15,000 Lumber Workers Tie Up the Big Pacific Coast Mills
15,000 Lumber Workers Tie Up the Big Pacific Coast Mills Strike Movement Paralyzes Entire Region in the West fgmilland Timber Workers Demand Wage Increase and Better Working Conditions &...
...Big business was determined that the next governor of Oregon was not going to be intimidated by organized labor...
...Radio Talks on the High Cost el Living Over WEVD Thursday...
...3,000 sawmill Mitch and between 2,500 and ffH teen men...
...At present WEVD operates on split time...
...The application is backed by a favorable report by the Federal Radio Commission as to its fine educational program as well as the public services rendered by the station...
...Times kept on getting worse...
...Ttiswi...
...At cur urgent pleadings, a committee of union officials made a hurried trip to the Capitol, called on the Governor, and voiced opposition to the bill...
...I doubt whether the operators will accede to either union, as the operators are pretty closely linked together and probaly have interlocking directorates...
...Mar 2.1...
...Comrade Kahn pointed out that discussions of public questions of interest are conducted over WEVD by some of the outstanding educators, men interested in public affairs, Congressmen, Senators and men connected with churches, educational institutions, public welfare , and governmental agencies...
...Turning to Communism the President declared that "Communism is not my doctrine <y the inspiration of my policy," and challenged the citation of proof to the contrary...
...A Proqressive Governor Not only did the farmers fall for this, but organized labor fell for the same story, and when the Socialists told them it would be an easy matter for a subsequent legislature to repeal that innocent clause, we were denounced as soreheads because Julius Meier had received so many votes...
...AH ] this is done," he added, "on a nonpartisan basis and a fair, free and impartial open forum is maintained which is universally commended by the public press and public opinion...
...When this bill made its appearance, a few of us active Socialists hotfooted it to the Central Trades Council and warned the union men that tV-y had better oppose this bill, as its real purpose was to give big business an army of trair.ed Cossacks for strike duty...
...They repealed that clause and proviso in the State Police bill forbidding the use in labor disputes...
...Aaswrtes, Wash...
...Socialists Vindicated ¦ With the aid of the Democratic i machine and resorting to other po- i litical curves they elected Martin Governor...
...Labor organizations make frequent use of WEVD...
...With no market and well-stocked warehouses and sheds, the operi ators probably feel that a strike for them is a blessing in disguise > and are prepared for a long siege, in the hope that the unemployed, or enough of the unemployed who only receive $30 to $60 in work relief a (month, will volunteer to take the strikers' place...
...Cardenas declared that the strikes "are movements which , will re-vindicate the essential rights of the workers and I am glad they came in my administration...
...He described Communism as "an exotic system which does not fit the system of our country...
...President Cardenas said Mexico was traveling toward a directed economy, which must be firmly established on social justice for working men and women...
...Recent broadcasts included addresses by labor executives, including President George Meany of the New York...
...May IS...
...I He told employers that the Mexican Government promised guarantees to private enterprise, but added the warning that "capitalism'' which receives these guarantees must fulfill "the human needs and rights of the working class...
...They got behind the Democratic candidate, a military man, Major-General Martin, a wealthy 1 man in his own right Who has no ' business to boycott, recipient of a $6,000 yearly pension from Uncle ' Sam, a man after their own heart who is a staunch believer in capitalism snd, last bnt not least, a man who is not afraid to say ¦ "shoot" when he thinks it necessary...
...The application was made shortly after WEVD received the signal honor of being the only noncommercial and "small" station to be singled out by the National Women's Committee on Radio for commendation for its programs...
...Julius Meier had an enormous campaign fund at his disposal, about the largest ever accumulated in this state...
...We have encouraged and defended," President Cardenas continued, "the right of workers and peasants to elevate their living conditions with better salaries, to own their own lands and to enjoy more just working conditions and when from words we pass to facts the...
...This finally culminated in the Longshoremen's strike of last summer...
...Organized labor realized that if they meek y -submitted to this it would definitely end their attempt to organize under Section 7A, so the unions voted that if and when the Governor called out the state militia they would call a general strike as a counter-move and place a boycott on the Governor's business institutions...
...They are also being supplied with riot guns, gas bombs and riot sticks...
...i In reply Alexander Kahn, attorney for WEVD, pointed out that Examiner Hill reported "in the most emphatic language that the services of WEVD are not only of a Ugh educational, cultural and musical standard, bat are unique...
...In fact, big business plans for struggles years ahead...
...To get elected he promised public ownership of electric power, and as soon as he took office insisted that the legislature enact a law establishing a State Police patterned after the Pennsylvania Cossacks...
...Wash...
...GENERAL LABOR WAR THREATENS COAST By Albert Streiff Portland...
...part in our ecosooijc fife The Sawmill and Timberworkers' Union, now affiliated with the Carpenters" and Joiners' Union of the A. F. of L., have asked for an increase of wages, threatening to tie up the whole lumber industry if their demandsare not granted by May 6th...
...In the same year many big business men supported Julius L. Meier as independent candidate for Governor...
...Organized labor was overwhelmingly for Meier and he was elected...
...He assured the union officials he only wanted them to catch thieves— chicken thieves who were making raids on farmers' chicken coops...
...ApproxiImUtj 15,000 sawmill and tim^ markers are on strike in the •aile Northwest as representa^ ? the.Long-bell and Weyer^f0t hiaihrr companies and union —jani attempted to reach an ^gaaaat on demands of workers v Jngber wages, shorter hours » dosed shop...
...Sjlks leaders said more would ant est if demands were not met...
...Obviously, the Governor was caught between two economic forces, with the state primaries only a few days off...
...Oregon...
...felM Angeles union longshoreem nteed to unload a cargo of asm in sympathy with striking atatr...
...As for me, all those who know me know that I cannot be the instrument of a prosperity founded on unjust exploitation of working classes...
...During the last four years events in this state plainly disclosed that big business was preparing to cope with organized labor in an arena well fortified by big business and their underlings...
...Biq Fist for Labor In 1930 big business was convinced it would be necessary to resort to the mailed fist and military power to keep organized labor in place...
...Chairman William P. Connery, Jr., of the House Labor Committee, j recently spoke over WEVD, urging ' that its application for full time be granted...
...The Governor very shrewdly and obligingly accommodated organized labor by having a proviso inserted in the act that the State Police were not to be used in labor disputes...
...If the dispute is not peacefully settled, I look for a long drawn-out struggle between these powerful groups arrayed against one another, both determined on a showdown...
...Referring to the strikes which ; had tied up the light and power plants of nine Mexican cities and other manifestations of industrial unrest...
...On the question of government planning...
...15,000 Lumber Workers Tie Up the Big Pacific Coast Mills Strike Movement Paralyzes Entire Region in the West fgmilland Timber Workers Demand Wage Increase and Better Working Conditions & Showdown Begins — Socialists Take leading Part in Struggle Anticipated for Many Months nOBTLAN'D...
...The press now reports that the State Police are being instructed how to handle strike pickets, subdue mobs and disperse riots, etc...
...It seems to be the general opinion that a real strike' cannot be averted, as the operators definitely refuse to arbitrate or meet with the Sawmill and Timberworkers' Union...
...leBagbam...
...Wash...
...He said employers must also count on the cooperation of employes, which would have "a truly lasting basis of prosperity...
...Big business plans ahead, an idea labor could and should copy...
...JT appears that there is going . to be real labor war on the Blcmc-fooal particularly in the •fwtWt*y^V-here timber still Jsfi«wtermian...
...Meier's big business friends demanded a showdown and requested that he call out the state militia to open up the strike-bound port...
...who protested against a art non-union and Chinese crew maay>rl on *e freighter Stanley Mar...
...Labor was beginning to meet real discrimination as well as real unemployment...
...He added that he found no support for Communism among the delegations of workers that had visited him...
...B fgt§ estimated the following aa^gr were striking in the variasdflai: tmstt...
...Democracy was denounced as a failure as a means of solving our problems, and that sterner measures must be resorted to...
...Thur.d.j...
...The legislators were only too glad to do his every bidding...
...Washington.—4,000 mill rornsad, Oregon...
...LABOR BACKING WEVD IN APPEAL FOR FULLTIME THE entire labor movement, as * well as many cultural organizations, are backing the request of Station WEVD for full time on the air...
...This, of course, enables Majorr General Martin to use the State 1 Police .to quell strikes if he so chooses...
...Subject: "Your Klrctrir Bill...
...New Leader readers may wake up some morning and read in big box car letters that a real labor war has flared up on the Pacific Coast...
...What the Socialists predicted four years ago now came to pass...
...The Furniture Workers' Union, also affiliated with the Carpenters and Joiners, have also demanded an increase of wages by May 1st, though they have not as yet officially announced that they would strike to enforce their demands...
...1,600 mill fUi labor upheaval among lummt onrkers extends to Southern CtMMmt- In San Pedro 1,200 jaaS suit in three unions are istaM in a dispute over wages itatamtened to tie up the movenan "it lumber in the southern art a* the state...
...State Federation of Labr > I 111 i. Cardenas Says Social State Is Aim of Regime in Mexico Planned Economy, Social Justice and Elevation of All the People Are Purposes of the Present Order, President Declares—Right to Strike Must Be Upheld —Communism Repudiated as "Exotic Doctrine," Foreign to Nation's Needs...
...The University of the Air, the principal cultural feature1 of the station, was given honorable mention in a series of awards in which WEVD was bracketed with the Chicago University Round Table and in which no other non-commercial-station was mentioned...
...The International Labor News Service reports that although Examiner George W. Hill highly praised the work of WEVD, he recommended that its application for unlimited time be denied and the frequency now used by the -,-,station be allotted to two commercial stations...
...Subject: ."Housing and the Security Was...
...It is reprettable," Connery said, "that when facilities are open for allocation, that the examiner should recommend that the facilities be granted to commercial stations instead of to non-profit making stations/ in violation of public sentiment and the acts and declarations of Congress to encourage education and non-profit making stations...
...1,000 mill aster...
...MEXICO CITY.—Support of the **¦, right to strike, consecration of the Mexiean Government to the welfare of the masses and the dec| laration that he is opposed to Communism characterized a recent statement by President Lazaro Cardenas of the Mexiean Republic...
...And for* good measure i they elected a Democratic legislature to support him...
...H to lSiti ».««.— Speaker: Krolly Ki-owu Fin...
...He said he favored the strike as a weapon of the workers to obtain social justice...
...WEVD, which is under the direction of Morris Novik, was founded as a memorial to Eugene V. Debs, whose initials make up the call letters of the station, and in recent years it has come to be recognized as one of the most important avenues for the dissemination *of opinions...
...timid spirits are frightened...
...He recalled that the Radio Commission examiner had praised the station's work and certified that it was performing a unique1 public service, and that fifty welfare, civic and educational organizations are using its facilities...
...When these gentlemen are thoroughly trained and get into action, I expect there will , be others besides Socialists who , will have sore heads...
...3,000 mill arters...
...I* to IS:IS p.m.— Sneaker: l.stclle Abranrann...
...It is assumed they will do so if their demands are refused...
...From now on events quickly crowded one another...
...He was proclaimed a real progressive, besides being Oregon's richest mam a merchant prince, a partner in Oregon s largest department store and the owner of over 100 large business concerns in this state and also engaged in the banking business...
...The ship sailed for San tnaieJseo with her cargo...
Vol. 18 • May 1935 • No. 20
