which we cannot go today. General MacArthur further states that in case of bloodshed, in most instances murder may be considered "legal" from the War Department's standpoint. He is, however, careful to cover the civil angle as well, and he assures the unwitting, would-be murderer that, providing they act under orders from a superior, such killings can generally be regarded as "accidental." That may be found at page 11 in the manual. I am now about to bring out about the National Guard in time of strikes, because we had an unfortunate experience in our national strike of 1934. Without attempting to in anyway frighten or intimidate gentlemen of the committee, I want to make this statement: If this legislation is not passed the strike of 1934 will fade into insignificance compared to the strike that will happen. The people in this industry are desperate; the longer we wait, the longer they are persecuted and they are not in a playful mood. We can see what is happening in Pekin, Ill. We can see the strike threats all over the United States. The employers in the textile industry have not been known to protect the workers, regardless of the wealth of statistical evidence presented here. Plainly, they are going rapidly back to pre-code conditions. Once the people are thoroughly aroused, they will strike. They will not go back so easily. They went back the last time at the earnest request of the President of the United States. The next time I believe the country will see something we never have seen before, much as I regret it. Mr. Wood. What has caused the strikes following the voiding of the National Recovery Act? Mr. GORMAN. Violation of codes, lowering of wages, lowering of standards, and chiseling. Mr. WOOD. And speeding up? Mr. GORMAN. Yes. Mr. WOOD. And then there is the general movement by employers and manufacturers to disregard and to combat the idea of collective bargaining. Mr. GORMAN. That is right. Mr. WOOD. The employer wants to deny to the employees the right to organize. Mr. GORMAN. Yes; and there are no greater offenders than the gentlemen who produced the pantomime we saw here only last night. Hundreds of workers in that man's plant have been victimized for joining the union. Mr. WOOD. Some of these manufacturers went along and recognized the right of collective bargaining during the life of the code, but since the voiding of the National Recovery Act they have changed their attitude? Mr. GORMAN. A few of them recognize that in the southern part of the country. There was some compliance in the North on account of organization; but there was a fight in pursuance of that traditional hatred against unionism in the South. I am bringing out about the National Guard and the United States Army because if we must go into another fight if the Congress believes it cannot pass this legislation, I know we are going to have a fight. If we must go into it, we believe that somebody, the representatives of the people in Washington, will see to it that our civil and constitutional rights are preserved. It is going to be a real fight, and it will be between industry and labor. We do not want the State or the Federal Government to enter into the controversy. We are pointing this out to show what they are building up against organized labor, the organized labor movement, in this country. I have more material on the National Guard and the basis manual to which I have referred. I will ask that it be placed in the record. Not content with its many pink-faced, uninformed boys who serve in a purely strikebreaking capacity in the National Guard, the War Department seeks also to foment a pseudo class war by enlisting the sympathies and services of the American Legion against pickets and strikers, during periods of so-called "domestic disturbances." We had a bill before the last Congress declaring that the National Guard should be deprived of Federal equipment, based on the principle that the Federal Government has no earthly business serving as a strikebreaking agency, and thus as such a bald ally of one class of our people against another. We, the tetxile workers, realize the seriousness of this curious Government position, when we recall to mind that National Guard, or State militia, were used at will by such stupid, cruel tyrants as Governor Eugene Talmadge, of Georgia, who is now engaged in an active campaign against the very administration which furnished him with the artillery with which to kill our workers. It is well known to the workers that State and municipal governments are not agents of the people themselves. Our only recourse, then, is the Federal Government, and while we are debating the constitutionality of acts affecting "interstate" or "intrastate" commerce-right under the shadow of the Supreme Court ax-we should take stock of the sins committed in the name of the Constitution. Cries have been made about the United States Congress delegating undue power to the Executive. This was the basis of the ponderous Supreme Court decision with respect to the National Recovery Act and the Agricultural Adjustment Act. While that argument is advanced, however, and while we quake in our boots in fear of a Fascist coup, we should bear in mind the untrammeled activities of the Eugene Talmadges, the National Association of Manufacturers, and the American Liberty League. Here are the real Fascists' organizations and here the germ is breeding. This bill is an attempt to equalize conditions in the textile industry and to bring peace and contentment and real happiness for the workers in the textile industry. By no stretch of the imagination could it be said to be an attempt to dictate, but our opponents are part of the conspiracy that would impose upon this country a dictatorship by fascism in some form or other. Money, power, and influence-synonymous these days can make a national hero out of as dismal and uncomely a person as Adolf Hitler was in the beer-hall putsch days. Workers are now more political conscious. They are fired with a determination to redress the wrongs done them over a long, long period of time, and the textile workers are leaders within the everexpanding group. Long suffering, ill-nourished, and persecuted, these men and these women have more than once demonstrated their ability to rise in protest against the shackles of chattle slavery. We come to you, therefore, in sincerity and in desperation, asking the representatives of the people to act in behalf of a large section of our wage-earning population. You have listened to witnesses from mills, most of them ar without a cent in their pockets and came for the first time w the walls of the Congress of their United States. They came all industrial and geographical divisions of the industry, but one motive, namely, to tell you of their misery and their degrad The tide of indignation, swept by the pure force of economic sity, is arising slowly but surely. The reactionry, Fascist for the United States are against the people. The Congress ( United States must be for them. The "vested interests" said that our 1934 strike was re against the Government and an attempt to set up an "i empire." It was no such thing. It was a rebellion again vation, against humiliation, against slow and certain death un rigors of our modern industrial order, and therefore it was a I against all and any who took part in perpetuating these co We did not think it was the Government then. We do not now. And we present to you H. R. 9072, the National Tex hoping that you will prove we are right. If, however, Congress does not prove we are right, we reaction a change to say the same thing again. We are gesting a this time that Congress do away with the "profi as was intimated in the report of one industry witness. simply suggesting that the Congress protect the people to is responsible. We leave our case with you, and I should like to say witnesses and the United Textile Workers of America, that ciate the attentiveness with which you have listened to o Those who appeared before you came with heavy hearts stomachs. They left with hope in their hearts, thoug' enough in their stomachs. They trust in you; they belie honeyed words of the professional patriot and the Libe bell ringers will go unheeded. Though not the final a feel, and we feel, that the National Textile Act will serve ing wedge for the emancipation of a vast body of pove and oppressed people. In conclusion I want to offer for inclusion in the re communications and documents. First is an illuminatir by William D. Anderson, president of the Bibb Manufa Columbua, Ga. In this document he shows that the have turned dietitians. Next is a letter by Attorney J. L. Hamme, Gast addressed to Mr. Tom Lay. Next is a statement of loans made to those in the t by the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. Next is a price history of two staple cotton fabri received from Scheuer & Co., textile brokers and co Leonard Street, New York City. Next is a letter from the local secretary of the Workers of America, Tom L. Lay, Lincolnton, N. eviction against textile workers. Then we have a letter from one employed by the Mills, Lancaster, S. C., but the writer does not sign l Next we have a letter from Mr. Herman Stein, a re the United Textile Workers of America, York, Pa. It is necessary to drastically increase wages and to eliminate stretchout in order to insure for textile labor a decent and reasonable share to enable it to live like human beings. Then there is a cotton-textile statistical index, which reads as follows: Column 1, N. R. A. statistical materials, No. 1 Cotton Textile Industry, p. 14, table VIIIB. Column 3, 100 times column 1, divided by column 2. Column 4, column 3, converted to 1926 base. Column 5, N. R. A. same release, p. 10, table 1VB. Column 6, column 5, converted to index numbers on a 1926 base. I believe that completes our case. Mr. KELLER. We are rapidly approaching the time for adjourn ment. The record of this hearing will be in my office at room 1536, New House Office Building, where those who have testified may examine their remarks. The manuscript will be there until it is printed. STATEMENT OF H. D. LISK Mr. KELLER. Mr. Lisk, who has been heard, wishes to make a few more remarks. Mr. LISK. My name is H. D. Lisk, Concord, N. C., and I am representing the United Textile Workers of America. I have here [indicating] some information regarding the Cone mills discussed last week. The Eno Mill is one owned by Mr. Cone at Hillsboro, N. C. In that mill, in making an examination in the spinning room, it was found that two men were doing what three men had done only 2 months ago. One man is doing what two men were doing at the same pay as machine tenders. That had to do with quill skinners. A ropping man who had tended 60 sides has been given 32 additional without any increase in pay. Doffers have six extra sides in addition to what they were doffing, with no addition in pay. The warp spinning frames formerly run from 13 to 14 hours on no. 41 yarn, now they run 10 and 12 hours. The spinning frames used to run 3 hours and 45 minutes on 46 filling, now they run 2 hours 55 minutes. The employees in the cardroom are working 10 hours a day, 4 days a week, in order that somebody else may work that extra day. In some cases they are compelled to work that extra day if there is nobody else, which makes 50 hours a week. The pulleys on all machinery have been enlarged to speed up the machinery. In the weave |