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that which these people should do for themselves but which they are unable to do because of not being able to organize. My father and his father and generations of the past have submitted to this unfair procedure. Many of them lived in poverty, were unable to secure for themselves a home, education, and many of the good things in life that other people were receiving and to which they were clearly entitled. But it is my belief and contention that the generation of today and unborn generations will not submit to this unfair and uneconomic treatment at the hands of these organized groups, the Congress, and the decisions of the Supreme Court.

It is my belief that some of the highest type citizens and some of the best brains to be found in the country can be found in the rural sections and the industrial centers. But because of the handicap brought about under the present situation that we have been talking about, these people are not permitted to exert and develop themselves to that extent to which they are entitled and which would enable them to become a real asset to their community, State, and Nation.

I realize that there are a great many people on the farm, in the factory village, as well as many who reside in the great cities of the country, that, if today the wealth of the country were divided and turned over to them, the days would not be many before it would go back to those who control the finances of the country at this time. But I do contend that there are millions of citizens who today are unable, as stated, to own their own homes, educate their children, and take their places in this great Republic to which they are entitled and which position they would possess if they had a fair, square deal that I am interested in having the Congress of the United States provide or give to them. I thank you.

Mr. KELLER. I thank you, Congressman Fulmer.

Mr. Wood. I appreciate the statement made by our colleague, Mr. Chairman. It was a very valuable addition that he has made to the testimony already given.

Mr. KELLER. I am very glad you expressed that compliment. It is my own sentiment.

Mr. Wood. I think it expresses the view of every member of the committee.

Mr. KELLER. I will now call upon Mr. George Taylor.

STATEMENT OF GEORGE TAYLOR, VICE PRESIDENT, WOOLEN AND WORSTED FEDERATION OF AMERICA

Mr. KELLER. Will you please state your name and your occupation? Mr. TAYLOR. My name is George Taylor. I am first vice president, Woolen and Worsted Federation of America.

Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, I will have to go back to the time of the first employment I had in a woolen and worsted mill. I have spent 19 years in the woolen and worsted mills, and I have seen the changes, and I have worked from the dye house up, with the exception of the spinning department. I am at the present time a weaver in a woolen mill.

During the years of the war a great volume of production in the textile industry was of vital necessity to provide not only Army clothing for the soldiers, but also to maintain production to take care of the ordinary market. Action was needed at once. And what was

done? First, there was the addition of and speeding up of machinery and the lengthening of hours; second, the hiring of women and children in a great many instances to take the place of enlisted men to meet the demand for extra production; third, the addition of second and third shifts, the "graveyard shift", on which I have worked and which, if not stopped, surely will be a graveyard shift. During the war these factories that had already added the additional machinery and, in many instances, automatic machinery to take the place of the regular hand machinery, continued the practice. The operation of the machinery was still kept going with a decrease in the necessary production.

Naturally the market was flooded to such an extent that this depression in the textile industry was inevitable. Coupled with this overproduction was the increase in the use of automatic machinery which has been going on, I should say from the early 1920's, and is still going on, and it threw thousands of workers in the textile industry out on to the street or into other jobs, if they were lucky enough to find them.

This bill will probably not regulate the making of automatic machinery, but probably it will mean that they will not be able to add any more.

As to child labor, everyone will agree with me, I think, and with what I have to say about long hours and putting children into the mills at the age of 13 or 14 and working them these long hours. It not only affects their physical power and health but it retards their education and, in fact, it hurts their chances of ever becoming very much more than a workman in a mill before they die. Therefore I believe that passage of the Ellenbogen bill is of vital necessity. And I hope this committee will take care of it. I have children whom I do not want to go to work at 14 if it can be prevented.

The National Textile Act provides a minimum wage of $15 for 35 hours a week. I refer to the work-assignment board, before which I have appeared, and the records show that the textile worker during the period of their looking into matters for the Government, that is, looking into conditions of the textile workers, does not average 35 hours a week. And this, of course, must be taken care of.

We also believe that $15 per week for 35 hours for unskilled workers is fair remuneration. Of course, it could be better.

Now, this is something I wish to stress as a skilled worker. This provides for differentials for the semiskilled and the skilled. Under the National Industrial Recovery Act these differentials were not maintained by the manufacturer. And by that I mean that instead of using the minimum wage as it was intended by the Congress they used it as a maximum, and the skilled worker or semiskilled worker took the minimum. He received in some instances lower than the minimum wage.

The result of this unfair practice was that they called many strikes in the industry. Until this unfair practice is eliminated we can never expect industrial peace.

In these Government records it is also shown as a fact that we must have a basic work week, that is, a standard set of 35 hours or less that cannot be broken, because if that is not done, then at the present time in these large corporations or syndicates they have sufficient machinery, if allowed to operate more than that, to squeeze the smaller

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manufacturer right out of existence. In other words, these smaller manufacturers operate in the small towns throughout the New England section, from which I come, and the towns and communities themselves are dependent upon these manufacturers for the general welfare of the whole community. We are all in small groups. There are no big masses like there are in Philadelphia or in similar places. I will say, Mr. Chairman, without trying to take up too much of the time of this committee, that if the textile industry is to prosper we must have a balanced production in connection with the consuming power of the labor.

If I am not able to purchase with the wages I get the cloth that I am producing, then the industry can never attain a healthy condition. This act will not tell a manufacturer how he will produce or what he will pay, and there is no price-fixing provision; but I believe it will aid in connection with price cutting, which is detrimental so far as the competitive situation is concerned.

I cite this case of what has happened to me personally. During the peak of the depression the manufacturers would come to us with this story: "Well, we have rush orders and we have so much time in which to get them out, but you will have to take a 10-percent cut or a 15percent cut in order for us to take this work."

Naturally in our section of the country we were not very well organized at that time. And they would say, "If you don't like to take the cut on these rush orders you can just simply go home."

And that resulted finally in gradual cuts. Taking weavers, for example, they would put on the automatic looms, and in some cases the width of the cloth was doubled. Therefore they were weaving double the width and three times the amount, if not more.

We shouldered hours ranging from 60 to 70 hours a week during this period. And I don't mean day work; I mean night work.

I have gone to work five nights at 6 o'clock in the evening and worked until 6 o'clock in the morning and then had to go back at 6 o'clock Saturday evening and work until midnight, go back at midnight on Sunday and work until 6 o'clock Monday morning, running three automatic looms on heavy cloth, not light clothing. And then I would have to go back at 6 o'clock Monday evening and start the work over again. That was 72 hours for about the same amount of money that I am getting at the present time for 40 hours' work. I am still working what we call the night shift. But in the prcduction end, I will say that in my section of the country they do not dare put into effect those conditions. If they did dare, they would do it.

The licensing of manufacturers under Government supervision will keep out the so-called chiseler. We have that up in Massachusetts and in this section of the country as well as in the South.

We believe the chiseler will not dare take the chances because of the penalties provided.

We believe the flow of interstate commerce would not be violated by the National Textile Act, and that it will pass the Supreme Court. If not, we would like to take some of these justices and put them on the 72-hour work week, even if they worked days, to see how they like it.

I am not going to take up more time except to say this: I had the pleasure of appearing before Mr. Walters. I don't know whether I

will call it a pleasure or not; but I appeared before Mr. Walters, who was on the National Works Assignment Board which was set up by the Government. He did a fine job, I will say, so far as Mr. Walters was concerned. He was supposed to find out the conditions in the textile industry. And I understood we were supposed to get a fair break on that. In the town of Uxbridge, Mass., where I believe Mr. Walters is general manager of one of the mills of this particular corporation, there is this situation. There are several mills all over Massachusetts and there are some in Rhode Island. I believe he is general manager there at Uxbridge. That mill has quite a large number of looms, and it puts out a lot of fine fabrics.

After the Works Assignment Board's work was done and the report was in, Mr. Walters went back to Uxbridge and put on a third shift of 40 hours, which was 120 machine hours a week. So I believe the Works Assignment Board certainly taught him something for his own benefit. And you can see where he got off. Eventually that led to a very serious strike. But he is still running three shifts, but if this Ellenbogen bill, or something like it, is not passed, I don't know what we are going to do as far as stopping him is concerned. He was on the Works Assignment Board.

If a man of his caliber is allowed to operate 40 hours extra in production and if I go to the manager of the mill in which I am employed, going there as a member of the grievance committee and president of a local union and try to stop any advancement on his part in the way of lengthening the hours, which I understand he wants to do, I have that condition to contend with. And other fellows in other sections of the country find the same situation existing.

What answer can we give if the Government puts a man on a board like this and thinks he will give a fair answer to the question as to how labor is getting along and what the conditions are, and then he goes back to make them worse? I don't know what we will do. But they have a cute way of not adding hours on production but adding hours in other departments. For instance, in my town in some of the small mills we have a yarn mill on one side and something else on the other. And let us say the management wants to put in the stagger system and say that once every 6 weeks you will work on a Saturday. But you do not work over 40 hours a week. That is four shifts instead of three shifts.

The yarn mill which makes this yarn is running part of their card room to produce the work for us. If they put on an extra shift in our mill it will take the use of those cards in the yarn mill. Well, we will not need to use those cards and, therefore, it will throw more people out of work there. That is beautiful competition in a small town between manufacturers themselves.

I have just one more thing I want to say at this time which will not only interest the manufacturer and the laborer but will be of interest to the Congressmen as a part of our case.

Mr. Chairman, if you will let me present it, I have here this document which was tacked up on the mill entrance. And I want to bring in the fact that the Ellenbogen bill will help us fight that sort of a situation. That is just exactly what it is.

Mr. KELLER. There is no objection to putting that in.

Mr. TAYLOR. I will read it after the Congressman has finished looking at it. I want to bring out the point as to what there is there. This shows that they are going to celebrate the anniversary of the Russian Revolution, it being the eighteenth anniversary. It was tacked in a mill which is attached to our local union of which I happen to be president. I don't know how it got inside of that mill. We are trying very hard to find out how it did. The effect on the workers in that mill was startling. It startled me to hear some of them talk about it.

Mr. Wood. Did the superintendent of the mill know that that bill was tacked up?

Mr. TAYLOR. That is not what I am trying to bring out at this time. I don't believe he did. It was taken down by one of our workers and given to me.

Mr. WOOD. It was tacked up on the bulletin board, was it?

Mr. TAYLOR. It was tacked up on one of the doors in one of the departments in the carding room.

Mr. Wood. And where the employees going in could see it?

Mr. TAYLOR. In this mill the majority of those employed are of foreign extraction, and they are not very well educated to American ideals and standards. You will notice it says here, "Celebration, Eighteenth Anniversary of the Russian Revolution, Sunday, November 10, at 2 p. m., Lithuanian Hall.”

In the mill where this was tacked up there were a lot of Lithuanian workers.

Mr. HARTLEY. Was it well attended?

Mr. TAYLOR. It was packed. They couldn't get any more in. And I want to say that at these meetings the United States flag is turned upside down. I will read here something that appeared in the Boston American.

Peace in the open has had its counterpart in countless meetings in obscure halls where the red banner is waved and the American flag, when displayed at all, is carried upside down, an object for clowning in tableaux and one-act plays.

Now, as to the effect on the workers. And we are trying to educate them not only to be union members but also to be good Americans. That is the policy of the United Textile Workers of America. How are we going to do anything with them and how will we be able to assure these workers of a decent wage level and decent working conditions so that we can battle against this crusade of flaming red? Of course, I am against it. This will give the younger fellows in America today a chance to make a blue crusade against this flaming red.

Therefore, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, I maintain that the passage of the Ellenbogen bill is a matter of vital importance. Therefore, I hope you will give it consideration and will report favorably on the bill.

Mr. WOOD. As to the tacking up of that bill on the door of that mill, was it in a prominent place?

Mr. TAYLOR. It was very prominent; it was the entrance into a department, and it was in this department where the man had to go in through the door.

Mr. WOOD. Where the foreman, the superintendent, and officials of the plant went in and out?

Mr. TAYLOR. Yes, sir. I don't know how many of these different people saw this bill. One of our boys got hold of it and handed it to me after he had yanked it off.

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