TEXTILE WORKERS

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 19 August 1925, Page 5

TEXTILE WORKERS

CONDITIONS IN NEW ENGLAND

OWNERS INDICTED

AN INQUIRY ASKED FOR. kY cable—pbess association —copy EIGHT. WASHINGTON, Aug. 1. The American Federation of Labour will attack the New England textile manufacturers in the coming Congress and will attempt to decrease their tariff protection, according to a letter written by Air William Green, president of the federation, to Air O. R. Pierce, president of the American Woollen Company. Air Green makes a charge that, though Congress granted a high tariff to manufacturers for the purpose of enabling them to meet foreign competition and to still pay adequate wages, the manufacturers refused labour its share. Notwithstanding the special consideration no other industry in the United States has made such a record for wage reduction strikes, no industry has" paid higher dividends or issued more stock dividends than the textile corporations. Labour in textile mills is paid frequently less than and seldom over 30 per cent of the factory selling price of the product. The recent 10 per cent wage cuts have been the most uncalled for and indefensible ever made. Air Pierce has not yet replied. Representatives of 20,000 textile workers asked Air Coolidge to order an inquiry into the New England conditions. They said that mill owners took a cowardly advantage of the weakness of workers on account of many months of depression.—A. and N.Z. Assn.