If my work was not giving satisfaction or had ever been unsatisfactory to my overseer, no complaint or warning was ever given to me. It is true that we had on a few occasions had different opinions about certain imperfections in cloth but we were always able to agree because I always took Mr. Swan's advice or instructions.

On October 10, 1935, this conversation took place between Mack Brooks and B. H. Brooks, strikers, and Buck Owens, section hand in the Mooresville Cotton Mills:

OWENS. How do you think things are going down at the mill?

MACK BROOKS. What things?

OWENS. This damned Messie strike.

MACK BROOKS. I think we are going to win the strike.

OWENS. I don't see what grounds you are going to win on with 900 hands working. By God, I'm working, and I am going to continue to work as long as we have protection.

B. H. BROOKS: I think the Government will help us.

OWENS. God damn the Government. They are not anything but God damned and you can tell them I said so if you wish to.

of

COPY OF AFFIDAVIT OF R. P. BRANNON

STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA,

Cherokee County, Beonerdam Township.

I, R. P. Brannon, after being duly sworn as the law directs deposes and says that I was dismissed from the Mooresville Cotton Mill on account of my son being on the picket line, so Mr. Moss (overseer of carding and spinning) told me, and I went to Mr. Summers (superintendent) and I ask him why I was dismissed from the mill. He told me at first that he knew nothing about it, then he asked me if I didn't have a boy on the picket line, and I told him I did have a boy on the picket line, but he was a man of his own. Then I ask him if he would give me work again, and Mr. Summers said that he would not work me any more on account of my boy, and Fleetis Moore was standing by and heard the conversation. The day I was laid off was October 15, 1935.

R. P. (his x mark) BRANNON.

Sworn to and subscribed before me this 13th day of December, 1935.
V. S. G. PHILLIPS, Notary Public.

STATEMENT OF A. M. BALLARD

LOCAL UNION No. 1221, UNITED TEXTILE WORKERS OF AMERICA,

Mooresville, N. C.

On September 19, 1935, Mr. Ballard, overseer of slashing on the second shift in the Mooresville Cotton Mills, told me:

"I will have to lay you off, for we are going to colored work on your slasher and you can't run it. You go to the daylight boss, Mr. Parks (deceased) and talk with him."

I went to Mr. Parks. Mr. Parks told me that if "that is the way Mr. Ballard feels about you, you will just have to go." Then Mr. Parks wrote out my time. I worked for the company for about 12 years; 2 years in the slashing department. I never had any complaints on my work.

A. M. BALLARD.

MRS. B. A. MILLER COMPLAINT

A short while before March 19, 1935, Mrs. Minnie (B. A.) when the warps ran out on her set of looms. Mrs. Miller allowed spare work so she could at least pay her house rent.

Miller was laid off asked that she be She knew that she

could do some other kinds of weaving. She was refused spare work and told that she made too many seconds and that her production was not up to the required standard.

Mr. Roberts, superintendent of weaving, looked up her record on reports and found that her work was about on the average with that of other workers on the same kinds of cloth woven. Mr. Roberts made the statement that she had been talking too much. Mrs. Miller said that she had not been warned before about talking.

Mrs. Miller had operated other type of looms prior to doing work like she was doing at the time of her discharge.

Other workers who had not had experience on other looms were taken to other parts of the weave shop and given a chance to work.

Mrs. Miller was told by Mr. Dorster that she had been placed on the reserved list. We feel that Mrs. Miller could have been given another chance.

Witness:

Mrs. B. A. MILLER.

GRIEVANCE COMMITTEE.

STATEMENT OF JOHN F. MATHESON, PRESIDENT, MOORESVILLE COTTON MILLS, MOORESVILLE, N. C.

Mr. KELLER. Mr. Schneider, I would suggest that you start asking the questions and, for the purpose of expedition, let us make our questions very brief and very sharp.

Mr. SCHNEIDER. Mr. Matheson, what is your position with the corporation?

Mr. MATHESON. I am president of the corporation.

Mr. SCHNEIDER. How long have you been president of the corporation?

Mr. MATHESON. I have been president since the first of 1935. Mr. SCHNEIDER. How long has this corporation been in business? Mr. MATHESON. It has been in business since about 1892 or 1893. I am not positive as to the date. It was 1892 or 1893.

Mr. SCHNEIDER. Has it been reorganized lately from a financial standpoint?

Mr. MATHESON. Yes, sir.

Mr. SCHNEIDER. When was that?

Mr. MATHESON. It was reorganized from a financial standpoint the last time October 28, 1935.

Mr. SCHNEIDER. That was before you got this loan from the Reconstruction Finance Corporation?

Mr. MATHESON. That was at the time we got the money from the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. That actually was not the reorganization period, because we had reorganized just prior to that time. But we got the loan from the Reconstruction Finance Corporation; that is, we got the actual money from them, the first disbursement, October 28, 1935.

Mr. SCHNEIDER. Just what, as you know them, were the principal reasons for that loan?

Mr. MATHESON. The principal reason for the need of that loan, as set out in the application to the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, was not only to maintain employment at the Mooresville Cotton Mills but we hoped by getting this loan and getting the mill in a better financial position that more people could be put to work. That was the primary purpose of securing this loan, in order to prevent liquida

tion of the Mooresville Cotton Mills and disastrous results to the community as a whole.

Mr. SCHNEIDER. Was there any special reason for the company's getting into that financial position where they had to call upon the Government to subsidize them by loans?

Mr. MATHESON. I should like to review there just a little bit. The mill originally sold through the Hunter Manufacturing & Commission Co., and in 1924 and 1925 it was a gingham mill. During those years they enlarged the plant to the extent of about $500,000. And gingham, as you know, went dead, and quite a bit of money was lost at the time of the expansion of the mill. From that time on the mill was in bad financial circumstances. And in 1932 the Hunter Co., who were the selling agents, went broke. And they were placed in liquidation, and a new company was organized to take over the selling. We had a mortgage of $1,200,000 to the creditors of the Hunter Co. that was coming due September 1, 1935. They had given an extension of 2 years' time in the hope that we could work some of it out and make satisfactory arrangements. But coming due September 1st, we had absolutely no chance in the world to meet the obligation, and, with that in view, we went to the Reconstruction Finance Corporation for a loan.

Mr. SCHNEIDER. When you took office you found the finances of the company in rather bad condition?

Mr. MATHESON. Yes, sir.

Mr. SCHNEIDER. Would it be fair to infer that that was due to mismanagement on the part of the industry?

Mr. MATHESON. Well, that is a question that could be considered in two ways:

I think the mill was largely a victim of circumstances, expanding at a period which turned out not to be the right time to expand, and they were making merchandise which, from a seasonal and style point of view, went out, and they lost lots of money on it.

Mr. SCHNEIDER. In 1934 you had a protracted strike in the mills, did you not?

Mr. MATHESON. Yes, sir.

Mr. SCHNEIDER. That was rather costly to the company, was it not? Mr. MATHESON. That cost the company money; yes sir.

Mr. SCHNEIDER. About how much did it cost?

Mr. MATHESON. We estimate that it cost the company in the neighborhood of $100,000, and it actually cost the employees of the mill for the 3 weeks that they were out, $75,000; and, due to cancelations of orders on the books and loss in business, undoubtedly it cost the employees of the mill another $50,000.

Mr. SCHNEIDER. How much did it cost the company by the loss of those orders?

Mr. MATHESON. We still have about 350,000 yards of one particular fabric that was canceled due to that strike.

Mr. SCHNEIDER. Do you estimate that $500,000 is the minimum cost of that strike?

Mr. MATHESON. I think that is excessive. I would estimate that the cost to the mill was in the neighborhood of $100,000 to $150,000. Mr. SCHNEIDER. That is the direct cost that you are speaking about. But you say you still have on hand stocks that, as a result of having lost your orders, you cannot place.

Mr. MATHESON. These stocks are decreased in our inventory to such a point that we can get the inventory price from them. So we have taken that loss in the other that I mentioned.

Mr. SCHNEIDER. When did this second strike take place?

Mr. MATHESON. September 23, 1935.

Mr. SCHNEIDER. Just how did that strike take place? Just state it briefly.

Mr. MATHESON. Briefly, sir, no employee and no committee had asked even for a conference with me with regard to any grievance whatever in our plant. We were running 3 days a week just before this strike, due to poor business conditions. We shut down Wednesday night and Friday morning of that week I read in the Charlotte Observer that a strike had been called at our plant for the following Monday. That was the first information I had of a grievance in our plant.

Mr. SCHNEIDER. How much did that strike cost your company? Mr. MATHESON. We operated every day, and, as shown on our audit report, the direct charges of that strike were $2,300 and something.

Mr. SCHNEIDER. Who holds the stock principally in the company at the present time?

Mr. MATHESON. The stock in the company at the present time is held by 700 stockholders, the majority of whom are people in and around the community of Mooresville. Some of the stock at the present time under the new reorganization is held by the Hunter Co. creditors, of whom there are also about 700 preferred stockholders. Mr. SCHNEIDER. Does the common stock of the company have any value on the market now?

Mr. MATHESON. I don't know of any sale of the common stock at the present time. But the book value of the common stock is $80 a share.

Mr. SCHNEIDER. The common stock is $80 now?

Mr. MATHESON. That is the book value of the common stock.
Mr. SCHNEIDER. What is its market value?

Mr. MATHESON. The last I heard of being sold was sold at $3 a share.

Mr. SCHNEIDER. What is the market value of the preferred stock? Mr. MATHESON. There is no preferred. There is only common stock.

Mr. SCHNEIDER. Who holds the bonds, this tremendous outstanding indebtedness of the company?

Mr. MATHESON. $800,000 is held by the R. F. C. That is a prior mortgage over everything else. There is a second mortgage, second in respect to the R. F. C. mortgage, of $600,000.

Mr. SCHNEIDER. Who holds that?

Mr. MATHESON. That is held by the Hunter Co. They are the former selling agents, who are now in liquidation. They are the ones who stepped aside in view of the R. F. C. loan so that the community might not be injured.

Mr. SCHNEIDER. You say they are the selling corporation in the textile industry?

Mr. MATHESON. Not any more. They were a selling corporation. Mr. SCHNEIDER. And they hold this second mortgage now?

Mr. MATHESON. The second mortgage is held by the Hunter Co. stockholders, and the only ones who have much chance of getting anything are the preferred stockholders of the Hunter Co., of whom there are about 700.

Mr. SCHNEIDER. These two strikes took place, and the first one was very costly and placed the property in a rather embarrassing position, and after the second strike, or during the period when it was taking place, you got this loan from the R. F. C.? Is that correct?

Mr. MATHESON. After the second strike?

Mr. SCHNEIDER. Yes; after the second strike.

Mr. MATHESON. The second strike was on September 23. The R. F. C. loan was approved June 25.

Mr. SCHNEIDER. Prior to the strike?

Mr. MATHESON. The first disbursement was October 29. You will recall this first strike was a Nation-wide strike. That is when the general strike was called.

Mr. SCHNEIDER. Those are all the questions I had.

Mr. WOOD. As to the secretary who was discharged, how long had he worked for the company?

Mr. MATHESON. The secretary of what?

Mr. WOOD. Of the textile workers.

Mr. MATHESON. Mr. Rodgers?

Mr. WOOD. I don't know what his name is.

Mr. ELLENBOGEN. Mr. Moore. That is the name.

Mr. WOOD. Yes; Mr. Moore.

Mr. MATHESON. Mr. Moore had worked for the company, I think, since about 1899 off and on. I am positive he had not been in the employ of the company during all of that period.

Mr. WOOD. But he had most of the time?

Mr. MATHESON. I would say most of the time; yes, sir.

Mr. WOOD. I am informed that others you discharged were officers of the organization and members of the committee of the organization. How many did you discharge when you discharged Mr. Moore? Mr. MATHESON. Mr. Moore was the only man discharged when he was discharged. Moore was discharged, I think, March 19.

Mr. WOOD. When did you say you made application for that loan from the R. F. C.?

Mr. MATHESON. We made formal application March 19, 1935.
Mr. WOOD. And you received it June 5?

Mr. MATHESON. Yes; we received it June 5.

Mr. WOOD. Was that during the continuation of the strike? Did you receive that loan while the strike was in progress?

Mr. MATHESON. We received the loan June 25, prior to our knowledge of any trouble. That is when it was approved, Mr. Wood.

Mr. WOOD. What was the matter with this man Moore? He had been satisfactory to the company for 25 or 30 years. What was the occasion for his discharge? Did he suddenly become unsatisfactory?

Mr. MATHESON. Mr. Wood, he made the bonus for excellent work for several weeks prior to the time he was discharged, but, for the last 6 or 7 weeks prior to the time of his discharge, his record will show that his production was so low and his seconds so high that we have no idea what was the matter. We discussed this with him. We told him that he had to improve his work, or he would be automatically dismissed, as we automatically dismiss people in our weave