TEXTILE STRIKE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 5 September 1934, Page 5

TEXTILE STRIKE

COMMENCED IN U.S.A. FIRST DAY’S-TEST INDECISIVE (United Press Association—By ElectrlTelegraph—Copyright) WASHINGTON, 3rd September. The first day’s test of the gigantic general textile strike was indecisive, as practically all the mills oil the Northern and Eastern section remained closed on Labour Day, while .reports from the Southern sections vary widely. For example, the union declared that at least half of 200,000 workers in the States of North and South Carolina and Georgia and Alabama had walked out, effecting a 50 per cent, tie-up, which the strike leaders expect to increase to 90 per cent, within a. week, a;: “flying squads of pickets reach full efficiency.. On the contrary, officials of the ' cot toil and textile code authority say tlnd nineteen mills closed with 51,000 strit* ers. They admit the big test will come to-morrow when tile great mills of the New England States attempt to open. The “New York Times” correspondent at Charlotte, North Carolina, reports that between 65,000 tincl 75,000 operatives struck in that • district. About an equal number reported for work, but many were driven from looms during the day by militant pickets. However, only in a few cases was violence reported. The most serious cases occurred in a remote locality called King’s Mountain, where 1500 strikers from neighbouring towns invaded the mill and forced it to close.

VIOLENCE FEARED WASHINGTON, 3rd September. Monday passed free from bloodshed, but officials are openly apprehensive lest violence develop. DISORDERS IN GEORGIA (Received sth September, 10.45 a.m.) NEW YORK 4th September. The first day of the textile strike was generally quiet. There were some disorders in Georgia. North Carolina. Workers generally in Massachusetts have not obeyed the order. George A. Sloan, president of the Cotton Textile Institute, made a statement that “the latest figures now available indicate that at least 250,000 employees are working/’

The code for the American textile industry was the first promulgated after the passing of the National Industrial Recovery Act. It abolished child labour (in 1930 there were more than 100,000 children under 17 employed and of these about 1100 were killed or permanently disabled) ■ established a minimum wage of 12 dollars in the south and 13 dollars in the north, limited working hours to 40 a week, and conceded the right, subject to certain reservations, of collective bargaining. The price of raw cotton had been increased under the farm recovery plan and with the increase in prices of textile goods from these causes consumption had declined. Between February and May of this year unsold stocks of cotton cloth increased from 250,000,000 yards to 332.000,000 yards, and during April sales amounted to only 47 per cent, of production. At the insistent demand of the Cotton Textile Institute, General Johnson \ssued on 22nd May an executive order compelling all factories to reduce operating time ol their productive machinery by 25 p.er cent., and this meant lower wages for the operatives.)