The Barnwell people-sentinel. (Barnwell, S.C.) 1925-current, July 29, 1937, Image 3
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STRIKES DONT BOTHER THE SOUTH
Not As Much As the North and East, at Any Rate—Dixie Begins to
Enjoy Results of Campaign to Attract Industries.
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Contented workers, these! They are enjoying themselves in a recrea
tion hall built by a large paper manufacturer with plants in several
southern eKies.
By WILLIAM C. UTLEY
PECTACULAR strikes of re
cent months in the North and
East, with their accompanying
publicity, have largely ob
scured from the public con
sciousness the industrial awak
ening that is taking place in the
South. Yet southern industrial
leaders feel that labor troubles
outside Dixie will soon be re
flected in increased southern
migrations as industry spreads
out to avoid the difficulties root
ed in over-concentration.
Fortunately for the South, which
In the last 18 months has pressed a
determined campaign to attract new,
manufacturing plants, its compara
tively quiet labor conditions have
stood out in serene contrast to the
hectic scenes which have filled the
northern stage.
Department of Labor reports show
that the number of workers involved
in strikes steadily increased in both
the North and South during the last
six months of 1936, the latest period
for which official records are avail
able. But the totals are heavily
against the North, which suffered
894 strikes, involving 372,495 work
ers, as compared with 105 strikes,
involving 29,134 workers in Dixie.
The North had its greatest num
ber of strikes in August and Sep*
tember, with 187 in each month, but
163 strikes in October involved the
most workers—95,172. The South
had 24 strikes in August, keeping 4,-
663 from employment, but 11,596
were kept out by 16 strikes in Oc
tober.
Sooth Is Non-Union.
During the six-month period 40 to
00 per cent of all new strikes oc
curred in four states—New York,
Pennsylvania, Ohio and California—
with Illinois and Michigan account
ing for a sizeable portion of the re
mainder. During the same six
months only two important strikes
took place in the South—one in the
Chevrolet and Fisher bodies plants
at Atlanta, and one in the plant of
the Celanese Corporation of Amer
ica at Cumberland, Md. Both were
settled amicably.
Scarcity of strikes of either “sit-
down’’ or walkout’* variety in the
South is easily explained. The South
is relatively non-union. With indus
try less concentrated than In eastern
sr middle western regions. It is leas
waceptible to strike epidemics.
Some industrialists deem it prob
able that public opinion will have
outlawed the “sit-down” before the
South can be effectively unionized;
U “alt-downs” should appear, state
and local governments should profit
by the experience of their eastern
and middle western neighbors in
handling them.
Wages and employment in the
South have increased more rapidly
than in other sections, while hours
have not increased as much, and
this undoubtedly has some bearing
on the absence of strikes. The wage
differential between the South and
other sections was. approximately
33.5 per cent in 1933; by December,
1936, it had narrowed down to 21.9
per cent. Since the southern work
er, according to economists, can
maintain the same standard of liv
ing as his northern counterpart at
30 per cent less cost, the South may
now claim virtual parity as far as
real wages are concerned. •
Dixie Woos laiastry.
Xt is not hard to see why industry
Is attracted by the opportunity the
South affords for decentralization.
For instance, Detroit and Akron
could be peralyzed la their produo
more difficult to carry out and might
end in a workers’ revolt.
Southern states are now making
it easier than ever before for indus
tries to migrate to points within
their borders. The first year of
Dixie’s industrial promotion drive—
1936—brought $322,000,000 in new
plants and equipment, the greatest
one-year development ih history.
Leading the pack were paper com
panies with investments totaling
$60,000,000 in new plants; petro
leum refining, with $50,000,000 in
new distributing plants and pipe
lines, and iron and steel manufac
turers with a $53,000,000 expansion
program. During the first quar
ter of 1937 the pace was main
tained, with $92,964,000 in industrial
and engineering construction con
tracts awarded.
Prominent among the reasons for
this sudden metamorphosis of a civ
ilization that seemed destined to re
main permanently agricultural, has
been the extension of hydro-electric
power to the most remote regions,
resulting in an abundance of cheap
energy in placet which had been
without It owing to lack of coal
for generating or lack of distribu
tion lines from hydro-electric
plants. In addition, the South pro
vided a reedy market, lower con
struction and maintenance costs,
and plentiful raw materials. Of it,
Arthur D. Little, the noted indus
trial engineer, said, “Nowhere is
there likely to be a greater exten
sion of Industrial activity.**
Now the South has “gone out after
the business.’* States have conduct
ed active publicity and “selling"
campaigns, making generous offers.
These included exemption from tax
ation for new industries and outright
subsidies in the form of free factory
sites, free buildings and state-
trained labor.
Leche Revives Louisiana.
Louisiana was one of those which
took the lead, capitalizing on under
developed natural resources and on
new, man-made ones. It stressed
the fact that “nowhere in the world
is there a greater opportunity for
the development of a chemical in
dustry than Louisiana, where salt,
sulphur and gas occur in close prox
imity.’* It advertised and “sold"
its 4,700 miles of inland waterways,
its 14,000-mile highway system, its
10 trunk-line railroads, its large per
centage of native American white
population. It aggressively promot
ed its mineral and timber wealths
and tts greet basic crops of rice.
esOsa sad sugar, supplemented by
heavy industrial taxes, had prevent
ed much industrial growth in the
last decade. But when the nfew gov
ernor, Richard W. Leche, was elect
ed he outlined a plan to revive the
state industrially.
The plan, which was adopted, re
pealed the objectionable license tax
on manufacturing establishments;
effected a more equitable tax on oil
refining; encouraged establishment
of a livestock industry by removing
the tax on cattle, sheep and hogs;
created a board of commerce and
industry to court industry; appro
priated $100,000 for promotion, and
proposed a constitutional amend
ment giving the governor permis
sion to grant tax exemptions for ten
years to new plants and additions to
existing plants.
Effects were not long in coming
to notice. Building permits soared;
so did department store sales, elec
tric power consumption, manufac
turing sales, post office receipts,
wholesale grocery sales and other
indices. Problems of state finance
and legislative problems kept Gov
ernor Leche from starting his in
dustrial program with the full gusto
he would have liked, but his own
personal efforts brought into the
state 15 new industries ranging in
value from $100,000 to $3,000,000,
employing 1,000 in their construc
tion and giving permanent employ
ment to nearly 6,000.
Mississippi Follows Lead.
Florida is wooing industry with a
tax exemption law and is granting
municipalities permission to erect
buildings for manufacturers. Cities
are vying with each other to attract
new factories, although insisting
that they must be engaged in light
manufacturing, such as garments,
small housewares, etc.—no plant
which emits objectionable fumes
need apply.
Agricultural Mississippi, eager to
replace the lumber mills that have
left “ghost towns” along the rail
roads, has adopted a plan to “bal
ance agriculture with industry,"
which was sponsored by Gov. Hugh
White. In addition to tax exemption
for five years, it offers free facto
ries and free factory sites which, if
the manufacturer maintains a specie
fled payroll for a stated period of
years, become his property in most
cases. The factories are built by
the municipalities in which they are
situated, the cities issuing bonds to
cover the cost.
Other states are proceeding along
the same lines. Alabama offers ten
years of freedom from taxes. Mary
land’s countries may grant perma
nent tax exemption on manufactur
ing machinery. Arkansas, with a
population 70 per cent rural, has
thrown its working cap in the in
dustrial ring with a large fund to
advertise the state’s natural re
sources and manufacturing advan
tages. North Carolina has just ap
propriated $250,000 to herald its at
traction as a field for industrial ex
pansion. Texas uKnow considering
an appropriation It $1,000,000 a year
for the next five years to advertise
the state’s resources.
Southern Markets- Grow.
To date efforts have been concen
trated upon attracting industries
which could process the raw mate
rials of the various regions. Louisi
ana, with its thousands of acres o!
rolling pine land, now leads the
South in the securing of paper anc
pulp factories—largely a new south
ern activity. The textile industry
has moved almost en masse to the
Carolinas; the South now produces
52 per cent of the nation’s textiles,
while New England, for more than
a century the seat of this industry,
now produces only 38 per cent
As industrial payrolls provide a
constant stream of wealth tor south
ern workers, the markets below the
Mason and Dixon line are constant
ly gaming M importance
l<euiaiana Is offering manufacturers a new field ef industry with n
cent chemical discoveries ef the possibilities of converting sugar can
tops Into industrial alcohol. Inset: Gov. Richard W. Leche signing coi
tract to give a container manufacturer ton years tax exemption on a<
diUon to plant, to coat $4M,006.
! STAR 1
j DUST j
* Movie • Radio $
★ *
***By VIRGINIA VALE***
E velyn daw is going to
play the lead in her very
first picture, and as if that were
not enough to make her Holly
wood's Cinderella of the week,
she tops it by being a girl who
can keep a secret.
For six months she has known
that she was going to be given a
big screen opportunity and she
hasn’t told a soul. Even so, when
she learned that her big chance
was to be nothing less than prims
donna opposite James Cagney in
Grand National’s “Something to
Sing About" she nearly swooned.
Victor Schertzinger, well-known
composer and the motioippicture di
rector who gave Janet Gaynor her
first chance and Grace Moore her
second, is responsible for Evelyn’s
opportunity.
• Carole'Lombard still has a sleek
town car, a limousine and a roadster
or two, but she isn’t
using them much
these days. Every
afternoon when she
finishes work at the
studio, up drives a
station wagon all
filled with fishing
paraphernalia and
driven by Clark Ga
ble and off go the
two most irrepressi
ble merrymakers
of Hollywood. She
claims she likes the
station wagon better
than the limousine and she’d rather
go fishing than attend a fashionable
party. Clark agrees with her.
Carole
Lombard
Two newcomers to Hollywood are
setting Hollywood fashions and ev
eryone is wondering just how far
these new trends will go. Sigrid
Gurie, the exquisite young Norwe
gian actress whom United Artiste
imported to play opposite Gary Coop*
er in “The Adventures ef Maree
Pole” goes in for simplicity. Louise
Hoviek, most famous of strip-tease
artists in her burlesque days when
she was known as Gypsy Reee Leo,
pose for pictures in bathing Mltot
shorts, er even negligees.
I ——vK——
Nick Foran’s brother Jimmy
graduated from Princeton medical
school just a few weeks age and
walked right into a contract to act
in pictures for Universal. Buddy de
Sylva, who is producing s musical
extravaganza called “Merry Go
Round,” saw Jimmy doing aome im
personations of Washington politi
cians and was so amused he per
suaded him to postpone his career
in medicine for a while. Jimmy
will certainly be welcome on the
Universal lot
Grewn-aps la Hollywood may
plead tor a chance to watch Rehart
Taylor er Jean Crawford er Lalsc
Rainer at work, hat ehildrea aaaai-
meosiy beg to he allowed to visit
the Grand National let. Them Is a
reason, er rather a let ef them.
Grand National Is rapidly aeqaMaf
a see made ap ef the most talented
All over the country picture fans
are enthusiastic over Claudette Col
bert’s grand comedy, *1 Met Him in
Paris," but in Hollywood it looks as
if the run will never end, because
the same people come back to see
it again and again. Almost any
night you can find in the audience
Barbara Stanwyck and Robert Tay
lor, Marlene Dietrich, her husband,
and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.
Opal Craven, known to radio lis
teners from coast to coast as “the
Lullaby Lady’’ of the
Contented Hour, has
been appearing pro
fessionally in the en
tertainment world
since she was seven.
With Frank Black
and the Continentals
she shares top bill
ing on this concert
program that has
run without interrup
tion for more than
five and a half years.
In private life Opal
Craven is the wife
of a prominent Chicago insurance
man. She began singing lullabies in
real earnest about a year ago when
her husky son was born.
Opal
Craven
ODDS AND ENDS—Joan Crmcforfi
idea of grand fun it to ga down to e
radio nation when her husband or ana of
hot friends it broadcasting and Jobs the
mob of offstage noises . . . M-G-M has
found a war ** finish Jam Harlow's lass
picture m Saratoga, m using only long skats
of e double. The premem audience ap>
proood mightilj , . . Foul Hakeem lifts
his mapsifiemt ooko in tong in m Eista
V. c
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LIE RE is something
* A practical, something
sweet, and something or
namental for your mid
summer wardrobe.
Simple As Toast and Coffee.
At breakfast time you need the
crisp shipshape style of the little
model at the left. He’ll proffer
that eight o'clock kiss with alacrity
and fervor when you greet your
hubby in this pleasant surprise.
Make it of a gay tub-well cotton
for greatest usability.
Lines That Livo.
For luncheon in town, for cut
ting up touches on the Club ve
randa you can’t find a more fetch
ing frock than the one in the
center. It combines sweet swing
with nonchalance. Never has a de
signer given more flattering shoul
der and waist lines than these.
“And what about the skirt?" you
ask. Obviously it has the most
finished flare in town. Chiffon, ac
etate, or sporta silk will do justice
to both the flare and you. Milady.
Axd If Axtema Comes.
It's a help to have a dress like
the one at the right around for
it gives that feeling of prepared
ness. Prepared in case a cool
Fallish day or evening is slipped
in without warning. Than, too, it
won't be long before cool days
will be the rule rather than the
exception. So it would seem a logi
cal as well as a fashionable step
to set about making this elegant
model right away. Be first in
your crowd to show what's new
under the fashion sun tor Fall.
The Pattons.
Pattern 1354 is designed for
sizes 34 to 46. Size 36 requires 4%
yards of 35 inch material.
Pattern 1307 is designed for
sizes 12 to 20 (30 to 40 bust).
Size 14 requires 8% yards of 39
inch material plus 7% yards of
ribbon for trimming as pictured.
Pattern 1324 is designed for
sizes 14 to 30 (33 to 42 bust). Size
18 requires 3% yards of 39 inch
material plus It yard contrasting,
and 1% yards of ribbon for the
belt and bow at the neck.
Send your order to The Sewing
Circle Pattern Dept, Room 1030,
211 W. Wacker Dr., Chicago, XU.
Price of patterns, 18 cents (in
coins) each.
m
OROUN
SdkmffOt
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Be a Friend i Held It!
The only way to have a friend is The greatest remedy for anger
to be one.—Emerson. I is delay.—Seneca.
CHEW LONG BILL NAVY TOBACCO TQ
LIFE’S LIKE THAT By Fred Neher |