
Speaking at a dinner-meeting of
the National Conference on Post-
War Housing, Mr. Kaiser said:
a large percentage of ration cou-
pons now in circulation are coun-
terfeit.
The entire Eastern seaboard, as
well as California, the Gulf and
parts of the Middle West, were de-
quered by the Nazis. It means an utter disregard for truth
and treaties and justice and gentleness and mercy to all of
those who have observed the conduct of the Nazis.
This Nazi cross on German flags flies high over whole
countries where the brutal invader has goose-stepped to tem-
porary victory, where honor is no longer honored by the pup-
pet rulers, where churches are closed and church leaders killed
or imprisoned, where schools are maintained to teach propa-
ganda instead of knowledge and truth, where papers are ___
lished to mislead instead of spread facts, where the inherent
Growth Of
Navy Shown
In Book
Giant Battleships To
PT‘s Included In Total
Exceeding Thousands
New York.—The impressive
growth of the navy since Pearl
Harbor is strikingly shown in the
1943 American edition of Jane’s
Fighting Ships, standard British
reference work, newly issued in •
New York by Macmillan.
Topping the list are eight mas-
sive battleships and 11 new fleet
plane carriers, with a dozen or
more additional carriers on the
way. At the “little end” are veri-
table swarms of the craft that
make U-boats submerge—perma-
nently; 200 destroyer escorts, 600
subchasers. Along with them are
listed 200 of another kind of aqu-
atic wasps—motor torpedo boats.
Converted Ships Omitted
3: 422
(88*
III MAY, l» IC
.W
The list of fleet plane carriers
does not include the numerous "air-
craft escort vessels” created by the
conversion of uncompleted 17,600-
ton merchant ships, which have
done much to win the Battle of the
Atlantic from the U-boat packs.
Thirteen of these are listed by
name, besides “others of which
names have not been reported.”
Jane’s lists all six battleships of
the 35,000-ton North Carolina class
as being now in service together
with two of the later 45,000-ton-
ners, the Iowa and the New Jersey.
These eight new ships pack more
power in their 72 main-battery
guns than the ten battleships of
Japan’s pre-war navy had in the 94
heavy caliber guns they mounted.
A little rapid pencil-and-paper
work indicates that the American
array of new 16-inch weapons can
throw more than 1,500,000 pounds
of steel at one discharge; the com-
bined batteries of the Japanese
on
6
A young Polish worker, who re-
turned recently to Cracow, told the
story of his capture in the street
dared to be blanketed with spuri-
Last week, the Truman Commit- ous and stolen coupons. Between
300,000 and 400,000 filling stations
are working hand in glove with the
racketeers, Bowles said.
He even admitted the OPA knows
that New Jersey is the center of
the counterfeit printing ring, but
suggested no way of dealing with
the situation. His only action was
to slash by a third the value of
“A” coupons in the Midwest and
Far West.
- ----a total broadside
only a little over one and one-third
million pounds. Or in terms of de-
structive power loosed per broad-
side, the American guns develop
somewhat more than 8,000,000 foot. •
tons,’asagainst only 7,000,000 for
The section on war losses shows
some impressive box score. .
(Continued on Pagesjgainst
“Housing is one of the major
prospects for employment. Present
requirements, accumulations and
expressed desires could keep mil-
lions employed for years.”
Asserting that everything is pro-
pitious for an unparalleled revival
of building activity after the war,
Mr. Kaiser said1 the task would be
accomplished in some part by indi-
vidual initiative, “but the under-
taking is so vast that there must
be a joint effort in which the Fed-
eral Government, the States, mu-
nicipalities, banks, labor unions, in-
surance companies and industry
take an active part.”
“Out of the shambles of war in
England, Russia and Europe,” he
continued, “there are certain to
arise new cities—modern, safe, ef-
ficient and beautiful. Can we af-
ford to be laggards in such a march
of progress?”
“Many of us,” he went on, “are
aware that the extent to which we
fail this challenge will be a direct
invitation to the Federal Govern-
ment to take over the job, which is
fundamentally your own.”
(539
,27)
Post-War Aviation Already
Battleground For Conflicting
Forces; Labor Concerned
Answer Involves One Of Knottiest Problems
To Confront The Allies Now And At Peace Table
Official Newspaper of H^itfonTsabor'and
Official Reprasentativeomtha A
curity bill, which has been pigeon-
holed by the House Ways and
Means Committee since last June,
seems doomed to remain there in-
definitely.
Chairman “Bob” Doughton
(Dem., N. C.) declared this week
the legislation will “have to take
itsturn with about 200 or 300 other
bills. ’ The committee, he said, had
no intention of considering the
measure until tax simplification is
out of the way, and that, he pre-
dieted, “will take some time.”
Other members of the committee
declared that “social reforms”
should not be taken up during war-
time.
freedoms of mankind are forbidden, and the inhabitants are
REQUIRED, under heavy penalty for failure, to at least pre-
tend to worship a foreigner of illegitimate birth who gained
his power through confessed trickery, lies, deceit, broken
promises, treachery, and murder. »
That is the cross that is revered in Nazi Germany.
In this country we have the Red Cross----a symbol worthy
of the reverence of every person of decent instincts. Its arms
are straight. It is very plain—a single line running up and
down, crossed by a shorter horizontal line. It is red. It is not
merely the trade-mark of the American Red Cross organi-
zation. It is a symbol of gentleness and mercy.
Those who wear this symbol could never qualify to wear
the Nazi cross. They are not brutal. They are picked because
they are of proven worth as sympathetic, intelligent persons.
They have been trained—not to handle firearms and knives
and machine guns and blackjacks—but to efficiently handle
stretchers and ambulances and bandages and health-giving
drugs.
These Red Cross workersgo wherever human beings are in
danger of being hurt. They may beTound on the battlefields
of the world, taking the same chance of maiming and death
that the fighting men take. They may be found, too, wherever
human beings are in danger from hurricanes, floods andother
catastrophes.
The Red Cross is the most wonderful organization of its
kind the world has ever seen. Its scope is world-wide and the
services it renders are innumerable. There is hardly a spot
as large as Harris County any place in the world that has not
been benefited by the Red Cross.
Right now the Red Cross is raising money to carry on its
work for fighting men and civilians—whoever needs it, wher-
ever they live. They must have money to carry on.
In Germany and the countries the Nazis have occupied the
people are being FORCED to contribute to the support of the
Nazi Crooked Cross!
Won’t you voluntarily give to the support of the merciful
Red Cross ?
strictions on labor are mobilizing
for a renewed onslaught upon the
pay envelope when the Stabiliza-
tion Act is opened up.
They don’t seem to care any
more for the consequences of
their acts than slave owners
before the Civil War seemed
concerned about the conse-
quences of their policies.
Seeking Wage Freese
Congressman Alfred Gore (Dem.,
Tenn.) and Congressman A. S.
Mike Monroney (Dem., Okla.), de-
clared this week they will endeavor
to write the “Little Steel” wage
formula into the bill.
Gore and Monroney led a losing
fight for wage freezing when the
original act was adopted. They
voice confidence they will be more
successful this time.
Gore takes the absurd position
that “all the major economic seg-
ments” except labor have been
brought under control, and from
that he argues that the stabiliza-
tion program will fail unless hard
and fast wage restraints are writ-
ten into law.
Labor Only Sacrifices
As a matter of fact, wages
have been practically the only
“segment” which has been rig-
idly controlled by government. ;
Official figures prove this. ’ 2
The “Little Steel” formula limits 4
Nelson Asserts Labor Doing Fine;
Ludlow Adds: Leave Labor Alone
Bowles Admits
Existence Of
Racketeers
Consumers Called
Upon To Help Wipe
Out Black Markets
Startling admission that chise-
lers and black market operators are
robbing the nation’s consumers
came this week from Chester
Bowles, OPA administrator.
Bowles said that for every dol-
lar’s worth of groceries bought by
the average housewife, another 4
cents is gouged from her through
overcharges above ceiling prices.
That’s equivalent, he said, to $35
or $40 in the course of a year, as
much as a low-income family
spends for food in an entire month.
He confessed the OPA is helpless
to wipe out all this chiseling, and
called on consumers to do the job
themselves.
At the same time Bowles conced-
ed the very existence of gasoline
rationing is threatened by black
marketeers, many of them vicious
gangsters, who have moved in for
a “kill.”
He said that racketeers are siph-
oning off 2,500,000 gallons of gas
«rssamudit"tssfo"zZauns"ortsdtitmnpoalaneanan‘sheWnaPgaiustianecordr‘k.Cn
16, should bring, as Mr. Ludlaw pointed out, two distinct and positive results.
ely put an end for all time to “the unthinkable, un-
I to draft labor in the United States.”
pful in bringing about the repeal of the Smith-Connally
>r and unwarranted injustice which labor as a whole
age of that act.”
Afraid Of Cheap Labor
Clark let it be known that one of --------------------------
--------------- --uug Wlra. theissues being closely examined is tee of the Senate published a report
Government officials and members that of “competition by cheap-labor
Congressional machinery was
thrown into gear this week for
what is likely to be one of the most
hectic battles of the session—con-
sideration of legislation extending
the life of the Stabilization Act and
the Office of Price Administration
beyond June 30.
The Senate Banking and Curren-
cy Committee, headed by Senator
“Bob” Wagner (Dern., N.Y.), open-
ed hearings on the proposal this
week. Wagner said he hoped to get
the bill before the Senate early in
April.
Everybody seems to think the
legislation is pretty important and
that it should be continued in some
form as a curb on skyrocketing liv-
ing costs, as was originally de-
signed.
Wretched Administration
That it has not fulfilled expecta-
tions is due to wretched adminis-
tration. Under its first administra-
tor, Leon Henderson, the OPA was
more interested in shackling the
wages of workers than in protect-
ing them from the rapacity of prof-
iteers. Since Henderson’s banish-
ment there has been some improve-
ment, but not enough to write
home about.
Reactionary Congressmen who
have been clamoring for tighter re-
andndisgeenentss eem dom tostimnobro ught about unfortunate misunderstandin
city has done in buying a wrecker. There are numerous pri-
vate concerns which rely, in part at least, upon the wrecker
business to keep operating. It looks to us like the city is here
entering a field that has before been left to private enterprise_____— ______— — _un y
At a time like this, when the federal government is cutting learned of Nazi methods for round-
in on private business from almost every angle, we think the ' ’ 5
lesser governmental agencies would do well to keep off the
workers against competition from
low-wage foreign companies.
Rail Labor’s Views
.. ... As heretofore reported Standard
That same night Railroad Labor Organizations have
Of Hoarding, Misuse
_ . . . . . ■ daily from legal channels and that
Organized labor’s repeated con-
„gthat caused Mr. Ludlow to make these statements?
Here is what the chairman oft the War Production Board said:
. "Taking the production Ptogram as a whole, and considering all of the difficul.
ties which have been encountered, i is my firm belief that American labor has done
a truly splendid job in war production. Labor and management alike have of
been under great pressure during the Inst twi
high tension. Mistakes have been
defend its own. Naturally, the big
daily papers, anxious to freeze
wages far below living costs, had
nothing but praise for the bureau
and brickbats for labor, but Secre-
tary-Treasurer George Meany of
the AFL made it clear that “the
fight has just begun.”
Index Held Farce
“We’re preparing more ma-
terial to support our position,
and we’re keeping up the bat-
tle until something is done to
bring wages in line with the
true figures on living costs,
known to every housewife in
the land,” he said.
The AFL itself, through its
“Monthly Survey,” put out start-
ling new data which showed that
(Continued on Page 4)
New York City.—Direct efforts
by six States to nullify the Fair
Labor Standards Act, and the low-
ering of child labor standards by
one-half of the States was charged
by L. Metcalfe Walling, director of
the wage and hour and public con-
tracts divisions of the United
States Department of Labor, in his
wage increases to 15 per cent above
the level of January, 1941, and was
designed to cover the increase of
-
and prices would be held in line,
but if didn’t work out that way.
While wages have been held fair-
ly rigid, living costs have continued
to mount, with the approval of gov-
ernment agencies created to pre-
vent that from happening.
_________,_____J Newspapers have been taking it
exemplifiedinthose for granted that organized labor is
wrong and government statisticians
One highlight of the evening will ships, consisting principaiiiP
inch gums, fir • tot
' X!T A fortnight ago, the bureau
pub- sought to riddle labor’s figures and
duction) may hw “rinterrstohyvunK inereases made in dirferent categories of pro-
“From July, 1940, through December, 1941, we produced 23,200 military air-
planes. In 1942 we produced 47,900. In 1943 we produced 85,900
we ,908624. thrnuz;wemnabez9,90. we turned out 4,300 tanks. In1942
“From July, 1940, through December, 1941, this country manufactured 126,100
machinesuns In 1942 we made 666,800. In 1943 we made 830,400.
In we made ,55,000. In Tas weomaddtsgszaponde-svorsopidlesandenrbines
.. "In small-arms ammunition 1,200,000,000 rounds were produced from July, 1940
through December, 1941. In 1942 there were produced 9,800,000,000 rounds. In 1943
production was 19,700,000,000 rounds.
."We had produced one piece of self-propelled artillery by the end of 1941. In
194218,300 were produced and in 1943 production was 22,200.
By the end of 1941, 270,000 displacement tons of naval ships had been con-
structed. In 1942 this figure was raised to 865,000 displacement tons, and the dis-
placement tonnage constructed in 1943 stood at 2,618,000.”
That, dear readers, was Donald M. Nelson, chairman of the War Production
Board, doing the talking.
Those figures contain all the argument that should be necessary to silence labor’s
critics about war production.
There have been disagreements in the past between management and labor,
there will be disagreements between them in the future. But they will be more
quickly and more equitably solved if they are left to labor and management to solve
them. Both labor and management are conducting themselves well during this war
and ask only to be allowed to continue
tant thing is that the job is b ing done. P
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------t---------------------------------------
The Nazis Heil Their Crooked Cross;
Won’t You Help Our Kind Of Cross?
ie5tham $8,000,000,000. in M2 that figure was raised to $31,238,000,000, while in
1943 it stood at more than $57622,000,000.
“I do not believe that anyone in the fall of 1941 anticipated that such prodigious
increases—properly balanced among the hundreds of different categories—could be
achieved so rapidly.
- NUe :2
sb
—mm--
03
n
88
.406
the end of hostilities, Mr. Wallingcatue. rn
suggested that preparations be ined the .. 02
iegdiagom.delsangtne"uretn
(Continued on Page 4) of the transport.
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Labor Messenger (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 21, No. 1, Ed. 1 Friday, March 24, 1944, newspaper, March 24, 1944; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1551489/m1/1/?q=%22Business%2C+Economics+and+Finance+-+Journalism%22: accessed July 10, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .